Blog Wonderful

by Dana Fox

*PAPERBACK UPDATED FOR 2016* Blog Wonderful is a book written by blogger Dana Fox of Wonder Forest. This reference book is for both the beginner and novice blogger. It shares tips, tricks, and knowledge gained as a "new girl on the scene". What you will find in this book is a collection helpful information about becoming better at blogging, as well as some great hints from the author's profession as a web designer New on the blogging scene in 2011, Dana spent a year growing her following and documenting what worked, and what didn't. Blog Wonderful is a collection of those findings. Written in an honest and encouraging easy-to-understand manner, you'll feel as though Dana is right there with you, sharing advice as a friend would. This book covers topics such

Genres: Nonfiction

90 pages, Paperback

First published December 21, 2012

About the author

Note: There is more than one author with this name. This profile may contain books by multiple authors.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently discovered Dana's blog Wonder Forest and hand-in-hand with this discovery, came a new e-book to add to my collection. If you haven't yet heard of Wonder Forest- It's a blog written by graphic designer Dana featuring posts on fashion, beauty, design tutorials and blogging tips but it is so much more than that. Dana writes beautifully and her blog has been a favourite of mine since I stumbled across it a few weeks ago.

You may be wondering where the previously mentioned book comes into this - Dana released a web-based e-book full of tips and advice on writing a blog. I'd been considering buying this since I first read about it - but at $25 (around £15) for a private blog featuring the contents of the 'book,' I wasn't sure I could pay that much. After brief research, I had found only positive comments about the book and so thought 'why not.' Although it was a lot to pay for an e-book, I don't feel like my money has been wasted as I know I will be re-reading this book over and over. After paying for the product, I was sent a link by email which took me to a private blog that housed the book's content. I wasn't too keen on reading it in this format and would have preferred a downloadable e-book for my iPhone.

Luckily, about a week later - I received an email notifying me that Dana had re-formatted her book and it also contained a link for me to download the book for free (as I had already previously paid) so that I could now have it with me wherever I went on my Kindle or iPhone The book is divided into sections including: planning how you want your blog to be, branding your blog, engaging readers, how to make money with your blog and loads more.

I found a lot of the content in the book to be helpful and I will definitely be returning to it whenever I feel I need some blogging inspiration. However, I felt that some of the book made obvious points (I realise that to other people, it may not be so obvious and it is entirely my personal opinion - I have read a lot of articles/posts about blogging, after all) and I assumed that as the book was written by someone with a large following like Dana, there would be more off-the-radar tips that aren't easily available on Google.

If you're just starting out blogging or don't know where to look for advice and tips - I would definitely recommend Blog Wonderful. Dana makes learning about the blogging world wonderfully simple and easy to understand. It is definitely worth the investment as I did feel inspired after reading the book and will return to it every time I need some help getting my blogging mojo back.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is for new bloggers while simultaneously looking down at them

The eBook is well designed, produced, and the packaging is beautiful as well as the content is to the point and understandable. But! The following is why I gave it three stars.

I am a product of Dana's advice: I visited her blog, saw the eBook for sale and immediately bought it. The advice does work. HOWEVER, the book is geared for up and comers yet she advises not to network with those who little have readership or perceived low readership. Why? Because they are not worth your investment after all the hard work you've put in to your own blog. Er. Wasn't that the point of the book?

If this was just in passing, I would brush it off but nearly every topic she writes about has a similar line or two about snubbing those not deemed worthy.

She's also wrong on a few things. One, she advises against using Captcha because *she* rarely gets spam AND says it also deters people from commenting. Well, no. It's rare these days to find a blog of any size without some kind of spam preventer. "Well, turn on email comments if you're worried!" This might work for smaller blogs but once you start inching towards more readership, who has time to sort through and approve comments? She also advises against Disqus because it's to much trouble for people to login to comment but at the same time Disqus is super popular as you only have to login in once to your Disqus account and you're done! (As a big fan of Google products, she doesn't mention using Google+ to login and as a fan of Facebook, she doesn't mention Facebook connect.)

She mentions using a notebook to track things but doesn't provide some kind of worksheet to put together or manage a workflow. So that component is also missing and would have been super helpful to newcomers.

I feel the above is too important to gloss over or give misinformation on which is why this is a three and not a four or five.

[Robyn Horn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good advice for someone with absolutely no experience with blogging. For readers who have dabbled in blogging or want to get a little more in depth, they'll probably be left wanting a bit more. I felt like it was a bit too heavy on the Blogger endorsement, too. Every point seemed to be supported by how amazing Blogger was for X feature. While I don't doubt that Blogger is a great service, mentioning it every chance she gets seems to contradict her encouragement that bloggers should do what works for them.

[Krystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an easy read that is a great book for a new blogger. While I knew a lot of the information written in this ebook, it still was a nice refresher. Dana's writing style is casual and fun. She made get excited about blogging again!

[Stephanie Grant · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very basic information. Didn't go in depth into anything... A shame, because I love Dana's blog.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent I'm looking for some inspiration at the moment .
Just what I needed.