Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts

Blogging in a Snap (Sams Teach Yourself) Review

Blogging in a Snap (Sams Teach Yourself)
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Blogging in a Snap (Sams Teach Yourself) ReviewBlogging in a Snap
By Julie C. Meloni
SAMS Publishing
ISBN 0-672-32843-7
270 pages
Price: US $24.99, CAN $34.99 £17.99
If you've been thinking about starting your own blog but haven't figured out how and where to begin, Blogger.com is a very popular place to check out. Its simple user interface can get you up and blogging in no time.
Though the set up instructions for Blogger.com is are relatively easy, Julie Meloni's Blogging in a Snap explains the obvious and not so obvious ins and outs of blogging on Blogger.com. She takes you through the process of setting up your account, selecting a template, configuring your comments settings, creating your blogging profile, naming your blog, writing and publishing your first posts, and bringing potential readers to your site.
If you've already begun a blogging on Blogger.com and you want to expand your use, Meloni explains how to modify your template using HTML and CSS codes, how use third-party tools, and how to create a moblog, a type of blogging done with your cell phone. I was surprised that she doesn't explain how to edit the link list, which is an essential part of every Blogger template. Unlike other blogger platforms, Blogger requires that you manually add links in the template itself using HTML code.
I've visited many Blogger.com websites and noticed a number of new bloggers who seemingly don't know how to modify their site, such as the elements in the sidebar. They haven't learned how to add links or change the names of the subheadings. Perhaps the reason for this is because they have to open up and modify the blogsite's template. Users with little or no knowledge of HTML code might even wonder why they have access to this coded template. What on earth do you do with language that looks like this:
Meloni tries to demystify the template code and show you ways to customize your Blogger site. Like other SAMS Teach Yourself books, Melon's step-by-step instructions include numerous screen shots that reflect and expand on what she explains in her textual instructions.
She includes the template code for one of Blogger.com's basic templates and identifies and explains its major elements, like the header, sidebar items, the comments-related area, and the metadata. Her best instructions are when she takes you step by step through a particular template modification, like including images in your blog posts, adding tables, displaying recent comments and adding a blogroll on your main page. However, some of her other perhaps more advance HTML and CSS modification strategies are too brief and could use more explaining or a second book for intermediate and advance users.
Learning and using HTML and CSS code can be daunting for many users. Working through this book gave me the idea to print out a copy of my Blogger template and peruse it using Meloni's guidelines. There's little risks making modifications to your template if you back-up a copy of it and use the preview button before saving your changes. I also magnify my template on my computer screen (using Command-+) so I can better read and modify selected code. The template window also includes a button to clear the edits you make in it.
Meloni goes to explain how to use many other and newer tools found on the Internet. For example, how to use your Flickr account to insert images and messages in your Blogger site. And setting up a Google ads and affiliation links if you're interested in making a few bucks with your blog.
A useful Appendix further explaining HTML and CSS fundamentals is included, but a list of additional resources might have been valuable for intermediate bloggers.
Overall, Blogging in a Snap is a good introduction if you want to set up an account with Blogger.com (other platforms are not covered.) The instructions are clear and concise, and Meloni has set up a Blogger site to promote and make updates to her book.
MyMac.com Rating: 4 out 5Blogging in a Snap (Sams Teach Yourself) OverviewThe World Wide Web is a big place, and it is hard to find your way through it, much less make an impact on it. Blogs have revolutionized the idea of each person having a voice on the web and Sams Teach Yourself Blogging In a Snap is your guide to making your mark on the Internet world. This comprehensive guide to blogging focuses on using Blogger, the blogging tool hosted by Google. Blogger is a user-friendly blogging tool, but documentation on how to maximize your blogging experience using it is limited. This book bridges that gap, and provides you with everything you need to know to create and maintain your blog, from setting up a Blogger account to creative blogging tricks and techniques to blogging etiquette. You'll learn how to customize your blog, comment on other people's blogs, and share photos through your blog. Even if you already know what blogging is and are just looking for a few tips on how to make your blog bigger and better, the book's modular, task-based format will allow you to jump in anywhere and be on your way. Join the blogging craze with the help of Sams Teach Yourself Blogging In a Snap.

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Friction is Fiction: The Future of Content, Media & Business (Black & White Edition) Review

Friction is Fiction: The Future of Content, Media and Business (Black and White Edition)
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Friction is Fiction: The Future of Content, Media & Business (Black & White Edition) Reviewand Gerd has a lot to say about it. Friction is Fiction is a collection of essays and blogs by media futurist Gerd Leonhard. An excellent introduction to the new paradigm shift in digital media. If you are looking to make sense of the canary in the coal mine collapse of the Compact Disc and the mainstream record company business model Leonhard explains not only what happened but what will continue to happen to content providers and users of music, film, video, books, newspapers and all forms of media. Rather than lamenting the loss of old business models Leonhard focuses primarily on the excitement and opportunities presented by the current media revolution. He is not the only proselytizer of the new culture of free but one of my favorites because of the lack of hyperbole and unnecessary drama. I also appreciate his global perspective and positive attitude. Highly recommended.
Friction is Fiction: The Future of Content, Media & Business (Black & White Edition) OverviewFuturist and Thought-Leader Gerd Leonhard (www.mediafuturist.com) shares his thoughts on the Future of Content, Media and Business. 'Friction is Fiction' presents a constantly updated compilation of Gerd's best essays, writings and most popular blog posts. The central meme is that the Internet has completely disrupted the traditional notion of generating higher income by simply taking advantage of possible friction points and hurdles within transactions or business processes, i.e. by controlling the 'people formerly known as consumers'. The Future is all about winning the trust, and turning attention into revenues.This is the low-cost, black & white version of the book - if you want the full-color version please go to http://gerd.fm/cmrfB1

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WordPress 2.7 Complete Review

WordPress 2.7 Complete
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WordPress 2.7 Complete ReviewThis book helped me figure out how to convert an existing site to a WordPress theme, an especially challenging project since my existing html page design didn't have any clear header, middle, footer arrangement. I was able to figure out where I wanted to take things with my own theme development mostly from reading Chapter 6. (Getting under the engine with the WP template tags is far more empowering than following a tutorial that has you start out by fiddling around with an image in Photoshop.) Well written, too.WordPress 2.7 Complete OverviewWritten in a clear, easy-to-read style, the book takes you through the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book. This book is a guide to WordPress for both beginners and those who are slightly more advanced. It's for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner, and it's also for people who want to learn how to customize and expand the capabilities of a WordPress web site. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT-confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog.

