Customer Reviews

Web Traffic Magnet: 55 Free Things You Can Do to Drive Traffic to Your Website

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a rather nebulous and overwhelming topic. It consists of a glut of scattered and discordant advice that aspiring SEO specialists must painstakingly wade through and synthesize to learn the best-practice activities for high rankings. My experience has been that SEO is very frustrating to learn and keep up with.

I just finished reading Web Traffic Magnet and found that it takes much of the mystery out of SEO. It answered many of the nagging questions I have had about SEO for a long time. As well, I really appreciate having these answers all in one place -- written in brevity, without superfluous or overwhelming content -- for quick and easy reference.

Web Traffic Magnet really is an extremely useful book. I recommend it for anyone learning the practice of SEO or even greatly skilled in it. The SEO virgin may need to first review a primer on the basics of SEO to fully appreciate this book, but I think all other SEO practitioners will find it a treasure trove of great gems on driving traffic to one's Web site.

I've spent over 10 years developing websites and handling web marketing for my clients. While most web promotion books don't bring much to the table for me, I'm always on the hunt for useful new ideas.

While many of the tips in this book are genuinely useful to anyone that's new to web marketing, they are noticeably recycled from older guides on internet promotion.

The good news about Web Traffic Magnet is that many of the techniques included definitely work. There are useful tips related to the ideal way to create page title tags, why inbound links to your site are important, and how to avoid being penalized by Google.

The bad news is that most of the book borrows its ideas from a 2005 Guide by Brad Callen titled "Search Engine Optimization Made Easy." Heavily distributed for free amongst designers, Callen's PDF guide broke down all of the basics to SEO that were included in Web Traffic Magnet.

The difference between Callen's guide and Web Traffic Magnet is that the PDF is well-structured, where as the book is an odd mish-mash of tips with no little organization. When the book contains original ideas, there's no research or proof that it actually works.

The most bizarre tip WTM offers is that you post to your blog every day, with a paragraph that begins "This is just a guess." The author erroneously suggests that search engines like Google probably check your site at the same scheduled time every day, so you should space out your blog posts at least 24 hours apart. It's this kind of speculation that makes it noticeable that the author stumbles when he's not providing tips that originate with other professionals.

I've given five stars to books that weren't helpful to me, but were noticeably great primers for newbies. Web Traffic Magnet is simply outdated, and the most quality tips are already available for free online in "Search Engine Optimization Made Easy." Save yourself $12 and just download the free PDF, as that was clearly the source for many of the ideas in this book.

I just started an on-line store[...], not knowing the first thing about how I was going to get traffic to my site. In fact, all I knew how to do was find the right people to design, photograph and write for me since I have owned a design firm for the last 20 years. Then came the day when it was finished, and it hit me, now what?

I bought books on Twitter, and learned it. Ok. I bought books on Facebook, got the hang of that. OK. Figured out Linked In. Fine. But, still...it was nothing. You can tweet all you want and your chirps aren't heard all that often. There was still the mystery of the web...and aptly named so because it really is like getting caught in the spider's web that actually makes little to no sense. I am not even sure the web understands the web.

Relief came to me when I bought Liam Scanlan's Web Traffic Magnet. When I first opened it, I almost fainted when I saw all the new words and ideas to learn. I took it one word at a time, had my highlighter and went through it once. Somewhere along the line a little light went on, and I started to hear sense. So I read it again. WOW, Liam really knows what he's doing, and writes so a newcomer like me can understand.

I simply took his advice, one point at a time, and by some strange magic, my page rank went from N/A to a 5/10 in 4 weeks. I never even heard of page rank a month ago...but it's real.

The thing about the book that I love so much? Besides taking the ouch out of understand the web? It's small enough to fit in my purse so I can review when ever I want. And then there is Liam himself, who will actually help you along if you feel you need him. He stands behind his work.

Thanks Liam for this great book. I am working on your next book now!
[...]

Are you kidding me? Even though this book contains some decent information, it was disappointing, due to the manner in which it was published. It doesn't have a professional look or feel to it at all. Contains typos and improper set-up.

According to the author: "I crammed as much into as few pages as possible. This allows me to keep the book price reasonable. Adding page breaks to the beginning of chapters would have added about a dollar to the price, so I took them out."

I found it very hard to focus on the author's suggestions due to the above. If this really is Volume 1, it's enough for me. Volume 2 is definitely scratched from my list of "must-haves" -especially if it's typeset in any way like the previous one.

Note to Mr. Scanlan: I'm willing to pay an extra buck for a better produced book. This really is hard on the eyes, even if the information is good.

Generally I am happy with any book that has something new. If there is something new I am happy. It can be 90% fluff and I would still be happy, but I can't say there is anything new here. If you know nothing about SEO you will get a lot out of it, if you are at an intermediate or advanced level you will be disappointed. It took me about 2 hours to read it. It is a very small book. The title suggests there are techniques to generating traffic, but it is really an introduction to SEO.

All you need to know for ranking well in search engines. Just a Few pages you can read in one single day, direct to the point.

For beginners to SEO, this book might be a revelation. For others, it's got nothing special. As someone else has already pointed out, it's poorly written. There are lots of editing problems. I often wondered if I was reading the same page again by mistake. I wasn't. It's the book that repeats the same things many times unnecessarily. Apparently no real editing was done before sending it to the press. I don't recommend this book. You can find many others more up-to-date and far better written.

For us, this was a good checklist... My sites are up, we do good business, we get plenty of traffic, and there was nothing new here. On the other hand, with all the thousands of 'tasks' that go into running an e-tail business, sometimes it's extremely valuable to come across a checklist type book like this and review your sites against them... "Done this? yup. Done this? yup. Done this? Geez haven't looked at that in a couple years... Hmmm see places I can fix this." That's why this book was useful to us.

Being new to building websites, and having no idea how to get traffic, this book was very helpful to me. A few things I had already learned, but some of the things were revelations to me. I have already implemented many of the ideas.

I just recently finished the book entitled, "Web Traffic Magnet." I must say this is one of better books I have read. I like that it is short, sweat, and to the point. Not to mention, the information contained is very valuable. After finishing the book, I saw the author had his contact email on the last page. I emailed the author, Liam, and he got back to me right away and answered my question and more. Thanks again Liam! Cheers.