This was not my first book in the Guerrilla Marketing series. I have a great deal of respect for Jay Conrad Levinson. His books and his writing style hook me, they're like reading great novels, fast-paced novels at that, his books are tough to put down. I always feel like he's had about 6 cups of coffee and can't even contain his excitement when he's telling you what you need to know.
I think it is problematic when Levinson writes these books with other authors. I read GM in 30 Days which Levinson co-wrote, and that book was also a little sloppy. When Levinson is the co-writer, I don't feel the energy all the way through the book, but I do in some parts and I feel I can tell who was writing in certain sections.
So, to GM on the Internet specifically. There probably isn't much new here if you read the 4th edition of Guerilla Marketing, where Levinson starts talking about blogs, podcasts and websites, however, the ideas are discussed in more depth, a good thing for Guerrillas. The rest of the book is rather obvious if you're a Guerilla. I have not read any other Internet Marketing books, nor will I, so I'm not sure if this one is par for the course.
There were many mis-spelling and improper word uses in this book. A specific example, on page 133 there is a paragraph that starts "If you'd if you'd", so again, it's just poor oversight, probably the publisher/editor's fault, not necessarily the authors. On page 85 the word "covert" should have been "convert".
If I were to point out the most helpful part of the book, it would be the web links provided, these were decent and I have started trying to get myself familiar with the ones I had not heard of. In the section on podcasting, the authors were very specific with the directions for creating a podcast. I wasn't in front of a computer when I read that section, but I felt I could see every step. However, for all the detail there, there was not as much detail given to some areas where I personally felt I could have been enlightened, for example the sections about Search Engine Optimization, Affiliate Programs and Merchant Accounts were too short and what was there was too diffucult to comprehend.
Overall, I love the Guerrilla Marketing series. I do suggest this book because even if you're an accomplished Guerrilla, this book is a relatively quick read and could be seen as an up to date (published in 2008) refresher course. If you're not a Guerrilla, read this book, and then go back and read the main Guerrilla Marketing book and you'll be all the better for it.
