They then went on to talk about marketing and promotion and then FINALLY the SECRETS we’ve all been waiting for.  And just like Kung Fu Panda there is no secret.  It’s a combination of all with no secret ingredient.  It seems it’s a matter of luck and persistence just like everything else.

They finish off with urging to make something worthwhile and maintain that if you give your readers what they want they will be happy and come.

So I’m still lost about this blogging thing.  It seems almost impossible to find a niche that is not already over crowded by either wannabes or heavily bank rolled networks determined to dominate the whole web.

Is is really possible to make money from blogging? If you’re patient for it, maybe but I think the days of the big bucks in blogging have missed the masses.  As even Rowse states in his book, if everyone is talking about it you’ve missed the boat, and everyone is talking about blogging, even CNN.

My advice is to keep it as a hobby and if it pays for itself and turns into something grand and brings in a few thousand, then congratulate yourself because you’ve managed to carve at least that out of an almost impossible marketplace.

There are so many of these at the moment both in blogs and books, it’s really hard who to believe.

However I tend to believe these guys for two reasons.

Firstly, take a look at their sites and rankings – the proof is all there.

Secondly, they are brutally honest about how they did NOT succeed for ages online and then how they began to succeed.  It’s a long process. Something that is not often cited in blogging and blogging literature elsewhere.

Half way through there is not much actually new that they have added here.  They talk about niche blogging or demographic blogging as if that hasn’t already been done to death – except there is a catch in this book.  Exercises.  They give a summary of what you should have ‘got’ so far and then finish with some exercises to prove their point about what they’re saying about niche blogging.

There is a whole chapter on blog platforms which I’ll be honest I skimmed through but it had the obligatory wordpress versus blogger scenario.

At chapter four where I’ll leave this review we are back at writing and content which is the universal theme so far about actually making money out of blogging.  Reminds me of another webmaster I’ll talk about later, who has been saying the same thing for nearly 10 years now.  Content is king.  And even though the new bloggers on the block may be using different interfaces and platforms to deliver it, content is still the winner.  If you build it they might come.  If you write well enough about it, they’ll definitely be there – those who are interested anyway.

Get your copy here: Problogger

I’ll finish the rest of the book by tomorrow and give the rest of the review.