Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Aug 22, 2007

Three books about blogging: Part one–Blog Wild! by Andy Wibbels

Filed in Blog, Reviews

Something like a month ago I went nuts at the library (I suddenly rediscovered this place where I could get, you know, free books) and borrowed a bunch of books about blogging. That’s because I wanted something to read during the blogathon, thinking that there’s actually be a moment spare between posts. There was enough time to read the first one, anyway.

Andy Wibbels is a successful blogger and runs seminars that teach people, especially businesses, how to blog. This little book is a very quick read but covers the basics in chunks of about three pages, which is how I managed to finish it on Blogathon day. It is the accompanying book to the seminars, with everything presented in sound bites of information. (The subtitle is “A gude for small business blogging.”)

The first section covers the basics–what the heck is a blog, how did they come to be, and who reads them. Then in part two the book moves on to blogging and business–how to find a designer, what to look for, whether as a company you’re ready to start blogging, and the like.

Part three is a step by step guide to setting up a blog on Typepad, which wasn’t much use to me, since I use Wordpress. There is definitely a Typepad bias here, but the instructions are similar enough that it’s likely you could figure it out between the book and the online documentation.

Part four digs deeper into runinng a blogging program (the basic principles apply to all blog software, I’m sure.) And finally, part five, the most interesting section for me, is about how to promote the blog. By this point I’d been using Wordpress for seven months, so I knew how to run the thing, just not how to wholeheartedly launch into the blogosphere.

Randomly opening the book, I read this gem: “Always be linking.” That’s one of the keys to blog success–be generous, and generosity will be welcomed back into your (online) home. Works good.

Pretty much everything a beginning blogger could need is covered, and enough resources are given that just with this tiny book you will be kept busy for some while. I would say that this would be a great book for a beginning blogger, but more of a borrowing book or reminder book for an experienced one. Either way, I enjoyed the quick, informal read and gained a great deal of information from the book.

Recommended.

Subscription links

feed readers

Here are some other posts

Comments

If you are new to Raven's Roads, please make sure you read the comments policy before commenting!

4 Comments, Comment or Ping

Marina (86 comments.)

Funny about libraries–wish mine was “up” with the times.

Your book sounds like a really good one, I will have to look for it… somewhere.

;)

DH bought me one 3 years ago, but I haven’t cracked it seriously yet–just enough to find a lot of coding, even though it’s subtitle is “Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content.”

Coding is not my thing, as you can tell by where I am on the ‘net (LJ and blogspot).

So, when are you going to start podcasting? ;)

Aug 22nd, 2007
Anna (1 comments.)

“(I suddenly rediscovered this place where I could get, you know, free books)”

I had to laugh at this. We go to the library all the time. I don’t understand people who actually pay for books. I never thought to look for books on blogging, though. Maybe not a bad idea. I should go online to our library and see what I can find.

Aug 22nd, 2007
Linda R. Moore

Marina: I actually have “Podcasting for Dummies” out of the library, but I’m not sure I will. Those talking-head podcasts are just kind of boring.

I started my coding career with “HTML for Dummies” and “Creating Websites for Dummies”. :) I also think that blogging software really opens thing up–I would never have said that coding was my thing (and I still scream in frustration, quite often.)

Aug 23rd, 2007
Linda R. Moore

Anna: I went to the library looking for one book and found half a dozen. ;)

I do buy books, but only rarely. I get them when I know I will refer to them over and over. Every time I move, I am reminded that I have too many books. ;)

Aug 23rd, 2007