Dec
30
17 Minutes, Unedited or Proofread, On Beyond Blogging
I’ve been asked by four separate people what I think of Beyond Blogging, and I told each of them that I was going to do a review of it today. Having said that, it’s SpeakEasy day and I have about as much time to do a review as I have to go and get my roots done (HAHAHA). So I’m giving it 17 minutes. I got a comped copy of it the other day and I know there’s been a lot of splash, so I’ll give you my take, if you care.
First off, what the hell is Beyond Blogging? Well, a couple of dudes (named Nathan Hangen and Mike Cliffe-Jones) got themselves together and asked, “What are the big kids doing that everybody else isn’t? What are their secrets?” Because that’s what we all want to know, right? What did the internet famous people do and can we replicate it?
They ended up doing a bunch of research to get biographies, histories and philosophies. They talked to the people, asked pertinent questions, asked for advice. The people responded, and Nathan and Mike made a book about it.
The difference in this book as opposed to a lot of other ones like it is that it puts a heavy focus on legitimate businesses, as opposed to blog monetization. If you want to blog and consult or blog and provide services or blog and sell info products, it touches on all that stuff. Most books like this are like, how to make a fuckton of money on advertising, and they neglect the people who actually want a business they can explain to their mother and she’ll actually get it.
OK, I got 11 minutes left, so I really have to get to it here. Should you buy it?
The problem with info products — or more accurately, the problem with the affiliates of info products — is they don’t always tell the whole story. I don’t give a damn if you buy Beyond Blogging or not, so I’ll try to give you the full story as I see it.
Beyond Blogging is probably going to become one of those standard products that everybody in the industry buys. Super Affiliate Handbook was like that for affiliate marketers, back in the day. SEO School is like that. In certain industries, Product Launch Formula is like that. You buy it because everybody else is buying it. Nothing wrong with that.
The issue with that, though, is that once everybody has it, it becomes the standard. The secrets are no longer secrets, if they were ever secrets in the first place. And what started out as a curriculum for being better than everybody else becomes a curriculum for meeting the minimum standard. (When people first started talking about Chris G’s killer flagship content, the blogging world was afire. Flagship content made you AWESOME. Now, if you don’t have flagship content, you’re totally fucked.)
(I’m told by my husband that this is officially to do with necessary conditions versus sufficient conditions. You have to have X to succeed, but having X doesn’t mean you WILL succeed. It’s necessary, but not sufficient.)
This is in line with what we sometimes refer to in the SpeakEasy as insurance purchases. You might be very successfully selling ebooks, but you buy How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook on the off chance that it has something you didn’t already know. These types of purchases are what keep a lot of us in business.
The information contained in Beyond Blogging is likely to become the standard. It does not contain the magic X factor, it contains what has either already become absolutely necessary, or what very shortly will. You’re still going to have to work your balls off, and you’re still going to have to get over your fear of success, and you’re still going to have to network, and you’re still going to have to work your own brand of charisma. But you also need the stuff that’s contained in Beyond Blogging.
Do you have to buy it? Hell no. There’s lots of other ways to get the information, including, but not limited to, reading the blogs of the people profiled therein. You could also do what Nathan and Mike did, which is ask the people you’re interested in. Wanna know how Chris Garrett became Chris Garrett? Fucking ask him.
If you don’t want to do that though, or you feel you would rather get it all in one place, or you like the structure of the ebook, or you’d rather know you didn’t miss anything, or you feel weird sending emails out of the blue to internet famous people, then yeah, you may as well buy the book before the price goes up. They did the work for you.
EDITED LATER: There’s been buzz that people don’t know how much this book costs. It’s not heavily highlighted on the sales page, but it’s there. $47, in case you don’t want to go looking.
BIG FAT DISCLAIMERS AND THINGS YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW:
If you’re already in the biz, you don’t need the book. If you know you’re going to SXSW and you know that if you walked on up to Brian Clark there’s an outside chance he’d talk to you because he already knows who you are, or if you’re already making okay money blogging, then no. Don’t buy it. You already know what’s inside.
I no longer pay for info products, so I got a comped copy of this book.
All these links are affiliate links.
Once, when I was in a Swiss Chalet, my pants fell down and I hid under the table instead of pulling them up.
Two reasons I’ll be picking it up in the near future:
“Beyond Blogging is probably going to become one of those standard products that everybody in the industry buys.”
“The issue with that, though, is that once everybody has it, it becomes the standard. The secrets are no longer secrets, if they were ever secrets in the first place.”