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WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner's Guide Review

WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner's Guide
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WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner's Guide ReviewWordPress MU, especially with the BuddyPress set of plug-ins, is a powerful and flexible framework that power a company blog or social networking site. WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner's Guide overall is a good introduction to these tools, and even for an experienced WordPress person I found some useful tips and valuable additions to my WordPress `tool belt'. But the book is also not without its flaws.
Where the author gets technical, with step-by-step instructions, it suffers. In part because plug-ins or features describes are not quite correct, or things have changed. In part because the focus on the technical is at the expense of an overall viewpoint -- classic forest vs. trees types of views. For instance in the second chapter she details how to get your WordPress MU installation set up in a locally run web server utilizing WAMP server. But most local web servers installed on a personal computer don't play well with the subdomain-style blog naming she recommends. To her defense if you follow her instructions to the letter it works as she describes, but if you choose to add blogs or alter the names she uses you'll get lost fast.
The chapters that really shine are later in the book, where she gives an overview of a subject -- security, increasing traffic, making it 'sticky', and monetizing it -- walks through the issue, and then provides a couple of sample methods or plug-ins. If this book is truly for the beginner, this type of overview with not just hows, but whys, is really what is needed. A real beginner needs to understand how to plan and use the site -- technical details such as editing their .htaccess file seems like more than they need to know. That kind of stuff can easily be found on-line - or maybe on wiki tied to the book that allows reader contributions and supplemental material.
I am happy I read the book, and it will be a valued resource on my bookshelf. If you have been running your own WordPress site, or are an experienced web developer looking to explorer the many exciting possibilities that WordPress MU/BuddyPress has to offer, this is a good resource to start with. If you are really a beginner, you might want to start smaller, or find an experienced friend to help you get started.WordPress MU 2.8: Beginner's Guide OverviewPacked with easy-to-follow examples and screenshots, this book is designed to be followed from beginning to end, although those with existing WordPress MU sites will be able to jump in at the later chapters and pick out the things that are important to them. The author's expertise with creating a wide variety of WordPress sites enables her to share insights on using WordPress effectively, in a clear and friendly way. Those interested in digging further will be given the chance to customize their site further. Throughout the book, you will build up a blog network for Vampire Slayers - SlayerCafe.com, as an example. If you wish to manage multiple blogs and build a blog network, then this book is for you. You are not expected to be experienced with PHP coding. Some knowledge of HTML, and some experience with the blogging and social networking world will be helpful, but not essential.

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David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress: An Instant Start-Up Manual for Creating and Promoting Your Own Photoblog Review

David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress: An Instant Start-Up Manual for Creating and Promoting Your Own Photoblog
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David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress: An Instant Start-Up Manual for Creating and Promoting Your Own Photoblog ReviewIf you are not myopic before starting at page 1 of this book, then any reader will be so shortly thereafter. Full screen's worth of information from the WordPress dashboard are repeatedly reproduced as images barely 2 inches in height. No full photograph reproduced in the book is any more than the same 2 inch "standard" size. (Only the chapter title pages will give you any relief - there the typography is huge; four or five words fill a full page ....) As a result, it's very hard to judge how a particular WordPress Theme and/or pictorial layout will actually look based upon the examples covered in the book. Moreover, there's no coverage dedicated to slideshows. The word "Slideshow" doesn't even appear in the index. Altogether very disappointing.
David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress: An Instant Start-Up Manual for Creating and Promoting Your Own Photoblog OverviewPhotoblogs have become a very important tool for advanced photographers and professionals who want to market their work, as well as a popular forum for casual photographers to share personal photos. "David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress: An Instant Start-Up Manual for Creating and Promoting Your Own Photoblog" is a complete start to-finish guide on how to create a photoblog using WordPress, the most popular blogging software among photographers that allows you to create a blog site for free, hosted on WordPress.com. This guide explains the purpose and function of all the features and capabilities of each WordPress tool, how to use them, and why. Laid out in clear, well-illustrated two- and four-page spreads, each step-by-step explanation includes images that show the results after using each feature. All the basics of creating a WordPress account, setting up your photoblog, uploading your first photos, and sharing them, are presented in an easy to browse format. Perfect for professional photographers, avid amateur shutterbugs, and even non-photography bloggers who want to include photos on their blog sites, "David Busch's Quick Snap Guide to Photoblogging with WordPress" will help you get up and blogging quickly and easily.Inside the Book: Sample Screenshots Fig. 5.12."You can see what your blog will look likein the Preview window--this gives you achance to see it without having toenable it on your live site first."

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Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend Review

Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend
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Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend ReviewThis book, written in 1998 and revised in 2000, by Internet time standards can be considered outdated at the time of this writing (August 2002). The author unfortunately touched on a number of Web sites and tactics that nowadays are either dead (Web sites) or considered bad internet marketing practices (redirecting, use of link farms) that could actually get you delisted. The section on traffic analysis at least talks about a professional tool (WebTrends) but then goes down a long and unnecessarily technical talk about web logs that is sure to bore the heck out of non-technical readers. If you don't mind getting spammed big time, by registering for some of the services the author recommends that are still around, and don't mind dropping in the ranks of Google at all, then get this book and follow its advice. Otherswise, download (and pay) for a license of WebPosition Gold and read the book that Amazon sells about it.Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend OverviewThese days, everyone seems to have a home page or a Web site. However, just because you create and publish a Web site doesn't mean anyone will visit it. Competition to attract visitors is extreme. The reality is that of the millions of Web pages out there, only a handful actually attract a steady readership; and these same Web pages are the ones that attract advertisers. In order to compete, you need to develop and implement a Web site promotion plan. How can you know if people are visiting your Web site, and if they aren't, what can you do about it? What can you do to earn money on your Web site? Is there an easy way to attract readers and advertisers without spending a fortune? Yes is the answer to all of these questions, and Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend, Sixth Edition maps out a cost effective, comprehensive plan that both Web beginners and experts can use to build an audience for a home page or Web site. This book has compiled low-cost Web promotion and advertising techniques collected from the authors' years of practical experience, but you can implement them all in just one weekend!
What You'll Learn
Increase Your Web Traffic in a Weekend, Sixth Edition teaches you how to attract new visitors to your Web site and explains how to keep visitors coming back. The authors do so by helping you develop your own Web site promotion plan, leveraging a bevy of free and low-cost Web promotion and advertising techniques collected from years of practical experience. By reading this book, you will:

Learn how to increase Web traffic using different crawler-based search engines like Google and Bing and different directories like the Yahoo directory and the Open directory.
Learn how to leverage social media Web site like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace to drive additional traffic to your Web site.
Learn how search engines work and then find out how to leverage this information to increase search engine results for your Web site by improving keyword selection, descriptions, page titles, meta-information, etc.
Learn how to drive traffic to your Web site using e-zines and how to find the e-zines that work best for you.
Find out how to get your Web site listed as the cool site of the day and how to win awards that will help get your Web site noticed.
Find out how to use direct e-mail, newsgroups, and mailing lists as a means of marketing your Web site.
Discover how to use services provided by Web sites like eBay and Amazon.com to attract new visitors to your Web site.
Discover how easy it is to advertise your Web site using free banner exchanges.
Learn how to attract the masses by sponsoring your own giveaways, contests, sweepstakes, and more.
Discover who is visiting your Web site and find out what you can do to keep them coming back by learning how to analyze your Web traffic.


