Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: review (Page 1 of 2)

Blog Post Engineering Review!

Hey folks, since I first wrote this Post, Dr. Doolin has been frantically working and reworking Blog Post Engineering.  He is launching version 0.7.4 William Today and let me tell you it will be well worth having a copy.  Like I say below, I purchased an earlier copy and Dave was kind enough to send me updates of this release.  It has more depth and several bonuses that will make your blog posts even better.  Click any of the links here or over on the sidebar to learn more.  I really think that this e-book should be in every bloggers toolkit to make some killer, SEO friendly blog posts.  Read on for more!

I deliberately delayed the posting of my Blog Post Engineering review.  I know the “un-launch” has come and gone, but there were so many glowing reviews of this book, I wanted to wait and post later.  So I could get more traffic and SEO without the masses clogging up google.  It is selfish but there you are.

Oh, and all of the links here are probably affiliate links, so take that and do what you will with it, I may make money from anything you click.  And that wouldn’t be a bad thing.

I actually bought and paid for this book.  It does come with updates, of which I have already received one.  This book will really help you write excellent blog posts.

I bought Blog Post Engineering to make my posts better and ultimately gain followers, customers, and Google rank.  My first concern when buying the book was the same whenever I buy anything, am I actually going to use this and make it worth the investment.  The email I go t from Dave about breaking legs and sledge hammers had something else to do with it.  Of course I can’t prove that e-mail ever existed so I may have been dreaming.

I wondered if I could actually use the information in a practical way.  Guess what, yes I could and so can everyone who blogs.  This book and these tips are for anyone who blogs, no experience required.  If you have experience posting on a blog, this book will help you polish and refine your posts.

There is a TON of useful and relevant information that is spelled out in a very straightforward way.  It showed me how to use tags and categories in a more useful way,  to be more productive and get on the SEO radar.

I liked how it read more like a conversation than a textbook, it was easy to follow and retain the information.  It is formatted to look like a book, so it kind of feels like reading a book.  There are plenty of links to articles on Website In A Weekend.  I had already read most of these posts so I could really see the implementation of the concepts described.

This book also goes into some promotion of your posts, so that you can actually get readers there and let the SEO magic start happening.

I would very much recommend Blog Post Engineering, especially if you are new to blogging and are trying to get eyes on your blog, all of the techniques int BPE are proven and tested several times over.  They work.

This ebook is on my desktop so that I can refer to it as often as I need.  I found some stuff I was doing right, some I was doing kind of right, and some I wasn’t doing at all.  In one fairly concise ebook all of this information is at your fingertips.

** New content- This new version has even more value than before.  It is organized in sections that let you build your skills.  It includes new chapters on what to do with old posts and how to use audio and video more effectively.  There are also chapters on using some quality plugins that will increase SEO.  **

Now, to be fair, all of this information is available on Website In A Weekend. Much of this information has been taken down and is only available in this e-manual.  If you go looking for it on there, you will find it but it takes quite a bit of digging. This book brings together all of that great information in one spot, that is instantly useable.  I think this is half of the value of the book.  The other is increasing your SEO significantly.

The best part, besides the 90 day money back guarantee, is lifetime updates to Blog Post Engineering.  When a new version comes out, you get an email.  That in itself is worth more than you will pay for the book.  It just keeps getting better and better.  I do have it on authority from Dave himself that the final version is coming.  Some of the extras available right now will not be included with the final version.  Now is a great time to purchase.  As of the date of this update, 10/27/10, the price is $23.  As of 10/31 the price will be going up to to $47.  Even that is more than worth it.

Go Check out Dave’s site and Blog Post Engineering.  You will be glad you did!

Part of the Blog tour, a book review of Foreign Identity!

Hello folks.  Today I am bringing you a review of a new book that has just been released.  For those who have been around a while, you may have heard me talk about a little site called the Creative Copy Challenge.  Well, it was through participation in the weekly challenges that this book, Foreign Identity, was spawned.

I was writing away with my own story (that really should be a book too if I wasn’t so lazy about it) when I started reading the other submissions.  One that caught me up in the story was Foreign Identity by Becca Campbell.  I got caught up in the story and became internet friends with Becca and was more than a little bummed when life got in the way and she didn’t finish the story.

Little did I know then, that she was working hard to make this story a novel.  And it is good.  Becca sent me a review copy of Foreign Identity (for free FTC, I know you are listening) and asked me to read it.  I was excited to really find out what happened to the main characters, Jax and Kel.  But more about that in a minute.

I don’t think that anyone knows (becasue I have never told anyone) that I actually cut and copied the entries from the CCC into a Word file so that I could either read it again or just finish what I missed.  At the last count in Word, Foreign Identity was 36,700 words long.  Not too shabby, but not a novel.  Now it is fleshed out and it is fun to see wha thas been added and what finishes the story.

