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Opinions on BOOK BLOGGING

by Sanzafocus
13 replies
Hey everyone,

I am currently in the process of planning a new website idea out and want to see what everyone's opinions/recommendations are.

My idea is starting a niche blog that is mainly a book review site but will also post information/videos about the specific niche. I've heard it can be tough to profit from a site focused on books but I figured if I plan on targeting a specific type of book/topic I may be able to do well with it.

What I plan on doing is starting a blog that is formatted pretty much exactly like this example ----> Squeeze Page Design by Rhonda Crosby
(It is the 1st example under blogs, the iMarketing blog example)

It's basically a blog with an opt-in box in the upper right corner with ads along the right hand side all the way down pretty much.

I want to frequently post book reviews that are related to my niche as well as related info/videos and I am hoping to build a mailing list in the process. I want to hopefully make commissions from my book reviews/recommendations and my ads will be placed on the site, but I want to profit from marketing to my niche mailing list to build long term profits.

I'm looking to see people's opinons about how book have worked for people or haven't worked, and recommendations on how to go about building a niche book review site and building a list along with it.


Thank you guys very much for taking your time to read this, means a lot to me!!

Take care,

Anthony
#blogging #book #opinions
  • Profile picture of the author huester
    Will this be for physical book or kindle books?
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    • Profile picture of the author Sanzafocus
      Hey Huester,

      It will be mainly physical books. I plan on using amazon affiliate as of right now for the book reviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author contentwriting360
    Banned
    Hello Anthony,

    I believe you need to knock on the door of Shola. Shola owns a MasterMind Group specializing on e-book/book marketing and anything that's relevant to e-books. Feel free to add her on Skype at shola_sabidoye. We're members of her MM Group. So lucky that we joined her MMG when she was still accepting free membership. I'm not sure how much is her membership fee today.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sanzafocus
      Originally Posted by contentwriting360 View Post

      Hello Anthony,

      I believe you need to knock on the door of Shola. Shola owns a MasterMind Group specializing on e-book/book marketing and anything that's relevant to e-books. Feel free to add her on Skype at shola_sabidoye. We're members of her MM Group. So lucky that we joined her MMG when she was still accepting free membership. I'm not sure how much is her membership fee today.

      Thank you very much for pointing me in this direction. I am definitely going to check out Shola and her group and see what it is all about. Is it weekly webinars or how does it really work?
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  • Profile picture of the author Wade32
    Are you planning on reviewing just books in general or are you going to narrow your niche more? For instance, only review murder mystery books? It looks like a great idea, but you may want to consider narrowing the niche down to get more targeted traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author Sanzafocus
      Originally Posted by Wade32 View Post

      Are you planning on reviewing just books in general or are you going to narrow your niche more? For instance, only review murder mystery books? It looks like a great idea, but you may want to consider narrowing the niche down to get more targeted traffic.

      Yes I have a specific genre of books picked out already and it has very good marketability aside from just the books, there are other products related the niche/genre that I could market to a email list or something of that nature.
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  • Profile picture of the author gjohansson1
    I don't really know the numbers aspect of your niche, but if you've already worked that out I would say this is a great idea!

    I have used that exact theme with a similar setup before and it seemed to convert well. Instead of ads on the side, I promoted my social profiles for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ with just one banner ad.

    Google+ is becoming very important in regards to search, so it would be a smart move to connect with as many people in your niche so that you can get the maximum Google exposure. I don't think many other social sites are as important as the ones I said above, but you may find a couple that I don't know about that can really get you close to your niche.

    It's also a great idea that you'll be building an email list from the get-go, as that's definitely the best way to make this long term like you said. Maybe you could also join the discussion at some forums related to your niche. There are tons of ways you could make this successful!
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    • Profile picture of the author goindeep
      Take it from a dude that has failed at most site "ideas". You need to figure out and confirm how you are going to monetize within the first few months.

      Your site will drain your time, energy and money if you do not sort this out first.