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Keyword Research for Business: A How-To Guide Review

Keyword Research for Business: A How-To Guide
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Keyword Research for Business: A How-To Guide ReviewMy website has been pretty successful and it even ranks for some keywords that are very lucrative but I never before realized just how important those specific keywords and traffic that they drive were to my business. After reading this book, I have a much better understanding of how to choose the right keywords for my website, blog and other web content that I create.Keyword Research for Business: A How-To Guide OverviewKeyword research is one of the core facets of a business' strategy - not only online, but on the broad-spectrum.The keywords used in search engines to look for products, services or information online are the same words that drive our thoughts when it comes to getting what we want.As a result, keyword research should be a factor in determining online and offline marketing, product development and business strategies. In this How-to Guide, James Constableenlightens readers of the true necessity for keyword research for any and every business.

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Realty Blogging: Build Your Brand and Out-Smart Your Competition Review

Realty Blogging: Build Your Brand and Out-Smart Your Competition
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Realty Blogging: Build Your Brand and Out-Smart Your Competition ReviewReal estate agents certainly have a much harder job today than they did in the pre-Internet days. I often wonder how so many of them continue to make a living when there are a variety of online solutions for buying and selling a house. How do they justify their commission? Stand out in the crowd?
One way to become better known as the local real estate expert, and a very good one, I might add, is to consider getting into the blogosphere. Become the well-known real estate expert in your community. Offer all sorts of great insight on how to prep your house for sale or what to look for in your next home purchase.
If you're in the real estate business or know someone who is, Realty Blogging is a "must read." The authors do a fantastic job of putting everything you need to know about blogging in general, but aimed at the real estate market, in a book that's less than 200 pages long. Much of their advice can also be applied outside of blogging (e.g., positioning yourself as the expert and exploiting niches). Another nice touch is that they not only offer coverage of the more popular blogging platforms, they also set up their own, where readers can start a blog in an environment that's very realtor-friendly.
The best real estate agents also seem to be outstanding at personal networking. Blogging is a natural networking extension, but with the added benefits of being much broader and offering 24/7 access. I know a lot of the real estate agents out there are "old school" and all, but I think any agent without a blog is really missing a huge opportunity. If you're the new real estate agent in the area, what better way to build brand recognition and a following than starting a blog to share your real estate wisdom and advice?
I also like the form factor of this one (small trim size, less than 200 pages, inexpensively priced) and wonder what other vertical segments might be right for a blogging book like this...Realty Blogging: Build Your Brand and Out-Smart Your Competition Overview
Unleash the power of blogging in your real estate business

Are you blogging for your real estate business? Realty Blogging shows you how to fully utilize this powerful, direct-communication marketing tool, giving you all the know-how you need to capture the interest and business of local homeowners, buyers, and sellers.

Drawing upon their extensive experience in blogging, real estate, and online marketing, authors Richard Nacht and Paul Chaney reveal how to:

Develop an effective Internet marketing strategy
Generate leads consistently at almost no cost
Define yourself as an expert in a particular area
Serve your market niche
Establish long-term relationships with your customers
Create content that attracts major search engines
Create buzz about your blog in the media

Plus, you receive a FREE blogging platform and instructional sessions to get you blogging right away!


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10 Steps to Successful Social Networking for Business (ASTD 10 Steps Series) Review

10 Steps to Successful Social Networking for Business (ASTD 10 Steps Series)
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10 Steps to Successful Social Networking for Business (ASTD 10 Steps Series) ReviewUnlike numerous other books in social media or Internet Marketing in general, this book is well-organized and easy to follow for the marketer/businessman on the go. Aside from its structure, it presents different templates that can be used in actually planning or executing social networking/social media strategies.
Actually...the ideas, structure and templates can be tailored to so that it can be used beyond social networking.
The text itself is insightful, well-researched, practical and straight-forward.10 Steps to Successful Social Networking for Business (ASTD 10 Steps Series) OverviewSocial networking as a business tool is evolving, and questions still remain about how to use it effectively and securely. 10 Steps to Successful Social Networking answers those questions, covering technology, sales and brand value, how to connect social networking to key business drivers, launch plan development, success-building, how to connect your business to the world and grow market share, and how to adapt the system to business needs.

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Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them Review

Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them
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Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them ReviewAt my place of employment, I'm getting more and more questions about blogging. What exactly is it, how do you do it, what do I need to know, and can I blog within the company? If I had my way, I'd buy about 25 copies of Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them by Bob Walsh and start handing them out. This is a perfect mix of details, concepts, and guidelines, all packaged up in a very readable (and enjoyable) format. I even picked up a few gems myself...
Content:
Part 1 - Revolution in Progress - Please Make Noise!: Why Blog?; Hooking into the Blogosphere; Getting Started
Part 2 - Building Your Blog: What Do Good Blogs Share?; Building Your Personal Blog; Professionally Blogging, Blogging Professionally; Building Your Company Blog
Part 3 - Secrets of Influential Bloggers: Power Tools for Bloggers; Successful Blogging; The New Fourth Estate; Adding Podcasting to Your Blog; Monetizing Your Blog for Fun and Profit; Building Readership
Part 4 - Blogging Towards the Future: Blogging from the New Front Lines; Welcome to Your Future;
Index
From the technical perspective, he covers how to start a blog in a few of the mainstream offerings... Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, and TypePad. Keeping in mind that these packages can change on a weekly basis, he is clear and concise on how to create the blog and post content. Even if things change, the concepts are pretty much the same, and you can follow along. But fortunately, he doesn't spend a lot of time on the "follow the menus" material. It's the other stuff that is so elusive to explain to newcomers. What makes a good blog? Who's going to read it? What do I write about? And of course, can I make lots of money at this? :) Parts 1 and 2 are the foundations for just about every question I've been asked lately, and Walsh covers it all with a flair. If you could convince rookie bloggers to read and understand things such as voice, audience, and consistency, the long-term success rate of their blogging would rise dramatically. I've made a number of the mistakes that Walsh cautions against, and it would have saved me a few hairs had I known this all three years ago. And if you're not a newbie blogger? Part 3 goes into what I call "power blogger" mode, and discusses more advanced topics like how a blog can generate income, and how you can add podcasts to your blogging repertoire. You don't *have* to do all these things, but they are directions that are worth considering. Again, reading this first before diving in could mean the difference between stepping up to the next level and alienating your audience.
There were a few things that drew me to this book. One is the writing style. I enjoy conversational writing that isn't afraid to have fun and be a little edgy. He definitely fits that criteria, and he's not afraid to offer up his own opinions alongside the facts. The second thing involves the interviews. There are a number of question/answer sessions with big name bloggers, those who have defined the field and who are leading the pack. Learning from them what works and what doesn't is invaluable towards improving your own writing. And finally, each chapter ends with a "Your Action Task" section. It's the "call to action" to actually take the next steps to apply the chapter's material and do it yourself. That focus on practicality and "do it now" drives the reader along and should make for some successful blogging efforts.
If you've been getting the blogging questions coming your way because people know you do that blogging thing, point them towards this book. Between your explanations and the material here, there shouldn't be much left over that your questioner doesn't understand. And I'll venture to guess they'll even have fun getting there...Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them Overview
Almost overnight, blogging has become a social, political, and business force to be reckoned with. Your fellow students, workers, and competitors are joining the blogosphereand making money, influencing elections, getting hired, growing market share, and having fun-to the tune of 8,000 new bloggers a day.

