Kevin Muldoon

This week I have been reading John Chows 144 page ‘Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul’ book (edited my Michael Kwan). It is available from Amazon in the UK for £9.32 with free delivery and in the US for $10.85 with free delivery.

If you saw this book in a bookshop you would think that it was just a general book about making money online. That is until you see the back cover and you realise that it’s about making money with blogs. Whilst I do like the title of the book, I think something like ‘How to make money online with blogs’ would have been more descriptive. However, I’m not one to judge a book by it’s cover so let’s look at what is inside John Chows first printed book.

Book Contents & Introduction

The book has 13 chapters in total and a small links section at the end. It’s well written, easy to follow, and has been written from a personal point of view rather than a journalistic/news style. So you should be able to finish the book quite quickly.

• Chapter 1: The Best Time to Get Started
• Chapter 2: My Story
• Chapter 3: Blogging 101
• Chapter 4: Top Essential Blogging Tips
• Chapter 5: WordPress Basics
• Chapter 6: WordPress Techniques & Tools
• Chapter 7: Content is King
• Chapter 8: Promotion and Search Engine Optimization
• Chapter 9: The Importance of Branding
• Chapter 10: Optimizing Google Adsense
• Chapter 11: My Top Mopneymakers
• Chapter 12: Private Ad Sales
• Chapter 13: The Formula for Success

The first two chapters deal with how John fell into the world of making money online in 1999 with his first website Moto’s Project 504. This quickly led to the creation of The Tech Zone, which was making him over $2,500 within only a few months. John then talks about how he weathered the storm during the dot com bust of 2001 and leads on to how he started making money with his blog.

I really loved this section of the book as I love hearing about how successful online entrepreneurs got their start. It reminded me a lot of Joel Comm’s book ‘Click Here to Order’ (who happens to have wrote the foreword for this book).

Blogging & WordPress Basics

In the next 4 chapters John explains the basics of blogging and gives an introduction to everyones favourite blogging platform WordPress. If you already own a blog and are familiar with WordPress then you won’t get too much from these chapters other than the good recommendations for wordpress plugins.

I also think that these chapters lack something for beginners. There are no images in the book, which is something I believe beginners really need to help them through the basics. And he doesn’t seem to go into enough detail with his beginner tips either. Which I can understand from one point of view as the book is primarily about making money online, though I feel that this section could have been greatly improved with some basic screenshots of screens and more references to books and online resources which will help the beginners install their blog.

There was some poor advice in this section too:

• John recommends that users create a 16×16 pixel favicon. Though as I noted last month, it is better to use a much larger image for your favicon.ico file as it is frequently being used in feed readers and as desktop icons too. I must admit that I am lazy sometimes and have just used 16×16 in the past but I think it’s important to advise beginners to get in the habit of saving a larger favicon.ico image since the favicon is used for desktop icons too. And a 16×16 favicon looks awful when it’s magnified to 64×64 pixels.
• When talking about using the preferred domain (i.e. www vs non-www) John gives the code to be used in your .htaccess file to set a domain to use www. There are two problems I have with this. Firstly, there is no need for any WordPress user to do this manually. Once you set the WordPress address (URL) in the general settings area of WordPress (i.e. www.site.com/wp-admin/options-general.php) the .htaccess file will be updated with your preferred domain. Secondly, there is no explanation of what a .htaccess file is or what it does. I strongly believe that if you mention the .htaccess file to beginners you need to warn them about how things can get messed up easily with just one character out of place. Put simply, no one should be tampering with the .htaccess file until they understand some basic commands for it.

The section will prove useful to beginners though I believe that it could be improved in future editions by adding screenshots and providing more links to other resources.

Promoting your Blog and Making Money Online

The last part of the book begins with John stressing that ‘Content is King’. He talks about what you should be writing about, where you can find writers, and why you shouldn’t use free articles from article directories.

