How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog

by Todd Stauffer

Book Overview

Publisher's Note: Products purchased from Third Party sellers are not guaranteed by the publisher for quality, authenticity, or access to any online entitlements included with the product.

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071492186
• ISBN13: 9780071492188
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 460 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

This book is a must in blog design.

Since my main activity is not in creating websites and does not possess great experience, reading this book I was pleasantly surprised. As I am author of technical books, I know the difficulty of structuring and developing the themes with the clarity and depth appropriate for anyone to understand explanations. I like the style used, easy to follow and can jump with a chapter that not interests you, although the book is interesting in its entirety. I recommend this book to people who are interested in creating your own blog with any of the options currently available: Wordpress, Blogger, etc.

Really Good Book if You're Looking for a Place to Start

I have several blogs already and was looking for some ways to tweak and improve them. I did find some useful information in this book. However, alot of the info contained herein was stuff I already knew well. The author goes in-depth on how to choose a specific blogging tool, the various options out there and how to optimize it once you're up-and-running. Since I'd already chosen my subjects, my tools and such, the info that really interested me was how to optimize my blogs. In fact, there's good info on that including how to promote your blog, how to monetize your blog and more. If you're just getting into blogging, this is the book for you. It will be an invaluable asset to your reference shelf. If you're a vet blogger, check it out at the library. There's some good stuff here for you as well. Cheers! I'll see you in the blogosphere.

The Best Blogging Book of the Five I've Read

I've read five how-to books on blogging. How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog is the best by far. (The four others are listed below.) Most blogging books tend to be self-referential. The authors talk about their own experiences and use their own blogs as examples. That gives you a narrow view of blogging, because their own experiences are narrow, even if they are successful--and not all the authors are successful bloggers. What works in their niche won't necessarily work in yours. Stauffer's book eschews that lazy approach. He uses examples from all over the blogosphere. His book is based on wide-ranging research, not just his own experiences. Not only is Stauffer broad in his use of examples, he is comprehensive in his treatment of the topics he covers (with two exceptions, which I'll talk about below). Those topics include strategic planning (very excellent), choosing a platform (including hosted vs. server-side options), choosing CMS software (TypePad, WordPress, Blogger, etc.), designing with templates and CSS, Atom and RSS feeds (including FeedBurner), using multi-media content, tagging and promoting your blog (don't rely solely on SEO!), collaborating with coauthors and users with wikis and forums, traffic stats and analytics, monetizing (AdSense, affiliate programs, tip jar, PayPal donations, etc.), and more. Another thing Stauffer eschews (refreshingly) is evangelical hype. The two topics that Stauffer does not cover adequately (a) the substance of a blog, i.e., what you write about and how you write it, and (b) monetizing. The other four I read: ProBlogger (the best on monetizing) Clear Blogging How to Make Money with Your Blog The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging (the fluffiest)