Clear Blogging sets out to answer in non-technical terms what blogging has to offer, and why and how you should blog. If you've never read a blog, but you keep hearing that term on the news, Clear Blogging will show you why blogging has shaken up mainstream media, and how a blogger can end up on CNN. If you're just starting to read blogs, Clear Blogging is your native guide to the blogosphere, covering how to get the best, most interesting information with the least amount of time and effort. The main course of Clear Blogging shows what you stand to gain from blogging, and how you can go from your first post to being welcomed aboard the blogospheres A-list.

Whether you're already blogging or you're considering it, you'll want to get a copy of this book because it

Covers how blogging can improve your job prospects, professional practice, business revenue, company reputation, and the world you live in
Includes over 50 interviews with successful bloggers who are influencing products, policy makers, potential employers, and millions of the general publicall while earning an online reputation and real profits
Shows you how to apply the best practices of news gathering to build your blogs reputation and brand
Is heavy on the specific benefits of blogging and light on the technological aspects


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Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Review

Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))
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Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) ReviewSince I've been blogging (http://www.twduff.com) for quite awhile, this is almost like reading a book to see if you're doing anything wrong. Still, Susannah Gardner does a good job with Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (Wiley).
Chapter List:
Part 1 - Getting Started with Business Blogs: Checking Out Business Blogs; Discovering the Buzz about Buzz Marketing; Building a Business Blog
Part 2 - Setting Up a Business Blog: Picking a Blog Solution; Setting Up a Hosted Blog; Taking Control with Independent Blog Software
Part 3 - Minding Blog Etiquette and Culture: Understanding Your Audience; Joining the Blogosphere; Avoiding Business No-Nos
Part 4 - Positioning Your Blog: Finding a Voice; Promoting Your Blog; Staying on the Right Side of the Law
Part 5 - Making the Most of Your Blog: Adding Value to a Blog; Making Money with a Blog; Going Beyond Blogs
Part 6 - The Part of Tens: Ten Dry-Spell-Breaking Ideas; Ten Traits of a Good Blogger; Ten Blogs You Should Know
Part 7 - Appendixes: Glossary; Using the Book Blog; Hosted and Independent Blog Solutions; How URLs Work; Case Studies; Index
Based on the title of this book, you'd probably assume that this is geared more for the business use of blogs. And in a significant sense, it is. But that's not to say that the serious personal blogger won't learn a number of things here. Gardner does a good job of taking the reader from "what is a blog" through the reasons they can be very important, and finally ends with the things you need to know to keep your blog fresh and inviting. You'd probably figure out many of these rules on your own, but the blogging world can be unforgiving. Make a mistake involving deception, and you may never get your audience back. Have your blog be nothing more than press releases, and no one will show up.
She also does a good job of bridging the theory and the practical. In addition to all the knowledge you need to understand blogging, she also takes you through some potential blogging software choices and shows how you'd use them to set up a blog. Granted, it's not a comprehensive instruction manual on how to install and configure any one blogging package, but the reader will get an idea of what it takes.
I also mentioned it's a good book for the serious personal blogger. I use my blog to share information with various audiences, but it's also a personal marketing tool. Therefore, many of the same "rules of the road" that she covers apply to me. I'm concerned about finding my voice and style, how to attract readers, and knowing whether or not my audience is getting value from my writings. While I've learned much of what she writes about on my own, I'd have come much further much faster if I had this book a couple years ago.
Good stuff, and highly practical. A very good selection to give to your boss if s/he wants to investigate the subject. Just make sure you explain that "For Dummies" isn't personal...Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) OverviewIn this instant-communication world, buzz means business! And one of the greatest ways to get customers and potential customers buzzing about your business is with a Web log, commonly called a blog. Blogs can help you:
Introduce the people behind your business
Discuss relevant issues
Provide a clearinghouse for information and expertise
Show your business as a good corporate citizen
Support an exchange of ideas
Get honest feedback from your customers
Affect public opinion

If you're new to blogging, or if you know the mechanics of a blog but want some help refining and targeting yours, Buzz Marketing With Blogs For Dummies will get you going right away. An expert blogger shows you the ins and outs of putting together a professional-looking blog, walks you through the jargon, helps you decide what your blog should do, and even explains various software solutions. You'll find out how to:
Set up and maintain a blog, write in blogging style, and observe blogging etiquette
Define your audience and target your blog to reach them
Involve your customers, earn their trust, educate the public, and build community
Avoid possible legal pitfalls while keeping your blog interesting
Encourage contributions and links to your blog
Use images and design an eye-catching format
Optimize your blog for top search engine ratings, track your results, and measure your success

Written by Susannah Gardner, who has taught online journalism, directed multimedia efforts, and provided custom Web solutions to clients, Buzz Marketing With Blogs For Dummies even shares tips from the experts who establish and maintain some of the top-rated business blogs. You'll discover the secrets of success, how to spot and solve problems, what software can enhance your blogging life, and a whole lot more. It like having a staff of experts on call!

