Wed 25 Jul 2007
SEO Book - My journey through It… Part 1
Posted by ShaunzoOk so i have started reading SEO Book (by Aaron Wall) so I know what every body else knows about seo 
I’ve printed it out, pulled myself away from Sphinn and SEOmoz, and decided to take a chapter in every night or so. If I can be arsed I’ll update my blog regularily with my views and any tidbits of interest (to me!).
I’ve never spent a penny, either in learning seo or in promoting my sites through crap pay-for-submission directories or the like. So the expense (£40 - yes i know I’m cheap) was a shock to my system. Not heard of SEO Book? Well it’s a long standing (generally) well respected book about, not just SEO, but online marketing.
Initially, when I flicked through it, I was a bit disappointed. Simply because i didn’t happen accross a page with any killer info. That’s just me. But now I’m already appreciating the amount of time and effort he’s obviously gone into.
I’ll be disappointed if I don’t know (or have happened across) everything in this book and I’ll be dissapointed if I don’t come away from it with at least a couple of ideas (though I have one already!)
But that’s me finished the first couple of introduction sections.
I’m no psycho-therapist but I’m getting the feeling he’s using this book (well the intro) to somehow validate the fuck up his life was a few years ago (at least to himself). Fair do’s, of course I could be way off the mark because I have barely even started.
- So far. I like his laid back, informative and open style. He seems to have indeed a “passion for learning”
- He goes to great pains to state he’s not an expert, I suspect to have an easy answer to detractors (of which he has a few)
- He got kicked out of the military.
- He took drugs.
- He sorted himself out (didn’t mention if he still took drugs) and got into something he loved
- Now he’s a seo rockstar
I like him already.
Chapter 1 here I come….. fuck! There’s 300+ pages…oh well…..
August 5th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
So, what do you think at this point? After years in the industry I broke down and bought it a few months back and after killing a few trees to print it have only touched certain parts. I’m really interested in what your take is after reading a bit more.
August 19th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
A lot of it you should already know, but it’s worth 40 quid to have that confirmed. From what I remember the last chapter is what I was looking for. A way to explain seo to others.
Most of the time it’s in our heads, it useful to have a vehicle to let it escape and enter other peoples heads.
August 19th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Unfortunately I’ve been a bit busy recently, to even post on my blog. At the moment, I’m a few chapters in. I’ll be posting shortly.
Still nothing “new”, although a few interesting points to remember, and I still like the guy’s style of writing.
Thanks for the comments guys. Next post coming shortly.
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:37 am
I must say, I found the book a huge disappointment. The style of writing was far too informal - if you’re paying that much for just an e-book I would expect it to be quite authoritative. It wasn’t. The tangents he ventures off on give the book a personal touch which some might find endearing but again, I’m not paying for that. His style of writing is something you’d find acceptable for a $5 ebook, but he’s charging a hefty premium for not really very much. The 300 pages have been substantially padded out, and despite this there’s a lot of information he doesn’t go into detail with. I agree he seems a nice bloke, but SEO Book really doesn’t cut the mustard.