Yesterday I spent the grand sum of $9.95 on Joel Comm’s Adsense Secrets eBook, now in its 4th update. It’s only just been released and with Joel’s reputation and longevity in the Internet marketing community, it was definitely something I felt I should check out.

However, I very nearly didn’t buy it. Even at that low, low price. I’ll tell you why later, but for now I want to concentrate on what this eBook offers.

Why You Should Buy This Book

Up to now, I had not seen any particularly great resource covering Google’s Adsense program. In fact I had pretty much given up on Adsense. The few sites I had used it on were generated about $10 a month in revenue, and Adsense is so ‘everywhere’ on web sites I just didn’t see that the effort was worthwhile. I also experimented with some ‘made for adsense’ (MFA) sites when this strategy first came out a couple of years ago They worked really well for a few months, but have now faded away to the point where I rarely even bother to check them.

What this ebook shows is that I was doing it wrong.

It’s 235 pages of Adsense advice, much of which I have not seen before even though I am fairly familiar with Google’s help and howto pages. Here’s some of my favourite bits:

• The best Adsense format to use, and where to place your Adsense units on each page
• The difference between text, image, video, referral, search and themed Adsense units, and where and why you use them on your website
• Section targeting - a neat technique to gain better control of what ads get shown on your page
• How to do response tracking right
• Examples - heaps of them.

The eBook itself is organised into 5 sections:

• Section 1 is the introductory ‘Getting Started’ section. It’s basic, as expected, and can be skipped over if you’re already familiar with the fundamentals of Adsense. At 63 pages it’s a good chunk of the eBook, and (for me, anyway) codified a lot of what I already knew about Adsense.
• Section 2 is titled ‘Beyond Basic Ads’ and covers the different types of ad units, where they should be used, how to format your pages for best Adsense impact, and what content should (and should not) be included in your pages. This is interesting stuff and although I’m still absorbing it all, I expect mastery of this section will move my Adsense earnings into the next league. This section is 4 chapters over 37 pages.
• Section 3 is all about reporting and analysis, a subject I deal with most work days. Especially notable is the recommendations of reporting/ analysis tools plus the tricks of configuring Adsense ad units so you get the information you need to fine tune performance. This is not self-evident stuff and the knowledge contained in these 5 chapters and 38 pages is very worthwhile.
• Section 4 is the ‘Advanced Tools and Techniques’ section. The one is a bit of a disappointment, clocking in at only 33 pages. It covers some interesting tools (they look great, but I have yet to download and try them) as well as some comparable advertising programs (some don’t work alongside Adsense but others are complementary), but the remainder of the section deals with basic SEO and traffic generation tips.
• Section 5, ‘Quick Tips’ is cracker content. An excellent troubleshooting guide, 12 excellent full case studies (in addition to the ones throughout other sections), and a short glossary to round it off.

This is a well thought-out eBook, with plenty of content for anyone who has (or wants to) tried their hand at Google Adsense. Joel Comm clearly know his stuff, and this eBook will go alongside Perry Marshall’s ‘Definitive Guide to Google AdWords’ - it’s that good.

Why You Wouldn’t Buy This Book

As far as the content is concerned, if you are remotely interested in Google AdSense there’s no reason on the planet why you wouldn’t snap this up.

But at the beginning I said I nearly didn’t. Here’s why.

Firstly, it’s the selling page. It screams “Internet marketing cheap crap eBook scam”. From the sales copy, through to the saccharine testimonials, even to the fake chat exit popup (complete with blonde bimbo pic), it’s as tacky as sitting on someone else’s chewing gum. So the first time I visited, I said ‘no way’ and clicked away.

But not before aforesaid electronic bimbo convince me to download a free eBook ‘Build A Website Fast’. I like free. But this thing still refers to Inktomi as a web search force, which dates it as at least 6 years old. And a quick glance through convinced me of it’s worthlessness, and its immediate filing in the Recycle Bin.

What made me rethink all this was that the initial recommendation had come from Mark Widawer, a landing page expert whose opinions I value. And Joel Comm has an excellent reputation ( I have a number of MP3 recording of him over the years).

So I ended up buying Joel Comm’s AdSense Secrets. I’m very glad I did.

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