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Zero to One Million: How I Built A Company to $1 Million in Sales . . . and How You Can, Too Review

Zero to One Million: How I Built A Company to $1 Million in Sales . . . and How You Can, Too
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Zero to One Million: How I Built A Company to $1 Million in Sales . . . and How You Can, Too ReviewThis book offers sound advice about starting a business, but not waiting till everything is all perfectly lined up before you do so.
** In some ways it reminds me of Ready, Fire, Aim Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat (Agora Series) but I like this one a little bit better. **
The author talks about how if you were going somewhere but waited till all the lights were green before you left the house, you would never leave. He also talked about how you could cross the country at night with just your headlights providing illumination. You would never know what was way up ahead but just as in business if you know where you want to go you can get there if you keep working at it, even if you don't see the whole path ahead of you yet.
** Some of the other good stuff is how you plan what you want to achieve in life, break it down to a strategy of what you want in 20 years, then break that down to what you want in the next year and use a 6 month or year as a tactic for gradually moving towards your long term goal. But he also shows how to use a daily goal or weekly plan to achieve your 6 month or yearly goal. In other words you break down your plans into daily, achievable bites that add up over time. **
Things like Passive Income are discussed and how to implement them into your life and business.
It takes a lot for me to be really impressed but this young man has produced a lot of wisdom in this book. I just hate how some people put it down without even reading it. They should be ashamed of themselves.
There's more in the book but as someone who takes their reviews seriously let me just say that this will be one of the best business books you can read if you are thinking about starting your own company and want some encouragement and tips for how to proceed.
I might come back and add to this review later on but for now this should tell you what it is about.
Zero to One Million: How I Built A Company to $1 Million in Sales . . . and How You Can, Too Overview
Do You Want to Become a Multi-Millionaire Entrepreneur? Here's How.

By the time Ryan Allis had reached the age of twenty-one, he had achieved the financial goal most people just dream about: He built his company to one million in sales. Allis has since grown his company iContact Corp., a provider of Web-based email marketing and online communication software, to $10 million per year in sales, and has helped numerous clients increase their sales dramatically.

Now Allis shares the secrets of his lightning-fast success with you. In Zero to One Million, he details his simple yet innovative evaluation system of "Market-Advantages-Return" to help you determine if your business idea is viable. Once you have a solid foundation, you can apply his advice for successfully running your business-from initial planning to managing high-speed growth.

Evaluate your business idea using the innovative MAR system
Write a business plan sure to excite your investors
Launch your company with minimal expenditure
Boost online sales using cutting-edge marketing strategies
Watch all your hard work transform into millions

Did you know that eighty-one percent of millionaires are entrepreneurs? Join the pantheon of successful businessmen and women with Zero to One Million.


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Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog Review

Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog
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Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog ReviewI absolutely love the Head First Series of books and, while they are not the most in depth and complex books on a subject, I consider them the most user friendly way to quickly and easily learn a challenging and difficult topic. So when I learned they were coming out with a book on Wordpress I quickly preordered it and then waited, and waited, and waited until...now. At last the book arrived and I'm not disappointed. For the average user (and let's face it, even the above average user) this is everything you need to know about how to install and use Wordpress for all but the most advanced website tasks.
While most people will choose to install Wordpress using the "one click" installation service offered by their hosting provider, the Headfirst book starts with a detailed description of how to download and install it the old fashioned way...manually. Even if you were to choose not to use the "one click" method (which I would advise against), reviewing this section gives you a good idea of the nuts and bolts of your Wordpress installation.
Next they cover the basics of posting and using images in your posts, including basic problems, troubleshooting and even covering file permissions. When it comes to changing your blogs appearance they do a very good job of describing templates, including third party templates, and also provide a solid overviews of HTML, PHP and CSS and how you can use it to modify your sight. Widgets are covered in depth as well.
The aspect of Wordpress I was most interested in learning more about was how to use it as a Content Management System (CMS) and the book covers the subject well, including a very good discussion on how to structure your website, how to modify your permalinks, set up the navigation bar and to use the visual editor.
There is an entire chapter devoted to embedding and handling video on the site which I felt was very important. Again, they covered not just how to embed video, but how to keep the video on your site organized and well structured, as well as various plugins that can be used to add extra functionality to the site. One part I didn't expect was the information on how to podcast, which I thought was interesting. This was covered in conjunction with advice on setting up syndication and using Feedburner. I personally have never done any podcasting, but it's nice to know that the information is there if I need it. I did appreciate the discussion on syndication however and thought it made getting set up on Feedburner easier and less confusing I remember it being.
There is a chapter devoted to Wordpress security which, having suffered from malware and virus attacks on my Wordpress blogs in the past, I thought was a good idea. One can never be too secure when it comes to the Internet and the advice in this chapter is solid.
If your new to Wordpress this is a excellent book to get you started. I highly recommend it. I found this more user friendly and readable than any other Wordpress book I have read or reviewed. If you use Wordpress but want to understand it and get more out of it I highly recommend this book as well, especially if you want to learn how to go into the code to modify the appearance of your site. IF you want to use Wordpress to it's full functionality get this book.Head First WordPress: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Creating Your Own Custom WordPress Blog Overview
Whether you're promoting your business or writing about your travel adventures, Head First WordPress will teach you not only how to make your blog look unique and attention-grabbing, but also how to dig into the more complex features of WordPress 3.0 to make your website work well, too.

You'll learn how to move beyond the standard WordPress look and feel by customizing your blog with your own URL, templates, plugin functionality, and more. As you learn, you'll be working with real WordPress files: The book's website provides pre-fab WordPress themes to download and work with as you follow along with the text.

Gain immediate experience with WordPress 3.0, the June 2010 release of the software
Get your site up and running by setting up a MySQL database and creating configuration files
Work with the Wordpress platform to create posts and pages, learn the difference between tags and categories, edit content, moderate comments, and manage spam
Explore how to extend Wordpress with plugins and templates
Convert custom designs (in HTML and CSS) into functional themes and use them in WordPress

We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First WordPress uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.


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How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog Review

How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog
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How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog ReviewDo yourself a favor: don't judge this book by its (awful) cover. I've had this book by my side every step of the way while setting up my very first blog, and I have to say it has been a huge help. Stauffer's style is direct and engaging, not cutesy. He tells you what you need to know to get started, without a lot of fluff.
I wanted to write a review here because I think this books deserves a big audience, and because the Amazon listing tells you little about what's covered. So here's what's inside:
"Web 2.0 Blog" covers four different blogging platforms: Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, and Expression Engine. So if you're interested in one of these four, you'll find the book very helpful. If you are trying to decide which of the four to go with, the book is even more helpful, as you can compare them feature by feature. For instance, you'll see that while Expression Engine seems quite powerful and flexible, it's obviously more complicated than the other three. Stauffer does a good job of helping you weigh the pros and cons of each.
The book covers quite a lot in a 450 pages, and it does it very well. There's even a basic introduction to XHTML and CSS, giving you a peak at how each blogging platform works under the hood. Other topics covered in depth are:
- RSS feeds
- Photoblogs, podcasting, audioblogging, and adding video
- Working with social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Technorati
- using wikis to collaborate with readers
- adding a forum to open the discussion beyond comments
- community and group blogs
- sending e-newsletters to your subscribers
- getting traffic and monetizing your blog
Highly recommended.
How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog Overview
Incorporate the hottest new Web technologies into your blog! How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog makes it easy to choose the blogging tools that are best for you and master the basics of blog design and template manipulation. You'll learn how to add different Web 2.0 services to your blog, including images, video, audio, forums, tags, wikis, and even money-making features. It's time to take your blog to the next level and get more hits, more fans, more friends,and more customers.

