Real Moms Making Real Money Blogging at Home In Their Pajamas by Stephanie O'Dea

     For this month's book review I would like to discuss an e-book that I recently completed reading. It is called Real Moms Making Real Money Blogging At Home In Their Pajamas by Stephanie O'Dea. It is the first volume in what will be the Mommy Blogger Next Door series. Stephanie is a New York Times best selling author and also blogs at A Year of Slow Cooking at crockpot365.blogspot.com as well as at stephanieo'dea.com.
In 2008, this stay at home mom made a New Year's resolution to use her slow cooker every day and then write about it on line. This resolution resulted in a successful blog, and that success has lead to a multitude of other opportunities for her. As a result, she is now writing this current series to share with others what she learned along the way. Since the author is female, and the mother of young children, she chose to use the term "mommy blogger", but she stresses that the information contained in the book can be utilized by anyone, regardless of their gender, employment status or stage in life.
     I am a fan of Stephanie's blog, and I wish I had had one of her recipes warming in my slow cooker on the day I received this book, as I really didn't want to put it down to prepare dinner. Although it is an easy and quick read, it contains many wonderful suggestions and ideas to help a novice blogger enter this rapidly growing on line community. Unlike some other books I have read on this subject, Stephanie shows you that it is possible to enter the blogging world without investing any money. Her down to earth  writing style makes you feel like you are chatting with an old friend who is mentoring you through the process of starting a new endeavor. Her personal stories and real life examples are shared with warmth and a sense of humor, and help to take some of the mystery and confusion out of  starting a blog. In addition to ways you can generate an income from blogging, the book addresses the topics of developing a brand, social media, time management and ethics. It is a great resource for beginning bloggers (like myself), but it also contains nuggets that even established bloggers can benefit from. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and feel that it will be a resource that I will turn to again and again as I continue with my new hobby,  perhaps even turning it into a business in the future. I look forward to reading the next volume in this series as soon as it becomes available.
     Full Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book at no cost, but the opinions expressed here are my own and were unsolicited.