Pretentious

I could not agree more with the fine points made by my fellow one star reviewers: The Black Swan is dreadful. I bought the book on the basis of its strongly positive reviews but have been forced to re-purpose it as a prop for holding open my sash window.<br /><br />The author makes several good points but he has mysteriously chosen to wrap them in cumbersome anecdotes before allowing them to drown in a sea of meandering waffle. That may sound pretentious but I come fresh from reading the Black Swan and so my head is fit to burst with the pretense that has been used to pad out its 300+ pages.<br /><br />I think a high school-level understanding of statistics and Rumsfeld's"unknown unknowns" would allow any reader to draw these conclusions and save their money.<br /><br />Avoid.

A remarkable book on marketing

Inbound marketing argues that the way to get attention is to produce great content and it certainly practises what it preaches. It is not a book about theories by some acadamics trying to push a new theory - its actually a candidly honest guide to the new marketing rules created by the internet from two guys with a great deal of experience who share their knowledge in a very honest book. I particularly liked their honesty about the pros and cons of various social media tools - you could almost sense their exasperation at trying to get content onto the front page of digg only to see it fail. And I laughed at the brutal honesty at times - don't worry about what you put in your tweets at the a start because nobody is going to be reading them at this point....<br /><br />If you are looking for a book that will allow you to turn your business or idea into the next Internet sensation in 7 days you are not going to find it. But if you accept that it will require sustained effort, and want a book which explains how to market better on the internet (and the examples quoted range from Amex to one-person shops), is full of good advice and gives you a clear path to develop your marketing using the new rules of marketing, this is the book to read.

The Chuck Norris Cain from Kung Fu of Business Books

Ok, if you have to read one book to get your head around the new social media tools and how to get the best from them then this is the one. I am a fan of J Fields and T Ferris but Gary's direct, in your face style is refreshing enabled me to finish this book in one sitting!<br /><br />The way he explains everything is easy to understand and his passion literally leaps off the page.<br /><br />As a consequence of reading this book I have now started my own blog and am already planning my next career move using the advice from Gary I have picked up.<br /><br />I now want Gary to come to my company to convince our current marketing department to change the way we use our marketing budget which is still way too focusssed on TV as opposed to social media. I have already set up a Tube Mogul account for my company which has generated more traffic and interaction than our display campaigns have which cost substantially more!<br /><br />Look forward to the next book!<br /><br />PS - Gary don't worry about those people out there giving you poor reviews. It's easy to sit on the sidelines, but at least you have had the stones to get off the bench and into the game...<br /><br />

Make Serious Money on Ebay

The book was delivered in good time in perfect condition. Now let's just see if it works...

this whole series of books are very helpful

i now have all the books in this series and as a occasional user of Adobe CS4 design premium they have been a real help in getting me going.<br /><br />due to the huge amount that can be done with the software suite these books do not obviously cover everything but is a great start.

I have read and I will read it again - you should too!

I'm going to do my best to not use too much hyperbole in this mini-review so forgive me if I do.<br /><br />Simply put, this mighty tome is an inspiration for anyone who seeks to break into web analytics or anyone seeking to extend their knowledge and become an 'Analytics Ninja'.<br /><br />Engaging writing, amusing, always informative, accurate, concise and fair are all phrases I would use to describe the book. 'Fair enough' you think but what makes it merit a full 5 stars? One might expect a Web Analytics manual from Avinash to be Google-centric given his well known affiliation to 'The Big G', however, a refreshingly pleasant surprise is the breadth of tools and skills that he writes about that go beyond the Google suite of analytics products.<br /><br />Sure, GA etc. get a fair look in a rightly so based on their merits but there are *many* alternatives out there and all tools should be considered for the job in hand based on their merits and applicability. The thinking behind the inclusion of a wide range of tools and technologies is a fundamental lesson in itself in web analytics.<br /><br />So, who should read this book? Anyone who is or wants to be 'smart' in web analytics. Being smart is the difference between adding value and 'puking reports'.<br /><br />Where is the book weak? Not many places, for sure! A little light on the stats but one could write a whole volume on that subject itself and lo and behold, many have so use alternative texts as companions to this one. The book is not intended to be a technical 'how to get the data' manual but there are many techniques that are worth a mention to supplement thinking and provide inspiration. There is a minor typo on page 99 but we'll quickly wash over that minor gripe ;-)<br /><br />Why should anyone re-read it? There is a lot of ground covered! Too much to take in properly in one go but a couple of reads will hammer the key messages home. bear in mind that web analytics is becoming a very fast moving arms race and a few points about GA mentioned in the book have already moved on. Where Avinash might ask 'what if?' questions, it may well be the case that answers are now available and a whole new avenue of rich insightful analysis is now possible.<br /><br />So, read, re-read and look forward to 3.0!

