This is a book review of the latest book release titled “Problogger – Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income” from two prominent bloggers – Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. I have just managed to finish reading this book after reading it since 7th May when it was delivered to me. I was so happy that I took a photo out of it, and showed it to Darren and Chris. It seems like everybody is doing the same thing as Darren kept us informed about his readers’ problogger book arrival. And I can “see” them “smiling online” over my joy…  Then one day, I saw Darren posting about sharing a photograph and win a prize, and I participated for it with a different photograph. In the end, I won a book of my choice! If you have been with me for a while, you know that I have been buying books since I bought Problogger book. But I have been thinking whether I should get Landing Page Optimization book. In the end, it’s a prize from Darren. Thanks Darren!
Two authors writing a single book is not easy.
First of all, it is not easy for the Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett from two different countries to write a book together. It requires a lot of coordination and getting things to work out nicely. Darren and Chris have written this book in such a way that they contribute individually in certain parts of the book. Although they sometimes identified themselves every now and then, I might as well imagine that there is only one author in this book because it can be confusing to find out who wrote which section. On one part, somebody could be saying about his website http://www.chrisg.com/. On another part, somebody will mention his site is http://www.problogger.net/. There is also one part where they may even cross-reference each another’s knowledge. Nevertheless, it is a good effort done by two authors.
Book Cover Design
 This book cover is designed with the main focus of Darren Rowse’s Problogger website. It builds up the brand awareness of this Problogger logo. This problogger logo gives me a feeling that the bloggers are united because of the dots (representing the bloggers) are united by the circle (community). And they all embrace upon learning to become a better Problogger because of the word “P”. The color combination of red and gray is also very nicely matched with the assistance of the word emphasizing “PROBLOGGER” for us to understand. And because the word “PROBLOGGER” is only known to us who have been working on our own blogs, there is also a few words below to help the beginners to understand.
The thought of showing fading letters of a keyboard is supposedly good. But it somehow makes the digital photo on the web look quite “dirty”. But when you have the actual book, it blends very nicely with the whole book.
The whole book appearance is very much similar along with many other books from Wiley Publishing. Somehow, I can identify Wiley books quite easily because they always give me an impression of a very plain look on its cover, and the contents are very comprehensive. Though they may look plain, they have a kind of style which makes them look like a quality book. The rest is really up to the author’s ability to promise quality contents already… Which I think Darren and Chris have done a very good job at it.
When I first look at this book, it looks like a very thin book to read. But it actually contains over 200 pages to read. And the contents can be seen to have been well thought of before they actually write it out. Probably because Chris has quite an experience in writing books before this already? Or probably because Darren has a natural talent at it? Or probably Wiley Publishing gives them a help at it as well? It is simply a book which is perceived not to have been written by a first-time writer.
What I don’t like most about the contents
I took my time to read every word, to savor what they have to tell me. When they were going to explain about the different platforms, I had a bad feeling that the book is probably going towards the same direction as many other blog teaching books I have read. Because just be explaining about the platforms, it can take a lot of pages! I persevered on to read because I have faith in Darren that I can learn something out of it. Ahhh finally… that chapter is over… I am finally being spared from reading this portion. Actually, I am learning something even from the first chapter discussing about what a blog is. It clearly defines what I need to know about. I remember one year ago, I was trying to do my own blog for a while and I simply kept on knocking one wall after another. In the end, I gave up and buy a book to understand further… Frankly speaking, I think that blog author is not really a blogger anyway because I don’t know where he is blogging! And those are probably just theory…
What I like most about the contents
Seriously speaking, I like all the parts of the problogger book except that chapter about setting up our own blog. But I am going to narrow down and force myself to say only one part which I like most. I like the chapter about Blog Writing. It is giving a lot of ideas about writing a post. And guess what? This chapter is just right after talking about blog platforms. Thank God that I managed to pull through that “obstacle”. That chapter is made me understand some of the techniques of the posts which are written by the top bloggers out there. It gives me a very good idea about setting up my blog for the better. My blog writing has been with my experiment of doing trials and errors. I can still remember how I tried to understand the blogging style of Sunny, John Chow, Darren Rowse, Dave Taylor and many bloggers. I did try to imitate their way of blogging in the past. In the end, I don’t feel it’s my style. I tried to write arrogantly like an expert in the past… And I wouldn’t know when my original habit of writing will come back again. In the end, I put down everything and just be myself! Well after reading the problogger book, I got to know some of my shortcomings. Though there is no right or wrong in doing up a blog, there is now a set of things awaiting for me to fulfill that this book has revealed to me.
Bloggers have a different tone of writing
There is a very unique writing style that you will notice when reading a problogger book. Maybe it is just me… But I can feel the two blog voices between Darren and Chris. Probably I am getting used to blogging and reading blogs. I tend to be more sensitive towards the way the person is writing. On top of that, I have heard Darren’s video post. I can recognize his voice. So when I read the book, I tend to “hear” how Darren is teaching in front of me. I don’t really know about Chris’ blog voice, but he gives me a more technical understanding about blogging while Darren is more towards sales which is about writing a good copy. Interesting combination of two bloggers “blogging in a book”.
Conclusion
Some books must be read more than once. But if you are going to be a serious blogger, you have to read it twice or thrice. I took my free time to read this book for two weeks and 3 days. Reading it once, it is telling me about the Internet of what’s happening out there that is not happening in my side. I believe reading it twice will give me a clearer picture as I am still deciding on my blog design and working on building better contents.
Many prominent bloggers out there were mentioned inside the book. But one thing I know from this book is that Darren’s favorite blog is Life Hacker blog while Chris’ favorite blog is Scott Adams’ Dilbert.
Find out Problogger Book now in Amazon.
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