No matter what business a company is in, it can make its site useful for its visitors and turn them into eventual buyers. Cashing In with Content shows how to do that with 20 case studies of types of businesses - ecommerce, business-to-business, nonprofits, healthcare, education, and politics.

Every case study includes an interview with an employee who played a large role in the Web site’s direction. Also, the case studies have the following sections:

• What’s for sale

• What’s so interesting
• Why you should care
• Cashing in

This setup makes it easy to reference and find what you need.

The case studies are extra useful because they’re based on lesser-known sites rather than the biggies like eBay, Amazon, and others whose names often crop up. These are sites that businesses can follow as examples instead of seeing them as pricey or impossible to do like the biggies.

Scott closes the book with the 12 best practices and shows how each practice gets applied by using examples from the case studies. While “best practices” sounds like it’s full of theory and jargon, it’s not and that’s what makes the book successful. It’s about normal challenges with realistic and doable solutions. The book offers many solutions so businesses don’t have to worry about getting stuck with one that doesn’t suit them.

The book should be on the reading list of anyone involved with a business Web site.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net, helping companies get better results through simple words that make a big impact. Contact her to discuss how your business can boost its profits with content that inspires action or visit the blog.

Tags: cashing in with content, david meerman scott