Fascinating and entertaining

This book is a mixture of economics, psychology, history, technology and marketing and they are all used brilliantly to clearly explain and extend the idea. Some of these sorts of books can focus too much on explaining everything in great detail and you're actually left with a 3 page article that's extended into 200 pages of babble. There's so many good examples and interesting quotes in this book I ended up bookmarking about a dozen pages. A fascinating concept beautifully told, read it as soon as possible before the examples go out of date.

Better than the OGC pocket book !

Why is it better, because if you want to see the process diagrams you won't in the OGC pocket book because you will need a microscope to read the words, the diagrams within this pocket guide are in bigger text.<br /><br />This particular book is way superior,and includes a number of blank pages inside where you can write your own notes in - I love pocket books like this.

a primer for every business

Coincidently, at the same time as I decided to review this book, I had cause to check what had happened to a key local service.<br /><br />I went to their their website for a service update, no information there so I phoned their call centre. After 15 minutes of listening to some really annoying messages I got through, to get only some basic information without any indication of what I really wanted to know, how serious was the problem. About 45 minutes later there was still no information on their website and I was still without my important service. There was a twitter feed with nothing particularly relevant on it, and an email address for the CEO...<br /><br />A week later I haven't had a substantive reply. So far so not very"web 2.0" except for the bling. <br /><br />All of this is a relevant precursor to this review, as it's probably usable as a case study on what not to do.<br /><br />The book is an explanation, a tutorial and a guide to developing a marketing strategy which includes social networking. The technology is properly placed in a historical context. The book is readable with an authentic tone enriched by experience. It's jargon-free and approachable. It even sets out the case for not bothering. <br /><br />Various tools are discussed compared and contrasted, the advantages and drawbacks are explored, costs and benefits discussed in a practical manner.<br /><br />I've enjoyed reading it and shall read it again, I have learned something and hope to be able to use this book for its intended purpose and benefit accordingly. It's not often one can say that. <br /><br />If you are wondering if there's anything in social networking for your business, this book is the one for you.<br />

The Best Book on eBay I ever read

This is the most complete and most accurate book on ebay I ever bought.<br />Very clear and understandable, although I am not English native.<br />It's really far above my 3 other books (sold btw) that dive into useless details, and after you simply give up.<br />In this book everything is there to make you start with confidence, it guides you step by step, and once you start you already know how to sell, and... it works!!!.<br />I sold items that I never imagined I could sell.<br />I thank the author so much.

Really accessible

I discovered this book when I realised that it was part of the research material for Scarlett Thomas's novel 'PopCo'. It's brilliant. It's enough of an introduction to make the reader feel like they can get to grips with the history and methods of codebreaking and making, ciphers, etc, but brief enough that the reader feels that there's a whole pool of interesting things to investigate further. It's also very well written and very accessible. To be honest, thinking about maths gives me a headache, but the concepts in this book were so well explained that I felt like I could easily have a good understanding of them.<br />Having read this book, I would definately like to explore its topics in more depth - which I think is probably its goal.

Way, way overhyped

Over the last year I have read about 20 books on web marketing, this one rates in the Fairly Poor category. I truly, truly don't understand where all these 5 star reviews are coming from.<br />The book is essentially two separate sections. One section contains a reasonable low level introduction quite suitable for beginners. The other section is a deep brain dump on the subject of analytics, suitable only for full time specialists, especially those in companies with dedicated analytics departments. Now, I'm not sure that being a full time analytics specialist is a healthy pursuit for anyone. Without a more rounded business immersion it seems easy to lose all perspective on the relative importance of this subject amongst all the other aspects of any business; and this author seems to me to be a case in point. Moreover, I don't know how many companies out there even have whole departments dedicated to analytics. I work for a 1.2 billion dollar corporation and we don't have even one full timer.<br />But my biggest objection is this: the advanced, theoretical brain dump section comes *Before!* the beginners section. So all the basic explanations and definitions you would need to begin comprehending the advanced section don't come until after you've read it. Please! Can't we afford editors any more?<br /><br />I felt compelled to write this review because there seems to be so much hype about this book that it's verging on the dishonest in my opinion.

Great for newbies

Got this a few months ago for a medium sized business who are totally new to Twitter. <br /><br />Has been passed around the department and is helping to make us all more confident with using Twitter(some members of the team were slightly hesitant to start with!). We're starting to generate great creative ideas moving forward.

trending area....

Good book - challenging script -a way forward! A must read for all interested in social networking and marketing.

Smal and well padded

Short and well padded. Might have been an idea to include a checklist to work through all the steps on your own site.

Power to the People

The internet has given a whole generation the ability to influence their environment. Web2 allows us all to share information and entertainment. It is the astute firm that can harness this tremendous power to advance its business plan. A great book but like so many in the genre it is too long. Surely it is better to reflect on the wisdom than to rush on to get to the end.

Practical Book

A very practical, down-to-earth book.<br />Still haven't finished reading it, but so far it has been meeting my expectations.

high quality

I am amazed how full of information is this book ! It's worth buying it because it enlightens you about marketing online , giving a lot of examples. It's not only theory but also practice with a lot of links to different websites that are useful to understand or study a certain matter.High professional in my opinion.