blogging

Blogging for Fame and Fortune
$21.95
I read summaries and reviews of a number of blogging books before deciding to purchase this one. I'm really happy with this book, and am impressed with the amount of topics Jason Rich covers in a succinct, knowledgeable and easy to understand way. Just the right size handbook.

Rich talks about everything from vlogging to the look of your site to search engine optimization. And because his book is new for 2009, buyers now will find everything completely up to date, unlike some of the other books. He gives realistic advice on monetizing a site, and becoming popular as a blogger.

Rich also interviews well known bloggers for tips on how to get your blog out there and get page views. Overall, it is a very comprehensive read that you can skip around to various sections where you want to learn more.

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging
$15.00
There is a decent amount of helpful information in this book about how to start and run a potentially successful blog. It is hard, however, to not get the impression that the how and why of blogging is secondary. The primary focus of the book seems to be a paean to Arianna Huffington and all her friends. One could be led to believe that she and her circle of friends just about invented blogging, although they don't claim it. Her blog was a joint effort of already well-established pundits, including Ms. Huffington, who, by the time she started her phenomenally successful blog, was already a well-known talking head and book author. With the talent and resources at her and her friends disposal, it's hard to imagine how her blog could have failed. Yet, the tone of the writing encourages the reader to see the Huffington Post as another Microsoft-type creation out of someone's garage, and there is a sense that Huffington is almost laughing at you; while she and her buddies get millions of readers, there is no reason why you can't just go ahead and start a blog about your cat or your kids, even if you are the only one who ever reads about it.

This book is clearly an opportunity for Huffington and all her "posters" to express their liberal views, not only in the form of sample posts from the blog, but also in the general story-line about how the blog came to be. I suppose that's almost inevitable, given that liberal is the party line of the Huffington Post, but one would expect some toning down in a how-to presumably for a general audience. A specific example of this bias is in the mention of the Dan Rather/George Bush National Guard Service memo incident as a mere "flap", compared to the more detailed discussion regarding a Republican politician. The Dan Rather case is, in fact, perhaps the best example of the new media David bringing down the old media Goliath.

The other sad and disturbing thing about the Huffington Post and its posters is the level of rhetoric expressed in these supposedly model posts. Vulgarity and lack of respect delivered in an infantile and catty manner appear to be the signature strengths of Huffington Post authors. There are other blogs where this is not the case, where the discourse is reasoned and respectful.

So, if you want to get a few pointers on how to start a potentially successful blog, while at the same time reading about the wonders of Arianna Huffington and her band of merry posters, this is definitely the book to get.

Blogging For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
$21.99
This is a great book for people who want to learn wordpress. The only reason I do not give it a 5 is because it is dated. That is not the fault of the author, but simply how fast Wordpress has evolved. It would be very difficult for any book to keep up with fluid changes of an online medium. The best reccomendation for learning wordpress is the same advice for learning a language. Jump in! Textbooks cannot replace the learning that comes from experience.

Blogging for Bliss: Crafting Your Own Online Journal: A Guide for Crafters, Artists & Creatives of all Kinds
$14.95
this book was hyped to be something a new blogger had to have in order to suceed with a good blog, however in blogging for only two weeks, when the book arrived I read the entire thing within a day and found I knew 90% of everything already. Very redundant and nothing much that a novice would not have learned on her own in short notice.