I was packing for my holidays at the start of this month, and I decided to pick a few books to read around the pool.  My eyes landed on ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (aff link). and I thought I would like to re-read Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett’s book on blogging for money to see if it stands the test of time.

My wife gave me that “You have got to be fucking joking look” and icily informed me I was on holiday and not working, so I pushed in two other fiction books which appeared to pass approval as suitable poolside reading.  To cut to the chase I re-read the book when I got home, and thought a review was in order for the good readers of WP Dude.

Books on Blogging, an Oxymoron Or What?

Here is my issue, I have read a number of books on blogging and, because of the fairly fast nature of blogging and the slow speed to publish a dead-wood book, there tends to be a time lag which leaves the information out of date.   The Problogger book was first published in spring 2008 which is a long time in tech circles.   Read on to see if this is the case with the Problogger book.

What’s the Book About?

I would describe this book as a beginners guide to blogging for money.  How people make money blogging, how to develop a sucessful professional blog via quality content and marketing/networking techniques.

Who Wrote it?

The book was written by two of the leading lights of blogging; Darren Rowse, the force behind problogger.net, twitip.com and http://digital-photography-school.com and Chris Garrett, the author of chrisg.com and ubiquitous speaker on all things tinternet.

Wherever you go in the blogging community their names are whispered with reverence and awe, they could take a dog turd, carve the word blog in it with a stick and the very next day that turd would have 5000 rsss subscribers, they are that good and followed so closely by poeple in the blogging community.

With this in mind when I first found they were writing a book I dashed over to Amazon and pre-ordered my copy.  I have read it a number of times and still use it for reference often.

What Do I get for my money

You get a manual on starting and developing a blog which generated an income.

THIS IS NOT A GET RICH QUICK PROGRAM!

This is an insighful practicle guide on how to develop a quality web presence, how to monetise your work, build a network with blog marketing techniques.  This is aimed at bloggers who are  in it for the long haul. drop the $$$$$ now thoughts, this will not help you.

The chapter by chapter break down goes like this:

Blogging for money – some background on the writers and what this whole blogging for money malarkey is all about.

Niche blogging – developing your blogging niche, market research and c0mpetition analysis.

Setting up your blog – a techie chapter on setting up a blog using free hosted solutions such as WordPress.org or blogger and a section on self hosted installs such as WordPress.

Blog writing – one of my favourite chapters on copywritting from a blogging perspective, headline writing, the types of posts you can write, the importance of writing from a website and rss reader perspective.  Great stuff.  Going off track if you are interested in developing your writing check out copyblogger.com an excellent resource for web writers.

Blog income and earning strategies – this is where we get into the nitty gritty of earning some money.  This chapter talks about direct versus indirect strategies, affiliate marketing, ads and developing your attractiveness to potential advertisers with your media kit and much more.   This is timeless stuff and this is how people are making money bloggin right now.

Personally I use a mix of indirect methods via my WordPress services and affiliate marketing such as this review.

Buy and Selling blogs – Blogs can be flipped just like real estate, I have developed a number of blogs and then sold them on when I became bored or disillusioned with the niche.  That was done using techniques described in this chapter.

Blog Networks – The demise of the blog network has been discussed widely recently, but this chapter tells you about the benefits of joining a blog network, the increased traffic and marketing exposure and the downside of shared revenue.

Blog promotion & marketing – I remember feeling deflated when I first read this chapter, my re-read confirmed that feeling.  This chapter is 20 or so pages long and it attempts to cover a vast topic, and as a result is only highlights the numerous techniques available to market your blog.  My advice, take each in turn and do further research online.  Find what works for you and expand your efforts there.  I do about three of the marketing processes described in this chapter.

Secrets of Successful blogs – an analysis of some long running and successful blogs, how they did it and where they excel from other similar blogs.

Creating somthing worthwhile – The wrap up chapter and probably the key, make a blog that is worthwhile to your readers is the real secret to a successful and profitable blog.

My favourite quote from the book in the marketing section:

Content might be king,  but without posh clothes and an army to back him up, what is a king but an arrogant bloke in a funny shiny hat.

My Feel for the book

When I first read this book I loved  it.  It was a distilled version of problogger.net which I could refer to easily without the need to search the site.  There is so much content on problogger.net I find it really hard to search for a particular post I read x months back.

My suspicions were bourne out, blogging is such as fast developing media that I saw gaps in the book, some of the most popular marketing techniques such as developing your Twitter presence were mere by-lines, but that in no way depreciates the content, the majority of which was still relevant today.

I would still 100% recommend this book to beginning and developing bloggers, thats why I wrote a review packed full of affiliate links.  I only put my name and reputation against products I believe in.

To get your copy from Amazon or to read more readers review, click on the link below:

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income (aff link)