Brandon Eley and Shayne Tilley have written a very clear, albeit conservative book about marketing your product or idea online.

As a paperback, Online Marketing Inside Out is beautifully designed and put together. The Sitepoint artisans have done a sterling job. But to say that it’s worth AU$50 is a big call for such a little book. While expensive (and well written) it did come with Darren Rowse’s “31 days to Build a Better Blog” PDF e-book – which took the edge off my wallet shock.

The book covers website production, search engine optimisation (SEO), email and affiliate marketing as well as online advertising. And it does all this . . . adequately. As a web developer, I felt I’d read this stuff before. I was a bit disappointed in the chapter on social networking. The book played it safe, telling me nothing about the subject that half an hour on Facebook or Twitter wouldn’t reveal.

Writers like Seth Godin and the team who brought us The Cluetrain Manifesto (which you can now read free online) have been predicting the impact of social networking for years, so it was both surprising and disappointing to see it glossed over in a Sitepoint book (I usually like Sitepoint books) . . .

The book’s strength is its clear communication of traditional methods of marketing. It’s a very conservative book with a funky cover and the writers have a good background in marketing – working in the field for years. The write clearly, if a little dryly (what’s a technical book without a sense of humour?) and they have pretty much covered all bases. But there’s nothing new here.

If you’re looking for a bolder, more avant-garde, futuristic and fun perspective on how the online marketplace is changing, pick up any one of Seth Godin’s best sellers. I’ve got my eye on Tribes. I usually buy his stuff at the UK Book Depository – which often has the best deals. Postage is FREE all around the world and books are much cheaper than Amazon. Buying books online is always cheaper than at the shops, Australia. As is the way with buying anything online – one has to wait for the arrival.

Sitepoint’s book was sent all the way from Jamaica (considering their head office is in Melbourne, I was very surprised). It was also very expensive to post (about AU$14), took over 3 weeks to arrive and was left outside my house under a damp pillow on a wicker chair in my backyard . . . in the pouring rain. I wasn’t very happy about that. A plastic bag would have helped. It was a bit warpy once I finally found it.

I also had a problem with the way it was advertised. I got the impression that two books would be shipped. But Problogger’s “book” arrived as a PDF download which is only mentioned further down the Sitepoint page.

I’d give the whole experience 5 out of 10.