Marketing Pilgrim

What with running Marketing Pilgrim, consulting, speaking, and writing my own book, you’d probably expect me to have no time to read. Well, when Mona Elesseily asks you to take a look at her new book Mastering Panama, with the promise to teach me everything I need to know in just 87 pages–I find the time to fit it in.

Mastering Panama is a “semi-book”. Not an e-book, but not a bound paperback either. Still, it’s well presented and very easy to follow. Elesseily (I’d normally call her Mona, but Elesseily makes me sound like a professional book reviewer!) does a great job of covering ALL you need to know about Yahoo’s Search Marketing platform. Here are some of the topics covered in the book:

• Drill down: new geotargeting capabilities
• Understand match types and MatchDriver technology
• Y!SM service tiers and certifications
• Streamlined editorial review process
• Improve ROI with the new quality index
• Yahoo! 2010: new advertising products
• Ad copy rotation: run better tests
• Keyword research: Time saving tools
• Click volume forecasting

If you think that sounds somewhat dry, a quick scan of some of the chapter titles will convince you otherwise. My favorite? “New Panama Features to Delight & Amaze Your Friends (…or at least yourself).”

The book really is well thought out. Novices will learn all the basics–Elesseily walks you through the new dashboard and even explains keyword research. There’s also enough stuff for any “pros”–with tips on Yahoo’s new “assist” concept and landing page advice.

The book will set you back $87–that’s a dollar per page–but hand it over to anyone that needs YSM training, and it will be the best $87 you’ll spend this year!