Why You Should Read Stephane Grenier’s Blog Blazers

Last Friday I dropped by the post office to pick up my review copy of Stephane Grenier‘s Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share Their Secrets. And I can tell you so far that it’s a very interesting read, and I’m glad I didn’t postpone my trip to the post until Monday.

What’s great about Blog Blazers is that instead of outlining blogging success from a single source, the author decided to interview 40 successful bloggers using a fixed set of questions. That way, you have different perspectives on the questions at hand.

For instance, there’s a question of how to measure success. For many, it would be from traffic or readership. Yet for some, it’s about authority in a given niche. Then there’s the question of monetization. Some bloggers gladly inform us that they do directly earn significantly well from their blogs. But others would consider the indirect benefits as a better measure of success from their blogs.

There are a few common grounds, though. For one, most bloggers would advise against having crappy content. And most bloggers would advise having patience when building up your authority and your blog’s readership. And most interviewed bloggers think that blogging success depends on what goals you have set in your blogging career, and whether you’ve reached them.

The book is enjoyable for folks who has a very short attention span like me. The “chapter” divisions are essentially devoted to one blogger apiece, arranged alphabetically. But you don’t necessarily have to read the book from cover to cover. You can start with a chapter that perhaps covers a blogger you know, or you often read. You could read about Steve Rubel one minute, and Yaro Starak the next, and then Aaron Wall the next. You get short pieces of insights and revelations from one blogger at a time, and I think this can be good for reflection, especially in those times of blogger’s block.

One striking realization I have made when reading Blog Blazers is that perhaps the most difficult thing for one in the blogging industry such as myself could do is unlearn. We do learn every day, from the most mundane of ideas to the most profound of insights. But it’s difficult to just forget everything you’ve been told and keep an open mind, so you could start afresh. And this is exactly what I’m trying to do right now, especially with the Performancing Reboot at hand.

Blog Blazers is a book I’ll keep handy when I need blogging inspiration, and I highly recommend it.

Blog Blazers is priced at a very reasonable $16.95 for the paperback version and $12.95 for the ebook version. You can get a copy directly from the Blog Blazers shop.