Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro 2nd Edition

I already had been running a Blog and Podcast, but wow, this book really gave me focus and helped me dial it in, so that I could have more efficient and better posts and podcasts.It is also the kind of book that is super easy and fun to read, very personable and enjoyable. It makes you want to try stuff. Really if you follow along every chapter and do practice each idea, you will find yourself building up a blog in no time.How cool is that?

I liked it but a lot of information referred reader to LINKS and OTHER sites that cost money. Also, the arbitrary information seemed really like unnecessary padding to the basic blogging information/instruction and kind of confused the general purpose of the book: CREATE a BLOG easily.

This book helped me understand what blogging was and could do for me. I used it with other blogging research to get the big pic. Always came back to this book.

If you're seriously interested in creating a viable personal or business blog, and committed to doing the work it entails, this is a great starting point.The author's credentials as a blogging expert seem legit. Most important, he includes a lot of advice (Tagged: Caution) derived from his own mistakes (that's the kind of advice that really resonates). It's comforting to know that he has had missteps. I'm personally skeptical of experts who act like it's all so easy, simple and foolproof. Blogging certainly isn't as anyone who has done it even a bit knows. The real challenge is continuing to evolve over time (both technically, marketing and content-wise) and creating your own place in a dynamic, huge and competitive Web environment.This book is well-organized and I like the inclusion of visual flags for specific add-ons to the running how-to text, these include: Caution ("mistakes I've made...so don't do it!"), New Term, Tip and Note. The author also breaks out a variety of topics in "sidebars" on the pages of running text. I really liked the inclusion of Idea Gallery items in selected chapters.As strong as the organization is, the book's physical format has a few problems. As others have noted, the screenshots are too small to be useful. And I personally find it hard to read, and thus dislike, having all the sidebars and visual breakouts done in dropped-out (aka, "white") type against darker colored backgrounds. My eyes literally hurt going from the black type in the main text to this type in the bits and pieces added in.I read this book with the intention of giving it to a friend who is new to blogging. I'll do that, but I'm also keeping it for myself as it includes some areas I haven't yet dealt with, but want to learn about. These include using a blog as a professional online portfolio (See chapter 8: Creating a Visual Artist's Portfolio Blog), adding audio and video podcasts (Chapter 10: Creating a Multimedia Blog)and revenue generation (Chapter 11: Making Money Through Your Blog, which though short, is enough to get you focused on the key elements.).If you're interested in one or more of the six projects (noted below) referred to in the title, that alone is worth the price of the book. I say this because although I have created blogs in the past and currently manage a couple of Web sites I created, there's a lot I need to know about using software to create in today's blogging environment, which continues to evolve and become ever more sophisticated.* Personal Blogs* Business Blogs* Audio and Video Podcasting Blogs* Portfolio Blogs for Artists* Creating a website with WordPress (something I wasn't aware that you could do.)As others have noted, this is a WordPress centric book, but given the use and appeal of WordPress, it seems relevant. It's not as if most of the information does not apply if you do not use WordPress to create your blog.There's a lot of information in this book, so take your time with it. A good blog, like a Web site, is not created in haste. (OK, some are rushed to the Web. But you really do want to think things through before you start, rather than spending huge amounts of time and resources to "fix" your mistakes, if you even can!)

Tris Hussey's lively writing style and colorful personal anecdotes give keep  Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro  from being just another dry "how to" manual. If you're thinking about setting up a blog for personal or business purposes and you don't have a lot of experience with blogs or HTML, this book is for you. It provides plenty of good pro-and-con-style advice on important decisions -- Should I get my own domain name? Which blog hosting service should I choose? What settings should I customize? -- without getting bogged down in nonessential details.In case you haven't seen a chapter outline, here it is:1. Beginning the story: blogging then and now (introduction to and short history of blogging)2. Installing and setting up your first blog3. Creating content for your blog4. Building a community around your blog (skip if you don't care about readers)5. Creating a personal blog with wordpress.com (his top pick for this activity)6. Creating a business blog7. Creating a website (aimed at those with advanced requirements)8. Creating a visual artist's portfolio blog9. Blogging with tumblr10. Creating a multimedia blog11. Making money through your blogFew readers will find every chapter useful, but I don't see that as a problem.Note that although Hussey provides sound advice for people wishing to set up personal blogs, he's a professional blogger, and the book is mainly aimed at people who want to blog for professional reasons -- to promote themselves or their ideas, to promote their businesses or products, or to actually conduct business. The book is also aimed at people who want to take advantage of the most powerful features that blogging software provides, not those who simply want to set and forget.Bottom line: This book is a good, very readable guide for setting up a blog aimed at people who (a) are relatively new to blogging, but not necessarily rank newbies, (b) are not afraid of technology, (c) want to do more than simply set up an account and post their thoughts. (If all you want is to create a basic blog to share with your friends and family, it's not very difficult to sign up with one of the main free hosting services, eg, blogspot or wordpress, and follow their instructions.)

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