A few weeks ago, Boris Mordkovich was kind enough to send me a copy of his book, the “Pay Per Click Search Engine Marketing Handbook.” It took me a few weeks to read it - not because it’s hard to read, but because I am very very busy these days.
As a book junkie, I read a lot, and pretty much everything I can find on SEM will get at least a quick skim. Overall, I was quite pleased with this little paperback gem - at $19.97, it’s a nice introduction to PPC, with clear and concise discussions of the standard strategy & tactics.
Where I have a concern about the book is with the large number of pay-per-click services which are listed and recommended, as if they had actually been reviewed and tested. The links to PPC providers are all through the author’s web site, and it’s not clear if they are in fact affiliate links.
Several of the PPC providers listed did not pass my own simple click fraud tests over the past couple years, so I can’t honestly recommend that readers use this section of the book as a reviewed guide to the best PPC providers, because it’s not. The authors’ intent is to list all the available services and allow readers to make up their own minds.
I would add one piece of my own advice: don’t gamble money that you can’t afford to lose. With those caveats, I am certain that newcomers to PPC, especially do-it-yourselfers, will find this book helpful. More information at http://www.ppcbook.info.
If a primary focus of your PPC activity is Google Adwords, don’t overlook Andrew Goodman’s “Google Adwords Handbook” as you fill up your library.
June 15th, 2005 at 12:12 pm
Hello Andrew.
Thank you for the quick review. I love to read as well. Do you have a list of worthwhile SEO books us optimizers should be reading?
June 16th, 2005 at 10:45 pm
type0, it really depends on what you know, and what you’re trying to accomplish. Shari Thurow’s book is good but not technical, Cat Seda’s book is good for advertisers. I like my books of course - SEO Fast Start is a free download for my newsletter subscribers, and you can get the SitePoint SEM Kit from SitePoint. Mike Moran from IBM will have a book out in a couple weeks called “Search Engine Marketing Inc.”, which will be great for in-house folks who are doing “big company SEM,” and probably others as well.
July 2nd, 2005 at 8:27 am
Nice article. I really needed some advices about seo.