Affiliate Paradise

I read this book over the weekend and my advice to you all SEOer, pass your way … you won’t learn anything new.

I’m sorry if I was not supposed to read this book, but this is clearly material aimed at beginners to website development and to search engine promotion.

Moreover the 5 chapters that compose this book (sold for 300 pages) span over 225 pages with a third-of-the-page right margin … this book could be half its size.The rest is forewords, introduction, link list, glossary, index and a free chapter of another book “Speed up your web site” (nothing-new-here-also).

The five chapters are :

- Before you build (36 pages)
- How to build better web pages (72p)
- Page design workarounds (47p)
- After your site is built (47p)
- Best practices : the Dos and Don’ts of Search Engine Marketing (17p)

I only give two stars now because nowhere is this book clearly advertised as a book for beginners.

The back-cover tells : “This book teaches developers, designers, programmers, and online marketers what pitfalls to avoid from the beginning so they can provide their clients with more effective site designs” … I find it hard to believe that we can still find developers and designers… that don’t know those basic facts about website building.

But give me that book 5 years ago and I would have loved it

Product Description
Search Engine Visibility is about designing, writing, and creating aweb site primarily for a site’s visitors, and helping them find whatthey are searching for via the major search engines, directories, andindustry-related sites. This book teaches developers, designers,programmers, and online marketers what pitfalls to avoid from thebeginning so they can provide their clients with more effective sitedesigns. It includes up-to-date information on new developments such asblogs, video and podcasts, web applications and more.

From the Back Cover

Search Engine Visibility is not about merely obtaining top positions in search search results. Rather, Search Engine Visibility is about designing, writing, and creating a web site primarily for your site’s visitors, adn helping them find what they are searching for via the major search engines, directories, and industry-related sites.

This book teaches developers, designers, programmers, and online marketers what pitfalls to avoid from the beginning so they can provide their clients with more effective site designs.

“Shari Thurow has been consistently one of the best rated speakers at our SearchEngineStrategies conferences for her ample advice on how to build web sites that ‘naturally’ attract traffic from search engines. Now she puts that advice into print, creating a great companion book for anyone involved with constructing web sites. The book teaches you how to create web pages that please search engines and human visitors alike.” –Danny Sullivan, Editor, SearchEngineWatch”The SEO industry can be a huge pitfall for the uninitiated. Fraud, gimmicks, and misunderstanding run rampant. Which is why we are so fortunate to have Shari Thurow in the field. Shari is a straightforward, knowledgeable, perceptive, and experienced practitioner of search engine optimization, marketing, and placement. She knows what it takes to get top positions in the major search engines and–even more importantly–knows what not to do to avoid being blacklisted. Shari is a trusted and active voice in the SEO field, and she always stays abreast of the latest changes.”–Adam Audette, Owner, Adventive, home of I-Search discussion list; Moderator, bCentral Daily Digest–This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Search Engine Visibility (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter) (Paperback)

Because every business is, ultimately, a Customer Service business, regardless of the product or service that is sold, I enjoy reading books written by entrepreneurs because there’s a chance I’ll learn something new about Customer Service. You Call the Shots by 22-year-old Cameron Johnson fits the bill.

Johnson started 12 online businesses – each one lasting a year or so – before age 21. That alone is interesting and any teen who is remotely interested in business or frustrated with traditional schooling should read his story. It’s a painless way to learn about venture capital, public speaking, public relations, surrounding yourself with mentors and finding business ideas that don’t require start up money. The appendix is loaded with helpful resources as well as a link to his website where there are yet more resources.

For me, the most interesting part of the book was the chapter about his work experience at his father’s Ford dealership, Magic City Ford, in Virginia . The dealership has been in his family for four generations. His favorite part of high school was his part-time job as the internet sales person at the dealership, even though he was making a ton of money from his online businesses. When he was 19-years-old the General Manager promoted him to General Sales Manager, leap frogging him over adults who had worked there longer than he was alive. Yes, he was that good. In 2004 their sales were double what they were the year before even though most other dealers in the nation had reduced sales that year.

How did he do it? He was innovative. He stopped advertising in the newspaper and used that $200K per year to create bonuses and incentives for the sales force. Most of all, he was successful because of superior customer service. “One of the most important things I’ve learned about selling — no matter what you’re selling, whether it’s a Ford Explorer, a start-up to a VC firm, or tomatoes to your neighbor — is something my father taught me: what you’re really doing is helping people remove all their obstacles.” So, if a customer said he couldn’t make a decision until he talked to his wife, Johnson would offer to drive the car to her right then so she could decide. If a customer said he really wanted the car but wished it had a six-disc CD changer, Johnson would offer to install one for free. If a customer didn’t want to put $500 down Johnson offered to make the down payment for him.

In a few years I’ll have to purchase a new mini van and will now have high expectations from the sales person. If I am unsatisfied locally, who knows, maybe I’ll find myself buying online from Magic City Ford.

Click Here to see more reviews about: You Call the Shots: Succeed Your Way– and Live the Life You Want– with the 19 Essential Secrets of Entrepreneurship (Paperback)

The information in this booklet may be a bit dated–much subsequent research has clarified the actual numbers involved on the one hand, and on the other hand, researchers have proven how elusive reliable data can be–but Barnitz’ work is still an important overview of crimes against children.In particular, this booklet gives a human face to the hundreds of thousands of victims of child sexual exploitation worldwide.In this specialized field there are too few reliable books–this booklet is a fine starting place to get the best information.

