Review of Blogging Books

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One of my passions is reading; it’s my relaxation and escape.  Unfortunately, I have been really busy over the last few months and have not made time for reading.

(Note: If you are not a blogger and/or have no interest in blogging, you may want to skip this post, but please stop back tomorrow for a “non-blogging” post.)

In order to combine my current passion, blogging, and my past passion reading (hopefully present again soon), I have read a few blogging books.  I have been planning to share my feedback on these books for awhile and with a recent relaunch of one of the books, I decided this would be the perfect time.

(Note: This post contains affiliate links.)

The first blogging book I read was Building a Framework by Abby Lawson.  Abby immediately drew me in when she talks in the very beginning of her book about what she did wrong.  I try not to compare myself to other more established blogs, but its hard not to some times.

It’s so reassuring to see that those established and successful bloggers started at the beginning just like I did.  Abby describes starting her blog on a whim with very little research.  Yup, that pretty sums up my experience. It was good to read that someone else had a similar experience, but had become very successful.

I was so lost in the first weeks of blogging and was so glad to have her book as a guide.  I took what I read in her book and began using several of her wonderful suggestions.  However, I was very new to blogging when I read her first edition e-book and did not know what half of the content I read was. I was preparing to return to her book and print it this time, when I learned that she had plans to publish a second edition, so I held off.

Abby just released her updated 209 page e-book yesterday Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook.  I just love the cover!  This book has six brand new chapters.  Abby goes over starting a blog in detail, the importance of forming relationships, growing your blog, making money, growing your email list, managing your time and money, and so much more!

She is also offering a video option package this time around.  She has twenty step-by-step video tutorials and fifteen interviews with seasoned bloggers each on their area of expertise.  While my preferred method of learning is book and highlighter in hand, my husband’s is watching videos.  If you are fall into that category, you will for sure want to add that option.

I’m a book in hand gal, so I excitedly started printing my book yesterday and began reading (with highlighter close by).  The printer could hardly keep up with me…and it didn’t.  The printer decided it was done at page 30.  Until my more tech savvy husband gets the printer going again, I might have to do the laundry I was procrastinating on.

I loved rereading Abby’s personal blogging story! Even though those first pages talk about setting up a blog, there was information that is applicable to where I am in blogging journey now as well where I hope to be in the the future.  I am looking forward to finishing the book and diving into the videos and interviews.  I will update my review as I do, so be sure to check back.

A couple of months after reading Building a Framework, I stumbled upon How I Made $40K My First Yeara of Blogging by Chelsea Lords (Chelsea Messy Apron) .  While Abby started her blog on a whim (as did I), Chelsea had a short lived blog prior to Chelsea’s Messy Apron to learn from and started her new blog with a detailed business plan.

The title of this book draws you in, because who does not want to make an extra $40K a year, especially when you are putting countless hours into your blog.  I really like her approach: she treated her blog like a real business from the beginning.  She invested money and countless hours.

Chelsea goes month by month listing how many page views she had, how many unique visitors she had each month, and what she earned.  She then talks about what she did each month to improve her blog and reach more people.  She talks about what she did to monetize her blog each month.  Prior to reading her book, I had one Google Adsense ad on my blog.  I am far from having ads placed on my blog properly, but I can say after reading her book, I have more than one ad.

Chelsea is a food blogger, but I thought a lot of her information was applicable to most blogs.  If it was not applicable, it got the wheels turning in terms of what I could do that would be similar, but within my niche.

If you have read any of my blogging diaries, you know that photography really caught me off guard when I started blogging. You have probably read that content is king; pictures are a close second.  My third blogging book purchase was Tasty Food Photogrpahy by Pinch of Yum.   I have only skimmed through his book, but I hope to dive into it more soon.  Again this one is written by a food blogger.  While I don’t need to know how to photograph soup, I do need to know how to work with lighting.

A month or so ago, I was having a down day and on impulse purchased another blogging book.  I am still surprised that I did this considering I have been pondering purchasing Ruth’s Soukup’s How To Blog For Profit: Without Selling Your Soul
for couple of months, but have not.

The book I purchased is Blogging on the Side: Where Passion Meets Profit.  I started printing and reading it and got to about page 60 and stopped.  I don’t know if it was where I was at in terms of blogging at the time of purchase, but I did not find this book as helpful as the others I had purchased and never finished the book.

As I went back to review what I had printed and read in preparation of this post, I did find I had highlighted a few good points…enough to purchase the book probably not.

The two authors do talk a lot about how much time and devotion a blog takes.  I was a few months into blogging at the point I read this book and well aware of the time commitment, but if you are tossing around the idea of blogging, you might find this information very helpful.  They state their goal of having their husbands home several times throughout the book.  I believe one of them does earn enough for her husband to be home full-time and the other author is working towards that goal.  So yes, there is money to be made in blogging.

If anyone has read this entire book, I would love to hear your feedback.  I am pondering whether I should print and read the remaining pages of the book.

I would love to hear what blogging books have you read and found helpful?

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