Review of Cloud Living (Glen Allsopp)

Note: Feel free to skip my preamble and jump straight to the subheading “Overview” for the review bit!

I’ve been watching Glen’s online activities with interest, and occasionally a certain amount of envy and/or despair: he writes for a number of the same blogs as me, but a few months back, he seemed to be everywhere – sometimes, my RSS reader showed as many as half-a-dozen articles by him on various sites.

I began to get the impression that Glen was up to something, something beyond just beating my guest posting record into the dust. I learnt that he’d accomblished a huge amount for someone so dismayingly young (whereas I’ve reached the grand old age of twenty-four…) We exchanged a few emails; he seemed like someone very much on my wavelength, someone who had an interest in ventures and adventures. I quoted him in my Staff Blogging Course. I added his own PluginID to my regular reads, and was excited to hear that he had an ebook, Cloud Living, on the way.

And when it was launched, like any good friend, I promptly sent him an email to cadge a review copy. (Glen, if you’re in London some time, I’ll buy you a drink…)

I have to admit, I wasn’t sure there’d be much in Cloud Living for me. Glen was honest about aiming Cloud Living at beginners. Plus, half of it focused on “minisites”, which I figured was just another way of saying “niche sites”, which have never held my interest for long – churning out search-engine copy on site after site just doesn’t appeal to me.

But I was impressed with not only the amount of detail and the useful tips I picked up from Glen, but also by the enthusiasm and encouragement that comes across so strongly in his writing. Plus, like any blogger, I’m nosy enough to want to know the details of other people’s income … even when it sparks off a rather unworthy stab of jealousy.

All in all, Cloud Living is the sort of ebook I love: it’s inspiring, it’s written in a chatty tone, but most of all, it’s packed with practical, step-by-step advice. If you think it might be up your street, here’s my review:

Overview

Cloud Living is a whopping 176-page ebook by Glen Allsopp, who’s making a monthly five figure income from his online ventures.

The price

Astonishingly good value at $37. I’ve bought a few ebooks in my time (and considered a heck of a lot more), and that’s really cheap for the amount of information packed in here, and the extras: a couple of videos, great for visual learners, and an easy-to-use WordPress template for creating minisites.

What’s included

Ebook

The ebook is split into two main sections, “Minisites” and “Blogs”. There’s a little bit of overlap between the two, which ensures that you could just follow one section or the other, according to your interests. Each section takes you step-by-step through exactly what you need to do in order to create a minisite or blog.

The first twenty pages explain what “Cloud Living” means – basically, making income from the “cloud”, the internet – and what the benefits are.

Part way through, Glen throws in two interviews with a couple of big names: Jonathan Fields, the author of Career Renegade, and Chris Guillebeau, who blogs about The Art of Nonconformity.

The ebook ends with some straightforward, high-pay-off productivity advice.

Extras

Glen also includes six videos to help demonstrate some of the technical concepts in a step-by-step way. Due to the size of videos, these are linked to in the ebook, on a password-protected site.

As if all that wasn’t enough for your $37, Glen adds his own minisite-optimised template, a documentation guide, and free email support.

Good stuff

I’m trying to keep this review to a reasonable length, so I’ll limit myself to just four things that I particularly enjoyed:

1.      Glen’s positive attitude and tone

In all my interaction with Glen – the emails we’ve exchanged, and the many articles of his that I’ve read – he’s come across as a really delightful chap. I was pleased to have this impression confirmed by his ebook. His tone is consistently friendly and encouraging without ever being patronising: he sends a very strong message to the reader that “you can do this too”.

And he’s completely on my wavelength when it comes to getting more from life:

What is it that you love to do? What is it that makes you happy? What do you seemingly do for a few minutes only to realise you were so in the ‘zone’ that hours have passed by?

Do you get to do enough of this? If not, then you’re not making the most of life.

(pg 10, Cloud Living)

2.      Concrete figures and examples

I get frustrated when ebook authors claim massive success – but don’t have anything to back it up. Glen’s very upfront about sharing details of his income, and it really is encouraging to see the proof that his system works.

He also links to one of his own minisites: hugely useful, and something that most internet marketer types will never do for fear of encouraging dozens of competitors to put up similar sites.

3.      Step by step approach

Ebooks often leave me feeling inspired and encouraged, just like Cloud Living did – but they also tend to leave me feeling a bit unsure what to do next. Even if I’ve picked up a lot of advice and tips, I can end up dithering over how best to implement them.

Glen goes in a slow, steady way through all the steps needed to set up a minisite or blog (his instructions on keyword research were particularly invaluable; I’ve wanted some concrete advice on this for ages).

4.      Minisites actually sound good

I mentioned earlier that I was sceptical about the idea of “minisites” – were these just niche website by another name? I have to say, this part of the ebook managed not only to intrigue me; it won me over, and I’m in the planning stage for a minisite of my own (I’ll let you know how it goes).

I’ll share with you a quote from the ebook that pretty much sums up Glen’s attitude here, and which flies in the face of some of what I’ve read about niche sites: he explains that you should pick a product you love because “you’re not just promoting something for the money, you’re promoting something you believe in.” (p29)

Bad stuff

I ended up feeling as envious of Glen as ever, and wondering how the heck he can have accomplished so much in such a short time! (Though he even shares his time-management techniques at the end of the ebook, so if I don’t manage similar success, I’ll only have myself to blame…)

Apart from that, the only slight niggle I had was that some of the content in the blogging section was repeated from Glen’s free Blogging Blueprint. To be honest, though, I felt that this was a good call: after all, I’d be a bit annoyed if I bought Cloud Living only to be told “I’ve taken out some pages here, go and download this other guide to get the rest of the information you need.”

Verdict

Glen outlines the benefits of Cloud Living right at the start of the ebook. These include:

• Unlimited income potential
• Share your value
• Set your own tasks
• Work your own hours
• Nobody to answer to
• Chance to make the most of life

All of these, especially the last point, matter to me. Since you’re reading a blog on “getting more from life”, I’d guess that they sound good to you too.

You definitely don’t need to be good with technology to use Cloud Living, especially since Glen provides videos and very easy-to-follow instructions. If you can read a blog, you can use this ebook.

Frankly, I’m finding it hard to see a reason why you wouldn’t want to buy Cloud Living. If you’re an expert niche website creator, or a six-figure-earning blogger, you’re probably not going to pick up anything new. But for the other 99% of us, this contains serious, solid knowledge, and a big dose of inspiration and encouragement. Depending on your circumstances, Cloud Living could be truly life-changing.