ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income [Paperback]

Darren Rowse (Author), Chris Garrett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 20, 2012 | ISBN-10: 1118199553 | ISBN-13: 978-1118199558 | Edition: 3

An update of one of the bestselling blogging books, written by two of the world's most successful bloggers

There's a reason why the first two editions of this book have sold thousands of copies worldwide. Written by two of the world's most successful bloggers, it's one of the clearest books out there on how to earn an income from your blog. This new edition gets you up to date on the very latest changes that affect the blogging-for-business landscape. Featuring new material on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn; plus new ways and tools to grow your audience and expand your business beyond your blog, this professional blogger's bible is better than ever.

• Helps novices choose a blog topic, analyze the market, set up a blog, promote it, and earn revenue
• Gives aspiring bloggers proven techniques and the tools they need to succeed in building a business from their blogs
• Reveals 20 key ingredients for a successful blog post
• Offers solid, step-by-step instruction on how bloggers actually make money, why niches matter, how to use essential blogging tools and take advantage of social media and content aggregators, how to optimize your advertising, and much more
• Includes techniques for attracting and growing an audience and how to mine new business opportunities beyond your blog

Written by two fulltime professional bloggers, this exciting, updated edition of ProBlogger tells you exactly how to launch and maintain a blog that makes money.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 3 edition (March 20, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118199553
• ISBN-13: 978-1118199558
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Computers & Technology > Internet & Web Culture > Blogging & Blogs
  • #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Web Services

More About the Author

Darren Rowse stumbled upon the medium of blogging in 2002 and quickly started his own personal blog - not knowing that he'd just made a decision that would change his life in many ways.

In the years that have followed he's started many more blogs - each with their own niche focus and has become a full time blogger - making a living from blogging since 2004.

Darren is best known for his blog ProBlogger.net - a blog teaching other bloggers how to 'go Pro' and improve their blogs.

While ProBlogger is his best known blog it isn't his biggest. Bigger by many times over is Digital-Photography-School.com - a blog and community site for photographers.

Darren's other achievements include founding the Twitter Tips blog - TwiTip.com, co-founding b5media (a global network of 300+ blogs), founding the ProBlogger Conference in Australia and co-authoring the successful book 'ProBlogger - Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income' (now in its 3rd edition).

Darren lives in Melbourne Australia with his wife and three boys.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a Winner March 23, 2012

By Jayne Georgette

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are so many books about blogging that you could fill an entire library with nothing else, but. The problem with most of these books is, that they are either incomplete and you would need to read a chapter or two from each in order to get the complete picture about blogs and blogging; or so poorly written (put together in a rush) that people never finish to read them because they lose interest.

When I learned about this book a few years back I purchased it because I heard so many good things about both authors, Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. Darren is a full-time blogger that makes six-figure income himself through his famous Problogger blog and the highly successful digital photography school (DPS). I believe there isn't anybody who is somebody on the Internet that did not hear about Darren.

Chris is also a full-time blogger, an Internet marketing coach, and most of all the creator of a "five-star" course on authority blogging.

People purchase things from people they trust. What other method is the best to gain someone's trust then demonstrating your extensive knowledge and expertise in the topic through blogging or published books. It is not enough, however, that a person declares that he/she is an expert; people that read the person's book and/or blog, attend a course, Webinar or workshop that he/she leads are the ones that need to add the adjective next to the name of the "expert", or affirm the person's true expertise.

This is where Chris Garrett comes in. His "Authority Blogging" course is the best on the Internet, because he gives his own expertise without holding anything back. If you really want to succeed in earning a nice living from blogging, you must enroll into Chris's program. You will be 99% there....

I almost forgot that I am writing a book review so I need to go back to the book; but the thing is what makes a book a "Best Seller?" - experienced professionals that write well. This is the case with this book.

It is not everyday that you can find a book with that much value; therefore, the first thing I want to do is to thank the authors to create such a valuable reference book. The second thing one wants to do is, what I am doing right now (writing and publishing a review); otherwise the only way people will learn about this book by visiting my house and seeing one next to each of my computers and another one in a room where I can close myself for a quiet hour (get my meaning?).

The book is not only well written and easy to read, but one of the most comprehensive one about blogging and how you can create a nice living from it if you will follow the authors' advise. Did you ask yourself the following lately: "I'd like to know everything about blogging but I do not know whom to ask." Well, your source is here. Read this book.

The authors start immediately with the theme of the book: "How you can make money with blogging." You learn as soon as you open the first page about what it means to blog for money, what you need to do in order to start earning a living from the early stages of the blog and how you can measure the blog's success. So, if that is all what you are interested to know, you do not need to read further; but I would not suggest doing that, because you would lose lots of valuable information.

Once you know the basics (from Chapter 1) you start to learn about the details in the Chapters that follow. For instance I had no idea what CPC, CPM and CPS means. I read about them when I was seeking to find information about advertising on my blog, but for some reason people thought that I should know these acronyms.

