No need to explain what this course is about, the name itself is enough.
I got to know about Six Figure Blogging through Problogger.net, Darren Rowse’s blog. I’ve seen its ad several months ago, and now I felt the need to go deeper in understanding how to take my blogging to the next step.
Structure:
The course is given as six calls / seminars conducted by both Andy Wibbels and Darren. A call is conducted between the two and participants pop in every now and then for questions. They complement each other with their styles; Andy is the energetic fun moderator of the calls, and Darren has a simple friendly tone of voice that gives most of the details.
The conversational nature of the course makes it much easier to grasp, identify with, and really have the concepts sink in. When there is a real person talking about the ideas, they are giving you their feelings also, and it’s easier to follow. It’s also done in a very informal way that kept me personally engaged, and interested in knowing more. A full transcript of all the conversation is also provided.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Web-User
The way I took the course, was through listening as well as reading the transcript at the same time. On the sidebar of the transcript was the skeleton of the course, so while reading and listening, I was able to know where I was in this section, how it relates to the other parts, and how it relates to the rest of the course.
A cool thing provided in the transcript, which is links to several of the services and resources they mention and talk about. I could listen, check out the sites and services, stop the audio while I make sure I’m familiar with the service, and learn at my own pace. This is a great learning / teaching strategy that engages many of the senses, and allows you to immediately try out several of the discussed topics.
Each module ends with fieldwork for the coming week. This is really important to do. You have to actually go through the steps and do the research. Otherwise the course would just give you more information, and you will not gain insights on how to improve your blog, and strategically position it.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them
Lectures:
- Intro and Overview: The first part discusses the basics of blogging, how blogs make money, and mainly there is a list of eleven money-making methods and advertising systems that are discussed in detail. Personally, I didn’t gain much from this part, as I was familiar with almost all the content. I refreshed my memory, learned about a couple of services I wasn’t aware of, and I filled the tables related to fieldwork, to gain a new perspective about my blogging, and strategy.
- Choosing a Niche: Here the main focus is on the strategic positioning and targeting of your blog. I was familiar with most of the information in this module, and I started to feel worried, that all the course would be filled with stuff that I know. But after actually doing the research and understanding why and how to position my blog, I understood the importatnce of this seemingly basic step. I found a good niche that has some good traffic, and that I’m interested in.
- Mastering Google AdSense: One of my main reasons to enroll, was to learn about the details of AdSense, and how to maximize revenues from it. This lesson is totally dedicated to dealing with AdSense, learning how to get the top paying words, positioning them for maximum benefit, and most of the main points related to it. At first, I started feeling that I’m writing like a robot, just so search engines can get the meaning. Then, after getting used to it, I’m starting to naturally get the feel of the keywords I’m using and presenting them in a natural way accessible to humans. This is an area I need to familiarize myself with. Not only is it good for search engines, but it is also good for the readers to reinforce the keywords you use.
- Affiliate Programs: Not satisfied with the amount of information given on AdSense in the previous lesson, Darren goes on with some do’s and don’ts to begin with lesson #4. The main part of it though talks about another form of passive income, which is pay-per-action affiliate programs. Basically, how to sell through your blog, and what are the main things to look for in an affiliate, and how to do it in a congruent believable way.
- Metrics: Monitoring and understanding the traffic of your blog can mean the difference between reaching and staying obscure in the blogosphere. Here they handle the different terms and techniques related to analyzing who our visitors are, and how they behave while on our blog. The most valuable tip in this part for me was the importance of deciding where we want to lead our readers, and how to measure if we are successful in doing that.
- Writing quality content and really problogging: This is the part where the scope gets to the serious blogger. A long list of sixteen content writing tips is continued from the previous lesson. They both writing for readers and writing for search engines. This lesson goes further into explaining all about managing your readers through newsletters and ezines. They also talk about the different programs through which you can do this. Another big part of this lesson talks about blog networds, hiring bloggers and all the related managerial aspects of running such an organization.
- 2006 Update: This section is recorded somewhere in the end of 2006. It’s an update on the new advertising systems that came out, and how you can utilize them. The best part of this lesson for me, is the ten reasons why blogs don’t make money. They go thorugh them one by one, and talk about how you can deal with each.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
How to take the course:
- Take your time: As mentioned above, you can (and must) take the course in the time frame that suits you. This is one of the great things about it. You can repeat whichever part you feel is new to you ten times, or you can just go through it if you feel you are familiar with the content.
- Read and browse while you listen: This will make the content easier to sink in, because it engages several of your senses. The transcript is written in points and sections, while as the discussion is done in a friendly way. Although this is good, you might easily loose track of what they are saying, especially in the sections where Darren explains the sixteens ways of doing this, or the thirteen tips to do that.
