Review of Search Marketing Standard magazine

by DazzlinDonna 

While I was away, the first edition of Search Marketing Standard arrived in my mailbox. If you recall, back on January 26 of this year, I excitedly posted about a new print magazine for the SEO world that would soon debut.

The first edition has arrived and I enjoyed reading through it. Sometimes, there’s just nothing like reading the printed word that you can hold in your hand and flip pages, ya know?

So, how was it? I would probably give it a grade of B. The first edition seemed to be geared more towards newbies and with a strong bent towards PPC over organic SEO. Of course, I would personally prefer advanced organic SEO articles, so if the magazine prints a few more of those, the grade would probably be higher.

There were 8 articles in all. I would say 3 of them were newbie-oriented: 15 of the Biggest Myths in Search Marketing Exposed, Measuring SEO Success with Web Analytics, and Targeting the Tail: How to Get the Most Out of Every Marketing Dollar. Managing your Pay-Per-Click Bids: The 4 Most Important Things to Consider would be aimed an the intermediate level, in my opinion. There was also An Interview with Perry Marshall, which was interesting, and I would like to see maybe 3 or 4 interviews in each issue. A couple of really short sections included Google Insider and Click Fraud Alert, which were just tidbits of information, really. Finally, there was a very good product review called Dynamic Bid Maximizer Advance 3.0.

At the back of the magazine was a Calendar of Events, which listed a few upcoming events I hadn’t known about, so that was useful as well.

Plenty of advertising, of course, but I don’t mind that. I actually like seo-related advertising. I think it is important that I keep up with who is advertising what in the industry. I check out the sites of each of the advertisers that I haven’t seen before, and usually find at least one that is useful to me in some way.

I’m happy to have received this magazine, but I hope it continues to improve with time. More interviews, more organic SEO articles, and more advanced information would make this a top-notch magazine.

At only $10/year for US subscribers ($18 for international), it’s a bargain no matter how you look at it. If you didn’t get in on the free deal, I would recommend you pony up the ten bucks for it. Why not? It’s something to read in those places your computer doesn’t easily go.