EDITORS NOTE:

I luv Comment Spam. It gives me an opportunity to replace their links with my own affiliate links.

EDIT: Baked Spam with a honey mustard and crumbled corn flake glaze is quite tasty.

Unfortunately by using “Money Making” in the title it changed expectations about the book. It was a good marketing strategy because it got attention for your book that it otherwise wouldn’t have received. On the flip side, some of that publicity hasn’t been 100% positive.

That isn’t necessarily bad though because it gives greater exposure to your blog and your book. It may also help set the stage for your next steps either with eBooks or other forms of marketing.

She is an expert at generating social blog traffic. However, I think there is a perception out that that traffic to a blog alone will generate money. The problem is that it doesn’t. What’s more, even a small amount of traffic can outearn a huge amount. It’s almost counterintuitive to someone who’s been successful at social blogging.

As for my comments, I’ve been posting on forums for years and before that on CompuServe, GEnie and BBS systems back in the 80’s. It’s a writing style that I’ve gotten comfortable with over the years.

jfc: I’m amazed by most of your comments. You have won my respect. Your reviews are usually on the mark. I’m usually late into the conversation but better late than never!

I managed to read the eBook and I thought it was very good read and well worth download for anyone just starting out with WordPress.

What choices you specified for niche and/or monetization can be argued upon but I think Frank properly pointed out that while your eBook name states one thing - niche - it is the least covered area.

I think if you simply add more meat to it, based on your personal experience and knowledge and address a few shortcomings - it will be a great guide.

Don’t let negative comments affect your drive

What cracks me up is the people who were leaving comments about how “great” the ebook is, and promising to link to it … sometimes before they even read it.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you about Caroline’s writing style. But realistically, if someone brand new to blogging asks me for advice, why would I point them Caroline’s ebook, as opposed to simply suggesting a Google search for something “wordpress for beginners”, then click over to a site such as http://lorelle.wordpress.com/ ?

Catch up with you again soon,
Todd

I guess she could have done what some other big names have done and requested an email submit or even charged for it.

To paraphrase Sun Tzu, “All marketing is based on deception.”

I raised many of these same points in a comment to Caroline’s original blog post announcing her ebook … especially about the “Making Money” part of the title. Here is her response about why she included that in the ebook title:

“… in an earlier post for the ebook project I discussed my thoughts behind the name of the book. The words money making are included to make it more enticing to potential readers and to get more downloads.”

At least she’s honest. It’s all about (false) marketing.

Keep havin FuN!
Todd