Atomic blogging review

Review of Alvin Phang's Atomic Blogging - a complete system for creating and running profitable blogs

By Tom Munson, Internet business product reviewer for WorkAtHomeTruth

Atomic Blogging Video Trailer

an a novice really set up a productive traffic generating and income producing blog by following the instructions in Atomic Blogging? Let’s find out.

Atomic Blogging Quick Summary

Overall Vote:	(4.5 out of 5.0)
Price:	$47.00 for complete training, Atomic Blogging WordPress system (including the Atomic Blogging Nuclear Module Pack), proprietary keyword research tool, and much more (see Atomic Blogging site for details).
Better Business Bureau:	0 complaints (clean record)
RipOffReport.com:	0 complaints (clean record). 1 record returned was for something else
Compatible:	PC / Mac (Keyword Tool is PC only) (requires internet connection)
Click here to visit AtomicBlogging

Click here to skip to a brief video review of Atomic Blogging on this page.

Atomic Blogging Review
- Part I

When I first opened up the PDF e-book, Atomic Blogging, I noticed that it was very extensive, hence the 2 part review. Just reading through the table of contents, I found that the 10 chapters containing 127 pages were going to be an in-depth study full of great information. The more information that I find in programs such as this the more I like it, so I had the initial feeling that this learning experiencing was going to be jam packed with exactly what I would need to manifest a successful blogging experience.

I am looking forward to reading the step by step instructions to setting up a profitable blog so I decided to actually do the steps and create a niche blog for myself.

In the preface, the author, Alvin Phang, goes through some personal history of his technical abilities along with his vision of why Atomic Blogging was created. There are also explanations of what affiliate programs, adsense and blogs are all about.

Jumping right into the meat of the book, chapter one gives eight powerful tips on blogging, plus eight things to avoid doing with your blog. These tips include things in the "to do" category of creating an online survey on your blog to find out what type of information your readers would like, with an example from his own blog.

Other tips include opening your creative mindset, promoting your blog, collecting leads, getting keywords, filling up your categories with the keywords and moderating your post. In the things to avoid doing:

Don’t post without proof reading
Don’t post if you don’t have ideas to write about
Don’t copy content from others
No offensive postings
Don’t open your hyperlinks in a new window
Don’t try to hard sell in your posts

Stay on topic and maintain your credibility throughout your postings.

Brief Video Review of Atomic Blogging

Click here to visit Atomic Blogging, a complete system for creating and running profitable blogs.

Chapter 2 of Atomic Blogging - Now it Gets Meaty

Chapter Two goes into a brief history of blogs which I thought was a great visual of where blogging all started and how far it has come since. The author explains how Atomic blogging got it’s inception, which I found interesting as far as lending credibility to the authors experience.

It did boost my trust in him that he does know what he is talking about and can pass that experience on to the novice.

On page 10 he also gives an in-depth look at web 2.0 sites and how submitting to these directories is just one of the ways to start establishing your presence on the web. I had heard of this, but never looked into it prior to reading this blog.

I am enjoying the content and learning new things in the initial chapters of the book, but I got a little turned around right after the web 2.0 explanation. The author gives a great case study from one of his students then moves right into the five step blogging traffic blueprint which is a great reference.

I thought this might have been better placed in a section of the book AFTER the blog was actually created, showing the reader where and how to generate traffic to their new blog.

As a novice it kind of confused me, but I did understand the links and the information was great.

A little side note before moving on with the next chapter. The author has done a great job of providing the reader with the history of blogging and an in-depth review of what and why blogging is so important. I know have an expanded, open and inquisitive mindset on all the possibilities of what blogs can do to promote not only an online business but also any type of products or services that one is involved in.

The information given thus far very thorough and I don’t get the feeling that anything is being held back, ie: no insider secrets. My overall impression is the author is giving his all to the book and wants his readers to benefit from this information. Now, on to the rest of the first part of this review.

Chapter 3 of Atomic Blogging

Chapter three really threw me for a loop because it came as something totally unexpected, but makes so much sense that I was ecstatic when I started reading it. It covers market research and makes perfect sense. Why just throw something up and hope it will work. The author says it all with "Your Key to Success is Traffic".

