Over the last few weeks I’ve been asked by a couple of folks to review their eBooks. I had a bit of downtime today so I thought I’d take a look.

Blog Monetization Strategies by Matt Jones

Matt runs BloggingFingers.com which covers blogging tips and money making strategies for blogs so it should be no surprise that his first eBook covers how to make money with a blog. It is aimed very much at the beginner so I doubt anyone who has been running a monetized blog will learn a great deal from the book, to be honest. That having been said, there are some nice little tips and pointers that Matt covers including an interesting take on when to start monetizing your blog. He also covers strategies for monetizing different styles of blogs based on your core audience.

There’s some good stuff in the book but I wasn’t overly taken with it. For starters the layout and presentation of the book is a bit messy and uninspiring. Also I found the writing style a little bit clunky on occasions which is a surprise as I find Matts stuff on BloggingFingers pretty good.

The eBook is only 16 pages but covers quite a lot. My personal feeling is that it would be better to make the book a bit longer by changing the presentation, splitting pages up, using a larger and different type font and breaking things up with either screen shots or images.

You can download the eBook here but, and here’s my final gripe, you’ll need to provide your email address to do so. I’m not a big fan of having to submit my email address just to receive a free eBook.

How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress by Caroline Middlebrook

Caroline only appeared on the scene back in August of last year but if you follow any of the web marketing blogs you’ll already be aware of her. She covers making money online on her blog so it’s no surprise that her eBook looks at how to make money using WordPress.

Again it’s aimed at the beginner and covers things like the basics of installing WordPress and how to use it as a content management system rather than as a blog. In fact you have to get to page 27 out of 41 before you get to any of the meaty stuff on monetization and, even then, I felt a little let down.

Now I know that Caroline says in the eBook that monetizing websites or blogs probably warrant a book all of their own but I really didn’t feel that this book delivered on its promise to develop money making sites with WordPress. The actual process of finding a niche, doing keyword research, content creation, looking for suitable affiliate partners and all the other things associated with making money with a niche website were glossed over in favour of covering the technical aspects of setting up a WordPress site. In Carolines defence, her introductory paragraph does say “this Ebook is not about making money - it’s about WordPress” but, if that’s the case then perhaps the title of the book is a little on the sensationalist side.

Putting that to one side, the eBook itself is well presented and is an easy read. For anyone new to WordPress it will probably be a very useful guide on how to set up a well structured site. Whether it’ll help you make a bundle of cash is something else but I still suggest you download a copy of the eBook and make up your own mind.