One of the books that has hit my mailbox lately for review is Blog Blazers – a book of interviews with 40 top bloggers exploring how to create successful blogs.

The book is by Stephane Grenier from FollowSteph.com and it features some great bloggers (some who will be familiar with many and others who you’ll not know – but who’ve built great blogs).

Some of the bloggers featured included:

• Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs)
• Aaron Wall (SeoBook)
• Steve Rubel (Micropersuasion)
• Seth Godin (Marketing Guru)
• Neil Patel (Quick Sprout)
• JD Roth (Get Rich Slowly)
• Manolo Blahnik (Monolo’s Shoe Blog)
• Yaro Starak (Entrepreneurs Journey)
• Plus 32 others!

The format of the book is interview style with Steph asking largely the same set of questions to all bloggers and the bloggers responding. Each interview makes a chapter of the book.

I’d be lying if I said I’d read the whole thing yet (I only got it two days ago) and I’m not likely to read it cover to cover in a sitting – but I am steadily making my way through it.

At first I was a little frustrated by the question and answer format of the book – it feels a little repetitive at times (there are only so many ways to answer some of the questions) but after a while the format actually grew on me.

It’s a book you don’t need to set aside lots of time to read – in fact most of the chapters are just a few pages long so you can set aside 10 minutes to read one and then put it down knowing you’ve just digest someone like Seth Godin’s approach to blogging in a few minutes.

The other thing I’ve enjoyed about this book so far are ‘meeting’ new bloggers that I’d not come across before. While I’d estimate I’ve read the blogs of around half of the bloggers featured there are a few others in the mix that I’m enjoying now.

How Am I Using This Blog To Improve My Blogging

Once I realized that this book had familiar and new bloggers AND it was in bite sized chunks I decided that I’m going to use this book over the next 40 days to give me a refresher course/a little inspiration on blogging.

I’ll read a chapter a day, look at the blogs of the blogger featured, see what they are doing well and see what in their advice I can implement. In this way each day for the next month and a half I’ll be actively looking at how another successful blogger is approaching their blogging – an exercise that I’m sure will have lots of benefits.

I’m only a couple of days in but I think it’s going to be a fun 40 days (or possibly a bit longer as I’ll take a few days off for Christmas).

Who is this book for?

Blog Blazers is not a book for bloggers who know it all.

Rather it is a book for people who want a quick glimpse into the minds of fellow bloggers who have had varying degrees of success. It seems to be a great blog for beginners but for more advanced bloggers with the right attitude and willing to use it as a refresher course (perhaps as I’ve described above) I think it could be a worthwhile read too.

Blog Blazers is currently $16.95 at Amazon and can currently be bundled with the ProBlogger book for $33.44.

Today Mara Rogers from Secrets for Money looks at how Marilyn Monroe would blog.

If Marilyn Monroe was a Blogger, what would she do? Here are some quotations from famous classic silver screen stars, and what I imagine their advice to all us bloggers would be.

So just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!

(1) “I just want to be wonderful.”—Marilyn Monroe

For bloggers: I highly recommend that among the goals of your blog should be that you “want to be wonderful.”

At http://www.SecretsForMoney.com  I want our visitors to say “I want more of you!” I want them to be excited for the next post, and I always want them to want to read more content from us, more, more, and more!

How do you get to hear from your visitors “I want more of you!” at your blog? There are several internal-world mindset shifts and external-world actions that together can change the “silver screen” of your blog!

Here’s how~

(2) “Never treat your audience as customers, always as partners.”—James Stewart (Jimmy Stewart)

For bloggers: This is a crucial mindset to have. Even if your blog is monetized, your visitors—who make up your audience—are your “partners.”

Always ask yourself: What do my visitors need? What benefits can I bring to them?

Know the difference between a fad and a trend. A fad comes and goes very quickly, but a trend lasts. You want to be positioned and ready to ride the trend as it rises. Become a ‘trend-forecaster’—know a trend is coming before it arrives so you can take advantage of it with your blog.

One way to learn how to do this is by analyzing certain online resources such as Amazon —what book subjects do you think will become popular in the future based on what book subjects you see are popular now? Book subjects and topics are also blog subjects and topics.

If you sell products on your blog go to http://www.pulse.ebay.com and see the section on the Home Page of the most “Popular Searches” on ebay.