He then goes into keyword research and its importance with a stern warning in red letters. This tells the reader to stop what they are doing and read every word in this chapter very carefully.

This is an in-depth explanation of exactly what the new blogger should look for in their research. For instance, what key words are people using to search online, how many times these keywords are being used (volume) and what the competition for these keywords is. Now we’re getting into the meat of this book and I’m anxious to get some more information about keywords and how they work in getting search engine results.

The author gives links and explanations on different keyword research tools, including wordtracker, keyword discovery and overture, along with examples of the results. He includes an explanation of the reliability of the different research tools and the recommendation that a person should do their own research using a PPC campaign to get the most accurate results.

That involves setting up a website for a certain niche with the keywords that you would like to research and paying for the clicks. That is not something I wanted to get involved in right at the moment, but then on the next page was a huge surprise.

The author has created his own keyword research tool which is included at no extra charge and is a very nice addition to the book.

Atomic Blogging's Keyword Research Tool is Incredibly Helpful...

After playing around with the tool a little and following the detailed instructions of its usage, I found it to be an incredible, easy to use device for doing keyword research. There is also a download link to an excel file that you can log your keywords into and save with a few examples already entered with instruction on the use of the spreadsheet.

Then I was thrown into yet another tailspin when the author goes into finding exact demand results using the internet. From a novice point of view this is where it got a little confusing again. He wants the reader to open up an adwords account to obtain the data and explains that you might as well promote your blog at the same time.

Wait a minute! I haven’t created my blog yet so this is where my confusion came into play. Shouldn’t I have the blog first and then do the PPC campaign to gather the data? I skipped this step and continued on even though he does give detailed instructions to creating an adwords account and campaign.

Chapter 4 of Atomic Blogging

Now that I am up to chapter four I am starting to get a good feel for the author and his detailed instructions into each realm of the blogging process.

Chapter four starts out with a stern warning of not continuing on without doing your keyword research and choosing some products first. It continues with choosing an eye-catching domain and some parameters to follow when deciding on a domain name for your blog.

He also shows with screenshots how to look for a domain amongst the expired domains, using one of your main keywords to locate a domain name and links to a service he recommends that specializes in expired domains.

There were a lot of screenshots on the actual purchase of the domain through GoDaddy which is useful for the first time domain buyer. It includes setting up a GoDaddy.com account which is very helpful to the beginner.

Hosting is the next step in the setup process and once again there are detailed instructions to follow , including helpful screenshots for the inexperienced marketer to follow. I personally like the screenshots as it shows you what to look for when setting things up. I must commend the author for including these in the book.

Alvin Phang...the "Champion of Guidance"

The author is taking us into setting up a wordpress blog on our hosting account using cpanel, and you guessed it, more detailed instructions. There are explanations as to "why" you’re doing these tasks so you will be able to not only use this manual to set up your first blog, but to use it as a reference in the future. I must say this author is the champion of guidance.

On page 48 of chapter four we are instructed on how to do FTP or file transfer protocol which is simply uploading the files from your computer to the internet or to your blog, to be more specific. Chapter four is turning out to be a very long setup process and I’m glad to see more of the detailed instructions.

The FTP client the author has chosen is filezilla. It’s a free FTP program that you download to your computer to upload your files to the internet.

Mr. Phang runs through the explanation of how filezilla works with more screenshots of the programs, shows how to insert your files and plug-ins and actually upload them to your blog. This all might seem a little confusing to the newbie, but rest assured, if the steps are followed there should be no problem.

I might mention if a person doesn’t want to or doesn’t think they can get their blog all setup and hosted with the plug-ins, Atomic Blogging does offer a setup service to do it for you. According to the website, the fee is $100 to completely set it up for you. This might be an option for those who don’t want to spend the time to do the steps or are completely lost in the process. If you are more of a visual/audio learner, at the end of chapter four is a 30 minute video.

That completes the first part in this two part, in depth review of Atomic Blogging. The second part of the review starts with adding plugins to your blog along with how to optimize for the search engines with your posts etc.

Atomic Blogging Review - Part II

In part 2 of this review I am going to cover chapters 5 to chapter 10. As a reminder, this reviewer is a novice at blogging with the exception of setting up a free blog at blogger.com and without hosting my own blog on my own hosting account.

