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Mr. Davis leaves no stone unturned. This is a very complete book. It is not just about Google, although Google advertising is the focus of this work. This book explains about getting traffic to your website, about affiliate programs, and about what kinds of web content are good for making money.

The Google AdWords and AdSense programs are explained very completely and in every detail, as is tracking results from Google AdWords.

I have been a programmer, so I could understand the section on the Google AdWords API, and I can even see how I maybe could use this material in some web applications. But if you are not a programmer (as the author says in this introduction) this material will probably be a little hard for you to understand. This is the only downside I see in otherwise great book!

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Content:

Part 1 – Making Money with Your Website: Build It and They Will Come – Creating Popular Web Sites; Driving Traffic to Your Site; Optimizing Sites for Search Engine Placement; Making Money with Affiliate Programs; CPC Advertising; Profiting from Adult Sites

Part 2 – Getting the Most from AdSense: Understanding Google, AdSense, and AdWords; Working with AdSense; Making Sense of AdSense

Part 3 – Working with AdWords: Using AdWords; Improving Campaign and Ad Group Performance; AdWords Reporting and Conversion Tracking

Part 4 – Using the AdWords APIs: Understanding the AdWords API; Programming the AdWords API; Navigating the AdWords Objects Hierarchy; Keyword Estimation

Glossary; Index

When I first started reading this book, I was a little surprised at the title. In Part 1, the author covers much more than just Google’s revenue opportunities. He talks about the different associate programs like Amazon (which I participate in), and I was picking up quite a bit of information on how the whole web advertising model works. But then starting in Part 2 and beyond, he focuses directly on the Google platform, and how you can implement AdSense (which I also participate in) and AdWords on your site to drive traffic and/or generate revenue. Many of the abbreviations common to advertising (like CPC) were a bit foreign to me, but after this material I now have a much better understanding of what’s going on. If I were counting on my blog to generate substantial revenue, this information would be invaluable to me. And if I were an advertiser looking at AdWords, I wouldn’t venture into the water without this book. Serious, solid information that can offer you a real return on investment on your book-buying dollar…

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If you are new to the field of SEO, this is a nice introduction. If you are experienced with the ins and outs of pay-per-click campaigns or optimizing your site for Search Engines to crawl through it, you are still bound to find a few new useful elements. In any case, I highly recommend it as a comprehensive and current reference on marketing your site through Google.

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If you however already own a site, and you’re already a member of adsense, go check out Erics blog instead. This book will offer you nothing. I kid you not. Absolutely nothing.

I’ll pass it on to my girlfriend who’s curious and wants to start as well, she’ll probably make good use of it.

If you’re not a newbie, get Joel Comm’s “The Adsense Code” instead. A lot more meaty.

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The best part was that I really didn’t understand a section and I e-mailed the author, Eric. HE REPLIED!! He has given a little more insight to my particular situation and it has helped. I think that there may be another book on the horizon for those of us who are ready to progress to MEMWG II. I’ll buy it.