Internet and Social Media Marketing is Bogus
351037
I must say, the only reason I gave this review 2 stars instead of 1 is for the fact that he wrote the whole book, and decided to recite it to us as well.

By no means do I mean to be a pessimistic critic, but I bought this book after seeing it recommended with The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. Hoping that it would make a compelling argument and have a stint of useful information, the audiobook was not only dull and vague on all topics discussed, but I found the author's voice offending and brash.

I have read multiple books on the subject of "niche" marketing and making passive income revolving around your "passion," but I found this audiobook unimpressive and almost condescending to better written books. I had to stop this audiobook multiple times to digest the nonsensical crap that I was listening to. I am glad that a handful of internet marketers have created products worth consuming, and subsequently made millions, but to describe the road to these successes is tedious, and this book basically outlines a bunch of "power words," (passion, DNA, etc) that just sound good and make it seem easy. The audiobook seemed like jargon (and he admits he dictated the book to have a ghostwriter complete it) and didn't make valid points. Instead, a book is better off explaining the steps to achieve twitter, Facebook, social media success.

Not only that, it's annoying and self righteous to write a book that only portrays the glamour, without saying anything original or noteworthy.

This book was marketed well (74 reviews(audiobook) and 4.5 stars), but anyone is better off reading The 4 Hour Work Week 2 times and saving your money.
1612888
this book is poorly reproduced content from the Internet.

Furthermore, if you inspect the 5 star reviews, something is not right. All reviewers seem to have created their accounts in late February and made a number of 5 star reviews in the following days.

Stay clear, obviously a scam.
1231228
Micheal Dell comes off as a self promoting marketing blow hard and it is not worth the read.  [...]
1674709
I wrote a music theory book for a particular instrument. The impetus for writing this book was to solve a very specific problem that many instrumentalists have. It is designed to educate, make theory highly accessible, even to novices, and make people better instrumentalists much quicker.

I began reading 1001 Ways To Market Your Books and all the author can state is that authors will never make money on their book, but must use their book merely to sell other stuff. I began getting sick after a few pages and absolutely could not continue. This author has latched onto this mentality that has been taking this world toward that world we see in the sci-fi novels where there is advertising and sales of junk all around us with no escape. Yes, you may very well make your money by following this advice. A lot of people and business make money doing things they should not be doing. This approach is completely intellectually dishonest. I do need to make money. I do need to make this book work. But I refuse to advertise a bunch of garbage and propagate trinkets and garbage throughout the world. My lesson is in my book, pure and simple. It contains advice that took me 30 years to develop. I will continue to offer my lesson, rich or poor and I am not interested in selling other things. I will continue presenting my book to teachers and schools that will understand exactly what I have done, and not bother them with my e-store of crap like John Kremer wants me to do.
3504305
Where do I start?  When placed under objective scrutiny this "book" falls apart at every level.  The fact that a practicing college professor of marketing produced such tripe makes me weep for the American educational system.  As a business student, this book goes against every sound financial concept I have been taught.  It promotes the concept of "e-ferral" services (read: Multi-Level-Marketing) as a credible financial venture (your road to wealth!) and coins the phrase "pro-sumer" to describe participants in such a MLM scheme.  What's suspicious about this book is it's entire lack of content, conspicuously omitting any mention of businesses already practicing "e-ferral" marketing (Due to the fact that mentioning "Amway" means an instant loss of any sort of credibility).  Also, for a book that promotes itself as a guide to helping consumers save money and increase their spending power, it offers the reader no options other than to get involved in an "e-ferral" service.  No mention of any type of long-term or short-term financial strategy (CD's, Savings Bonds, IRA's) just the sales pitch that "e-ferral" is the future of e-commerce and if we're not on the bandwagon now then we'll be poor and destitute for the rest of our lives.  Call me crazy, but I find it suspicious that MLM is the only solution that this book gives to readers to improve their financial position, I also find it suspicious that should a reader buy the sales pitch this book gives and goes out to search for an "e-ferral" service to get involved with they inevitably are led to Amway (or their online child Quixtar).  Due to its lack of any real content and its overuse of all capital letters, this book reads like a transcript from a motivational seminar.  I doubt this book gets any sort of sales outside of Amway conventions since all it does is reinforce the illusion that pyramid schemes are the fastest, smartest way to make money.  Pro-sucker indeed.
 It's not hard to divine the real purpose behind this book - to get "skeptics" like me to start believing in MLM schemes.  A friend of mine gave me this book and I will be giving it back to him as soon as I can.  Am I missing out on the "opportunity of a lifetime"?  Am I selling my dreams short?  Not likely.
My common sense tells me that if someone tells you an opportunity exists than there really isn't an opportunity there at all, they've already grabbed it and are just trying to sell what's left of it to you.  True opportunities are like panning for gold, it exists, but you have to discover them on your own.  If you try and follow someone else's map (or read someone else's book) the only place you'll get is where everyone else has already been.
2833887
Absurd! Nothing but several pages worth of self-aggrandizing drivel and ridiculously lame braggadocio followed by several interviews of real marketing gurus (well, at least some are gurus or experts, though there was no reason to include Maria Veloso) with no eye-opening revelations or any real meat on the bone, and a feeble attempt to capture your email address. Though, I do have to admit that he DID provide me with a good chuckle when he proclaimed: "Dan is considered the worlds leading expert in internet marketing..." Which, of course, is delusional and narcissistic beyond belief. To sum it up in a word... Buffoonery!
4656639
These pumps are misrepresented with respect to being self-priming at 1M above water level. OK, the products are cheap, so give them a pass, right? Maybe you don't need 1M. Actually, if you can live with 3-5 inches, from our experience with multiple pumps you have maybe an 80% chance the pumps will work, at least for a while. The specs become more of a concern when after extensive correspondence with the seller and feedback of other customers, you realize that vendors know the product is misrepresented to maximize sales.

