Blog, Inc.: Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community Paperback – September 19, 2012

I picked this up on a whim during an Amazon sale, and I’m really glad that I did.I recommend this book to everyone who has a blogged or is thinking about starting a blog. This is a wealth of information. This book was like taking a 101 college class about blogging.The book suggests thinking about what makes your blog special. It asks if this is your hobby, outlet, or possible career, and then offers tips for each of those choices.To quote:“What makes it unique? The best blogs are ones that add their own unique twist or style to a topic. What ideas do you have that will make yours different?” And, “a succinct description of your blog that tells others why you started it, what you blog about, and why it’s fun and different.”I learned that some of the types of posts I most enjoy making are “Updates: In addition to seeing your newest work, readers often like to see pieces that didn’t make the cut,” and “Updates Similar: behind-the-scenes details from the building of your (novel), special discounts for blog readers,” and Reviews.It defines Trackbacks, Categories, and Tags. (I knew about Tags, but I never considered using “Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker to find the optimal words or phrasing to use.”) It explains, in detail, how to write your Bio and the function of having one. It mentions trademarking your blog’s name. (Which I never thought about spending money on before.) It talks about a blog’s bounce rate, which I had never heard of before.The made me wonder if I give enough of myself, if I have enough of a “real person” angle to inspire people.A great quote from the book:“Building and maintaining your community is just as important as coming up with a great new post and should be given the same care and attention.”To me, that part of the book reminded me of the #AtoZChallenge. That feels like the very definition of what we do in April.

I'm writing this from the perspective of a blogger, someone who has blogged since 2008 with a moderately successful blog (relatively speaking). I'm always on the lookout for books on blogging so as to improve my website for readers, try new techniques.This book by Joy Deangdeelert Cho is more of an introductory guide to blogging. It covers topics like picking your niche, choosing a blogging platform, how to behave online, and monetizing your blog. They are mentioned in a rather general way, very informative to new bloggers but lacking the depth that experienced bloggers look for.I like the interview series as they look at other bloggers. It gives a nice overview of blogging from the perspective of other bloggers. However, if you want to get more technical, I would recommend checking out Blogging Heroes and Clear BloggingBlog, Inc is just one of the many books on blogging that are out there, just that this one's from the perspective of the author. Most blogging books talk about similar techniques at building a successful blog, with the difference usually being the story of how the author started her own. I may sound critical but I've read too many books on blogging.If you're a beginner, you might also want to check out Blogging for Creatives. If you're into changing your mindset, you can try Click Millionaires.

I thought that Blog, Inc. was going to be a self-promotional book about Joy's blog mostly, like you see so many bloggers do these days. I could not have been more wrong. I was a skeptic and found that this book is actually an extremely credible, accurate and helpful resource for anyone trying to break into the blogging community, or for bloggers who have been in the blogging ecosystem for years. I have been a (mostly) silent, but ever-fascinated, observer of the blogging community at large. I have started and stopped blogs of my own but will be reinvigorating a new blogging venture in the coming weeks and was curious about this book.This book not only provides personal interviews with some of the most successful bloggers on the Internet today, but it also offers helpful tips that will either spark an idea for a blog post or spark some further thinking on something you may have thought about before but never fully explored. If nothing else, reading this book will fill you with a new desire to better commit to the blog you started out of love in the first place!I was expecting a book that wouldn't tell me anything I didn't know already. What I got was a book that gave me a fresh perspective on some of the things I thought I already knew. Knowing that Joy is a hugely successful blogger, her years of experience and successes only add to the credibility of each page. I am enjoying this and thrill myself everytime I write a note in the margins for a blog post idea...which is about every page.Highly recommend.(Disclosure: I was not paid or compensated in any way to write this review and I purchased the book myself through Amazon.com.)