Chapter 5 - Optimizing Your Blog

Chapter 5 is all about optimizing your blog to perform and I'm sure this is similar to optimizing any type of website. The basics are the same, however, blogs are a little different. When posting to your blog the author recommends using good title tags, meta tags and keywords in each post including grabbing as many backlinks to your blog as possible.

Using screenshots to quantify this explanation really reinforces how to do this. These screenshots are very helpful in giving a visual idea of how to use your targeted keyword in the post title, body of the post and in the description and keyword boxes.

Optimizing each post and using a category in your blog for each keyword is thoroughly explained along with the reasons for doing it which is obviously to get good search engine rankings. The author also includes a couple of great links to more seo sites to enhance wordpress blogs.

Now he takes us into different wordpress plugins with links to sites where they can be downloaded. Then he tells us the popular ones that he recommends using in your blogs which I have already installed into my own wordpress blog. The process is an easy one of installing plugins and activating them.

He also recommends some important plugins (available free), gives a short explanation of what each plugin does and the provdes the link for where to get it.

Atomic Blogging review - Chapter 6

Chapter 6 is full of powerful tips on blogging. Mr Phang explains that writing on a blog is like writing a magazine article. You write it for others to enjoy reading and there are three things to remember about writing your blog posts.

Write a compelling title for your post
Use the the keyword research tool and keyword research instructions to find the correct keywords to optimize your blog for and therefore draw traffic to it
Categorize your posts correctly (explained in detail in chapter 5)

The author explains in detail the construction of your blog posts and approximately how long each should be. Special emphasis is placed on proper title and content construction which if done correctly can draw significant traffic, but if done wrong could get your blog penalized in the search engines.

There is quite a bit of information about what to write about and keyword placement along with placeing hyperlinks in your blog articles. The point I took away from this part of the chapter is to always have a keyword mindset, categorize your blog posts using other keywords and write articles that are compelling and give the reader value.

He also gives valuable information concerning duplicate content and how the search engines read your posts and compare them with others around the world instantly looking for duplicate content.

After you create your post according to the Atomic Blogging instructions, you are guided on how long to wait to see if your blog post shows up in the search engines and taught exactly how to find it.

Outsourcing your blog posts.

If you are not a writer or find it too time consuming, outsourcing might be the way to go. Here He gives a few links to "pay for posting" sites that will actually do your posting for you. Plus an explantion of the ideal frequency of your posts.

Atomic Blogging review - Chapter 7 - Monetizing your blog

Chapter 7 is all about monetizing your blog to earn you some money from it. Up to now the book has been all about setting up a blog, getting plugins and optimizing it for traffic. Now we are going to find out why we did all those things, for the income it can produce and how to make it happen.

Contextual ads or text ads. These are simply little ads from ad networks that you can place on your blog to start bring a steady income. The author gives links to these ad networks, including Google adsense and shows you how to get an adsense account using the ever helpful screenshots.

The next income producer for your blog could be affiliate programs. There are eight different links for affiliate programs that sell digital products. He gives good information about how to find products and what to expect as far as commissions with these products.

Another way to make money with your blog is by selling services in your field of expertise - for example such as consulting can be quite lucrative.

You can also get paid to write reviews. Here we are given links to different review sites. There is an indepth explanation on joining, setting up an account and how to go about the review process.

These are just a few of the ways Atomic Blogging covers to make money with your blog. Additional methods of monetizing (making money with) your blog are covered in the course along with detailed guidance on how to implement the monetization strategies.

Atomic Blogging review - Chapter 8 - Getting traffic to your blog

Chapter 8 is all about getting traffic to your blog, I can't wait for this as my new blog is ready to go with banners, affiliate products and a couple of posts that are rich in keywords. Mr. Phang goes into some detail here of the search engines and which ones will pick you up first and how they work. Now that we are optimized the next step is to create backlinks to drive a lot of traffic to your blog.

Getting links to your blog is what really will help you drive the most traffic as they will help you rank higher in the search engines. Several techniques for getting links to your blog are covered that will create quality links to your blog. Some of the methods can even result in generating traffic very quickly, sometimes within a few hours or even faster.

