The innovative guys over at Quirk, have put together what seems to be a world first, an eMarketing textbook, which is offered online for free – but also available in stores in print.
The book, entitled ‘eMarketing – The Essential Guide to Online Marketing’ is targeted mainly at universities (and businesses). Quirk is supporting the Creative Commons licensing pogram.
Rob Stokes, CEO of Quirk eMarketing and author of the book says, “We have been working with various tertiary institutions, including University of Cape Town (UCT), AAA School of Advertising and the Red and Yellow School for the past nine years. It became clear that there was not enough source material for lecturers and students who wanted to learn more about online marketing. And, what was available was based purely on American case studies which don’t always make sense in the other markets. The thing I am most excited about is that this book is freely available for download. It’s the distillation of all of Quirk’s knowledge and to be able to offer it to all without any limitations is a privilege.
To add to the innovation, Google South Africa is also supporting it!
Stafford Masie, country manager of Google South Africa was very impressed, saying eMarketing – the Essential Guide is “the perfect starting point for anyone entering the world of online marketing.” Google has also included a $15 Google Adwords voucher in every printed book to give people who have never tried the service an easy way to do so.
I really think that this is a phenomenal effort to try and increase the level of education in schools and universities about the area of online marketing – it would be great if this book could lead to more programs and curriculums being created in parts of the world where it’s especially expensive to obtain this type of material for coursework. The future of the Internet is “Free!” – you heard it here first 
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