I also recommend researching “Keywords” and how they apply to your blog’s URL. You can type in your blog’s URL using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to do this: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

When you review the “stats” of your blog what articles are people responding to? In the “comments’ they post on your blog, what are they asking you for? All of this is very revealing and tells you what your “partners” want and need.

At http://www.SecretsForMoney.com I ask the visitors what kinds of articles they would like us to report on. That doesn’t mean every suggestion a visitor makes will be appropriate for the vision or branding of my blog, but it is very important that I evaluate what the visitors—my “partners” say.

After all, as you will read in the “About” page of my site, the entire purpose of the blog is for the visitors. Of course the blog is monetized with ads, but I wouldn’t be setting a very good example if my personal development blog about making money, saving money and getting wealthy wasn’t also monetized!

(3) “The more things you do, the more you can do.” –Lucille Ball

For bloggers: The importance of stretching your comfort zone cannot be emphasized enough. When you do stretch your comfort zone, you can accomplish much more since you are taking more of what you perceive to be risks—”stretches”—not avoiding them

As a result, you will then act in spite of discomfort, and try something new, whether that is a new way of writing, or learning a new piece of technology, or approaching a very famous person to interview for an article.

Once your comfort zone is stretched, what used to be new, scary, and uncomfortable to you, is now something you have done before, therefore it has become comfortable, so you end up achieving more. Your world becomes bigger, because you are not keeping it small.

The more you stretch your comfort zone the wider it becomes, therefore you end up doing more, easily and effortlessly.

(4) “It is up to us to give ourselves recognition. If we wait for it to come from others, we feel resentful when it doesn’t, and when it does, we may well reject it”–Spencer Tracy

For bloggers: Your reason for blogging and your mindset cannot come from a place of insecurity, with the goal of getting recognition and approval from others. The most popular blogs are those that are spearheaded by empowered bloggers, bloggers who blog because they love it.

Yes, you should blog for your audience and your future audience, and your blog should have a market value—it should fill a need and supply benefits to your audience and also have timely posts—but you must avoid the ‘recognition trap.’

How do you avoid the ‘recognition trap’? Don’t seek approval from others, this is trying to people-please and it is a dead-end. Why? Well, first of all, it is impossible to please everyone or convince everyone of your perspective. Secondly, if you are blogging and looking for positive feedback in order to feel worthy then it is a waste of your precious energy. Your self-esteem cannot rise or fall based on whether or not you receive positive recognition, or you are in for a miserable rollercoaster ride as a blogger.

You want to be an information-specialist with your own strong position and voice and have a backbone, not a blogger who twists themselves into a pretzel and alters their stance and written words or opinion each time they get negative feedback—this will influence and taint your performance. No one can avoid disapproval and criticism. Be unflappable.

(5) “Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”—Judy Garland

For bloggers:   Do not be afraid to buck the trend, to have your blog look different in terms of design, layout, color palette etc. from others blogs, or to have your blog read differently from other blogs.

Stop comparing your blog to other peoples’ blogs, let your blog be different, that is what will make people be drawn to it.

You want to be unconventional, not mediocre.

Who knows, maybe what you do and write in your blog will actually set the latest blog trend!

(6) “An ounce of performance is worth pounds of promises.”—Mae West

For bloggers: ‘Over deliver’ in your blog posts, but I do not mean adding superfluous words. Be concise, and make each word count.

Ask yourself: How can I add overwhelming amounts of value to my site visitors and blog subscribers?

How can I influence, effect, and inspire other people?

Providing value is the key factor that determines the success of your blog.

(7) “You must train your intuition — you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.”—Ingrid Bergman

For bloggers: Do not listen to the “noise” around you.

Listen to the inner voice within you; your heart’s wisdom.

(8) “Is there anything better than to be longing for something, when you know it is within reach?”—Greta Garbo

For bloggers: O.K. So, you might have to forget the ‘microwave-mentality’—your blog may not get the following you want in a microcook second. But it is the journey after all, not the destination.

I bet all these timeless silver screen superstars would say the same to you—you can do it! And the anticipation knowing that you can achieve all that you want and have a great time along the way is everything—believe in yourself! It is just a matter of time!

As Marilyn Monroe said: “We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.”

Go forth and shine bright fellow bloggers—you are unstoppable!

