Blogopolis Blueprint Why Every New Blogger Should Get This Book

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This week’s Friday Roundup has been replaced by a review and as you can see, the subject is the Blogopolis Blueprint from Eric and Sean.

Before getting into the crux of the matter I should say that this product is not aimed at bloggers such as myself; i.e. those of us who have been blogging for a number of years. Having said that, I did pick up a number of useful tips along the way and it is always good to get back to basics once in a while. I’m also hoping that a different perspective will be valuable to the authors.

Overview

If you are a complete newcomer to blogging then this book is well worth a read. I couldn’t sum it up better than they have, “It contains practical advice and solid suggestions on ways to start a blogging career based on our experience as budding bloggers.”

At times it’s hard to believe that the two authors have been blogging for a very short time but it’s worth keeping in mind as they are themselves the living embodiment of ‘practice what you preach’.

This is not a technical, step-by-step, cut to the chase kind of book, it is a gentle introduction to the world of blogging. The rich conversational nature quickly draws you in and keeps you reading. But don’t be fooled like I did. This is not fluff.

So What do I Get For my Money?

As I said, I’ve been blogging for quite a while, 5 years to be exact and I’ve bought my fair share of info products. Suffice to say I’ve seen what works and I’ve deleted the rest. When I first came across the Blogopolis Blueprint I was genuinely worried for Eric and Sean. The sample chapter I had received was not the way successful info-products were written and there was this bundled extra called “The Blueprint User’s Manual.”

I’ve written (and read) my fair share of user manuals and guides and I know from experience that if you need to write an user manual on how to use your user manual then something is amiss. Needless to say alarm bells were going off in my head.

Thankfully this isn’t the case with the Blogopolis Blueprint. What Eric and Sean have done, quite successfully I might add, is to create a workbook to accompany your reading of “The Blueprint”. It contains a series of tasks and questions aimed at improving your learning and understanding. I do believe we’re seeing Sean’s experience as a teacher at work here.

Could they have have combined both into one main product? Yes and it probably would have worked too. It is a testament to “The Blueprint” however that it can stand on its own merit and still teach the would-be-bloggers out there.

You also get a “Blog Boot Up Guide” which is a short manual on launching your blog that covers things like picking a topic and domain name right through to selecting a theme and which plugins to install.

Last but not least Eric has surfed the Internet and compiled an extensive (I lost count after 100) list of bookmarks for the aspiring blogger. He hasn’t just collected them either, he’s gone and organised them under categories and exported them into a HTML file that you can easily import into Firefox or Safari.

Yeah But Nothing’s Perfect

The style in which it is written will exclude a number of people that may otherwise find the Blueprint useful but any info-product I’ve seen which tries to cater to everyone has been doomed to failure anyway. I would suggest they rename the User Manual to Workbook or similar but this is the key point:

For Eric and Sean, honesty and integrity are a way of life so if you’re still not sure if the book is for you just ask them, I did. The answer I got? No it isn’t.

All in all it is a very decent product from two men who have only recently moved in to the blogopolis. Go give them a warm welcome and grab your own copy today.