The cover is standard for this type of help books – large white text on a coloured background, and mostly readable in small thumbnail size.

As a professional in the field I find there are a lot of books filled with misinformation. This is not one of them: it is clear, concise, and easy to follow. It does however, slightly misrepresent itself.

The title is misleading: this is not about how to set up a website in five minutes, this is about how to set up a WordPress site in five minutes. WordPress, for people unfamiliar with it, is an extremely popular free system for building websites. Which brings me to the first problem with this book: a non-technical user could accomplish the entire thing in 50 seconds without spending anything by going to WordPress.com and registering for a free account – and get help and support through the set-up process. You could even register the domain and link that to WordPress.com.

Instead this suggests buying a domain name and professional hosting (which are not necessary to set up a webpage) and the author includes affiliate links to his favourite hosters so that he gets paid each time a new client signs up. This is acknowledged in the text but no alternatives are given – it even talks you through how to pay the hoster with your credit card.

As a guide to WordPress, the book actually is not bad in my opinion. However, as an IT professional I’m not the best judge. I gave this to a non-technical client who was trying to get started with WordPress. We ended up skipping the domain bits as too technical, but she could manage the WordPress part without many problems. The book does not show you what to do if things go wrong, or suggest easy fixes, but as a quick start guide you don’t expect it.

One thing that immediate knocks it down for me though is the author’s note at the back asking people to leave five star reviews.

The other problem is that a fresh WordPress install, which is what he leaves users with, needs hardening to protect the content. There is no mention of security, bugs, or the need to upgrade your install regularly – in other words it tells someone non-technical just enough to get into trouble.

I’d give this a 2. The affiliate links throughout, the failure to acknowledge wordpress.com, and the request for a five-star review all drop the rating. If the title had said it was to set up your own WordPress site, it would be a three.