Learn about different blogging tools, including Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, and ExpressionEngine

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Blogger: Beyond the Basics: Customize and promote your blog with original templates, analytics, advertising, and SEO (From Technologies to Solutions) Review

Blogger: Beyond the Basics: Customize and promote your blog with original templates, analytics, advertising, and SEO (From Technologies to Solutions)
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Blogger: Beyond the Basics: Customize and promote your blog with original templates, analytics, advertising, and SEO (From Technologies to Solutions) ReviewThis book by Lee Jordan is perfect for the novice blogger and packed with must have info for even the seasoned blogger. While it particularly deals with the Blogger (Google) platform, a good bit of the information extends beyond Blogger to services and tips that could be used for a variety of platforms.
I love the approach Jordan uses - taking a sample blog that is plain in nature and allowing the reader to follow that blogs evolution to a more professional looking blog using the guidelines and tips offered in the book.
Jordan shows you why popular blogs are so popular and what you can do to enhance your ratings and most importantly, your readership. He leaves no stone unturned as he divulges all the tricks of the trade, er uh, hobby.
Whatever the purpose of your blog is you should invest in this tool. It easy to understand, simple to follow, and indexed for ease of locating information. I have used it many times in the last few weeks to look up a particular subject and implement the information given.
Here is a list of the chapters:
1. All Blogs Are Not Created Equal
2. Customize and CreateTemplates
3. Social Bookmarking
4. Joining the Blogosphere
5. Using Widgets
6. RSS and Atom Syndication
7. Making Money With Ads
8. Measuring Site Performance with Google Analytics
9. Search Engine Optimization
10. Website Integration
Oh and it comes in paperback or e-book form!Blogger: Beyond the Basics: Customize and promote your blog with original templates, analytics, advertising, and SEO (From Technologies to Solutions) OverviewIn Detail
Blogger is a blog publishing system from Google with a friendly interface specifically designed for creating and maintaining weblogs.
It allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with great content and many outstanding features including RSS feeds, link-backs, photo slideshows, and integration with popular Google applications like Picasa. Its versatility and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users.
If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will focus on transforming a typical blog into something fresh and professional that stands out from the crowd. It starts with anintroduction to an example blog, discussing what it is lacking, and then adding all the features of Blogger to make it successful. This book will tell you how to transform a slow-paced typical business blog into an attractive and interactive profit-making blog with measurable results. It has a very user-friendly approach and shares tips, tricks, and resources to continue to grow your blog.
What you will learn from this book?
The book aims to be a "complete" guide to working with Blogger. The focus is on more advanced, professional uses. You will learn everything you need to know to extend your blog and grow beyond the basics of using Blogger. This book will cover the following:
Customizing and creating templates to make your blog attractive
Adding social bookmarks to your blog to promote your site
Joining the blogosphere to drive traffic to your site
Customizing your blog by using widgets effectively
Customizing your blog's RSS and Atom feed, so that the Blogger feeds are available to the users
Managing ads and adding e-commerce features
Monitoring viewers and ads using Google Analytics
Managing and optimizing your blog for search engines
Integrating your website with your blog
Approach
Written in a clear, easy-to-read style, the book takes you through the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book. You'll also learn how to market and measure the success of your blog using Google web applications and other popular tools.
This book deals with using the current Blogger and third-party tools to optimize and create widgets for your blog. You'll transform your blog using existing tools then take it further with more challenging approaches to customizing your blog. All the steps involved in each example are listed under the section called "Time for action". Similarly, the results of that action are listed under the section called "What just happened". This structure adds to the clear, simple, and focused approach of the book.
Who this book is written for?
The book is aimed at current users of the Blogger platform who want to get the most out of Blogger and people who use a different blogging platform and are planning on switching to Blogger. Blog owners who promote their own services, expertise, and products, and want to increase their blog's success by pushing the limits of what Blogger can do will get the most out of this book.
The book doesn't require any specific knowledge of Blogger or the related technologies: RSS, CSS, HTML, and XML. Everything you need to know to grow beyond the basics is covered in this book. The companion website to this book (bloggerbeefedup.blogspot.com) includes free resource images and content.


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Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert's Voice) Review

Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert's Voice)
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Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert's Voice) ReviewThe only quip I have with this book is the title "Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP" it should be called "Practical Zend Framework Applications using PHP"
There is not one example in the book that doesn't use the Zend Framework. That being said the Zend Framework is a great framework - by far the best web framework I've seen. I'm PhD student in Computer Science at UCLA whose dissertation research involves the web. I've used a lot of web applications and frameworks. Symfony, Drupal, Joomla, Ruby on Rails, etc.
Most of these applications and frameworks just suck - that is, it is more work using them than not using them and many severely limit what one can ultimately do.
I like Ruby on Rails but I love the Zend Framework. There are two big differences between the Zend Framework and Ruby on Rails: 1) they both promote MVC style programming but Ror forces you to use it everywhere and the Zend Framework allows you to mix MVC with simply using their framework as a library wherever you want. For example, I am building a social network but want to mix that with a related wiki. I can use MVC for all the social network code and use and existing MediaWiki (which is not MVC based). All I need to do is rewrite some of the mediaWiki code to hand over user authentication to my controllers.
2) it's Php based ... there is much, much more existing Php code to cannibalize for applications than Ruby code
The book itself basically takes you through setting up user profiles, a blog, an image gallery, prototype (javascript) and Google maps using the Zend Framework. The code is very professional and complex at times so a beginning user may have to read a chapter 2-3 times to fully understand it. Still the only way to really learn to write "professional" code is to see it and understand why it was written as it was.
There are some issues I have with the book. In places where something could reasonably be done in multiple ways the book only shows one without any explanation why that way was chosen. For example, in the installing Zend chapter the book tells you to edit the httpd.conf file to set your paths. Most people who use a commercial hosting company don't have access to edit httpd.conf or restart the server. There are ways to reset the path within the Zend bootstrap (which I did) but if I didn't know how to do that I would not have been able to get the examples to work without setting up a server locally on my machine.
Also the bootstrap is left in the index.php file when Zend recommends using the index.php to call the bootstrap.php file from a non-public web directory.
The Zend Framework is only a few months old and this is by far the best web framework out there. There is only one other (decent) book on the framework. This book is about the Zend Framework and only marginally about "Web 2.0" (you use Google maps). The book that should have been titled "Practical Zend Framework Applications using PHP" will teach you how to use the best web framework out there. If the next book shows one how to really use web services, ajax and present web services using the Zend Framework then it can be called "Web 2.0" not this one.Practical Web 2.0 Applications with PHP (Expert's Voice) OverviewThere are many technologies that go into creating a successful modern web application, but few books that cover how to use them all together effectively. Practical PHP Web 2.0 Applications does just that - it marries together PHP and MySQL, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript/Ajax, covering how to create a cutting edge PHP web application from planning and design right up to final implementation. Application features covered include must haves such as search, maps, blogs, dynamic image galleries, and more.

