Blogging to the Bank 2.0 Book by Rob Benwell
Name: Blogging to the Bank 2.0
Creator: Rob Benwell
URL: www.bloggingtothebank.com
Purpose: Learn how to make money blogging using Rob’s blogging system.
I’ve been eager to get a hold of some of the blogging information products that have begun to surface lately, mainly targeted at the Internet marketing world, but certainly of interest to the blogging world or anyone who wants to make money online.
Rob Benwell’s Blogging to the Bank 2.0 book is the sequel to his original Blogging to the Bank book that did really well - it was a Clickbank best seller (I’d say his affiliates had a big hand in helping him with that because the book was everywhere!). As with most information products like this the pretense is how much money you can make and how little you have to work to make it, all backed up by the author who is walking the walk - living proof that his or her system works. That’s pretty much the case here with Rob claiming income of over $30,000 per month from his blogs.
Given I’m the lead mentor in a make money blogging program, Blog Mastermind, and a big chunk of my income also comes from blogging, I was very curious to see what Ben does to make his money from blogs and compare it to how I do it. I had some assumptions about his system and after reading the book they were pretty much confirmed.
I have to thank Ben for offering me a review copy of his book as well, so thanks Rob and as promised, here is the review.
Blogging For Money
There is a key distinction that must be made between how I work on blogs compared to the system presented by Rob, and in fact Rob’s system, or something reasonably similar, is pretty much what you will find in nearly all information products currently out there about making money from blogs, although I think Blogging to the Bank is the most well known.
Blogging to the Bank proposes to use blogs to tap in on search engine traffic (and other sources of traffic) to sell affiliate products. The idea is to research a niche, find a good product at Clickbank or similar and aim to grab to some traffic and make some sales. Then rinse and repeat, finding new niches and building a blog empire.
Sounds easy right?
The key distinction is the way the blog is produced and the motivation behind the process. Generally with a system like Blogging to the Bank you focus on money, find niches that could be profitable, fill your blog with content from all kinds of sources (more on this soon) and then do it all again.
What I teach in Blog Mastermind is more about building one authority site about a topic you love. It’s about creating a blog that you personally contribute most of the content to, build up traffic over time, interact with your readers and essentially build a solid long term asset. Although Ben and other blogging teachers are beginning to teach the importance of ongoing work on a blog, to the extent of at least keeping a fresh flow of content coming and creating something more stable by adding an email list, there is definitely a difference in the mindset behind a Blogging to the Bank blogger and a Blog Mastermind blogger.
I’m not here to tell you one method is better than the other. They both have there merits and suit different types of people who want to use blogs to make money in different ways. The real difference I see is the value that a blog offers to it’s readers if one core fanatic is writing the content and lovingly taking care of the one blog, compared to building a blog to tap into income sources and not focusing much on long term community and value. I think the Blogging to the Bank strategy is sound, but perhaps not as long term as what is taught in Blog Mastermind, although it’s possibly easier to make money quickly using a Blogging to the Bank strategy.
It’s certainly worth being aware of all methods to make money from blogs and there is a lot of overlap between what Rob teaches and what I teach, so what you learn with a book like Blogging to the Bank is still very relevant if you just want to build one authority blog.
With that out of the way, let’s jump into a review of what’s inside Blogging to the Bank 2.0.
Target Audience
Blogging to the bank is definitely targeted at beginners, however it’s motivated beginners. You don’t get the entire drilled down process handed to you with a step-by-step guide for doing everything. You do get the overall big picture process with a few of the more common and critical tasks explained in some detail, but for people completely new to the Internet marketing world, there will be a technology learning curve to go through in order to implement what is taught in the book. You may have to do your own research to learn how to do certain things, but none of it is that challenging, and if you want to make money online you are going to have to learn this stuff eventually.
The Process
Without giving away the entire book, here’s a rough breakdown of what you will learn as you progress through Blogging to the Bank 2.0. The book breaks down each of these areas into more detail.