There are other plenty of useful information that I learned about them by reading this book, such as what is affiliate marketing, guest posting, content marketing, relationship marketing, buying and selling blogs and other forms of income-producing methods. How about "sticky blogs?" Do you know what they mean? I did not know prior to reading the book.

Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the details for setting up your blog correctly and how to populate it with articles that people want to read.

Chapters 5 and 6 are the meat and potato about making money, but without promoting it through social media and other known promoting techniques mentioned above it will not happen; that is where Chapters 7 and 8 come in. (BTW I read these two chapters twice already).

By reading Chapter 9 you will learn about social media, an important part of your promotion efforts, and in Chapter 10 the authors giving you the secrets of successful blogs. If nothing else, just this chapter worth your time and expense - nowhere else you will learn these important materials. You know that the best way to assure your success is following what worked. Learning from successful people is an invaluable opportunity.

As you read each chapter, pay attention to the organization of each. You could basically learn the important things you need to know in order to build a successful blog just by reading the subheadings, the bulleted lists, the samples, the tips and exercises that scattered through each chapter.

You also have to understand that most of the things the authors are teaching you they have done it personally; it is all based on their experience. They are blatantly allowing you to copy them. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel when they are already invented it.

In summary, whether you're new to blogging, contemplating to start one, or just launched one that is not moving toward the right direction, you will definitely find plenty of useful information for all three instances. You do not need to be a technical wizard or a marketing guru to understand and learn the ropes. The book walks you through smoothly from the very basics of blogging to a more advanced business user. You need this resource for your success. Read more ›

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Whole Picture: Inspiration & Information March 23, 2012

By Pamela Miles

Format:Paperback

Wish I'd come across this book before I started blogging. It would have saved me so much time and terror.

It's inspiring to know that two of the most successful bloggers are also two of the nicest, most humane, down-to-earth and ethical guys you'll be lucky to come across anywhere. I favor the nice-guys-(and gals)-finish-first scenario.

These guys get it. They pursued their vision of bringing timeless values to brand new technology, merging value-based business with online community, and they want to help us do the same for our communities.

This book compiles everything you need to know in digestible pieces that you can read and act on. It is well organized and well written.

And it uncovers secrets that can transform your blog into the one you want to write and others want to read.

Many secrets, once uncovered, seem strangely obvious, and you realize they've been hiding in plain sight. Like be part of your community instead of talking at them. Or come from a place of service rather than self-interest.

But the simplest secrets are often the hardest values to emulate. We need these values underlined and reiterated.

This book is inspirational because it's written by two inspirational and successful bloggers.

And any blogger knows that inspiration is not fluff. Without inspiration, your blog will be just another unread blog.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting enough, but very one-sided April 15, 2012

By Anabelle Bernard Fournier

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Another book I started a while ago and just finished, ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Income Figure isn't very long or very complicated; it makes for a good, quick read about blogging.

If you don't know ProBlogger, you should, at least if you're interested in blogging: it's the go-to blog about blogs. Yes, I love meta and the word "blog" will come frequently in this post.

In any case, as I left the academic world and decided to try something new, I thought about starting blogs for money. I love to write, I seem to be pretty good at managing and producing content, and I'm sure there are things I could share with the world... for a profit.

The book goes through the three steps of making money from blogs:

Setting up a blog
Making it popular
Earning money from it

The most important lesson I got from the book is the importance of choosing a niche; it helps build a loyal community, get expertise and great, contextualized advertising. However, except for the generic "start by identifying your own interests, passions, and energy levels for topics", there's not a lot of direction about how to choose a profitable niche. There also isn't much about search engine optimization (which I fortunately covered in another book) or about keyword research. However, a lot of the things that Rowse and Garrett hold important (niching, ads, etc) aren't necessarily the be-all and end-all of popular blogging.

The one section I found really useful was the monetizing section where the authors explain all about choosing the right ads, affiliate programs and other revenue streams.... While I'm sure there's more complete info on this (it could be worth an entire book), it was a good introduction and gave me guidelines if I ever have to do something like this myself.

In general I found ProBlogger interesting and informative, even if it doesn't delve too deep into any of the topics the authors touch on. Even the case study in the last chapter lacked depth-I would have liked to know more about how he managed his content, built a community, etc. But as an introduction to professional blogging, it does the job. Read more ›

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, great guys! March 21, 2012

By Angela C. Anderson

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Initially I checked out the 2010 ed. of the book from the library, but quickly realized that I needed to own a copy. Luckily, I only had to wait a week for the 2012 ed to be released! In addition, because I purchased the book so early, I was lucky enough to participate in a webinar given by the authors which was a great overview, as well as a great q&a/opportunity to interact with them. It is apparent that their mission is truly to help fledgling pro bloggers find their way, and I'm so happy to have found this content. 5+++ stars for this publication, the website, and e-newsletter!