Now for the review.  The book, I loved it.  The marketing and publishing through The Consortium (Oklahoma City based with some other people you have heard me talk about, Aaron Pogue, Courtney Cantrell, (I love to be able to actually name drop)) is just independent genius.  It gives me hope for my novels if I ever get them finished.

Ok, the book.

Continue reading

My review of How To Build An e-Book!

Hello folks!  Today I am going to review a fabulous book that I had the opportunity to pre-read for clarity. (ie I got a free copy to read through and evaluate.  assume all links are affiliate links.).  That book is called  How To Build An E-Book.  It was written by Aaron Pogue over at Unstressed Syllables.com.

This book was launched a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t put up this post then because I thought there would be so much promotion that mine would get lost in the stream.  So I am here today to review this fine book and bring some new life to it.  Aaron’s sales page is here:Click here to visit Aaron Pogue.

Hello Aaron.  Ok here is a list of things that I noticed while reading your book.  They are in no particular order so take them as you will.

First, this book is very well written.  It is easy to read and in a very conversational style that flows very quickly.  It really goes in depth on how to convert blog posts to a useful ebook.  Aaron is a technical writer (as well as novelist) by trade and his attention to detail is fantastic.  The book is easy to understand and it really lays out the right way to put your ebook together.

I mainly write fiction but the information Aaron presents can be modified to even make a fiction ebook look good.  I actually used some of the techniques to tweak my first fiction ebook: Death With A Vengeance.  It is also instrumental in the planning of my non-fiction ebook about my daughters kidney disease and dialysis.  The chapter on Outlining brought back horrible memories of both high school and college English classes but gave me a great reminder on how to do it.  I haven’t needed to outline anything in years but for this book I am writing it was essential.

Aaron also gets into some simple points of Microsoft Word (or other word processors) and talk about styles for chapter headings and how to bookmark and link in between pages in the ebook.  There were several points that I didn’t know about and now use quite often.  I have been using Word since the old Wordperfect went belly up and there were several things that I still didn’t know.

This ebook has a really good flow to it.  The headers and footers are very clear so you always know where you are.  It is littered with practical examples of how to put the concepts into practice, from pictures to links, to info boxes that show what is exclusive content to your ebook and what has been published on your blog.

He even includes a checklist that you can use to follow the concepts exactly as they appear in the book.  Most of these things I had thought about but I didn’t know how to put them together in a coherent and cohesive manner.  This checklist solved that problem.

At the end, he also discusses how to publish your ebook and get it out to the masses.  From formats to publish in to using distributors like e-junkie it is all here. Click here to visit Aaron’s Sales Page!

All in all, this is a great book for learning to make an ebook.  You can tell that Aaron really loves his work and is good at it.  He has easy descriptions of the hard stuff like outlining (I hate outlining but it must be done!) and publishing.

If you want to publish your own e-book from your blog posts, go get this book.  It is well worth the $49.97 that he is charging.  He also has the book split into three modules that run $19.99 each if you would rather go that way.

Bottom line: Want to write a successful ebook from your vast collection of blog posts?  Get Aaron’s ebook today and get started!

A review, for no ulterior motive!

Hey friends, I am writing this today because I want to help out a guy who I just discovered the other day.  The guy?  His name is Tony Deyo and he is a comedian.

Now just to be clear at the top of the post, I am not getting anything for this review.  I don’t make money from Tony and he has only given me a free copy of his CD.  You can get your own copy of his CD just by joining his mailling list at tonydeyo.com.  It is free to you as well.

Now that the details are out of the way, this CD, called “I’m telling you for the first time”, is a funny piece of work.  I first heard about the free CD and about Tony himself on the Bob and Tom show the other day.  Tony has been working his way up the comedy ladder and has the unique ability to remain clean but still tackle some adult subjects.

I for one like a comedian who can be funny with out using any of George Carlin’s 7 words you cant say on television.  Besides, he is funny.  His bit on Facebook is worth getting the CD for, especially to us who are in the blogging world and use Facebook.  He talks about parents and the lies we tell ourselves and others, and the worst part of being a parent, Potty Training.

I have gone through the potty training 3 times and am getting ready to train the 4th and I’ll tell you that was the only thing I was worried about raising kids.  I have written that before, this is not new.  Potty training should be made fun of and Tony does  so brilliantly.

On one of his wallpapers he says he is a full time Stay at Home Dad.  Caught my interest right away because, you know, that is me as well.  The only difference, I have 4 kids, he has none.  I attribute his situation to “Family Planning” .  Check out track 13 to see what I mean.

If all that is not enough, he talks about miracles.  I am not going to say more, Track 15 will make you laugh out loud.  As if you haven’t done that enough by the time you get to 15.

So, the long and the short of it, Head over to Tony Deyo’s website at tonydeyo.com and sign up for his mailing list.  He will send you a link to his latest CD for download.  Listen to it.  Laugh.  Then keep scanning the schedule page hoping he comes to your city.  I can’t wait until he hits Wiseguys here in Salt Lake.

Thanks for the laughs Tony, I can’t wait for more.

have a good day guys.

-Justin

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