- Do your homework: The main value of this course is in the strategic content and tips. It’s not about how to setup a blog or how to insert code on your site. This is why it is necessary to do all the worsksheets. The stuff is simple and easy to understand, nothing complicated there, but you actually have to do the research, lookup your keywords, and decide on your direction to really reap the benefits.
- Check all the links: You really need to understand almost all the sites and services discussed. So, if you are given a link to a site, stop the audio, go to the site, register, and make sure you are familiar with how to use this service.
- Enjoy the process!: This was Andy’s good bye message. I totally agree. If you don’t really enjoying writing and blogging, just don’t do it, or try to find ways to start liking it. This is not something for everyone. Make sure you love this thing.
Don’t take the course, if you:
- Are a beginner: The course assumes you familiar with the main terms associated with blogging, and the different web terms. Make sure you are familiar with the practices, and you have blogged for a while, commented on several blogs, and got the feel for this activity.
- Don’t have a blog already: It is really important to have a place to implement the information. A blog with some entries and a small audience is the minimum to start with in my opinion. Again, you won’t gain anything just by getting more information, you need to implement to get some results and learn.
- Think it’s an easy way to make money: It’s not. Actually the course describes the hard way. It’s about finding your niche, building readership, establishing a brand for yourself. None of this is fast or easy. If you are looking for easy money, look somewhere else.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
What I didn’t like
Not much actually. I was dissappointed though at the beginning, because most of the stuff they talked about was familiar for me. So I thought,”that’s great! If I know a lot of the information, that means I’m ready to move to the “real” work. The course was conducted at the end of 2005, which makes a bit old, since many of the new things they talked about are not new anymore. The fact that it is recorded limits them from making new updates as they might do with a written document. One of the main things that need updating is Google’s allowing publishers to put contextualized ads on their pages together with Adsense ads. This was announced at the beginning of 2007 I believe.
The “blogging gym” is the area where you download the materials. I thought there would be many people to discuss my developments and share thoughts. There was only about 15 - 20 posts in the forum. I expected a bit more.
That’s about it. If you really are into blogging and into making a real professional space through it, you should consider taking this course.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
]]>
No need to explain what this course is about, the name itself is enough.
I got to know about Six Figure Blogging through Problogger.net, Darren Rowse’s blog. I’ve seen its ad several months ago, and now I felt the need to go deeper in understanding how to take my blogging to the next step.
Structure:
The course is given as six calls / seminars conducted by both Andy Wibbels and Darren. A call is conducted between the two and participants pop in every now and then for questions. They complement each other with their styles; Andy is the energetic fun moderator of the calls, and Darren has a simple friendly tone of voice that gives most of the details.
The conversational nature of the course makes it much easier to grasp, identify with, and really have the concepts sink in. When there is a real person talking about the ideas, they are giving you their feelings also, and it’s easier to follow. It’s also done in a very informal way that kept me personally engaged, and interested in knowing more. A full transcript of all the conversation is also provided.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Web-User
The way I took the course, was through listening as well as reading the transcript at the same time. On the sidebar of the transcript was the skeleton of the course, so while reading and listening, I was able to know where I was in this section, how it relates to the other parts, and how it relates to the rest of the course.
A cool thing provided in the transcript, which is links to several of the services and resources they mention and talk about. I could listen, check out the sites and services, stop the audio while I make sure I’m familiar with the service, and learn at my own pace. This is a great learning / teaching strategy that engages many of the senses, and allows you to immediately try out several of the discussed topics.
Each module ends with fieldwork for the coming week. This is really important to do. You have to actually go through the steps and do the research. Otherwise the course would just give you more information, and you will not gain insights on how to improve your blog, and strategically position it.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them
Lectures:
- Intro and Overview: The first part discusses the basics of blogging, how blogs make money, and mainly there is a list of eleven money-making methods and advertising systems that are discussed in detail. Personally, I didn’t gain much from this part, as I was familiar with almost all the content. I refreshed my memory, learned about a couple of services I wasn’t aware of, and I filled the tables related to fieldwork, to gain a new perspective about my blogging, and strategy.
- Choosing a Niche: Here the main focus is on the strategic positioning and targeting of your blog. I was familiar with most of the information in this module, and I started to feel worried, that all the course would be filled with stuff that I know. But after actually doing the research and understanding why and how to position my blog, I understood the importatnce of this seemingly basic step. I found a good niche that has some good traffic, and that I’m interested in.