- You go through the research process to find high-paying affiliate products using Google searches and Clickbank, looking at what current Google AdWord sponsors are promoting. This is a good breakdown of how to find a potentially lucrative niche you can tap thanks to the search engine power of a blog.
- Rob then teaches how he populates his blogs with content, which includes sourcing articles from PLR (private label rights), article directories, writing content yourself and outsourcing the production of fresh articles. This is definitely a good way to mix up your content between fresh and re-purposed, without doing the majority of writing yourself.
- Rob emphasizes the importance of capturing an email (building an email list), which is great to see. Of course Rob is a good Internet marketer so he understands the power of email marketing and teaches the importance of this through his book. This is a principle I strongly agree with also talk a lot about in Blog Mastermind.
- You then go through the optimization process, which includes some solid plug-in recommendations to optimize your blogs for search engines (he also recommends WordPress as the blog platform of choice, which is a change from his original Blogging to the Bank book). If you already know your blogging well you will know the plug-ins he recommends (or if you are working with me in Blog Mastermind), however for someone new to blogging Rob provides a solid list of the most critical plug-ins.
- Next comes the monetization process and Rob offers a nice and clear outline of where to place advertising on your blog to get the best results. It’s not rocket science, but it’s definitely helpful and makes it very clear for people who like to have their hands held through the monetization process.
- The book goes through the very important back link building process. Since the focus with this system is search engine traffic, generating backlinks is crucial, and Rob outlines several processes he uses to build links for his blogs, including some of the usual culprits like article syndication, press releases and buying links.
- The last section in the book is quite current and reviews some Web 2.0 style marketing tactics you can use to gain traffic from sites like Squidoo, Digg, Netscape and Del.icio.us.
The book is thorough, without being comprehensive, and definitely goes straight to the point. There’s no waffling and the writing is not perfect, but that’s not what it is about in this case - it’s a breakdown of Rob’s methods, not a story.
Made For Monetization
Blogging to the Bank 2.0 is a book that follows in the footsteps of a long line of information products that essentially teach you how to capture search engine traffic and monetize that traffic with affiliate programs. It’s modernized for today’s Web because the tool used is blogs and the marketing techniques are up to date for what’s going on in the Google and social bookmarking dominated world.
Will You Make Money?
Will most people who buy this book make a lot of money? - No, probably not. That’s not because the system doesn’t work, it’s more a case that most people will not work long enough and do enough to make it work. A small percentage will and as always they will do so not because of what they learned in an information product, but because they kept working, testing and learning.
Blogging to the Bank is a good starting point introduction to the world of affiliate marketing, which is a great way to make money online, if you are comfortable using blogs as the tool to drive traffic. It will definitely provide you with the steps and simply following the process guarantees you will begin to better understand how people make money through affiliate marketing.
Best Bits
For me, the best part was Rob’s research process. I found it interesting and refreshingly simple how he researched what products he was going to focus on and build blogs for. It’s very easy to do because you just use Google and Clickbank to find all the answers and then get to work building a blog that is optimized for the phrases you determine are key.
Worst Bits
As always the worst bits are the hype that goes along with an information product like this, but for now it’s a necessary evil that most internet marketers make use of (I do too!). I also worry about the long term viability of creating blogs that are not full of A-class content. It just doesn’t sound like a recipe for stability and I’d worry if all your income was dependent on Google search results too.
I prefer to work on sites where the topic is a passion for me, that I want to write about and build an authority site around. That’s why I personally have never gone down the multiple blogs, multiple niches path, like what Rob teaches. That being said, Rob makes a lot more money from his blogs than I do, so if money is your main motivation, then following a system like Rob’s is possibly ideally suited to you, just be prepared to work on topics you don’t care about besides making money from them.
Is It Worth It?
At $47 it’s not too much money to invest and as always, if you find a few tips that you can leverage you easily make your money back.
As a book for absolute beginners it’s not bad, although given the amount of choices beginners have to get into making money online it’s tough to say where you should start. If you get blogs and you want to see how someone uses them as an affiliate marketing tool to make lots of money, Blogging to the Bank is worth the investment.
