Book & Product Reviews
When the ProBlogger book came out I had been blogging daily on two blogs for about 5 months. It immediately went on my wish list, but life got busy and I have only just read it.
Be sure to see my takeaways after reading this book and what this inspired me to give you next month. It’s at the end of this article.
Two expert authors
Darren started ProBlogger in 2004 and is known as one of best people in the blogosphere today.
Chris has been working on the internet since the early 1990’s – before most people had even heard of the internet. Chris is known as an Authority Blogger and he is also my favorite social media expert.
Who is this book for?
All beginners.
…and anyone wondering how to improve their blogging.
People use different entry points to start bogging. This book is for all beginner bloggers. And it is also for bloggers that have already started blogging but realize they could improve their blogging and their blog.
Blogging basics
Darren and Chris cover all of the first steps any new blogger needs to know:
- Choosing a blog platform
- Domain name selection
- Deciding on a niche to target
- Basic understanding blog analytics.
ProBlogger Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income is a stand alone guide to blogging. Unlike many blogging books, it doesn’t stop with the basics.
Get more out of your blogging
Darren and Chris share their expertise to show you how to become a real pro-blogger.
ProBlogger Secrets for Blogging is also useful for bloggers that are moving on to something slightly new with their blog, like:
- Advertising on a blog
- Blog marketing
- Writing for blog networks
For me, a good example was the section on buying and selling blogs. This is something that I have no experience with and it was a good primer for me in case this comes up some time in the future. I knew that it was a common practice to place blogs on sale, but I didn’t know was that it was common for potential buyers to approach a blog owner and ask to buy an existing blog.
Put it immediately into practice
One of the things I liked the most in this book was the ProBlogger blog tips that appear throughout the book. Each tip is related to the chapter and gives the reader ideas on how to implement what is covered in each chapter. This makes it very easy to know what to do and to take action.
At the end of each chapter there is an exercise for the reader to complete. For example, creating the listing to sell your blog. These exercises are similar to the Tips but they help the reader assimilate the content even more.
For my international readers
This book is very easy for people who speak English as a second language. It is far from a technical manual, and more like an easy-to-read useful how-to guide.
What I took away from the ProBlogger book
The one thing that I have learned blogging is to regularly evaluate my blog. You cannot sit back and think that you have mastered everything. Blogs are social media. You need to regularly take a look at your blog from different viewpoints. Up to now, I usually do this every 2 or 3 months. Over time, this process of re-evaluation is what greatly improves both your blogging and your blog.
After a quick glance through this book, I found it interesting enough to decide to use it for just that: to review my blogging on this blog. And I’m glad I did. I actually enjoyed reviewing my blogging practices, strategy and writing habits with this book in hand.
It has now been well over a year since I started blogging, and yet I also still picked up quite a few valuable tips.
Yes, this was a review of the basics for me, but these are the backbone of a great blog. What I liked most was that the experience of reviewing my blogs while reading this book was very motivational. The Tips make you want to take action immediately.
I now have a couple of improvement projects for both this blog and Get International Clients. The main takeaway for this blog: more post series.
A 31 Day Challenge To Improve Your Cross-Cultural Communication
Each day during the month of March, you will have one tip to help you improve your cross-cultural communication.
Now, I usually write about cross-cultural communication for international business, but these tips will also include many cross-cultural communication basics. So this challenge will also interest people who are not in international business.
Cross-cultural communication is a vast subject. This challenge in March will cover one aspect and there will be three other monthly challenges later in the year.
Read more Book Reviews:
Communication For International Sales
Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with communication for international sales:
- A Writer’s Guide To Powerful Paragraphs By Victor C. Pellegrino
- Content Rich By Jon Wuebben
- Get Content Get Customers by Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett
- Letting Go Of The Words – Writing Web Content That Works By Janice Redish
- Stories That Sell By Casey Hibbard
- The Culturally Customized Web Site By Nitish Singh And Arun Pereira
- The Magic Of Pre-Writing By Steven Osborne
- The Secret To Writing A Successful And Outstanding Blog By Liz Strauss
International Sales
Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with international sales:
- All of the Little Sales Books by Jeffrey Gitomer
- Asinine Advertising By Herschell Gordon Lewis
- Influencer: The Power To Change Anything by Kerry Patterson – Joseph Grenny – David Maxfield – Ron McMillian & Al Switzler
- Sales Strategy From The Inside Out By Duane Sparks
International Web Marketing
Here are reviews of the books I have read recently to help me with international web marketing:
- Bit Literacy Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload By Mark Hurst
- Dotcomology The Science Of Making Money Online By Stone Evans
- How The Internet Works By Preston Gralla
- How to Win Sales & Influence Spiders By Catherine Seda
- Landing Page Optimization By Tim Ash
- Mastering Online Marketing By Mitch Meyerson
- Multichannel Marketing By Akin Arikan
- Online Competitive Intelligence By Helen P. Burwell
- ProBlogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett
- Stats Faceslap By Ed Rivis
- The Ultimate Web Marketing Strategy By Ed Rivis
- Website Optimization by Andrew B. King
Here are some Product Reviews:
- Ed Rivis’ Stats Faceslap
- Success Chef’s Marketing E.S.P.
- The Management Tools I Use For Content Created To Be Re-Packaged
- The Ultimate Desktop Copy Coach By Tony Flores
- Web Video University And International Marketing
All of the book and product reviews here are totally unsolicited… spontaneous …and without affiliate links. These are books I have read recently and only the ones that I share with friends. So all of the reviews you find here are on books and products that I highly recommend.
Also, as these are books and products that I have recently read since, this is not a list of my all-time favorite books. Hopefully I will get around to reviewing my favorite culture and international business books sometime soon.
Use these skills in your international tactics on the…
Get International Clients International Sales Road Map:
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Guide To Multichannel Marketing• Do you know how to communicate with different countries? |
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Guide To International Web Marketing• Do you know how to pull all of your different international marketing pieces together? |
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Step 5 – Connect With Your International MarketsConnect… • With culture customized content • With trust and empathy • With strong cross-cultural communication |
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International Business Success Basics• Do you feel at a loss with regards to dealing with international business? This guide gives you the background information you need right from the start. |
 | Want to learn how to avoid cultural blunders? Subscribe to this blog feed. Need to turbo charge your cultural skills? Get my short cross-cultural communication tips. Ready for serious international marketing? Skype me or email me & let's grow your business. |