There are multiple vendors of this product now, and they are evidently selling enough of these pumps that they have just raised the pricing from $11.17 last month shipped from China to $19.86 today shipped by Amazon. And they have an established process to make money even if customers complain. They initially say products have to be returned for full credit, but they offer a small immediate refund ($4 per pump on our multiple order) along with suggesting you just keep the pumps purchased "to minimize trouble". No doubt this deters most customers from pursuing full refund and keeps them quiet. As is clear from the recent price change, the vendor still makes money giving out these small refunds. What if the pumps simply do not work in the customer's application and are worthless (as in our case)? If a customer insists on full refund, the vendor says the products have to be shipped back, but refuses to pay shipping. The vendors were using international post shipping, and our understanding is this contradicted Amazon policy. Ultimately, on appeal, Amazon reimbursed the charges. With Amazon shipping now, they nearly doubled the price, but shipping is out of the vendors' hands.

Vendors of this product would be well advised to modify how the product is represented. If they truthfully specified that self-priming is highly variable-- from item to item and over time as the product is used-- and ranges from a few inches of water up to *possibly* 1M, they would still make some sales, but transactions would be honest and it would avoid wasting customers' time.

Also, given the materials used and design, it would be wise to advise customers not to use these pumps in potable water applications or even aquariums. In order to avoid the cost of having to manufacture suitable materials to the tight tolerances normally required of gear pumps, these pumps use temporary grease seals embedded in the gear faces. This grease slowly (or rapidly) dissolves out and the seals deteriorate. This is why the intake lift (vacuum) deteriorates with use. It is unlikely the grease is non-toxic for food contact. We did not test the hot water claim, but it seems likely the grease seals would deteriorate more rapidly at higher temperature.

We took time to address this because we tested the pumps for the potential to use a lot of them. Plus, across dozens of transactions with Amazon, this is the first time we've encountered a vendor running what amounts to a borderline scam.
3913920
You've lost me at 'network marketing business'. I know you swear that yours is not scammy, but 'heart-centered', yet there was your shameless frequent mention of your business throughout the book (even closing your book on that note). That is scammy in itself.
752871
Author recognizes that social media really only benefits certain types of businesses.  Those where an element of community exists.  Even the name of his company (19th Hole) points to the community aspect of golf.  Social media seems to be a waste of time to most other businesses.
1873230
Yes, the examples are re-iterative, over and over again about "activists".
Over and over again, that "activists" may include "false positives" in their data to make the problem seem larger then it is.
But, there's NO examples from the Corporate world.
And in today's America that's just propaganda.
What is PR, but lying to the public by industries that do Harm to Make Money.  Damned Lies and Statistics.
Any yet, no corporate examples.
Like Fracking, Cigarette Smoking, Coal Production, with every lake and river in America now polluted with mercury, uranium and arsenic, the author is completely blind to the Corporate PR machine, distorting politics, buying politicians for one simple rule.