- Mastering Google AdSense: One of my main reasons to enroll, was to learn about the details of AdSense, and how to maximize revenues from it. This lesson is totally dedicated to dealing with AdSense, learning how to get the top paying words, positioning them for maximum benefit, and most of the main points related to it. At first, I started feeling that I’m writing like a robot, just so search engines can get the meaning. Then, after getting used to it, I’m starting to naturally get the feel of the keywords I’m using and presenting them in a natural way accessible to humans. This is an area I need to familiarize myself with. Not only is it good for search engines, but it is also good for the readers to reinforce the keywords you use.
- Affiliate Programs: Not satisfied with the amount of information given on AdSense in the previous lesson, Darren goes on with some do’s and don’ts to begin with lesson #4. The main part of it though talks about another form of passive income, which is pay-per-action affiliate programs. Basically, how to sell through your blog, and what are the main things to look for in an affiliate, and how to do it in a congruent believable way.
- Metrics: Monitoring and understanding the traffic of your blog can mean the difference between reaching and staying obscure in the blogosphere. Here they handle the different terms and techniques related to analyzing who our visitors are, and how they behave while on our blog. The most valuable tip in this part for me was the importance of deciding where we want to lead our readers, and how to measure if we are successful in doing that.
- Writing quality content and really problogging: This is the part where the scope gets to the serious blogger. A long list of sixteen content writing tips is continued from the previous lesson. They both writing for readers and writing for search engines. This lesson goes further into explaining all about managing your readers through newsletters and ezines. They also talk about the different programs through which you can do this. Another big part of this lesson talks about blog networds, hiring bloggers and all the related managerial aspects of running such an organization.
- 2006 Update: This section is recorded somewhere in the end of 2006. It’s an update on the new advertising systems that came out, and how you can utilize them. The best part of this lesson for me, is the ten reasons why blogs don’t make money. They go thorugh them one by one, and talk about how you can deal with each.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
How to take the course:
- Take your time: As mentioned above, you can (and must) take the course in the time frame that suits you. This is one of the great things about it. You can repeat whichever part you feel is new to you ten times, or you can just go through it if you feel you are familiar with the content.
- Read and browse while you listen: This will make the content easier to sink in, because it engages several of your senses. The transcript is written in points and sections, while as the discussion is done in a friendly way. Although this is good, you might easily loose track of what they are saying, especially in the sections where Darren explains the sixteens ways of doing this, or the thirteen tips to do that.
- Do your homework: The main value of this course is in the strategic content and tips. It’s not about how to setup a blog or how to insert code on your site. This is why it is necessary to do all the worsksheets. The stuff is simple and easy to understand, nothing complicated there, but you actually have to do the research, lookup your keywords, and decide on your direction to really reap the benefits.
- Check all the links: You really need to understand almost all the sites and services discussed. So, if you are given a link to a site, stop the audio, go to the site, register, and make sure you are familiar with how to use this service.
- Enjoy the process!: This was Andy’s good bye message. I totally agree. If you don’t really enjoying writing and blogging, just don’t do it, or try to find ways to start liking it. This is not something for everyone. Make sure you love this thing.
Don’t take the course, if you:
- Are a beginner: The course assumes you familiar with the main terms associated with blogging, and the different web terms. Make sure you are familiar with the practices, and you have blogged for a while, commented on several blogs, and got the feel for this activity.
- Don’t have a blog already: It is really important to have a place to implement the information. A blog with some entries and a small audience is the minimum to start with in my opinion. Again, you won’t gain anything just by getting more information, you need to implement to get some results and learn.
- Think it’s an easy way to make money: It’s not. Actually the course describes the hard way. It’s about finding your niche, building readership, establishing a brand for yourself. None of this is fast or easy. If you are looking for easy money, look somewhere else.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
What I didn’t like
Not much actually. I was dissappointed though at the beginning, because most of the stuff they talked about was familiar for me. So I thought,”that’s great! If I know a lot of the information, that means I’m ready to move to the “real” work. The course was conducted at the end of 2005, which makes a bit old, since many of the new things they talked about are not new anymore. The fact that it is recorded limits them from making new updates as they might do with a written document. One of the main things that need updating is Google’s allowing publishers to put contextualized ads on their pages together with Adsense ads. This was announced at the beginning of 2007 I believe.
The “blogging gym” is the area where you download the materials. I thought there would be many people to discuss my developments and share thoughts. There was only about 15 - 20 posts in the forum. I expected a bit more.
That’s about it. If you really are into blogging and into making a real professional space through it, you should consider taking this course.
Sign up now to Six Figure Blogging
]]>