You can get your copy and read more about the book here -
http://www.BloggingtotheBank.com
Yaro Starak
Blogging to the Passion
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I actually already have this e-book and like the premise behind it. You are right about people buying the book but not putting the sweat and tears that is necessary to make something succeed.
That is probably the number 1 reason why people fail to make money online- They simply don’t follow through for whatever reason.
Thanks Yaro,
I remember posting the original question to this ebook on Blog Mastermind.
Glad you followed it up and produced an excellent review.
It sounds like Robs methods are a way of generating short term revenue, but not about building a worthwhile, sustainable business.
Building blogs the way Rob advocates are exactly the type of sites Google wants to get rid of!
Authority sites win hands down.
Peter Tremayne
Haven’t read the book but it’s a well-argued review Yaro.
Best part for me is that I now know about Clickbank which may suit the E-Book on Workplace Morale that I’m finishing this week.
Can anyone suggest any other good sites for marketing e-books?
Yaro, I love your writing. The thought and time you put into it tells me a lot about you as a person. (Blogging Blueprint guide,for example)
I’ve subscribed to your list as soon as I found you online. It’s a pleasure watching for what you’ll do next because everything you do has that touch of class. So rare today especially in the internet marketing world.
You have heart and you’re one of the good guys, Yaro! May all your wishes come true…
Warmest thoughts,
Karen
Yaro, what’s new in the 2.0 version of the e-book?
I’ve also read BB2 - which was much, much better than BB1 which took creating poor quality sites to a new low! Personally I’ve got my “core” blog which I intend to nurture over time, has no adsense, and only I write. But I will try to create one or two B2B type blogs in the near future.
I have bought this book too and liked it. I am only now starting to promote my site but have included most of the content in his book. I will have to wait a while and see if it works for me, but fingers crossed. I will probably do a review of his book some where down the line too.
Mike
Hendry - I never read the first one, but the impression I get is that Rob now advocates WordPress instead of blogspot for his blogs and he also recommends posting regular fresh content too.
I’m not entirely sure though, but 2.0 definitely feels more current.
Joe - you can try paydotcom.com too.
Yaro,
I didn’t buy the book and I’ve talked to several who like his system. As a newbie to blogging I personally like your system best. It has taught be alot. Nothing wrong with his system I just prefer yours as it’s for the long term.
Great review on the book thanks.
Thanks Ken
Thanks for the honest review. Even though I’m not making any money yet, and still need to find more readers, I’m happy building a blog that will be a long-term asset, as you call it. Thanks for all your great info–you’re the expert whose opinion I always trust.
Charlotte
The Bank 2.0 guy claimed yesterday that “special bonus #3 would be available today only”. Well, guess what… today he says he says “special bonus #3 would be available today only”.
In my books… if the guy is not telling the truth in that small thing, how would I expect him to tell truth in the big things?
Thanks for the review Yaro, but passing this offer.
Nice Review =).. I got the book myself.. great resource book =)
Hi Yaro,
Thanks for the great review, I can see the benefits to the product, but I also see that this would be a very short term preposition in regards to setting yourself up as an authority etc.
Does he give any examples of successful sites that he has set up with these methods (apart from the site that sells the blogging for dollars package)
Hi Yaro ,
A few months back i was analyzing the yahoo Serp’s when i saw that his book had been spidered and was available for free download ! Apparently he must have forgot to edit the robots.txt file. Well to err is human (?)
I politely emailed him the yahoo search results.No reply till date and for a long time i saw the ebook listed in yahoo.
Today i downloaded the blogging to the bank 2.0 again from Google . Now this time he made a different mistake !
Boy i am in dilemma . Do what now ? Shoot another email ?
Jatin Dhillon
Affiliate marketing ebook reviews
Hi Yaro,
I want to earn income from a blog about what I care about. Rob’s system doesn’t attract me at all.
However, at the moment I’m not making any money from my blog - and maybe it won’t be possible to. If not I’ll stop doing it - I just can’t be interested in working only for money.
Evan
Hi Yaro
thanks for the review of this. I have read at least 10 books, mainly on affiliate marketing, on how to make money and to be honest it sounds like another one of those.