In the next chapter John talks about something he knows a lot about – promotion. He speaks about social media promotion topics such as link baiting and older established marketing techniques such as news releases. He then moves onto offline promotion tactics: ranging from free pens and business cards to lesser used techniques such as branding your laptop or your car. The chapter finishes with some basic search engine optimisation tips and is followed by a chapter on ‘The Importance of Branding’.

Experienced bloggers will be aware of most of the tips in the promotion and SEO chapters, though it’s always good to go over the basics as it’s easy to forget that sometimes the simplest promotion methods work.

Whilst most of ‘Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul’ is targeted towards beginner and intermediate bloggers, chapter ten is all about optimising Google Adsense on your blog. Adsense is an ad network which most bloggers are familiar with though I’m aware that many experienced bloggers are not experts with it.

So I believe that this is a chapter that most bloggers will benefit from reading, even if you only use Adsense sparingly. John talks about many Adsense topics such as the bid gap, section targeting and section ignoring, competitive ad filters and PPC arbitrage. It’s a subject which he clearly has a lot of knowledge on.

Next we have Johns top moneymakers in chapter 11. In this section he mentions his own ad network TTZ Media and well known ad networks such as Kontera and Bidvertiser. Those who have been blogging for a while will have come across all of them.

I must admit I was surprised that he only mentioned 8 ad networks. I appreciate that the chapter was called ‘My Top Moneymakers’ and therefore should include the sites which John uses to make money. Though I think newbies would have benefited with references to alternative (and established) blog revenue solutions such as Buy Sell Ads, BlogAds or Chitika.

Finishing the book off is a useful chapter on private ad sales and a summary of what you need to do to make it as a successful blogger.

Small Inconsistencies

The book also has some small inconstancies within the book which were not picked up in the proofreading process. For example, the back of the book states that his blog makes $40,000 a month but in chapter two, ten and thirteen he says this figure is $30,000. He also states in chapter five that his blog has 20,000 subscribers but as I write this post today it boasts well over 90,000 subscribers.

Neither of these small errors should disuade you from buying the book. They’re simple human error mistakes which were not picked up. No doubt they will be addressed in the next edition.

Overview

As someone who ran a blogging advice blog for 3 years and is now running a WordPress related blog, I didn’t get much from many chapters in this book. Though I am obviously not the target audience. This book was clearly written for beginners and those who are unsure about how to monetize their blog. I don’t think that this is a worthwhile purchase for experienced bloggers as John doesn’t cover enough advanced topics, though they should find the Adsense optimisation chapter useful.

If you are looking for general blogging and blog promotion tips then I would recommend Darren Rowse’s Pro Blogger Book instead as it has lots more images and explains a lot of the subjects which John briefly speaks about in more detail. Similarly, if you want some practical advice on how to install and maintain WordPress then I would buy a WordPress specific guide about that as although John touches upon the subject, he doesn’t delve deep enough for beginners.

Though if you are looking for a good overview of what blogs are and how they make money on the web then I would encourage you to check ‘Make Money Online’ out as it’s worth it’s relatively cheap price. It would be the perfect book for someone who has no idea what a blog is or is not sure how to make money with the blog they already run.

What does come through in all the book is Johns passion and drive. He doesn’t give you any false hope and tells readers right from the start that if they don’t work their butt off they aren’t going to make any money. I seriously believe this no holds barred approach to giving advice will help a lot of people as there are millions of people trying to make money on the web using get rich quick schemes. As John rightly points out, no such thing exists.

If you are thinking about buying the book and have some questions about it please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them

Thanks,
Kevin

Additional Bonus

As an added bonus John gives a link to a presentation he gave at the Vancouver Business, Marketing and Entrepreneur meetup. In this 56 minute video he details how he makes over $40,000 a month from his blog.

Purchase Links

• UK – £9.32 with free delivery
• USA – $10.85 with free delivery

Jason Schuller, owner of Press 75 and ThemeGarden, wrote a good post about how hes making a living online from developing and selling WordPress themes.

In response to this article Jeff Chandler wrote a very honest article entitled ‘Jason Schuller Did It – I Can Do It To‘. In the article Jeff explained at how hes moving into a house with his wife to be and is feeling the pressure of having to make more money. He currently works in a grocery store but is looking at ideas as to how to make money online.

