Books I’ve Read to become a better Blogger & Black Friday

This post ties together because I’m writing it on Black Friday, and you could use the Black Friday online sales to save loads of money on books or most anything else by buying them today.

So, what the heck is Black Friday?  For those of you who are like me and just don’t care about shopping too much,,,,or are outside the U.S.,,,Black Friday (for Americans) is simply the day after the Thanksgiving holiday.  However, it’s changing.  It used to be a day that people had to GO shopping in order to take advantage of sale prices and discounts that stores offered, thus you had to physically be there to get the discounts.

But this has changed.  Savvy shoppers all over the world can now take advantage of Black Friday via the internet, with very good results.  Why would a sailing blog want you to know this?  I’m not really sure, just some good info to put out, especially if you don’t know the great discounts to be had during Black Friday.  No, I’m not going near a shopping center today and never have, but if you have things to buy, might be a good day to check things out online to see if you could save some hard-earned cash!

Moving on, in order to become a better blogger and writer, I’ve tried to soak up knowledge from those who do it better than me.  I’ve read  the articles from larger bloggers like Roberta Pimentel, Charles French and others and I’ve tried to look at what makes their blogs so appealing.  I’ve also read what books I could find that interested me.  Here’s three that are on my bookshelf now, that you may or may not know about, not sure if they might be of help:

ProBlogger: Secrets to Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett was the first book I picked up and started reading, thinking it would fix all my blog challenges.  However, it was also the first two weeks I started blogging and didn’t know what the heck I was doing,,,,and didn’t have the blog physically set up either.  However, after some really great help from a friend and his wife on the Search and Rescue Team where I volunteered, the blog started looking like it does now, and I was able to actually started understand how to put links and such into the blog.  This is a book I didn’t finish completely but now I’ll reread it again.  Perhaps too advanced for me as a total non-good computer user when I started reading it, but will be perfect for most of you if you have any interest making some money via blogging.  I have no illusions about making money off my blog,,,,and don’t care that much.  I want to continue to write about the adventures we have and will have,,,,and if folks want to follow and read, that’s cool by me-

The Golden Rules of Blogging [& When to Break Them] by Robin Houghton was the second book I picked up, and was a great relief.  Basically, this book took a bit of weight off my shoulders when it said I was doing ok, could write what I wanted and yes,,,,I could use other people’s stuff in my blog by reblogging it or pressing it without anyone getting upset.  I’m stoked if my stuff ever get’s reblogged or forwarded and I’m ok doing this every once in a while with other blogs that make sense.  This book was easy to read with a good format, “expert” advice and true to life stories.  I may reread this one at some point also.  Yes, even on the blog I’m always looking to improve.

Born to Blog: Building Your Blog for Personal and Business Success One Post at a Time by Mark W. Schaeffer and Stanford A. Smith is my current read.  I’m most of the way through it and it’s got a lot of great advice, some of the same advice I’ve heard already from Roberta Pimentel and others.  Why buy this book?  It’s goes from beginner to expert blogger through the book and has a slight business slant to it, which I liked.  Explains why businesses are setting up blogs and why, how basic bloggers can start thinking like businesses and whether using proxy services for the basic blogger is worth it?

In the end, Roberta Pimentel and all three of these books seem to say the same thing.  There’s no magic formula for your blog or this blog except to keep posting what excites you,,,,if you post what you think you HAVE to write because you think it’s your niche or something, you’re gonna burn out.  Instead, one post at a time writing the best you can. All three books were also patient in explaining there’s no magic to getting or keeping followers;  they will follow one at a time, when they want to.  I’m gonna take this to heart, keep posting and try to write the best blogs I can as I go along.

Here’s what I have to deal with at my computer on a regular basis, as she often seems to want to help write:

Quincy is our two year old Great Dane, who will soon become a boat dog,,,,bet that will be exciting!