Professional Blogging For Dummies [Paperback]

Susan Getgood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 26, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0470601795 | ISBN-13: 978-0470601792 | Edition: 1

Take your hobby to the next level and turn your blog into real income

Anyone who blogs knows that it is a fun, creative way for sharing thoughts and opinions. Now imagine making money from that hobby! This practical, how-to guide shows you how you can get serious about using your blog and implement advertising, sponsorship, partnerships, and affiliate marketing options to turn your hobby into extra income, or even a full-time career.

Helpful examples and featured articles with topic experts and bloggers who have built successful business demonstrate how to promote your business or build a blog-based business.

• Discusses finding your niche, adhering to legal considerations, establishing your disclosure and privacy policies, and dealing responsibly with review requests
• Introduces ideas for advertising and other monetization options and recommends promotional avenues to explore
• Suggests creative ways to keep your blog fresh, unique, and interesting
• Provides tips for monitoring and measuring your success

Professional Blogging For Dummies opens the door to a world of money-making blogging possibilities!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Turn a blog into real income! Here's how you build a blog-based business

If you want to blog like you mean business, this book is for you. Whether you own a small business or work solo from your kitchen table, this book helps you successfully use your blog as a business. How do you find a niche, plan a strategy, promote your blog, and monetize it? It's all here, and more, in this friendly guide.

• It's all in the approach — tackle things the way professionals do, by setting realistic goals and building a business plan

• Know who everybody is — understand your competition, define your audience, and find your own niche

• Get some people — do you need a lawyer? An accountant? Protect your business blog with trademarks, copyrights, and other important practices and policies

• Mind your money — learn how to monetize your blog, set up a budget, and get paid

• Build a blog that brings 'em in — choose a name and a Web host, and then see how to design a killer blog

• Get the word out — promote like crazy using search engines, social networking, traditional marketing, and PR

• Crunch the numbers — explore ways to measure and analyze your results with Google Alerts, Google Analytics, and FeedBurner

Open the book and find:

• What professional bloggers know

• How to turn a hobby blog into a business

• Different ways to monetize your blog

• Why promotion is the key to blogging success

• The pros and cons of selling in your online store or someone else's

• Design tips to make your blog unique

• Interviews with successful blog-preneurs

• Ten common mistakes and how to avoid them

Learn to:

• Find your niche to build a blog-basedbusiness

• Earn income from your blog

• Create content and a design thatattract readers

• Monitor and measure your success

About the Author

Susan J. Getgood is the Principal of GetGood Strategic Marketing (www.getgood.com). She advises organizations on social media and marketing strategies that build brands and drive revenue. Her blog, Marketing Roadmaps, can be read at http://getgood.com/roadmaps/. Follow her on Twitter as @sgetgood.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (July 26, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470601795
• ISBN-13: 978-0470601792
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.8 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,030 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Computers & Technology > Internet & Web Culture > E-Commerce

More About the Author

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Very basic, good for a new blogger December 2, 2010

By HeaterAS

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'd rate this book as great for a newbie blogger. If you've never blogged before, you need this book. If you have, you can do without.

Like all the dummies books, it is kind of scattered at times and doesn't give the whole story. You'll still need to do your own research after reading this book.

That said, I do refer to it from time to time even now as a veteran blogger.

I did buy the Kindle version and it seemed to be formatted pretty well as far as Kindle books go...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for beginning bloggers April 15, 2011

By AdamSTL

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is an excellent resource for the beginners (and some non-beginners). The book does an good job of walking the reader through blog software selection, graphic design, monetizing options, etc. I was particularly impressed to see the section on setting it up as a business (LLC, Corporation, etc.), a step that is often omitted in other books on the topic but is vitally important is the blog is truly supporting a business. I would have liked to see better coverage of website/blog analytics, as a firm understanding of your blogs analytics (e.g., how are users finding your site, which pages are most popular, where are your users from, etc.) can help a blogger determine if/when changes are needed.

Overall, a good book that gives the reader a good understanding of what goes into creating a profitable blog.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good For Getting Started April 17, 2012

By Jeffrey C. Hoots

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

As a blogging fan, I finally decided that it is time to get serious. This book is helping me go from wannabe to established blogger. Ms. Getgood does an excellent job in two areas - the step by step process and the expectations.