Protect Corporations Making Money by Slowing Killing you.
4212396
To me, the false promise of the latest technology boom was personified in a cute yet unrealistic iPhone commercial. The ad starred the lovely Zooey Deschanel, [...] who tells her phone to summon the delivery of tomato soup. I found this ridiculous! I live in San Francisco, but not even in this foodie metropolis can you get tomato soup delivered on any given morning. Those iPhones might be cool, but they can't instantaneously create restaurants to satisfy your every craving. The commercial was pure fantasy.
It's hip to embrace the so-called "sharing economy." In his well-researched, superbly-written book, Steven Hill explains why the phrase "share the crumbs" economy is more accurate. The future is not the techno-utopia that some have made it out to be. Many of these "revolutionary" apps aren't even profitable, and are going bust as soon as the venture capital well runs dry.
Hill points out how many of the people "freelancing" for these apps are not even making minimum wage. Driving for Uber might make sense for a retiree or college student looking for extra cash. More often than not, however, it fails to be a viable option for folks seeking to earn an actual living. Hill offers solutions, laying out a path forward for our increasingly digitized world.
This book is a must-read for anyone trying to understand the current socio-economic-techno-political landscape.
3615483
I just finished reading the new book " Social Media Overload" by Corey Perlman and I'm a little frustrated.
  Let me explain. I have been following Corey for a few years. I first saw him at a presentation put on by a local Dale Carnegie chapter in Birmingham ,Al. I had recently opened a business and was trying the learn how to market and promote. I saw the ad for the one day course and it seemed like a great start.

  The presentation was excellent and I picked up a copy of Corey's first book, Eboot Camp and some other materials he had available. That was the beginning of my adventures in social media from a marketer standpoint and not just a consumer.

(read more) http://www.kenbarrett.us/blog/social-media-overload-by-corey-perlman-review
3746610
First off, this book should be called "How We Buy," as it is focused much more on the way people physically shop rather than the anything happening behind the shopper's eyes. I kept waiting for the book to deliver on its title, but it really never did.

Looking past the cover and examining the content of the book, the one thing that stuck out to me the entire duration was how smugly satisfied Mr. Underhill is with himself. Not only is he constantly regaling us with tales of him totally flummoxing executives with his revelations, but he feels confident in announcing in no uncertain terms how the future of retailing is SURE to play out. The chapter on seniors alone is so full of inane gasbag proclamations about what retailers MUST do to accommodate his generation once they become geezers that I had to stop to mutter to myself multiple times.

It's not that his recommendations and observations are all incorrect (despite his insane ramblings on topics such the wheelchairs of the future), it's just that they are delivered in such a patronizing and pompous manner than you don't want to believe him.

The Internet chapter is an absolute joke. While it's beating a dead horse to say Mr. Underhill is highly opinionated yet grossly misinformed about the Internet, I feel it necessary to point out in my review. The chapter begins with a bizarre rant about his skeptical opinions of the Internet, including a smug proclamation about how the crash vindicated his predictions. It goes on to describe how terrible Amazon is (including a self-righteous story about a misunderstanding that had him incorrectly pegged as the co-author of a Unix text), how the Internet is not truly succeeding because it's not local enough, that it should let you "choose your processing engine based on your own interests and beliefs" (huh?), how we don't know how the Internet is supported and funded yet and that the only reason Web 2.0 has succeeded is because women are paying attention to the Internet now. Is this guy just a troll?

He also has section on the social web, which makes no sense as this is not supposed to be a book about misinformed opinions about Facebook. That's followed by a bit on cyber war with the gem "what would happen if there was a cyber war and the net collapsed?" What is this mid-nineties nonsense doing in a book about shopping? He really just went off the rails in this chapter and decided to lecture us about something that is not only outside the scope of the book, but something he clearly knows nothing about.

In between all the nutty tangents in the Internet chapter, he gets into a few rhythms about online shopping, but his overall analysis of e-commerce is that any success it has shown is due only to the failure of traditional retailing. Sigh. Sorry to keep harping on this chapter, but it was the part I was looking forward to most and also typifies what is wrong with this book.

The Internet section is followed by a history of the author's company's exploits in foreign markets complete with detailed descriptions of random employees and an account of how much he knows about Japanese naming conventions. This is about as self-centered as you can get, and I cannot even begin to believe anyone would find this useful information.