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Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Review

Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))
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Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) ReviewI know I've been blogging for awhile now, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to review this book... Blogging For Dummies by Brad Hill. Of course, some may say it's just the book I needed... :)
Contents:
Part 1 - The What, Where, Why, and How of Weblogs: Understanding Blogging at Last; Blogging Options; Living the Blogging Lifestyle
Part 2 - Starting a Blog Today: MSN Spaces; Yahoo! 360; Finding a Home in Blogger; Creating a TypePad Blog
Part 3 - Installing Your Own Blog Program: The Ins and Outs of DIY Blogging; Running a Movable Type Blog; Blogging with WordPress; Power Plus Ease in Radio Userland; Hybrid Blog Hosts - Power Without the Pain
Part 4 - Total Blog Immersion: Hooking into RSS Feeds; Rules of Blogosphere Citizenship; Blogging for Bucks (or Pennies); Using Your Real Voice - Podcasting; Photoblogging and Audioblogging
Part 5 - The Part of Tens: Ten Blog Engines and Directories; Ten Resources for the Power Blogger
Glossary; Index
It seems that when most people start to blog, they learn a bit about blogging in general and then jump right to a familiar tool like Blogger or MSN Spaces. That's all well and good, but your style might not be best served by the blog choice you made. Hill does a pretty good job in categorizing the most prevalent blog tools available today, and then giving a basic install/usage overview for each. I was familiar with some of these, but the basics of Movable Type and WordPress were something I hadn't explored. After reading Part 2 and 3, you should have a pretty good idea of which tool fits your style and your anticipated direction. At that point, you can go online and start diving into your new tool of choice.
Even if you're a blogger with some history, there's still a few items here that might have slipped off your radar. I wasn't aware of the audioblogging technology that allows you to embed a spoken clip into a blog posting. Not necessarily something I want to do, but good to know of. Part 5 - The Part of Tens - is always a good area to find sites you didn't know about (like a few of the blog search engines and directories). There are a couple of sites that I could benefit from, and I'll be checking those out...
This is probably a bit more than Uncle Joe would want if he's asking "what's a blog", and the alpha male techno-nerd will likely find it a bit simplistic or light on coverage. But for the average power user or technology person looking to explore blogging, this might just be the broad coverage they need to start to put things into context...Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) OverviewIf 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.

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WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes Review

WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes
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WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes ReviewWordPress Theme Design is a short book, 204 pages and offers an experience very much like that given by the Peachpit Press' Visual QuickProject Series. This is not a definitive guide to WordPress theming. Tessa Silver walks us through the creation of a WordPress theme intended for a monthly magazine site. As much CMS/beyond-the-blog flexibility of WordPress needs to be implemented by creative theming, this project offers an insight into how to customize WordPress for sites other than plain vanilla blogs. WordPress core features like "the loop," are mentioned but we are referred to the WordPress Codex documentation for more information. That's pretty much the way the book works, features or concepts, such as the loop or drop down menus are discussed, but for expanded explanations we are pointed to external web documentation.
The writing is clear and conversational and is targeted towards someone with a reasonable grounding in HTML and CSS, I'd say advanced novice to early intermediate. Those without an understanding of HTML will find it over their heads. A very basic understand of PHP syntax is also helpful. Except for WordPress specific code, experienced, standards aware coders will find much of the material pretty basic. Ms. Silver does create her design with modern web standards best practices, which she describes in a standards based context. The theme we create by following the tutorial is functional and illustrates some of WordPress' advanced capabilities, which can be accessed only through clever theming. Basic SEO is mentioned, and some advanced WordPress plug-ins and capabilities are briefly covered.
Chapter 6 offers a short overview of WordPress functions and a nice template tag reference. In Chapter 2, Silver offers brief descriptions describing her design workflow process and some of the tools she uses. In chapters 3-5 we create the basic theme and are introduced to WordPress themeing conventions. Chapters 7-9 briefly discuss some advanced WordPress capabilities, mostly gained through the use of plug-ins and widgets.
WordPress Theme Design: A complete guide to creating professional WordPress themes OverviewIn Detail
This title will take you through the ins and outs of creating sophisticated professional themes for the WordPress personal publishing platform. It will walk you through clear, step-by-step instructions to build a custom WordPress theme. From development tools and setting up your WordPress sandbox, through design tips and suggestions, to setting up your theme's template structure, coding markup, testing and debugging, to taking it live it reviews the best practices. The last three chapters are dedicated to additional tips, tricks and various cookbook recipes for adding popular site enhancements to your WordPress theme designs using third-party plugins.
Whether you're working with a pre-existing theme or creating a new one from the ground up, WordPress Theme Design will give you the know-how to understand how themes work within the WordPress blog system, enabling you to take full control over your site's design and branding.
What you will learn from this book?

Set up a basic workflow and development environment for WordPress theme design
Create detailed designs and code them up
Enhance your sites by choosing the right color schemes and graphics
Debug and validate your theme using W3C's XHTML and CSS validation tools
Customize and tweak your theme's layout
Set up dynamic drop-down menus, AJAX/dynamic and interactive forms
Download and install useful plug-ins and widgetize your theme
Improve post and page content using jQuery and ThickBox
Add interactivity to your themes using Flash
Includes a reference guide to WordPress 2.0's template hierarchy, markup, styles and template tags, as well as include and loop functions
Approach
Theme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it's quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it.
The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site's theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you'll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other WordPress themes.
Who this book is written for?
This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors.
Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you'll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.