      On the other hand if you plan to get some angel investor to give you ten million bucks, that's another story all together.

      Get the money first.

      Good luck.
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      • Profile picture of the author Sanzafocus
        Originally Posted by Andrei Rotariu View Post

        Take it from a dude that has failed at most site "ideas". You need to figure out and confirm how you are going to monetize within the first few months.

        Your site will drain your time, energy and money if you do not sort this out first.

        On the other hand if you plan to get some angel investor to give you ten million bucks, that's another story all together.

        Get the money first.

        Good luck.
        Thank you for your words, I appreciate it man. Quick question, do you mean I should figure out how I'm going to fund my site for the first few months or how I plan to start profiting frmo the site within the first few months?

        Just wanted to be clear on that, thanks again!
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    • Profile picture of the author Sanzafocus
      Originally Posted by gjohansson1 View Post

      I don't really know the numbers aspect of your niche, but if you've already worked that out I would say this is a great idea!

      I have used that exact theme with a similar setup before and it seemed to convert well. Instead of ads on the side, I promoted my social profiles for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ with just one banner ad.

      Google+ is becoming very important in regards to search, so it would be a smart move to connect with as many people in your niche so that you can get the maximum Google exposure. I don't think many other social sites are as important as the ones I said above, but you may find a couple that I don't know about that can really get you close to your niche.

      It's also a great idea that you'll be building an email list from the get-go, as that's definitely the best way to make this long term like you said. Maybe you could also join the discussion at some forums related to your niche. There are tons of ways you could make this successful!
      Thank you very much for your words and recommendation, I appreciate that. Do you mind me asking what was your ultimate goal with placing your social network banner ad on the right column instead of ads? Was it to build credibility with your visitors or to drive them to a social network funnel moreso? I didn't know if you meant your personal social network site or a facebook fanpage type site.

      Thanks again man!

      Anthony
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      • Profile picture of the author gjohansson1
        Originally Posted by Sanzafocus View Post

        Thank you very much for your words and recommendation, I appreciate that. Do you mind me asking what was your ultimate goal with placing your social network banner ad on the right column instead of ads? Was it to build credibility with your visitors or to drive them to a social network funnel moreso? I didn't know if you meant your personal social network site or a facebook fanpage type site.

        Thanks again man!

        Anthony
        I realized some parts came off differently than I intended, but I would build my Facebook page, Twitter following, and YouTube channel on my sidebar instead of placing banner ads (but I did have one banner ad that converted really well to my squeeze page).

        This way, I could keep my readers coming back no matter which major social network they spent the most time on. This helped me gain more opportunities to present the right offer and my overall blog conversions were really high.

        I would just use the widgets that each company provided

        Twitter: Twitter / Twitter buttons
        Facebook: Like Box - Facebook Developers
        YouTube: YouTube Blog: 1 billion subscriptions and counting

        I still don't really know much about Google+ but if you can build a following there, that will really help too. I usually recommend starting with just one network and adding the other three over time. Of course make videos with YouTube, but you can build subscriptions there later.

        Personally, I am building my Twitter following for my new blog first since it's really easy to connect with people in any niche (the search function is killer!) and easily accessible.

        Like I said before I don't know the details about your search traffic potential, but the social traffic potential is definitely there and in some cases, social traffic can convert to subscribers much higher.

        Speaking of list building, adding a form to every page and post can be really helpful, including the very top of the sidebar.
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankMiller
    Your niche sounds tricky, but it can be done. It'll take some work, but go for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author edd666666
    Like any narrow niche, you have to be happy with low traffic. For instance I have a blog for authors helping them get on TV. We would agree it is a narrow niche I am sure. But I get coaching clients off it and do well because my coaching is high ticket stuff. I use the blog to demonstrate I know more about authors getting on TV than anyone else and it does the selling for me. So for reviews, what will make you different and better, will you be the absolute best and give them a good reason to come to your site. Also attracting viewers to your site is expensive due to the small niche, factor that into your profits. OK, good luck, Ed.
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