I may or may not `know’ everything in it already. Given my current success, I expect I’ll benefit from the information.
Thanks for a (very) (not to say brutally) honest take on this, with some useful extra spin. I already bought it, so I can’t be sure what effect your review would have had on me if I was still on the fence…
I am rather busy with the ‘working my balls off’ and the ‘getting over my fear of success’ bits, as well as the networking (errr… does commenting on this post count?)… but I’ll read the thing alongside everything else I’m ploughing through and I’m pretty sure I’ll learn something from it. Enjoy the Speakeasy!
Nice review. It is a good introduction to professional blogging for people new to the industry and I am sure it will motivate and inspire people to start their own blogs and work on their own dreams. As you said, people that are already into blogging and that follow bloggers profiled, already know their stories and already know what the book is trying to say…
Thanks for the insider tip about Swiss Chalet! I will take it to heart. ;)
I was too busy laughing at your last disclaimer to remember what you even said in that post! :P
So, who was under the table with you at that Swiss Chalet? And were they worth removing your pants for?
Adding ‘pants down in a Swiss chalet’ to list of how to find Ittybiz on Google.
Mad props to Jamie for the necessary and sufficient conditions bit. I often want to invoke that phrase on PF but know better.
Also, thanks for the bit about who this isn’t for. Not like I was teetering, but it closed the door for me.
You rock, Miss.
Thanks for the review Naomi, super honest, and I wouldn’t expect anything less. Also, thanks to those that badgered you into a review…that’s cool!
I’ll be honest…there aren’t really any blogging secrets are there? Everything can be had for free, but it can take a long time to get. Mike and I simply put 5 months of research and analysis into an E-Book format. Some people might have their worlds rocked, others won’t. We accept and honor that.
I buy a lot, both to pick up an extra slant I missed elsewhere, and just to support the community. For people that are on the verge of making it big…sometimes you just need that extra edge, you know what I mean?
That’s all we tried to do, break it down barney style, without insulting our readers, and provide a detailed guide to becoming a kick ass blogger.
I love how aware you are of the market sophistication of your audience in order to do a review like this. :)
Oh dear me, I was just thinking about how I didn’t know about this Flagship Content thingy or Super Affiliate Handbook dowhacker.
Pardon me while I climb out of these Hammer pants.
Completely amazed by the 17 minutes time limit. And this review… not only is informative but is quite an entertainment as well.
quoted from Nathan: “I’ll be honest…there aren’t really any blogging secrets are there? Everything can be had for free, but it can take a long time to get. Mike and I simply put 5 months of research and analysis into an E-Book format. Some people might have their worlds rocked, others won’t. We accept and honor that.”
As far as I can remember, he’s actually the first blogging tips ebook author who’ve admitted that- and that’s really something to be impressed about.
Hi Naomi,
How is the New Year countdown going?
You are in England?
I bought it because….”Fucking Chris Brogan”, in your words I don’t use adjectives like you do but yep that’s how I made my decision,
I said on Nathan’s blog I have no regrets and do to my eyes getting pooped I’m only half way through it, can’t stop checking out the links.
2010 is MY Year.
Even when I consider myself an expert, I usually learn something new…even if it’s just a new slant on something I’m doing…or maybe something I haven’t gotten around to doing yet.
I’m so tired of ebooks, BUT the live links are extremely useful.
I probably will buy it. Case studies and comparisons seem to jumpstart my own idea stream.
Thanks so much for the honest review, Naomi.
Ann Bell
Mixed Media Artist in Houston, TX
Naomi, I love the way you write. It makes me smile every time.
I notice 2 things from you:
1. Your own voice
2. Your Integrity
You do both very fucking well. haha.
I just want to say damned nice review, I think that’s the best I’ve read in a long time, and that I am in no way responsible for anything that happened at Swiss Chalet. Nor at Cora’s. Or at the tattoo parlor. Or in the hotel.
Although it may not hold the secrets that everyone is looking for, it probably contains the foundation that everyone should at least have in the future.
And I agree that there’s a ton of info out there for free but to get it all in a single place, $47 seems like a small price to pay.
BTW, I haven’t read the book, I’m simply commenting on the the review.
Nice 17 minutes spent!
I have the e-book and have read a bit but not all. If you follow any of the bloggers, you probably know their stories already. But it is great that it is aimed at actual business and not get number one on SEO, Advertise and RICHNESSSSSS!
I’ll do a proper review someday. Probably once everyone forgot what it was.
to blogging and beyond!
I just found your site through google. Love the info!