Local Online Advertising for Dummies by Court Cunningham and Stephanie Brown
Preliminary Book Review
In came the email.
"Would you be interested in having a review copy of "Local Online Advertising For Dummies"?
One nanosecond later, I was replying... "Please send it to me at..."
Two days later, I have a copy in my hands to I decided to write a first impressions review.
First Impressions Of Local Online Advertising For Dummies
If you've ever looked at a Dummies book, you know the format - a bright yellow and black cover with an easy to read, well laid out book inside making the topic easy to understand.
I used to be a bit of an intellectual snob about the Dummies books and ignored them on principle.
I was wrong and I realised it once I got off my high horse and started looking at them and since then, about eight have crept into my library.
For the ordinary small business, this book looks at two difficult areas:
- the strange world of the Internet and technology
- the mysteries of effective advertising
Together they may form an intimidating combination and that's where the Dummies approach fits in so nicely.
A lot of this is easier than you think. You just need Local Online Advertising For Dummies to help you to understand that you can take advantage and you won't be written off by the experts.
Local Online Advertising: Why It's Important
Local advertising on the Internet is the big story of 2010.
The dot com boom may have turned to bust in 2000 but since then, the Internet has become the source to look for products and services.
Some markets have moved from national to international and for digital businesses it has created a long tail of products that can be profitably created for tiny, ultra-specific niches because all the world's a customer.
There's a local dimension to the Internet too.
And as mobile Internet solutions get better, the web becomes even more of the place to look for ideas in your own local area.
Local Online Advertising For Dummies is written to provide a do-it-yourself guide to creating an effective local presence on the Internet.
Let's face it, if you serve a twenty square mile community, you don't need to be found on the Internet by anyone outside it unless they are making an very specific search.
What's In Local Online Advertising For Dummies
The book is written in five parts with each part having several chapters:
- Part 1: Getting started with local online advertising
- Part 2: Setting the foundations for local online advertising
- Part 3: Doing the advertising part of local online advertising
- Part 4: Keeping your customers coming back
- Part 5: The part of tens - three chapters on local marketing mistakes, creating an effective local online advertising plan and what to look for when choosing a local online advertising partner.
The Local Online Advertising book is very comprehensive and the nice thing about the Dummies style is that you can skim read sections you feel comfortable with, gloss over things that don't appeal and dig into those that are relevant.
I haven't read the book thoroughly yet but from what I've seen, I'm going to like it very much.
Concise, practical, relatively jargon free and it will give you the belief and confidence to put the tips into action.
If you don't have a website, the book doesn't tell you how to build one - there's another Dummies book for that - although it does give you some tips on what to do.
It's all you need in some places and if you want to go deeper it provides a list of help. I've picked up a few extra SEO resources for instance.
Your Own Copy Of Local Online Advertising For Dummies
You can buy your own copy of "Local Online Advertising For Dummies" by Court Cunningham and Stephanie Brown from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk (affiliate links).
If your confused by the idea of online advertising or you've done a bit but you want to do it better, I'm confident that if you read this book and put the ideas into action, your online marketing will be much more effective.
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