The folks over at Mashable have developed an excellent list of free resources to help us all build websites.  Mashable is a bit more tech oriented though and many of the books have to do with accessible Flash design.  A lot of business people, bloggers and writers just want a good, solid website without all the bells and whistles, or if they do want them, they want a programmer to put them in so they can sleep easy at night.  So, I’ve taken the list from Mashable at 20 Free Ebooks and Whitepapers for Better Web Design and a pared it down to a manageable 12 for those of us who are not uber techies.

Aside from the basic web design books, if you’re just starting out, my favorites are the first two, because many of us need some coaching on how to sell a service and because insourcing vs. outsourcing is a fundamental decision that will affect how well your business operates.  So here goes, with the leaner, more basic list:

Creating a Web Site for Your Service Business from Entrepreneur Media
Selling products online might be easy, but selling services is a completely different ballgame. This whitepaper covers what you need to know to create the best website you can for your service business.

Managing Web Development: Insourcing vs. Outsourcing from Key Professional Media
If you’re trying to decide whether to hire an in-house web designer or outsource to a design agency (whether in this country or abroad), this whitepaper is a must-read.

Free Web Design Ebook
This ebook was written to help new internet marketers get through the basics of web design in relation to internet marketing purposes.

A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Obvious: Web Usability 101 from Squiz.co.uk
This online whitepaper covers everything you need to know about making usable websites from the ground up.

The Top 10 Web Site Design Do’s from ProfitJump.com
The tips covered in this ebook run the gamut from learning HTML coding skills to realizing that a website is never really “finished”.

Integrate Design to Create Brand Harmony from MarketingProfs
Incorporating your brand into your website design is very important, and this whitepaper explains the how and why of doing that.

10 Tips for Designing an Ecommerce Web Site from nightcats.com
This ebook has ten tips for creating a great ecommerce site and covers everything from designing for your target market to identifying your objectives.

KnockKnock from Seth Godin
This ebook from Seth Godin has all sorts of information about using online marketing tools to make your website work better.

Creating a Web Site for Your Service Business from Entrepreneur Media
Selling products online might be easy, but selling services is a completely different ballgame. This whitepaper covers what you need to know to create the best website you can for your service business.

5 Common E-Commerce Site Mistakes from Microsoft
If you run an ecommerce site but are unhappy with the results you’re getting, this ebook may shed some light on the subject and point our common mistakes you may be making.

Web Design Best Practice Guide from e-consultancy
This ebook is a regularly updated point of reference for best practice approaches for all the areas that anyone involved in web design needs to do an effective job.

“Mosaic Layouts”: How and Why to Avoid Creating Puzzle-Looking Websites from Software Talks
This whitepaper covers why properly using images and graphics in your website is so important.

10 Tips for Creating Your Web Site from Global Knowledge
This whitepaper offers 10 tips you can use to make sure your web site is effective from day one.

For the really techy stuff, particularly about how to do Flash design, go to 20 Free Ebooks and Whitepapers for Better Web Design.

Let us know how reading these books works for you.  What you’ve learned, new advice for the rest of us.  We’d like to hear from you.