Customer Reviews

Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with Adsense, Adwords, and the Google APIs

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Harold Davis has not necessarily broken new ground with his "Google Advertising Tools" book. Yet, he's managed to put together a volume that summarizes effectively the basics of SEO and how to structure your site to maximize return on investment as a lead into Google Advertising at large. Starting with Google AdSense (placing Google Ads in your site), he works his way into AdWords (buying pay-per-click keyword-based ads) to wrap the book up with a detail discussion about the APIs offered by Google if developing tools to maximize your overall use of Google's interface and options is up your alley.

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.

I disagree with the commenter who said that there was nothing beyond the FAQ in this book. This book is sorely needed. The documentation on Google is rugged and the interface to the AdSense application is tough to use and understand. This book is well written, gives practical examples, and makes good use of screenshots to illustrate workflow. I recommend this book to AdSense users at any level.

If you're interested in monetizing the content in your blog or website, it's worth reading this book to see how it's done... Google Advertising Tools by Harold Davis.

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...

I have a big interest in Google and also care much about making money. This is the best book I've found that tells how to make money with Google.

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!

Overall, this book offered a comprehensive review of the online advertisement options including Amazon associates program, google adsense, adwords and other ads aggregators etc. The author also touched the dos and donts on search optimization. The material covered is targeting business audience and IT professionals; however, it is not really heavy on technical implementation and therefore can be easily digested by average business readers. One small complaint, if more statistics and success stories can be included, this book will be more appealing.

Do you want to make money on the Web, but don't have the resources to do so? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Harold Davis, has done an outstanding job of writing a practical book for technically inclined people about how to use the Google advertising services to make money.

Davis, begins by explaining how to make money from a content-based web site, how to build a site that will get traffic, how to get your site noticed, and the many ways to make money with advertising on your site. Then, the author explains how to work with Google's AdSense, the premier contextual advertising program for content sites. Next, he explains the nuts and bolts, and metrics, of the Google AdWords program--a highly successful mechanism that anybody with a valid credit card can use to place advertisements that reach over 80% of users of the Internet. Finally, the author explains what Google AdWords API web services are and how to write code that interacts with them.

In this most excellent practical book, you will get a comprehensive picture of how advertising works on the Web and how you can use the Google advertising programs to your advantage. More importantly, no matter how you want to use Google's advertising services, this book is a perfect resource for Web-savvy entrepreneurs, bloggers, and web developers who want a clear, nuts-and-bolts set of instructions on how to make money with AdSense and AdWords.

This book was a pleasent surprise. I bought it for the chapters on Adsense (and these proved to be as useful as expected) but the bonus was the early chapters (1-5) on developing and promoting a site. I wish I had had this book 2 years ago! The section on using press releases was an eye opener. I think even relatively advanced users will find things that make "Google Advertising ..." worthwhile but the book is clearly aimed at beginners and they should not be without it! Highly recommended.

I've had a store front business for 14 years. For eight of those years, my business has also been online. It wasn't until I read Google Advertising Tools that my website began to really work for me. (My web orders have doubled.) I always had clear goals, but had no clear idea how to achieve them. I learned how to submit my site to search engines, get linked to other sites, monitor my traffic, work with banners, and much more. There are still a lot of "tools" I haven't even touched. This book offers step by step assistance for those just starting a web business or anyone who wants to enhance an existing business. I wish I had this book when I paid the folks who originally set up my site. I'd have bought them a copy.

I started a website for my family business almost a year ago. We've had
steady business, but mostly from tourists who had actually visited
our storefront and already knew about our online store. Since I bought
Google Advertising Tools and implemented even the most basic advice,
our new customers have tripled. This book has more than paid for itself in
the first few days of use.

Wow! What a book! Just reading the table of contents makes it clear what an immense amount of varied material will be found here for those who want to get "inside" Google for information and profit. Personally, I have struggled with the APIs provided by Google, especially with the AdWords API, for my own applications, and my, how much easier it would have been if I'd had this book at hand. Highly recommended.