Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In my spare time, I am creating niche websites to supplement my income so I can go back to school for Physics. I designed my first site by hand, hired a professional designer for the logo, and was thinking about implementing a blog into the main content of the website to increase hits to my website from searches. I have a degree in Information Systems, can program websites, and have a lot of technical knowledge, but have never written a blog before. I approach things from a technical perspective, and when I want to learn how to do something well, I do my research and read everything I can from experts in the field. I heard about this book from Pat Flynn's site, and most people (judging from the reviews) have generally raved about the last two editions. I waited for the new edition so I could have the most up-to-date material. Perhaps there were some new methods to making money blogging I was not aware of, or perhaps the author had some newer original ways of making money from blogs? Nope, Neither. For $16.49 I was expecting an in-depth guide explaining how to make money from your blog. Instead, this book feels like a compilation of inspirational, non-descriptive blog posts with extremely general information, and comes off like an "I did it, now you can too!" seminar that leaves you without anything specific or the money you had in your pocket before you walked in. The book breaks down like this: 1. Blogging for Money 2. Niche Blogging 3. Setting up your blog 4. Blog Writing 5. Blog Income and Earning Strategies 6. Buying and Selling Blogs 7. Blog Promotion and Marketing 8. Build a Sticky Blog Community 9. Social Media and Your Blog 10. Secrets of Successful Blogs 11. Creating Something Worthwhile 12. Taking Your Blog to the Next Level: A Case Study 13. Going Beyond Your Blog You would think that this outline separates the book into useful sections, but the truth is almost all of the content of the first chapter is repeated in slightly more depth in the subsequent ones. A lot of the information feels like a blog rant that tries to hide general information within a wall of related words. I do not follow Darren Rowse or Chris Garrett, but given how much of this book was repetitive information, I feel like they probably took some of their blog posts and changed a few of the words to make this book. There is a lot of general "Do this, except for when you shouldn't" language, and while Chapters 5 and 6 had some information relevant to the title of the book, it was not very specific at all. The book would have been more useful if it were a few pages long and existed as a general list of resources you could use to make money blogging. This book really does not have much "content", let alone applied content, but rather spouts the same information again and again while making common-sense statements to fill space. The book has a lot of "examples" of other blogs supposedly relating to the concepts being discussed, but most of the time it feels like the authors are advertising for these other blogs as they go off on personal tangents about the person or the blog. Chapter 10, Secrets of Successful Blogs, is the worst example of this, going over other successful blogs and quoting the same repetitive insights from the authors. It can honestly be summed up in one phrase: "Know your audience." There are simple definitions and explanations in this book, but I can't honestly see anyone who grew up with the internet needing it listed and then repeated. The author is very clear that making money from blogging takes a lot of hard work, and I wish they told us more about that. That being said, one can easily see how the title is misleading: "Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income" implies, to me at least, a FOCUS on insights or techniques about how to make money blogging. I am sure that all of the information needed to blog successfully is "technically" there, but the authors never get that specific or tell you exactly how they applied this knowledge, sans one VERY general case study and references to the fact that they did it once. It feels like the textbook of a survey class in college that gives you all the definitions of a subject but no useful knowledge for applying it. I wish I had nicer things to say about this book, but I have to give it one star because I honestly feel like I have just been scammed. It is written for people who want to buy products to make themselves feel more productive, NOT people who are hard-working and serious about making money and want an in-depth technical guide. This book is more of a distraction than a guide. Instead of reading this, go out and start working on your website or blog. They say a fool and his money are soon parted. I am sad to say that today I am that fool.