My best advice is what you advocate which is to build a blog, furnish it with great content, interact with the readers, build the community and sell great products and sell advertising. It does take longer but you get there in the end.
I have also just listened to your eBook and it is sound advice for novice and the experienced blogger.
Hi,Yaro your blog is very informative and a resource of ideas and links to anothers blogs keep doing the good job, Thanbk you.
[…] For only $47 I wasn’t losing out on much and I would be able to monetize my blog. I found a really great review on this package here! […]
Jatin - Seems you are quite good at finding books that are not protected from search engine indexes.
I’m sure if you told Rob he would appreciate it, I know if it was me I would.
Steve - No, you won’t get many real-world examples in this book, although you do get some through the examples, but nothing comprehensive. Of course if Ben revealed the niches he made money in they would quickly be competed away, so I don’t blame him for not revealing everything.
Hi Yaro,
Excellent review comments you have done here and good to see that they are straight to the point and no beating around the bush!
I agree with you absolutely that too often the internet marketeers tend to over hype their products and make it sound as if it’s so simple when in fact it’s not. I absolutely agree that long term sustainability is what we should look for in order to sustain a long term and stable income stream.
Yaro,
As a fan of yours I will say I like your process way better than anything I have ever seen out there. What you offer is a chance for someone to really make something of themselves in blogging. Now rather or not they make money that is up to them however, it is worth noting that your process helps people gain long term experiences in blogging that will carry them into the next revolution of the internet.
I have said on the BMM forums but I will say it here as well I am so honored to be in the company of your genius.
Oh and Word Press Rocks I love it. I am going to take my design blog off of blogger soon and put it on Word Press.
The day BTTB 2 launched I bought the e-book. Not because I had the first book and loved it, but because I was just getting interested in learning how to use a blog to make money with, for my site, and I figured the book might get the job done.
I also had everyone in my email account promoting it before the launch so I was already pre-sold.
Once I got the e-book and read it I had to sit and think about what I read, and how I could implement it because it seemed like good quality information, but missing a few key ingredients for me. Since I was new to it all, it missed a bit for me.
What ingredients?
How to make hundreds of blogs, on any topic and have quality content that people will learn from, use, or need. Without me being loaded down with work, or out of a lot of money.
I also felt like more or better monetization strategies could have been discussed.
Also video, more videos to help you see, how the whole process takes place from blog one, to how ever many in that network.
And the linking of the blogs is still a mystery to me. Yaro, if you have any advice on how to link the blogs I could sure use it. Thanks!
So you are right, he does not hold your hand, but you do get the picture.
Just like you said, I did have to do my own research to learn the things I was not already familiar with so I searched and I came across a really great compliment to this e-book.
The information is presented all in videos, and is very helpful. It goes along well with BTTB 1, but holds the hand of anyone who is not familiar with how to do things.
Once matching this site up with the BTTB e-book, I was all knowing and ready to go.
What’s so great about the site, is it is free, it focuses on making money with blogs using only free resources, and you get to learn for free with detailed video.
I like the idea of having only one small network of blogs, 5 or so, in the same niche and working on only that network to make it an authority network is a good concept to try. I also do believe that having one blog in one market, as an authority site is the best route for the long run.
The free video blogging site focusing on building one authority site.
I think it is the perfect compliment, and will help anyone who doesn’t know how to put all the missing pieces together from the BTTB e-book.
Other than that, I liked the few golden nuggets I got from it.
Good review Yaro, I couldn’t have done it better myself!
I have not had the chance to read it but it is defiantly on my to-do list. I am all about blogging and making money while doing it. Thanks for writing this review.
I bought Blog Mastermind and it is a wonderful tutorial. I’ve owned two large web sites so I know the work involved. I agree, Yaro, that have to be knowledgeable and passionate about your topic in order to keep up the energy necessary to creating and maintaining a successful blog. It’s not difficult to get excited about a new toy, but it’s another matter entirely to keep generating fresh, interesting content that will build and keep an audience.