My situation is a little different but there are many similarities. I’m also moving into a house in a few weeks and I’m concerned about the increase in expenditure. At the start of the year I sold my previous main site for $60,000. Which, granted, is a lot of money (It was around £37k). However I didn’t really see any of it as the money went towards my tax bill (which was larger because of the sale) and my deposit for the house.

Because I sold the site, my monthly income has dropped. This has happened to me several times in the past when I have sold a big site however I have always had the safety net of my referral income from the gambling sites i created between 2003 and 2007. Unfortunately, this income is starting to drop. If I rented instead of buying a house then I would have had a lot more money saved to invest in new projects or to buy an existing website which has a decent monthly income. However I really wanted to get ‘my own place’ and get a foot on the property ladder, particularly with how cheap houses are just now.

Though because of this I find myself in a similar situation to Jeff i.e. I’m starting from scratch. This is something I’ve done before as my backpacking trips a few years ago to Australia, New Zealand and most of Asia were funded through selling sites which were making me money. If I hadn’t sold any of these sites then my monthly income would probably be $10k+, but I don’t have any regrets as I had a great time.

I do understand that it takes time to get a website established i.e. to get it to a level where it is making decent money online. Though I’m positive that I can develop WP Mods and get it making money a lot quicker than it took me to monetize my last site.

Thankfully, I do have savings to keep my going until my online income improves. Though obviously I don’t want to be on the breadline either. If I do find I’m struggling to pay the bills then I would simply get a part time or full time job to supplement me until my online income is back to a good level.

In fact, I was interviewed for a 3 month contract with a bank recently for a complaints job which paid £150 a day (around $220). Unfortunately, I didn’t get the job as there were other contractors available though the interview went well and they are keeping me in mind for future positions.

At first I wasn’t keen to take a contract job, even if the money was good. In many ways it felt like giving up. I gave up a career in the financial services to work online not because of the money, but because I love working online for a living. If I had stayed in the financial services industry I’d be making around £300 a day or more, but I don’t believe I would be as happy in my job. So going back to it, even if it was only temporary, felt like I had given up my dream in many respects.

Thankfully, common sense prevailed. I realise how this additional income could really help me, both in the short term and in the long term. The money I earned from such a job could let me invest in new projects and buy an existing one to help secure my long term future online. So this may happen in the future.

I’m going to work my ass off in the next few months to increase my monthly income through WP Mods and other new sites. I know I will make money, it’s a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’. If I do struggle to increase my monthly income as quick as I would like then at least I am in a good position to take a part time job or a full time contract job to help me. At the end of the day, bills need to be paid. I will let you all know how I get on regardless and tell you all about the ups and downs

Also, I’d like to wish Jeff the best of luck with his online venture. I’m sure once he finds a good plan for his site he will find his feet and start increasing his income.

Good luck,
Kev

It’s been about six weeks since I’ve last gave an update on my online work. During that time I’ve primarily been working on my new site WP Mods.

I did a guest post at JohnChow.com about making money at Flippa and one at SiteSketch101 about developing a business model for your website. Feedback from both articles was very positive but incoming traffic from the articles wasn’t amazing and I didn’t see a huge jump in my RSS reader count. This particularly surprised me with JohnChows site as he had around 90,000 daily subscribers and I had a lot of good content posted the week the article went live.

However, there have been many positives. Traffic has more than doubled in the last six weeks so subscribers will definitely come. I also know that many of the long articles I have written (some took several hours to write and another took several days) will bring a lot of traffic in the long term from search engines. I know this from experience as many of my tutorial and guide articles I wrote at my previous site BloggingTips got little to no comments yet they usually brought in the most traffic.

Speaking of BloggingTips, the new owner Zac Johnson has just released a 93 page affiliate ebook called Six Figure Affiliate Blogging for free. If you are interested in making money from blogs or websites online I recommend downloading it.