For the step by step process, Professional Blogging for Dummies starts with planning - discovering your niche. This makes sense because before you blog, you should know what you want to blog about. Planning not only includes blog design and host, but also copyright, legal, and accounting considerations. This is after all, about professional blogging.

About expectations - this does take time. A good blog takes about a year or two for developing and establishing a presence. That news is refreshing compared to the get rich quick stories we hear.

Our family uses this as a reference tool often, and will continue to do so with the new edition when it is released in the summer of 2012.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for all bloggers. Very informative. February 21, 2012

By Slapdashmom

Format:Paperback

Overall: 4/5 Stars. Is it worth the money ($14 new on Amazon - even less when buying used)? Definitely. Is it something I recommend? You betcha! Grab your copy today and be on your way to becoming a professional blogger.

See my full review at:[...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars For beginners August 2, 2011

By Josephine Elsworth

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I give it a four star because this book is for beginners. It covers many ideas of blogging, most of them are very practical and easy to follow. However if you've been blogging for a while, you may not need this book. I was gonna buy this book in a local book store but found out amazon offered almost 60% off (I got a used version)..... will definately buy products again on amazon! Thank you!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book for the Basics of Blogging as a Business July 19, 2011

By R. Ramirez

Format:Paperback

Overview
Professional Blogging is a 360-page book that gives you an insider's perspective on blogging, not only as a way of expressing and sharing views on a particular passion, but, above all as a professional pursuit. In this sense it incorporates the necessary entrepreneurial mindset and strategies that any revenue generating and reputation building activity should have.

The book follows the standard For Dummies series format, where you're taken from the basics to a more in depth look of the building blocks. The format also allows you to read the sections in any order you choose if you feel there are subjects you already know well.

Content
The Internet is brimming over with content; good and bad. Blogs are created every day, but not all those blogs will be around for long, much less make money. That's why Ms. Getgood emphasizes two main actions throughout her book: planning your blog and writing great content, in order to stacks the odds in your favor in terms of success.

Other than these cardinal actions, which are reiterated and added upon in the different sections, the book explores the legal frame work in which to operate your blog, the public and media relations that a well written blog can bring about, and the technical, as well as logistical, mechanics involved in maintaining your blog.

The For Dummies books wouldn't be as effective as they are without the case studies and testimonials that populate them. This book isn't the exception. Ms. Good uses examples of successful blogs to support the information she's providing. Quite a few of them are intended for moms.

Tone
The tone of the book is very instructional.... The author strives to be concise and to the point, describing the situation as accurately as possible and making necessary disclaimers when the topic requires it. There isn't the light humor that some other For Dummies books have, though.

Conclusion
This is a good book to give you the basics of blogging as a business or professional endeavor. Nonetheless, due to the great amount information gathered inside and the logistical complexities of some of the subjects broached, I would suggest reading a simpler overview of the blogging activity such as Start Your Own Blogging Business from Entrepreneur's Startup Series.

If you already have a blog, that's more a hobby than anything else and enjoy it so much you want to turn it into something more, or if you have grown to the point where you think it's only logical to take it to the next level, than you can dive right in to this book. You'll already know enough about the activity of blogging that you won't feel slightly dazed by the "big picture" feel of the content.

Whichever profile you fit, you'll probably want to read the book with your laptop close by, because it refers to websites, blog posts, twitter feeds, etc., that are good examples or sources of information and you'll want to visit as you read. Read more ›

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Now THIS is a great book! March 29, 2011

By Suzanne Ludlum

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

At the same time that I bought "Wordpress for Dummies," I also bought "Professional Blogging for Dummies" by Susan Getgood. Now THIS book is great! She speaks to me more in conversational tone, and covers material I would not have thought of looking into myself. It's a wonderful reference manual that you can skim through and land in any section you need at any time. Ms. Getgood covers all aspects of blogging, from FTC guidelines on blogging and marketing to developing an editorial calendar, designing and advertising. Throughout the book, she references other sites and sources for acquiring ideas and information. She is right, you don't have to read it from front to back (and I wouldn't advise it either, since the section on designing and developing your blog comes AFTER the section on monetizing). Lisa Sabin-Wilson says the same thing in her book, but no matter how I read it, it was still pretty much confusing. I would, however, highly recommend Ms. Getgood's book for anyone who wants to design, build, and monetize a blog.