It’s good to see that my friends Andy Wibbels and Darren Rowse are back with their Six Figure Blogging teaching program to help people make a living, seriously, with blogging.

Andy Wibbels is, straight up, one of the best online teachers of blogging – and other mysteries of the online world – you could find in a day’s march. He lives and breathes this stuff and has a marvellous combination, as a teacher, of huge enthusiasm and amazing, cheerful patience with newbies (I know, he had to be very patient with me). He is the author of Blogwild!: A Guide for Small Business Blogging.

Darren Rowse is of course the original Six Figure Blogger and is also, through his immensely popular Pro Blogger site, an accomplished and generous sharer of information, guidance and insider clues to making blogging a real business proposition. Darren is also one of the founders and a current owner of the b5media blogging network, which I believe at last count had over 300 bloggers on the list.

Believe me, neither Andy nor Darren is going to blow smoke and tell you that you can make six figures (or even five) without much effort or overnight. In a recent post, A Reality Check about Blogging for Money, Darren spelled out five facts about blogging as a way of making a living:

1. It takes a concerted, long term effort
2. It takes luck
3. It takes a lot of work
4. Many don’t make much money blogging
5. It’s hard

Just so you don’t think that reads “impossible”, in the same post Darren mentioned – and did not dispute – the recent Wall Street Journal article that said he “earned roughly $250,000 in 2007 off ads on three blogs he writes”.

The emphasis of the course is on how to make a (very good to excellent) living through blogging, rather than on how to use blogging as a marketing tool for other businesses. But from being aware of the scope of Andy and Darren’s knowledge and the very practical business sense they both have, I know there would also be terrific value in this course for someone wanting to – if I may make the distinction – blog for business, rather than blogging as business.

What the course is about, in summary:

• How blogs make money – sometimes thousands of dollars
• How to drive and convert blog traffic
• Blogging as an occupation (not just a marketing activity) including blog networks

Some key elements:

• Six 1-hour calls starting in April + extensive transcripts in PDF format
• Archives of the 2005 run of the course are also available audio recordings
• Instant, anywhere, lifetime access – archives are available forever from any internet connection on any browser

And there is a preview on April 2nd at 8pm EST (US)

In case it’s not obvious, I’m really happy to promote this course enthusiastically. That’s not just because I am an affiliate of Andy’s, so have some potential personal benefit, but because:

• I know that there are a lot of people who would like to do this kind of course with knowledgeable, trustworthy teachers
• I have great respect for Andy and Darren and know they will deliver what they promise
• The value for money is amazing (I actually did not believe the price – at the early bird price it is truly a steal and I hope regular readers of this blog will agree I don’t go in for hype)

For more information and your questions answered, go to this link for the Six Figure Blogging course.

(picture of Andy and Des at BlogWorld Expo 07 by Suzie Cheel: picture of Darren by Technosailor via Flickr)