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If you are looking for the ultimate success story of the online world you can't go past Google -- perhaps the first Internet company to have its name turned into a verb.
If you are looking for the ultimate success story of the online world you can't go past Google -- perhaps the first Internet company to have its name turned into a verb. And its importance to the online world just seems to grow.
According to Harold Davis, programmer, strategic technology consultant, and author of "Google Advertising Tools" (O'Reilly, US $29.99), "As an advertising and information intermediary, Google is only getting more ubiquitous and important. Understanding how to manipulate the Google system, in the best sense of the word 'manipulate,' is crucial to taking advantage of the opportunities the web offers. Google and the Web have changed they way the world publishes content and the way the world advertises. It's now possible for anyone to publish a web site and, if the content of the site draws traffic, to make money from Google's AdSense program, all with almost no additional effort."
Creator of the Googleplex web log, Davis says he was struck by the realization that Google is "essentially a giant automated advertising brokerage, and that the great search technology was powering advertising. The same technology that makes effective searching possible also makes contextual ad placement work.
"The thought came to me that the technology that really matters to people is saving and making money," says Davis. "The Google advertising tools are about making and saving money in ways never before possible. So I wanted to write this book because I thought it would provide really helpful information to people. It's easy to publish a web site. The ability to make money from any site that interests visitors makes self-publishing possible in a new and revolutionary sense."
"Google Advertising Tools" is the perfect resource for making money on the Web with Google services. Applying the business of advertising to Google's technology, this book shows the reader how to work with both AdSense, which automatically delivers text and image ads that are precisely targeted to sites, and AdWords, which enables Google to generate text ads that accompany specific search term results. This book also goes beyond the essentials of AdWords and AdSense to describe how readers can program the AdWords and AdSense APIs, using both PHP and C# .NET.
"Google Advertising Tools" shows how to build a site that is optimized for AdSense revenue, generates high traffic from the site's targeted audience, and achieves top search engine placement. Readers will understand the details and examples they need to generate automatic keywords, ad text, URLs, and even customized reports, and they'll see how to connect these custom components to Google. The book also shows how to create effective ad campaigns that go beyond the basics, using the AdWords API to integrate AdWords into an application's database and inventory system.
"Google Advertising Tools" has specific and detailed sections on:
-Turning a web site into a profit center with AdSense
-Making sense of AdSense metrics
-Driving traffic to a site
-Optimizing a site for search engine placement
-Working with AdWords campaigns, auctions, and reports
-Managing campaigns dynamically using the AdWords APIs
Davis puts it succinctly, "For readers who use web advertising to drive customers to their business or make money from web content, the subject matter of 'Google Advertising Tools' is a hugely important. It is their pocketbook."
Davis put a lot of research into the book. "One of the most fun chapters to write--and one which I anticipate will be controversial--is the chapter about monetizing adult content on the web. It is, of course, one of the relatively few web content areas that people are willing to pay for. It's also the case that the adult industry on the web has been at the forefront of technology innovation. Yet to my knowledge there is no book that objectively discusses the mechanisms used by the sex content industry, or that even provides a glossary for the specialized terms (these acronyms are technical or about business, not sexual!) that this industry uses.
"I'm a firm believer that you cannot write well about something you've not done yourself. Writing the chapter about the adult industry meant I needed to do massive amounts of 'research'--and even put up an adult content site myself to see how I could make money from it (for the record, it is a compendium of adult blog syndication feeds)."
"Google Advertising Tools" 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. Whether you have one site, fifty sites, or are just getting started on the Web, this book will turn your web presence into a money-making venture.
Google Advertising Tools
Harold Davis
353 pages, $29.99 US, $41.99 CA
Download Chapter 8: Working with AdSense (PDF Format)
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly has been a chronicler and catalyst of leading-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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