Atomic Blogging review - Chapter 9 - Using web 2.0 and social networks for generating more traffic

Chapter 9 covers web 2.0 and social networks for generating more traffic. Claiming to be the real secret in Atomic Blogging, this has been saved to the last. Leveraging the power of social bookmarking sites and RSS feeds that can update the content on your blog is key.

Mr. Phang goes on to explain that there are hundreds of social bookmarking sites to submit to which would be extremely time consuming and then provides a free solution to this dilemma along with detailed instructions and screenshots.

At the end of chapter 9 there is a reminder to post at least 3 times a week for a month to see the maximum effect of Atomic Blogging.

Atomic Blogging review - Chapter 10 - advanced traffic tips and bonus chapters

Chapter 10 gives you the reader some advanced traffic tips plus some bonus chapters. I must say that as I am nearing the end of the Atomic Blogging course I have a much better understanding of what blogging is all about and how to set a blog up for maximum effectiveness, something that I didn't have before. I have come to the conclusion that blogging is truly a high-powered way to generate targeted traffic and create another stream of income.

The first tip in advanced traffic strategies involves joining one of the top free blog directories that allows blogger profiles and which gets a lot of traffic. The particular directory will typically increase your traffic and give you recognition as a professional blogger. We are then taken through the setup process with a series of screenshots including some tools that the directory provides for free. As usual the screenshots walk you through the steps to get the better tools set up.

Atomic blogging then goes the extra mile and shows you several more techniques for generating traffic from this important blog directory and some tips on how to generate even more profits for your blog using the powerful resources there.

There are numerous screenshots and explicit instructions here so one can assume that belonging to the recommended blog directory should be an important step for any blogger that is serious about getting traffic.

Advanced Marketing Tips section of Atomic Blogging

Tip #1 involved spying on and potentially profiting from your competitors ads from adwords campaigns was new to me and made me a bit uncomfortable but I went along to see what the author had in mind.

An in depth explanation followed with lots and lots of screenshots to find what the competition was doing in their adwords campaigns. Using the adwords preview from google is the recommended way and there are plenty of screenshots to explain how to do that.

Tip #2 provides important information on find super affiliates' hot selling products. Through screenshots, the author guides you into how to find super affiliates and the products they are promoting. This will give the reader a great place to pick up the latest hot sellers to add to their blog and start making affiliate sales.

Tip #3 shows you how to track your competitors' keyword list so that you can profit from their best keywords. More screenshots of using googles keyword tool to get keywords that are the most popular with your competitor.

Tip #4 shows you an extremely low-cost way to spy on your competitor to see what sells using a tool used by many of the top affiliates. As usual there is a detailed screenshot of that process. By typing in the website of your competitor you can use this tool to see what is actually selling. It's a little devious but it does give inside information on hot selling products. What's amazing is that this tool only costs $10 at the time of this writing (there's a pretty good free version available, too).

That pretty much winds up this 2nd part of the review. A quick note plus some final observations. There are, at the end of the book three pages of resource links for all sorts of services and information. I found this to be a great place to store all the links that were used in the book for a quick reference.

Visit Atomic Blogging.

The bottom line on Alvin Phang's Atomic Blogging system

In summary, there are a few things that I would like to mention as I went through the course. This course is designed for an absolute beginner all the way up to giving the advanced blogger the competitive edge.

I found this to be mostly true. As a novice in the area of blogging, but not being unfamiliar with such things as website development and FTPing I did find this course very good at explaning the in's and out's of the blogging world and as I stated in the beginning of this review, it was my intention to follow the instructions given and actually create my own blog with affiliate products, adsense ads and doing the social bookmarking.

These were all done with ease and the course is undoubtably a solid foundation for people of all experience levels to get a high traffic blog up and running quickly and somewhat easily. I did run into a couple of small glitches in uploading my files and putting ads on my blog in the ad boxes. I did have to use a little bit of my knowledge of HTML to accomplish that.

I found that as I went through the ebook there were always helpful screenshots showing exactly what to be looking for or how to perform certain functions. That being said though, the screenshots of the actual wordpress back office was somewhat different than the newer updated editions of WP but I was able to figure out where the different functions were and how to use them...

Other than that I give Alan Phang's Atomic Blogging a huge thumbs up for being a complete and comprehensive course into becoming a first class competetive blogger.