Excellent review, Yaro.
I liked the way you presented both sides of this issue. The bottom line is this: if you can find useful information, you will always make your money back. I have heard lots aobut BTB2. You review was by far the most informative.
Keep up your excellent wrok.
Albert Grande
http://pizzatherapy.com
After it is all said and done. You have read the book, used his techniques did you make the money he states on the website. Is it worth buying or should I buy Yaro’s program
Thank your for your time
Keith - You know you should be in my program no matter what
Seriously though, Blogging to the Bank and my program are quite different. Different goals, different teaching methods and different prices too.
It’s not really a fair comparison.
I found Ben’s book very useful as a reference guide and it sits on my desk - along with your Blog Profits Blueprint now!! And, apart from the fact that I removed adsense from my site because it was making me peanuts, I did follow Ben’s strategy for promoting the one affiliate program that I use to build people’s WordPress blogs (Semiologic Pro). My sales have increased which is fantastic.
That said, my focus is mainly on people using their blogs as a marketing tool for selling their own products and services and so the focus is on building an authority site by being the authority.
As I said in a previous post Yaro, your blueprint has not only helped my business, my clients are richer for the experience I can pass on.
Big Thanks!
Trish Jones
The Blogging Queen
Hi Yaro,
I bought the ebook. It was laid out well and covered all of the basic areas. Most beginners would think that is all there is to making money blogging. The process was overly simplified and parts were left out. After following the steps and writing quite a few articles and adding affiliate links, I have made a grand total of $0 over the last few months. Also a bonus product he offers is not available when you try to download it and after email him a few times, I have to get any response. Poor service is a major turn off. I sure won’t buy any other product he promotes.
Ather
[…] a formula for building a super-authority blog, but it certainly can make you money. Much like the Blogging to the Bank strategy, this program is about creating multiple blogs using the same system without necessarily requiring […]
Hey Yaro….great review.
I am not much one for the typical “marketers” methods but here’s a thought…..why not offer your copy up to a reader as a gift, prize, giveaway, whatever you want to call it.
I am sure some would get a kick out of reading it.
Just a thought.
I haven’t read BTTB2.0, but I bought BTTB1.0. Personally, I prefer Blogmastermind’s methodolgy. My primary gripe is probably more so with clickbank because I can’t open an account from my country. But what really put me off BTTB was blogging on niche topics that didn’t necessarily interest me.
What I like about BM is that it teaches you how to make an income from a blog about a topic you love - that’s the real key for me. If you love what you do, everything is easier. I’m a firm believer in the philosophy that when you love what you do, life’s a lot easier. BM also teaches you different methods of monetising your blog - which I think is also important. It means you aren’t reliant on a single method of generating an income and you can choose the methods that suit your style and your blog best.
So thanks Yaro for starting BM! When I read what you were teaching, I knew it was the way I wanted to go.
Awesome review Yaro, reviewers need to follow your example.
I bought the first Blogging to the Bank book. Having never even properly studied a blog before had it got me looking at blogs and I started some in niche technical areas in which I have been working as an environmental engineer for more than twenty years.
I do try to promote tham, but he main enjoyment for me is in the emails I get back and contacts I make through them.
For some reason my blogs seem to appeal to Asians particularly. So I have been to India and Nepal, although I live in a qiet market town in the UK, and had no previous Asian friends.
Life never seems to take one in a straight line does it, nor is the outcome usually quite what one expected!
Hi!
I’m a relatively new blogger and want to explore monetizing opportunities. I stumbled upon this old post while looking for reviews of this ebook. I’m so glad I found an advocate of “blogging with passion”.
Thank you for your frank review!
I purchased blogging to the bank for the bonuses. None of them work! I have been trying to get a refund for several weeks. I decided to take a lost and move on. The information that he offers, I rather read your blog. Not happy with Rob Benswell products at all. Taking his link off my blog now. Thanks for the reminder. I will not promote garbage.
version 3.0 of Blogging to the Bank recently arrived. is it any different from 2.0, and if so what changed? New information, bonuses became downloadable and support changed for better?