Jon Morrow’s Big Black Book Review

Product name: Big Black Book

Website: www.guestblogging.com

Type of business: Guest Blogging directory

Price: $7

Owner: Jon Morrow

My rating: 4 out of 5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you have a blog or website and have been in the industry for a while, you might have heard of the term Guest Blogging.

I wasn’t a believer of guest blogging even though I know the potential mainly because it was a tedious process to actually apply as many huge blogs never replied to my application and the rest… well they never even gave you their email addresses in the first place which often leads me to a wall.

However, when I came across Jon Morrow’s Big Black Book of Rock-Solid Guest Blogging Targets, I was tempted to buy and give it a try.

I bought the book and was absolutely amazed at the number of companies listed inside as well as their contact details which made my job a bit easier so immediately, I sent emails to a few blogs to see how it goes.

I applied for Business2Community, Famous Bloggers, SEO Watch, SEO People, and Write-to-done.

The process will usually take a few weeks and I’ll come back to this page to share my results but for now, this is my full review of the Big Black Book and the author…

 

Jon Morrow – Getting to Know the Author

Jon is the founder of guestblogging.com which is where I bought this book of his.

Although he’s not a renowned name in the world of blogging, he has got loads of experience in it and has written for top blogs such as Kissmetrics and appeared in various interviews.

He wasn’t always a pro blogger though, he’s also an entrepreneur with a keen mindset since young and very driven too as he graduated magna cum laude with a 3.9 GPA at 21 years old, graduated high school at 16, and started buying and selling millions of dollars in real estate at 22.

I love reading about entrepreneurs and their achievements because that gave me strength and inspiration to chase after my dreams too and that is why I believe Jon is going to be the next big name in the blogging world.

He left his real-life business though, and now he’s focusing more on building his online career.

He became the Associate Editor of Copyblogger (Former now) and he’s also the brains behind Boost Blog Traffic but don’t let me bore you with who he is, but rather what he does because I’m sure you’re just dying to know…

 

What is the Big Black Book?

Jon Morrow’s Big Black Book of Rock-Solid Guest Blogging Targets is simply put, a directory containing over 100 powerhouse blogs which you can choose to opt for guest blogging.

This book is only the tip of the iceberg though, because the real training program on guest blogging made also by Jon is something else which I will do a review on after some time joining and learning (I tend to take a longer time when reviewing programs because there are much to learn and many things to take into consideration of).

Guest Blogging sounds easy, it can be when you are already accepted by the blog but the barrier of an entry comes when joining – It’s super difficult to get accepted!

I’ve tried applying for many blogs like the Huff Post but have never gotten any reply but with the Big Black Book, I can find out who the lower-ranked blogs are so that start my guest blogging journey small and make my way up which is pretty cool.

The Huff Post is pretty big and although I’m starting small by targeting smaller blogs for guest blogging, I hope to one day reach the top. Even the thought of it is exciting.

Guest Blogging Wouldn’t be as Effective if You Don’t Have a Blog to Start With. Learn How to do That Here!

 

What I Like About This Book.

There are a few reasons as to why I find the Big Black Book helpful when just starting out and those are…

Reason #1 – The Blogs are Categorized According to Niches

It’s pretty cool knowing that someone actually took up the initiative and make a list of the top 100 super blogs on the web.

It’s 103 blogs to be exact, but doing that takes a lot of research and is something I really admire as it can take up a lot of time which my guess – 2 months.

It took me 1 week to write a 6,000 words article so a 65 page PDF filled with the list of all the super blogs on the web would really take some time and well worth the $7 price charged.

Listing down blogs is cool but not as cool as…

Reason #2 -Providing Contact Details of the Editors

This may seem like nothing but when it comes to applying for guest blogging, you’d be surprised as to how difficult it can get to actually contact the editors to send in your articles.

Sure there are many blogs like HubSpot and Write-to-done which have email contacts written there but there are just too many blogs that don’t have those details and you’ll spend hours scouring their websites just to get a wee email (I’ve personally gone through this).

Sometimes, you may even need to get in touch with the other guest bloggers and patch you to someone from the inside which can be really embarrassing since you’re asking someone you don’t know a favor.

Jon Morrow did it well by placing links to the website, about page, contact, and guideline which can really save you a lot of time and help you get results faster.

Reason #3 – Straight to the Point

When it comes to business, people hate reading through the fluff and most writers often add more of it to give the visual of ‘thicker’ content which is something many of us don’t like.

It’s okay to have fluff on stories but when it comes to doing anything business where people are just dying to find answers, we have read many articles online on how to find it so by being straight to the point, one can easily earn loyal followers.

 

What the Big Black Book Lacks

Not all products are perfect and so is the Big Black Book, here are a few elements which I wish Jon would add in…

Point #1 – Guidelines on how to approach

Even if there are no guidelines, a few short pieces of advice would be pretty useful to help beginners get started.