Product Description
Around the world hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of childrenare involved in the sex trade. This booklet provides an overview offactors that put children at risk of entering the sex trade andidentifies the practices of those who profit from and abuse thesechildren. The booklet also enumerates efforts to stop this abuse, asoutlined by the First World Congress Against the CommercialExploitation of Children.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: Youth Involved in Prostitution, Pornography & Sex Trafficking (Paperback)

You’ve started your eBay business and it’s going great. You’ve emptied out your attic, now what do you sell? This book has the answers on how to find the best merchandise to sell on eBay and where to get it. With so many merchants selling the same products, Lujanac and Blacharski offer insider tips on choosing items that will sell as well as how to get the best of those products.Their key idea of starting small and growing into a larger stock is easy to do following their suggestions of where to find great deals on items to sell. By starting locally, one can find many deals right in their neighborhood that will make a great profit.

The information is presented in such a way that anyone can follow these simple guidelines and find their own eBay success without dwindling all of their profits into buying more products to sell.They cover a wide range of venues for purchasing, researching the best sales, as well as other options such as dropshipping. A trap many people fall into is having a large stock of an item that has gone out of style and they are stuck with a basement full of last year’s fad.With the information in this book, this won’t happen as they offer their expertise and guidance to find the best deals on items that will sell again and again. They offer an extensive list of items that are in demand as well as resources on where to get them. For anyone who is ready to continue their business and take it to the next level, this easy-to-follow resource is a must have.

Product Description
Entrepreneurs in record numbers are setting up shop on eBay, according to a new survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen Media Research International. More than 724,000 Americans report that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income. In addition to these professional eBay sellers, another 1.5 million individuals say they supplement their income by selling on eBay, according to the July 2005 survey. In the last six months of 2005, eBay members in the United States sold merchandise worth approximately $10.6 billion.As you can see, finding the customers is not a problem locating quality items to sell, is the challenge. So what do you do when you are done cleaning out your closet and attics? Where do you find the merchandise you need to sell on eBay? That s precisely what this new book is about: where to find products that you can buy for a few cents on the dollar and resell for massive profits! This book is intended for online sellers who want to build a business that can be increased over time by selling primarily new merchandise in quantity.You will be provided detailed insider information on: wholesalers, drop shippers, auctions, closeouts, discontinued merchandise, overstocks, salvage items, surplus merchandise, below wholesale products, customer returns, wholesale trade shows, suppliers, liquidators, close out firms, foreign and domestic manufacturers, and places to look in your area. In short you will learn to become a product sourcing pro and make money on eBay with products including: clothing, mixed lots, electronics, tools, furniture, general mixed merchandise, domestics, housewares, antiques, books, shoes, jewelry, toys, gifts, sporting goods, hardware, and much more.

Click Here to see more reviews about: How and Where to Locate the Merchandise to Sell on eBay: Insider Information You Need to Know from the Experts Who Do It Every Day (Paperback)

I bought this book primarily to read about writing RESTful Web Services with JAX-RS which is one of the two topics mentioned in the product description.

I must say I am really disappointed with the coverage of this topic. Not many pages are devoted to it, and there are also some flaws in the presentation of REST and in the examples. For example when describing HTTP GET, the author equals “side-effect-free” with “idempotent”, which is wrong. The Representations (the XML-formats) are strange, for GET they are serialized Java-objects without any semantics, for POST they are XMLs with the verb <create_team> as the root-tag.

The presentation of JAX-RS (Jersey) is only 4 pages, and far from what I need to do something useful.

As for the rest of the book I don’t know, so the rating is based on the presentation of REST and JAX-RS.

I bought this book together with the “Java SOA Cookbook” by Eben Hewitt, and I also have read “RESTful Web Services” by Leonard Richardson. The chapter on REST and JAX-RS in the “Java SOA Cookbook” if faaar better, and “RESTful Web Services” is a good general introduction to REST.

Product Description
This example-driven book offers a thorough introduction to Java’s APIs for XML Web Services (JAX-WS) and RESTful Web Services (JAX-RS).

Java Web Services: Up and Running takes a clear, pragmatic approach to these technologies by providing a mix of architectural overview, complete working code examples, and short yet precise instructions for compiling, deploying, and executing an application. You’ll learn how to write web services from scratch and integrate existing services into your Java applications. With Java Web Services: Up and Running, you will:

• Understand the distinction between SOAP-based and REST-style services
• Write, deploy, and consume SOAP-based services in core Java
• Understand the Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) service contract
• Recognize the structure of a SOAP message
• Learn how to deliver Java-based RESTful web services and consume commercial RESTful services
• Know security requirements for SOAP- and REST-based web services
• Learn how to implement JAX-WS in various application servers

Ideal for students as well as experienced programmers, Java Web Services: Up and Running is the concise guide you need to start working with these technologies right away.

About the Author
Martin Kalin has a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and is a professor in the College of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University. He has co-written a series of books on C and C++ and written a book on Java for programmers. He enjoys commercial programming and has co-developed large distributed systems in process scheduling and product configuration.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Java Web Services: Up and Running (Paperback)