Introduction 1
About the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
It's All About Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Wait, You're a Professional Blogger?. . . . 3
How to Use This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1 Beginning the Story: Blogging Then and Now 7
A Brief History of Blogging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Blog Heard Round the World:
Blogging Gets Mainstream Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Blogging Comes into Its Own . . . 12
Culture of Sharing, Connecting, and Caring. . . . . . . . . . . 13
Blogs, Society, and the News. . . . . 13
Gaze into the Looking Glass and the Future of Blogging . . . . 15
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Installing and Setting Up Your First Blog 17
Starting Your First Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Choosing a Topic for Your Blog. . 18
Picking a Name for Your Blog . . . 19
Choosing a Domain Name. . . . . . 23
Choosing a Blog Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Signing Up for a Blog on WordPress.com . . . .. . . . . 30
Setting Up a Self-Hosted Blog. . . . 32
Touring Your Blog's Dashboard. . . . . . . . 38
Content Block: Posts, Media, Links, Pages, and Comments . . 38
Administration Block: Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, and Settings. . . . . 40
Tweaking Your Blog Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Tweaking and Tuning a WordPress.com Blog. . . . .. . . 42
Setting Good Permalinks . . . . . . . . 47
Antispam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
SEO Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Blogrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Comments and Trackbacks. . . . . . 51
Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
About Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Themes and Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Tracking Your Blog's Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 Creating Content for Your Blog 55
Turning an Idea for a Blog into Blog Posts. . . .. . . 56
Capture Inspiration Whenever and Wherever It Strikes . . . . 57
Finding Your "Voice" . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
To Anonymously Blog or Not: The Line Between Public and Private. . . . . . 62
Write Until You've Said Your Piece. . . . . . . . . . . 64
If You Post It, They Will Come: Posting Frequency Answered . . . 65
Your First Post. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Drinking from the Information Fire Hose: Using the Internet to Power Your Posts . . . 70
Other Bloggers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
"Real" World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Reader Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Writing with Search Engines in Mind ....73
Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Writing for Search Engines . . . . . . 75
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4 Building a Community Around Your Blog 77
Encouraging Comments and Discussion. . . . . . . . . 78
Commenting on Other Blogs . . . . 80
Spam, Trolls, and Other Vermin: The Comments You Don't Want . . .80
Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Trolls and Other Vermin. . . . . . . . . 82
Finding Other Blogs in Your Niche . . . . 83
Linking to Other Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Connecting with Other Bloggers. . . . . . . 87
Twitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Facebook, Google+, and Other Social Networks . . . . . . . 89
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5 Creating a Personal Blog with WordPress.com 91
Getting Started with WordPress.com. . . 92
Creating Your Account . . . . . . . . . . 93
Key WordPress.com Settings and Configuration . . . . . . . 96
Themes and Customizations . . . 100
Focus on the Content-What to Put in a Personal Blog . . . . . . . . 107
Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Adding Videos to Your Posts. . . . 118
Growing with WordPress.com . . . . . . . . 120
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6 Creating a Business Blog 123
Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Blogging Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Podcasting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Building and Hosting Your Business Blog . . . .. . 138
Choosing a Template for Your Business Blog . . .. 138
Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7 Creating a Website 143
Isn't This a Blogging Book? . . . . . . . . . . 144
Blog Engines to Run Websites . . 144
Blogs Are the New Websites . . . . 145
Let Technology Help You . . . . . . . 145
It's About the Content. . . . . . . . . . 145
Does a Website Have to Have a Blog, Too?. . .. . . 146
Getting Started: Technology . . . . . . . . . . 146
Domain Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Getting Started: Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Required Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Getting Started: Installing WordPress and Other Key Components . . 149
Installing WordPress. . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Installing Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Recommended Plugins . . . . . . . . . 156
Installing Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
What Will the Home Page Be? . . . . . . . 161
Static . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Modular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Choosing and Customizing Your Theme . . . . . . 168
Headers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Widgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Choosing Content for Your Website . . 172
Post or Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Final Touches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Measuring Your Success . . . . . . . . 175
Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Maintaining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8 Creating a Visual Artist's Portfolio Blog 177
What Makes for Good Content on a Portfolio Blog . . . . . 178
Picking the Right Tool for the Job . . . . 179
WordPress.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
DIY or Self-Hosted Blogs. . . . . . . . 180
How Do I Choose Between WordPress.com and DIY? . . . 180
Making a Site a Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Picking a Good Theme for a Portfolio Blog . .. . . . 181
Plugins for Portfolio Blogs . . . . . . 183
Pulling It All Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Gathering, Exporting, and Presenting Pictures. .. . . 185
Final Word on Content . . . . . . . . . 189
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9 Blogging with Tumblr 191
Why Tumblr and Not Others?. . . . . . . . 192
Getting Started with Tumblr . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating a Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Tumblr Versus WordPress. . . . . . . 204
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10 Creating a Multimedia Blog 205
All About Audio and Video Content....206
Podcast Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Recording Your First Podcast . . . . . . . . . 209
Laying Down the Main Track . . 211
Podcast Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Adding Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Podsafe Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Exporting to MP3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Video Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Recording Your First Video Blog . . . . . . 221
Video Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Exporting, Compression, and Video Formats .. . . . 227
Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Where and How to Host Your Podcast or Video Blog. . . . . 230
Posting Podcasts and Video to Your Blog. . . . .. . . 230
Submitting Your Show to iTunes. . . . . . . . 232
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
11 Making Money Through Your Blog 237
Nuts and Bolts of Making Money from Blogs . . . . 238
Making Money Directly . . . . . . . . 238
Making Money Indirectly . . . . . . 244
Final Word on Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Pulling It Together on Your Blog . . . . . 250
Ad Codes 101. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Optimizing Your Blog's Template . . . . . . 252
Tracking Your Performance . . . . 253
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Index 257