On a similar note, I also received a signed copy of Making Money Online by John Chow. I’ll do a quick review of the book once I’ve read it

Fitire Plans

I’m looking to get rid of a lot of small content websites I have, whether they are making money or not, as I should really put all my energy into WP Mods before working on other projects (though I have been doing a lot of research into what new sites I can start, so I could perhaps start one if I have spare time).

Once the site has been established then I can look into releasing themes, plugins and other WordPress related products through the site.

I also need to:

• Do a redesign of System0 (not priority but needs done at one point)
• Promote WP Mods more via guest posts and Twitter and Digg
• Get a redesign/skin for ElectricBandits and look to kickstart it

I’m also going to write more articles on making money and scripts etc on here. I will still do the odd guest post for BloggingTips and I have promised to write a guest post for Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips too but I’d love to talk about web development and working online here. It’s a good way to track the development of my sites online plus I enjoy writing

Kevin

A few months ago I sold my main website, that is, the website I spent most of my time working on. Whilst I do have various small content websites on the web, I found that I work better if I concentrate all my efforts on one project at the time.

My lastest project is WP Mods, a blog which will be updated 3 or 4 times weekly on WordPress related topics (WordPress is the script which powers the site you’re reading!). I will be posting about WordPress Themes, Plugins, Guides, News and more.

Developing WP Mods

I’ve been working on the site for the last month or so. In that time I have written about 20 or so articles to ease the burden of launching. The site was officially launched at the start of this week, though I have yet to spend any time promoting it. That’s something I will need to do over the next few weeks. I will submit some guest posts to some popular blogs in order to promote my new site but I also have two really good original WordPress themes ready, which I will be releasing for free via the site. This should bring some extra traffic to the site. I’ll probably release the first theme next week so that the site has more content for visitors to view when they arrive.

Once again I used Rajat and Oliver over at Blog Design Studio for the design (the same people who designed the theme this blog uses). They are probably not the quickest design team out there but that is not necessarily a bad thing as they make sure everything is working correctly from start to finish. I will no doubt be working with them again in the near future.

Logo Issues

The launch of the site was delayed by a few days because of an issue with the logo. Oliver will be the first to admit that he is not a great logo designer. The logo he designed is good but it wasn’t the iconic logo I was looking for. Therefore I placed a contest over at 99 Designs, SitePoints flagship graphics competition site. I have used 99Designs in the past because you get to see a range of different logos and just pay for the one you like.

Unfortunately, I was incredibly disappointed with the standard of entries to my competition. I had paid $369 to host the competition, $300 of which goes to the winning logo designer and the rest going to 99 Designs to host the competition. At that level they predicted that I would have at least 70 entries but after a week I only had about 30, most of which were variations of previous entries.

The standard of entries was really disappointing. Some of the entries looked like they took 2 minutes to design, and I would have grudged paying $10 for them never mind $300. I’m not a good designer but I could have done better than some of the entries. One or two entries were ok though. In particular a designer called Afterglow submitted a logo with a great icon, however the text (i.e. WP Mods) was very basic and just used a regular font. I tried to explain several times that I wanted something better and showed several examples but every new entry was practically the same. I felt like I was hitting my head against a wall.

I extended the contest a few days but after seeing only 2 new entries in those 2 days I contacted 99 Designs and asked for a full refund. Full credit to 99 Designs, a full refund was processed within an hour or so. Ironically, during the contest they launched a logo store where you can get exclusive rights to a logo for $299 (and the standard of logos is pretty high).

In the end I went back with Olivers original logo design, and I’m quite pleased with how it works with the rest of the design. What do you think?

Plans for the site

From a monetization point of view, I’d really like to have the blog clearing $500 in the next 4 months, and at least $1,000 by the end of the year, though I’m hoping I reach both targets sooner.

To do this I just need to ensure that I continue to work hard writing on the site. And I’m sure I will continue to do just that once I see traffic increasing and more people increasing. I’m curious to see if I can get the site to 1,000 RSS subscribers within a few months. I think I’d be really pleased if it did and it would highlight that the site is going in the right direction.

Of course, only time will tell