Blogging For Dummies [Paperback]

No, really, a BIG dummy because I've been blogging for two years now! I got tired of looking at other people's awesome blogs and thinking, "Why can't I do that?" I finally admitted that I was a big, hopeless dummy and bought this book. God, I wish I'd done it sooner!

With two years of experience under my belt, I figured that I'd just skip around the book, picking out little nuggets of info here and there. On the contrary, I find myself reading the vast majority of the chapters in their entirety. The book is written in a pleasant and engaging style. I figure it can't hurt to do a little remedial work on the stuff I THINK I already know. Meanwhile, I'm just thrilled with what I've learned already. Don't laugh at the blonde girl, but links have always been a mystery to me. Now, I'm a pro! I've "claimed" my blog through Technorati. I'm committed to adding occasional guest blogger posts. I'm working on a simpler redesign of my blog, and I'm considering ways to add multimedia posts. I'm going to spruce up my sidebar and try to engage my community more. The great thing is that now I have a reference that will help me accomplish all of this and more.

My only complaint is that while this most recent edition (the third) is barely a year old, already some of the information is becoming outdated. I don't know if I'll spring for the fourth edition once it's published, but I'll definitely take a look at it to see what's new.

I have a list of friends waiting to borrow this reference book. It may not be the right tool for all bloggers, but it you're as clueless as I clearly am, Blogging for Dummies is highly recommended!

There's a lot more to a blog than many people realize. Just sign on and start writing, right? Wrong. This book begins with the simple facts and answers the questions so you can get set up the right way and start blogging. A few corny "Dummies" book jokes as always, but a good way to learn the basics and well worth the money.

I have found over the years of reading numerous `Dummies' books that the quality of them can be very variable. Fortunately `Blogging for Dummies' is one of the better books in the series I have read.

This has a similar layout to other books in the series and if you know one book, you pretty much know the style of them all. This has informal prose, plenty of icons to guide you through the text, short accessible chapters and the `Part of Tens' at the back.

In this book you will learn how to get started, with full explanations of blogging and what it entails. You will be guided through various software and finding your niche or topic to blog about. It helps with ideas to build your community following and how to deal with comments on your blog and it also has ideas for marketing. It finishes up by exploring how you can make money from your blog or tie it into your existing business, before ending on some lists of tips to grow your community, ways to make your blog shine and some key blogs to explore. It also has a glossary and appendix briefly exploring html code used in blogs. This last section is very basic indeed and shouldn't be relied upon to make your blog fully functional from scratch, this is beyond the scope of this book and something you'd have to research elsewhere.

There are plenty of screen shots to demonstrate ideas explored in the book, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to carry out certain functions on your blog and related sites. This is easy to read and has plenty of ideas to help your blog develop and grow and I have been gradually utilising some of the ideas in this book on my own blog as I have worked my way through the book.

All in all this is an interesting and informative introduction to the world of blogging and should turn you from a novice into a competent blogger in no time. In the short time I have been blogging I have found it remarkably satisfying and with the knowledge on hand in this book you should soon be feeling the same way.

Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.