The AdSense Code
Joel Comm is a well-respected expert on Google AdSense and Internet marketing, so I had no misgivings about picking up his popular book, The AdSense Code. Unfortunately, the book turned out to be somewhat disappointing.
At first glance, the book looks professional: the front cover, despite the overuse of bevelling, is attractive, and the "New York Times Bestseller" across the top tells a potential buyer that this book is popular. Turn the book over however, and you're greeted by the amateur look of a marketer's e-book. I'm pretty certain that this was originally written as an e-book–the typos throughout are a dead giveaway. This transparency could have been tossed by a decent editor.
Skip the introduction: it's useless unless you're completely new to website development.
Chapters 2, 3 and 4 present the most useful information. They focus on techniques for tweaking your ad units for better CTR, and there's also a good explanation of site targeted CPM. I also found the information about complementing ad units with other design elements to be helpful. For example, placing a search box near an ad unit can improve performance. Chapter 5 also has some good information about controlling ads through content relevance, density and positioning, and introduces section targeting.
Chapters 6, 7 and 8 are fluff, covering Google's Search product, referral programs and using multiple ad blocks. You can find all of this information on Google's pages, and it's written better:
Chapter 9, Building Content, made me cringe all the way through. Comm talks about his "professional-looking" websites–no self-respecting developer would call these professional. (I don't even want to link to those sites to give you an example–trust me, they're bad.) He also suggests using public works for free content. Yes, I'm going to get repeat quality traffic by re-publishing Ulysses and Sherlock Holmes stories! Next, Comm suggests several automated content tools: just what the Internet needs, more poorly written content!
Chapter 10 brings the book back to Earth with a discussion about response tracking. However, it would have been helpful if Comm provided a breakdown of tools here, rather than including a few at the end of the book. The next chapter on smart pricing is weak. Browse the AdSense Group for answers instead. AdSense and Communities comes next. It's basically about ad unit positioning, and I fail to see why it received a dedicated chapter–this should have been integrated into chapter 4, How to Maximize Visibility and Response.
(If you can't tell already, the book at this point is really sliding downhill…)
Read Your Visitors and Before You Apply to AdSense contain more fluffy info. I'll sum them up: Pay attention to CTR and create a quality site. (Would you please send me $16 for these killer tips?) The chapter on tools is useful, but it should also include stats applications. The next chapter, Keeping Track of What Works, should have been integrated with the section about response tracking. Next, Comm discusses other contextual advertising programs. Stop! I bought this book to learn more about AdSense! I must assume that the content was included simply to promote Comm's other products. Cheezy. Chapters 18 and 19 cover obtaining traffic and search engine optimization. These are big topics that have many books devoted solely to them, so it's not surprising that the information in Comm's book, while useful, is overly basic. There's also stupid information about the importance of search engine submissions ("submit your site to 600,000 engines".) The following section is about the things you shouldn't do with AdSense. It's short and basic, but accurate, and it's an easier read that the AdSense terms of service. Staying Up To Date is too short and could have contained many more quality references. The Case Studies chapter presents nothing new, just screenshots of more poorly designed websites (these are Comm's "success stories"). The Conclusion includes nothing more than some self-serving testimonials.
Overall, I was offended by the language and tone of this book. I felt like I was reading an advertisement. You know what I'm talking about: the word "free" is always capitalized, the emphasis on "anyone can build a website", without the real world caveat that poorly designed and executed sites don't sell. Comm himself says that "people hate being baited". This book would have been better if Comm listened to his own advice and stuck to facts instead of hype.
There's also downright bad advice in this book, for example the suggestion that submitting your site to search engines is important (it's not, just get quality inbound links) and advocating the use of tables for web design (please don't do this!) Comm might know AdSense, but he doesn't sound well-versed in the current best practices of search engine marketing and web design.
Do I recommend this book? For $16, it's a cheap investment and it's worth picking up for the information in chapters 2-4 alone. You can find this same info reading quality AdSense blogs, but I do like to get off the computer and read a good old fashioned book. Be prepared for the sell-sell language and don't take this book as law, and you'll feel satisfied enough with your purchase.
