Sift And Sort: New Reader-Built Site

Yes, I still get the occasional letter from a reader of Make Easy Money with Google: Using the AdSense Advertising Program telling me what they thought of the book and asking to take advantage of my free listing offer. Here's what reader Philip White has to say:

Your excellent book helped me in many ways. I've worked in IT for many years, and used the web for a long time, but I've never really bothered to find out how the web works till now. Your book was a great introduction to how the web works, and showed me a viable business model. It also gave me the momentum to take the first step, and removed a certain amount of fear.

It gave me a great introduction to the world of Google and AdSense, content, and site design. Maybe most importantly, the mechanics of how to build and host a site (I use Dreamweaver though, which works well most of the time).

I first read the book a couple of months ago, and have read several related books since. I spent much of the time designing and re-designing the site, and am now ready to start driving traffic before putting much more effort into expanding the content. Just this morning, I re-read the section on Google AdSense for search, and quickly wired it up. I'll be carefully following your advice in the “Traffic” section of the book today.

What I really liked about his letter, though, was this paragraph:

By the way, when I first picked up the book, I thought that the narrative format with Claude, Anita and Stef would drive me mad. Actually, it worked very well, so if you're considering a similar format for other books, then I suggest you use it again. If you ever want a pre-publication reviewer for a new book, I'd be happy to oblige

The narrative format has always been somewhat controversial. I know a lot of techies poo-pooed it in their reviews. But it works well for a lot of people. I chose the characters with the idea that most of the readers in my target audience (which is not the techie audience, not for that book — Uncommon AdSense is aimed at a different audience) could relate to one of the three main characters. Maybe I'll use the narrative form again for another book, who knows… I'm glad he liked it!

Anyhow, Philip wanted me to mention his new site, Sift and Sort, where he's putting up reviews and advice related to digital video recorders (DVRs). It's the beginning of a quality site with human-generated content, exactly what I recommend people do. I wish Philip well with his new endeavour.

Sponsored Link: Would you like a link back to your site from my PR 5/6 (it varies by datacenter) page? Buy a copy of Uncommon AdSense, apply it to a site you're building/fixing, and I'll be happy to publicize it here. That's a pretty good deal, plus you get a great book to read!

Eric Giguere is the author of Uncommon AdSense and the award-nominated blog Make Easy Money with Google and AdSense.

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