Copyright © 2008 by Mara Rogers of http://www.SecretsForMoney.com

Mara Rogers is the Founder of http://www.SecretsForMoney.com where she and her team work to empower you to freedom by helping you increase your capacity for all the wealth currencies: money, time, health, and love.

Internet Marketers and Bloggers are often seen as two very different types of online entrepreneurs. In this guest post David Risley looks at these two worlds and suggests some middle ground.

One of the questions I get very often when I tell people what I do for a living is this: How do you make money blogging? The readers of ProBlogger have a fairly good understanding of the answer to that question.

However, Darren’s latest poll clearly shows that the majority of bloggers out there are clearly not generating a full-time income. What is the difference between the blogger making serious money and those who are not?

Well, let us look at the stereotype of what a blogger does. A blogger writes. We write great posts, generate a lot of powerful content and then hit the "Publish" button. Stereotypically, then, we’d get paid by generating a lot of attention, getting lots of traffic, then monetizing our sites via various forms of online advertising.

This method of problogging is long and tedious. Many new bloggers become frustrated because it seemingly takes so long to generate enough traffic to make any serious money.

If we look at the most successful bloggers out there, you’ll find a common trait: They are MARKETERS, too.

Two Different Worlds

Herein, we are combining the often thought separate world of blogging and traditional internet marketing. In my experience in dealing both with bloggers and internet marketers, I have found that these two worlds often seem to be separate. The blogger is all about building traffic through publishing lots of really great content for free. The internet marketer jumps right into how to monetize traffic immediately. The blogger is all about the page views. The marketer thinks about qualified leads which he can then convert into a sale.

I have been to gatherings of internet marketers. Many times, they simply don’t GET blogging. In fact, they’re right on the verge of seeing the blog as a waste of time. Perhaps they have a blog, but they’ll use it as a tool in their product launch strategy. Once the product is launched, the blog is all but forgotten. Many internet marketers are only just now catching on with social media.

On the other hand, many bloggers often have a bit of an adverse reaction to internet marketers. They may think that marketers are spammers or that they’ll do literally anything to make a buck. They think of pop-ups, long-form sales letters and lots of hype. Sure enough, the world of internet marketing has lots of these kinds of tactics.

I’ve had my feet in both worlds. I understand the paradigm of both. What I have observed is that the most successful bloggers out there are able to successfully bridge the gap, take the best of both worlds, and turn that knowledge into a little online empire.

The Best of Both

The simple truth is this: The most successful bloggers out there are great writers who employ solid marketing skills on their sites.

In fact, most of the really successful bloggers out there spend time studying the most successful online marketers. I have personally studied the works of people like Frank Kern, John Reese, Jeff Walker, Eben Pagan and many other names which frequent the circles of internet marketing. I make a point to learn about internet marketing tactics. I am also a member of an internet marketing mastermind group. I would venture to say that these are things that a majority of bloggers don’t do.

The principle of creating lots of quality content will always remain true as a blogger. Making real money as a blogger means you need to SELL things. In order to sell things, you need to know how to market them. There is no more potent weapon than being able to build a loyal following in your market as a blogger and then be able to competently sell something to that audience.

You don’t necessarily need many thousands of page views every day to make respectable money online as a blogger. You can make good money with a blog which pulls in significantly less than that. The secret is to know marketing. Know your sales funnel. Know conversion tactics. Then put that knowledge to work to treat your incoming blog readers as sales leads. Like it or not, if your blog is your business, your readers are LEADS.

When a lead (a reader) arrives on your blog, you want them to read your content. You also want to convert the lead into something – a newsletter subscription or a sale. The answer depends on your particular audience and your market. Direct your reader into what you want them to do and place particular effort on improving the conversion rate.

What Do You Think?

Like Darren, I also make a six figure yearly income through my blogs. I do this in various ways, but I most definitely have gotten benefit through consistent learning of internet marketing strategies.

For many bloggers, this may be a paradigm shift. In addition to looking at your blog as a source of great content for your audience, you can look at it as a lead generator for something which makes you money.

Is this a view you already share? Do you find the world of internet marketing to be disrelated to blogging? Do you already spend time learning about marketing?

“David Risley is a pro blogger who generates six figures per year in his blogging business. David Risley dot com is a pull-no-punches tale of his life as an Internet entrepreneur and problogger.”