This week has been exciting, aside from the lame mid-summer head cold I’m suffering, because of a few positive reviews of the book I wrote with Chris Hammond. The reviews have been right in line with the goals we had for the book – simple, focused, “Get Your Websites Up and Running.”

Joe Brinkman reviewed the book and reiterated our goals with one of the first topic sentences of his review. “This book is very clear in that it is targeted specifically at DotNetNuke Administrators and it does a very good job of staying focused on the topic.”

One of the common tests Chris and I used as we wrote our book was, “would your mom understand this?” Put aside all “your momma” jokes and don’t take it as an attack on moms or women. The biggest eye opener I had in working with DNN, and prompted me to want to write this book, was when I worked to overhaul my mom’s website – imagethreads.com. As I worked through her site, I realized how three-letter abbreviations, jargon, and technology I take for granted on a daily basis, can be significant barriers to doing something easy like maintaining a blog.

Will Strohl also gave our book some lip service this week and is putting our work to the test by encouraging his girlfriend to read DotNetNuke 5: A User’s Guide. I’m anxious to hear the outcome because if someone new to DNN can follow the book, I’ll consider it a success (just need sales to fall into line).