Over the last ten years the face of marketing has undergone some major changes. What was once a craft dedicated to blasting your message to as many people as possible through traditional mass media, has had to adjust to media savvy customers who no longer want to spend their time watching another Dairy Queen commercial.

The Web has played a major role is this marketing shift, and Site Point’s recent book Online Marketing Inside Out helps introduce some of the core areas available for promoting your business online.

Why do I need to read this book?

The book is not going to give you the hidden secrets to online marketing or the top ten tips to making a thousand dollars a day, but it will give you an overall understanding of what’s available for you online and how it works. Whether you’re trying to market your own business or helping clients market theirs, the book delivers a good introduction to how and where to start your advertising and ways to measure and track their effectiveness. Also, it explains some of the pitfalls to avoid especially in black hat search engine optimization and slimy social media marketing.

What’s inside?

Online Marketing Inside Out focuses on four main areas: search engine optimization, social media, email marketing, and affiliate marketing. The book concludes with ways to launch and monitor your online advertising so you get your biggest bang for your buck.

Search Engine Optimization – The Black Magic Woman

Search Engine Optimization seems to be one of those things that few people understand well but many people offer as a service. I often envision dirty alleyways filled with unsavory characters offering guaranteed top spots on Google – Hey buddy…wanna buy a great Yahoo ranking? But in reality, search engines are constantly changing, so anyone who offers you guaranteed top rankings is usually full of it.

The section on SEO was probably worth the price for me. It cuts through all the fluff and nonsense and delivers straight forward common sense on creating an SEO strategy. Find out what keywords to target, check their relevance and performance, and work them into your site with quality content. No back alley nonsense and no black magic required.

Google Adwords and the Power of Maths

No one won any friends with math. In fact, by just thinking about math right now, a terrible sleepiness has come over me and I’m unsure if I can finish this review. Online Marketing, however, assures me that using math to measure the effectiveness of your Google Adword campaigns is a good idea. They even give you all the equations to figure it out. I guess that will appeal to some people.

Conclusion

Although the book is not long (just over 170 pages), and it only provides the starting steps to online marketing, the foundation it sets is a solid one. If you’ve ever wanted to use social media to increase your traffic, set up your own affiliate program, or just explain the various online advertising options to clients, then Online Marketing Inside Out is a great starting point.