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WordPress 2.8 Theme Design Review

WordPress 2.8 Theme Design
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WordPress 2.8 Theme Design ReviewI seem to be reading quite a few WordPress books of late, and there are certainly a few to choose from. Packt Publishing's WordPress 2.8 Theme Design's tagline is 'Create flexible, powerful, and professional themes for your WordPress blogs and websites'.
WordPress themes are of interest to me since they fuse a visual aspect with PHP code, and there's no doubt that they appeal to many other people too.
Chapter Overview
1. Getting Started as a WordPress Theme Designer
2. Theme Design and Approach
3. Coding it Up
4. Debugging and Validation
5. Putting Your Theme into Action
6. WordPress Template Tag, Function, and CSS Reference
7. AJAX/Dynamic Content and Interactive Forms
8. Dynamic Menus and Interactive Elements
9. Design Tips for Working with WordPress
The book's author Tessa Blakely Silver starts very gently with an introduction to WordPress themes and why downloading a theme that's already been coded and designed may not always be the best solution. Subsequently, the book develops a theme from scratch and examines core technologies such as WordPress, CSS, XHTML and PHP.
The second chapter starts with a discussion of theme design in general, followed by the beginnings of the theme that's developed throughout the book. There are further discussions on semantic markup, typography, fonts and layout.
The following chapter focuses on the code aspect of theme design, and suggests a workflow strategy as well as template tags, hooks, and the WordPress loop. Comments are then discussed in some detail, the topic including pagination and threaded comments.
Chapter four examines the process of debugging and validating. A thorough chapter includes references to the W3C validation services, Firefox's JavaScript/Error console, Firebug and some of the issues that the budding theme developer will face when dealing with IE6.
Chapter five looks at the style.css file, which provides descriptive information about a theme, together with packaging the theme into a ZIP for distribution and running test installations of the theme package.
Chapter six adopts a more reference based approach, with an in depth examination of WordPress template tags, the WordPress template hierarchy, the loop and shortcodes.
The following chapter looks at AJAX and JavaScript, as well as preparing your theme for plugins and widgets.
Chapter eight builds on Chapter 7's JavaScript discussion by developing a drop-down menu for the theme. There is also a discussion of Flash and how that can be used with WordPress themes.
Chapter nine rounds off the book with a number of design tips that apply not just to WordPress theme design, but web design in general.
The book's about 250 pages in length, and is generally well written. I did, however, notice a few errors in code samples (mostly misplaced quotes), and a couple of examples in the prose itself. Another minor niggle was that the author talks about semantic markup, and then introduces 'sidebarLT' (sidebar left) and 'sidebarRT' (sidebar right) IDs into the markup.
The back of the book states: This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill set or level, you'll be walked through the clear, step-by-step instructions. But familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.
It seems as through Packt have tried to convince the potential reader that this is the book for them, regardless of whether they're fairly inexperienced in some areas, or a a highly skilled developer. I'd say that the book covers a lot of ground, and that it does so at a pace that would be suitable for an inexperienced developer. Much of the content, however, would already be familiar to a skilled web developer, and so I feel that they'd think that the really useful content is a little thinly spread.
Overall, it's encouraging to see more books about WordPress; although the internet is a fantastic resource, books still have a very important role in my opinion. The content of this one is great for beginner-medium level web developers, but more experienced readers will be left wanting more.
WordPress 2.8 Theme Design OverviewTheme design can be approached from two angles. The first is simplicity; sometimes it suits the client and/or the site to go as bare-bones as possible. In that case, it's quick and easy to take a very basic, pre-made theme and modify it. The second is "Unique and Beautiful". Occasionally, the site's theme needs to be created from scratch so that everything displayed caters to the specific kind of content the site offers. This book is going to take you through the Unique and Beautiful route with the idea that once you know how to create a theme from scratch, you'll be more apt at understanding what to look for in other WordPress themes. This book can be used by WordPress users or visual designers (with no server-side scripting or programming experience) who are used to working with the common industry-standard tools like PhotoShop and Dreamweaver or other popular graphic, HTML, and text editors. Regardless of your web development skill-set or level, you'll find clear, step-by-step instructions, but familiarity with a broad range of web development skills and WordPress know-how will allow you to gain maximum benefit from this book.

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Blogging for Fame and Fortune Review

Blogging for Fame and Fortune
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Blogging for Fame and Fortune Review
I liked this book on blogging. When I first spotted this title I wasn't sure I wanted to pick it up. The author is a professional writer. He has written a lot of books. And I've read a few of them. I've even posted a book review for one or two of them on Amazon. The author's books for the most part come across as term papers to me. They can be kind of mechanical and don't always dig too deeply into the subject material. But this book is better than most of his previous works. Maybe it is because he is an active blogger himself and much of what he covers here came from first-hand knowledge?
I am by no means an expert when it comes to blogging. But I have read quite a few books on the subject and I have two blogs of my own which I haven't been contributing to lately. In my humble opinion this book is one of the better ones I have read on blogging. I was very happy to see some coverage of Blogger-dot-com and Wordpress-dot-com, two free services that anyone can (and should) take advantage of when building an online presence for themselves or their business(es). I was not familiar with Vox-dot-com or Blogster-dot-com before I read this book, but now think they are nice services to get involved with, too.
The book is well organized and well written. It is fairly comprehensive. It has 15 chapters and a glossary. The target audience is probably small business owners who are seeking to take their company online so they have an online presence where they can promote themselves, their expertise, their credibility, and how much of an authority they are. Blogging is an important ingredient in the mix, and by reading this book you will probably be well on the road to using your blogs both efficiently and productively. 5 stars!
PS. To learn more about this book I encourage you to visit the Search Inside feature Amazon offers which includes the book's Table of Contents. Enjoy!Blogging for Fame and Fortune Overview
Blog Your Way to the Big Time
Attract millions and make big money using success secrets from cyber superstars and blogging pros, including entertainment blogger Perez Hilton and Blogger.com's Taj Campbell. Learn how to build a noteworthy online identity, captivate the masses, and break into mainstream media-leveraging your creativity, not your bank account. Plus, discover how to immediately cash in on your online platform and new-found popularity!
Create a custom, sticky blog site using free blogging services
Transform your opinions, expertise, commentary, audio/video creations, and the like into your next paycheck
Dare your audience to take notice with 101 proven blogging topics and subject matters
Gain the competitive advantage using expert advice from the world's best known bloggers and blog experts
Use original, innovative techniques and powerful tools to make your blog stand out
Learn how to avoid the 10 most common blogger mistakes
And more

On the net, no topic is off limits. Share your opinions, thoughts, commentary, audio/video creations, and expertise to build your online presence and launch yourself into stardom!

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