When I first emailed the editors to accept my guest post, I wrote all my emails really long because someone told me ‘you have to show them that you are prepared’.

Although this may be true in most cases, it’s a bit different in guest posting.

I didn’t know that the shorter your email the better because the thought of the editors seeing thousands of emails per day didn’t occur to me as I was still green.

Guidelines are important to help people get started and so having this will greatly add up to the quality of Jon’s book.

Things like what not to do or what is the best way to approach though simple can go a long way to helping people succeed.

 Point #2 – A Table of Contents

This may be a small problem but it is difficult to keep track of the topics when you can’t easily detect them.

The Niche topics like finance or freelance are important in getting you to the page easily but since there are no partitions between topics (Everything is mixed up), navigating is tedious as you have to scroll back up and down to find the title with an underline on it.

Although I do love how there are links to all websites and contact emails, things are pretty jumbled up like you’re going through the blogging niche and found that the finance niche is also there not to mention other niches too so you’ll end up sorting through and making your own list.

It’s not much of a big deal but when there are hundreds of names to go through, it helps to quickly find blogs that we want to go through on that specific niche faster.

Point #3 – It Doesn’t Really Tell You Which Blogs are for Beginners

I may have mentioned this before but it can be a bit difficult for newbies to start without guidance on where to go.

Every businessman wants to have a huge building (Most of them, not all) of our own but without directions on where to start, we might go straight to making a loan without establishing our business first.

The same goes for a child – they cannot build their dream rocket without planning on how it looks first.

When you first open the book, it’ll be an explosion of information without clear guidance on which contact should you go for first, or how should you approach them as there’s literally no direction on what you should do.

The book is meant to be a directory and I understand that Jon might have wanted to make it function as just that and nothing more but it could go a long way to helping people navigate the eBook better if there are at least some steps to share with us as most of the people who would buy this product would most probably be beginners who are eager to start guest blogging.

Hence, having directions on where to go first is important so that we can estimate our success better as we can then have a clear grasp of what’s going on and I really hope Jon would consider adding this part in the book.

 

Is the Big Black Book Meant for Anyone?

This book is meant for any bloggers or website owners who want to generate traffic back to their websites.

The idea of Guest Blogging is simple – You find a huge blog like the Huff Post or PC Magazine, apply to become a guest blogger, write an article and get famous!

There has been a lot of arguments on whether or not guest blogging works because previously, the reason people do guest blogging is that they want their websites to get linked back but since that practice is being frowned upon by Google, many have second thoughts on this.

However, Guest Blogging still works not because of the backlinks but because of the popularity authors will gain when they post something because face it, you’ve found guilty clicking on the author’s profile before somewhere right?

Huge blogs have millions of readers and there will bound to be a certain percentage of readers who are curious enough to find out to whom do they owe the honor of reading the first place.

Especially when an article is super helpful, you might want to read more of that author’s bio wouldn’t you?

The next thing you know, you’re already reading the author’s related blog posts as well and eventually, check out his website and social media and that is how bloggers can generate huge traffic through blogs.

 

Do I Recommend Jon Morrow’s Big Black Book?

Definitely!

It is hard for me to actually recommend a certain product to my readers because I take into account many criteria such as price, value, methods used (I don’t support blackhat) and upsells because one can never be too cautious when scam products are launched every single day.

Out of 10 products I review, I usually get only one or two that I deem legitimate and you can see my list of programs that receives my green light here.

This is because before finding the right program to help me get started with my Online Business, I have come across countless scams that almost destroyed my dreams of ever making money online.

That program is called Wealthy Affiliate and it’s currently my top-ranked program which I usually recommend to my fellow bloggers or anyone who is interested in building a career online because if I had given up to those scams, I would never have been able to get to where I am now.

Only after learning the proper ways of building a website and ranking it high on Google did I finally got the courage to face back those scams that tricked me when I was young and fresh writing reviews about them which is why I set my bar a bit high compared to many other websites.

Building a website and being able to monetize is great, however one can never be too short of traffic and learning how to become a guest blogger for huge blogs is a great way to build a name for yourself and get more traffic for your blog.

 

Conclusion

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When reviewing products, I usually compare them with the best one that I have to help you make a better decision.

However, Jon Morrow’s Big Black Book of Rock-Solid Guest Blogging Targets is something that I believe every blogger should have because I find that it complements whatever website niche you’re currently and it is an addition to my current program, Wealthy Affiliate.

It is not something compulsory every website should have, however having the list of 103 powerhouse blogs With their contact details in your hand is a major game-changer that can definitely bring any small-time blogs to be in league with the big boys, supposing you make use of it.

Thanks for reading my review, don’t be afraid to drop your comments down below and I’ll be more than happy to reply.