Also, and this is a small issue in the larger scheme, he seems to have a real vendetta against anyone under the age of 30 who attended business school. I'm not sure if he wasn't able to go to business school and is hell-bent on proving he didn't miss out on anything or what the deal is, but it seems like he gets in a jab at "junior VP wannabes" every chapter.

All in all, this is a book filled with (mostly) insightful observations about the physical mechanics of shopping with an inaccurate title, plenty of self-righteous grandstanding, and an unrelated farce of a screed about the Internet. Unless you are looking for a book about physical retailing with 150 pages of random BS thrown in, I'd recommend you stay away from "Why We Buy."
2974186
This book utilizes flawed logic and extremely biased studies in an attempt to make a point.
The author lost credibility in the first chapter and things just went downhill from there.
In several places the author references studies commissioned by the RIAA that attempted to calculate the losses due to digital piracy. The studies have been proven time and time again to be greatly exaggerated in favor of the RIAA. At one point in the book the author states that 98% (!) of people are illegally downloading their music.
This author is stuck in the 1980s and needs to realize that not every user on the internet is a mindless nut. Most people are able to determine what is and isn't credible online and I can tell you, this author is not credible.
2638876
It's not really a well written book, but more than anything else it will teach you to think differently about marketing in today's social media scene as opposed to more traditional methods of marketing, like TV and newspapers.
The examples Seth gives points you in the right direction, but at the end of the day the ideas you will need to come up with will be your own and not his.
You will still have to find your own way to cut through the social media jungle out there.
I can't really complement the chef on this concoction as it does take a bit of chewing over and a little bit to digest.
I just wonder what sort of meat was in Seth's meatballs, as I'd hate to think he was flogging a dead horse here ;-)
1558926
Have you ever found yourself on a website through a google search that claims to have the secret to X,Y,Z?  Every 2-3 paragraphs you are forced to skim over tons of testimonials only to find yourself at the end of a long web page and find after much anticipation to discover the hidden "secret" that you must pay for it?  If so, I will save you the annoyance of this book and tell you straight up that there isn't anything in this book that you don't already know.

The author endorses websites and doesn't hide the fact that she claims gratuities if you use them.  She constantly plays on the readers' pathos by writing about how hard it is to work and go to school and be a mother.  While I do not argue that at all, i realized this was money making scam when she immediately writes about her online coaches that can save you the heart ache.  Of course that too is followed up with testimonials. I just counted the pages that are filled with testimonials and I counted 20 out of 100 pages.  It's strange because these published testimonials look extremely close to the amazon reviews, huh?!

The book isn't very organized; I am used to books of this genre to have a plethora of credible websites listed throughout the book and to be underlined for continence. The only websites that are listed are at the end and they are directly affiliated with the author of this book and the "RN faster program" that she references throughout the book.

Summary: get  an LPN first or a ASN then go online and finish using an online school to get your degree.  The degree earns you the opportunity to take the NCLEX and thus earning your registered nursing license. Also, try to study and test out of college pre-requirements.
1615349
Get rich, be successful, blog, podcast, blah... I feel like it is 1999 all over again.

My issues with this book are:

1. It is very light on critical analysis of when these technologies are of value. Face it -- hundreds of thousand of businesses should not have blogs or employ most of these technologies.

2. There is almost no information on the return on investment of these technologies versus other marketing media or tactics. Having a media / PR person spend 10 hours developing a sketch media plan, buying ads in a circular, building an email list, etc. could be 1,000 times more beneficial than spending the hundreds of hours that costs to implement most of these tactics well.

3. The goals for using each technology should be crystal clear and realistic and the hype in this book does not reflect that.

4. Rising above the noise on the Internet is really, really hard. This book gives you no information on how to do that beyond the age old adage of "know your buyer."

I started to write - it's ironic that there is a chapter on "how to develop thoughtful content" and then I had a realization that the author is actually a good marketer. This book isn't about imparting knowledge and being useful to businesses and organizations. It's about selling books. The author is very aware of his buyer - it is somebody who is rightfully in awe of the Internet and its viral potential, heard Dell figured out how to make $3 million on twitter (their ad budget is $1.5 billion per year), and doesn't know what their first step should be. Unfortunately, this book isn't a good place to start. That person would be better served by learning about these technologies on wikipedia, reading the ClickZ website (an actually useful resources for online marketing) and asking themselves the critical questions about how these new tools could realistically improve their marketing effort.

More critical analysis of when these technologies should be used is needed, not this drivel.