How to Make Money With Your Blog

How to Make Money with your Blog by Duane Forrester and Gavin Powell  provides readers with experiential knowledge of the options and pitfalls of setting up a weblog (blog), increasing traffic and moving towards successfully monetizing your blog.

Unlike some other books on the market, this book's authors are experienced in a variety of blogging platforms and monetizing strategies in a variety of fields including auto, marketing and music.  These authors have so much experience in blogging it is almost like Bill Gates is holding your hand to show you how to use the latest features and technology of Windows. The authors draw upon various resources from around the web and their own experience to show readers how to be successful.

But the authors do bring a downside to the book via the  repetitive shameless plugs of all the websites the authors oversee and their contact information.  At times the book reads like an late night advertorial for some cheap kitchen gadget.  After the third time I wanted to scream that I could care less about visiting your website and contacting you!  Just tell me: "How to Make Money with Your Blog."

At first the book takes the book investigates the different options of setting up a blog with the different platforms (e.g. Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, etc.) and using a self hosted blog.  Each of the online platforms are given the pros and cons explained by each of the authors who has experience manipulating them for their own use.  This allows the reader to see how a blogging expert has "kicked the tires" and the results of the test before deciding on a platform for their blogging work.  Having tested the blog software is an important step in monetizing a blog as the platform dictates what add systems can be placed, the ease of monetizing a blog and if there are any issues with the visual appearance of the blog showing the ad and the blog content.

Second the book investigates how to improve traffic flows to the blog by keeping visitors longer and attracting new visitors. Great suggestions include the frequency of publishing content, adding feeds to your blogs and how to keep your content relevant so as to not annoy readers.  The authors provide basic pointers on how to keep the blog in tip top shape while attracting as many readers as possible so that the blog can then generate revenue.

Finally, the authors review the top ad programmes and the pluses and pitfalls behind each one.  As well, the authors show bloggers where the best spots are to place ads.  But really, as the authors point out, the best places to place ads are really up to each blogger to investigate over time.  These suggestions allow readers to begin to optimize their blogs for revenue while already gaining from the experience of two experienced bloggers about the pitfalls and pluses of placing ads and types of adds in certain places.

Overall How to Make Money with your Blog is a must read for beginning, novice and experienced bloggers because the book provides useful advice on how to improve blog content and monitization.