Blogging for Dummies

by Brad Hill

If you want to give yourself a Web presence without spending a lot of time or money, a blog is your answer and this is your guide. Blogs (Web logs) are short, diary-like entries on a Web site that has a chronological, journal format. Fun or informative, but not formal, blogs are easy to set up, maintain, and update. You can share your personal, stream-of-consciousness musings or your expertise on any subject ranging from your family vacation to world peace. This guide helps beginners (even technophobes) get started fast, with the essential info on:
The elements of blogs, such as entries, sidebars, categories, comments, and index pages The different types of hosting services, from free to fee and from "turn key" services that are easy-to-use to DIY programs Details on two popular, free "social community" hosted Web services that are ideal for casual bloggers--MSN Spaces and Yahoo! 360 The scoop on Blogger, a popular free hosted service that has some community tools like the social networks, but is basically blog-intensive DIY blogging, covering three of the most powerful and flexible blog programs--Movable Type, WordPress, and Radio Userland Hooking into RSS feeds to distribute your blog entries beyond your site Choosing a newsreader Ways to raise the visibility of your blog and make money from blogging Complete with step-by-step instructions and lots of screen shots, this guide walks you through everything from setting up your blog and posting your first entry to adding photos, audio, and more. It includes the URLs of lots of sample sites to see to give you an idea of blog possibilities. In addition to the essential how-to, it fills you in on:


The blogosphere, blog culture and etiquette, snarks, macrologues, and more Moblogs that let you post entries remotely using your portable computer, PDA, or cell phone Buying a domain through a registrar such as Network Solutions, Register.com, or Go Daddy MP3 blogs, vlogs (videoblogs), photoblogging, audioblogging, podcasting, and more You know you have something to say, whether it's heavy stuff or just your thought for the day. Make your opinions known. Get your photos shown. With Blogging For Dummies, you'll soon be blogging with the best of 'em.

Genres: Self Help, Business, Nonfiction, Writing, Web, Ebooks, Reference

384 pages

First published January 13, 2006

Reviews

[S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Covers blogging and the various blogging tools and software available in a fun and comprehensive manner.

[Luke Goldstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first of the "For Dummies" books I ever picked up. I consider myself fairly computer literate, so there was a lot of stuff in here that I didn't need, but what it did well was break down all the different blogging protocol and programs and with that info I was able to make a much more educated choice on where to move my blog (now located on a Wordpress platform at ). I enjoyed the format of the book well enough to trust another one of the series to help me learn some guitar basics. We'll see how that one goes.

[Anthony Zappia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad guide if you're starting out in Blogs. The beauty of it is it doesn't just cover blogs. It covers topics such as Twitter, podcasts, flicker and youTube; in other words, how you can use these different aspects of web2.0 with your blog. It unfortunately only covers Wordpress and Blogger as blogging platforms. Lots of tips and ideas in this book, particularly in the area of monetizing your blog, marketing, etc. Worth checking out if you're totally new to blogs.

[Ahmed Al sanhani]

This book is a good start for those who first time read about blogging. It does give valuable content in regard with explaining blogging in a basic way, and helps first time bloggers to choose best blogging websites and softwares for them with detailed explanation of their features and usage. For those who want to start on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis blogging, they should start with this book. It is goong to be good guideline to start with.

[melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

i've had a blogger account & xanga account & now i'm trying to build a blog for my business. i wanted to know if it would be easier to feed a blogger account into my own website or do something else. this gave me some insight & also some other ideas. the writer is funny.

[Jaya]

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[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

very elementary on blogging. good for first timers

[Abubakar-Sadiq Saliu Ibiefo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Insightful...

[Ben Kellermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want to give yourself a Web presence without spending a lot of time or money, a blog is your answer and this is your guide. Blogs (Web logs) are short, diary–like entries on a Web site that has a chronological, journal format. Fun or informative, but not formal, blogs are easy to set up, maintain, and update. You can share your personal, stream–of–consciousness musings or your expertise on any subject ranging from your family vacation to world peace. This guide helps beginners (even technophobes) get started fast, with the essential info on: The elements of blogs, such as entries, sidebars, categories, comments, and index pages The different types of hosting services, from free to fee and from “turn key” services that are easy–to–use to DIY programs  Details on two popular, free “social community” hosted Web services that are ideal for casual bloggers—MSN Spaces and Yahoo! 360 The scoop on Blogger, a popular free hosted service that has some community tools like the social networks, but is basically blog–intensive DIY blogging, covering three of the most powerful and flexible blog programs—Movable Type, WordPress, and Radio Userland Hooking into RSS feeds to distribute your blog entries beyond your site Choosing a newsreader Ways to raise the visibility of your blog and make money from blogging Complete with step–by–step instructions and lots of screen shots, this guide walks you through everything from setting up your blog and posting your first entry to adding photos, audio, and more. It includes the URLs of lots of sample sites to see to give you an idea of blog possibilities. In addition to the essential how–to, it fills you in on: The blogosphere, blog culture and etiquette, snarks, macrologues, and more Moblogs that let you post entries remotely using your portable computer, PDA, or cell phone Buying a domain through a registrar such as Network Solutions, Register.com, or Go Daddy MP3 blogs, vlogs (videoblogs), photoblogging, audioblogging, podcasting, and more You know you have something to say, whether it’s heavy stuff or just your thought for the day. Make your opinions known. Get your photos shown. With Blogging For Dummies, you’ll soon be blogging with the best of ‘em.