Bloggers R Us

Discover why bloggers love WordPress and make your blog the best it can be

Blogs are as much a part of life today as the evening newspaper was fifty years ago, and for much the same reason: Inquiring minds want to know. WordPress powers some of the most popular blogs on the Web, and with this guide to help, it can work for you, too. Here’s what WordPress does, how to set it up and use it, and some cool bells and whistles to make your blog stand out.

• Pick your flavor — decide whether to use the WordPress.com hosted service or self-host your blog with WordPress.org
• Customization — discover CSS and template tags and how to use them to create your own unique style
• Blogging 101 — find out about archiving, interacting with readers through comments, tracking back, and handling spam
• Host with the most — get the scoop on domain registration, Web hosting providers, basic tools like FTP, and more
• Do it yourself — install WordPress.org, set up a MySQL database, explore RSS feeds, and organize a blogroll
• Beef up your blog — insert audio, video, images, and photos
• Think theme — discover where to find WordPress themes, explore various options, and work with template tags to create a unique look

Open the book and find:

• Advice for creating a blog that draws readers
• Tips on managing comments, trackbacks, and spam
• How to use the Dashboard
• Wonderful widgets and plugins to add
• How to make permalinks work with your Web server
• The standard templates and how to tweak them
• Ten popular WordPress themes
• Where to find help when you need it

Are you bemused by blogs? Eager to become a blogger? Google Blogger For Dummies can help you start blogging sooner than you think.

More than 14 million people are promoting a business, connecting with family and friends, and sharing opinions with Google Blogger. This book helps you start a Blogger account, create content, build an audience, make money from your blog, and more, all without learning to program. You’ll be able to:

• Learn the parts of a blog, what Blogger does, and how to choose goals and blog topics
• Choose a domain name, learn to use the dashboard, pick a template, and configure settings
• Dress up your blog with themes and find out where to get plenty of free ones
• Learn blogging etiquette and some secrets for long-term success
• Make money from your blog with Google Adsense, contextual and text link ads, and merchandising with CafePress
• Set up multi-user blogs or branch into mobile blogging, podcasting, or video blogging
• Take advantage of social networking sites and learn simple search engine optimization techniques
• Maintain your blog with tools like Blog This! and Quick Edit
• Moderate comments effectively, track your stats, and more

Google Blogger is a great choice for beginning bloggers, and Google Blogger For Dummies gives you the know-how to venture confidently into the blogosphere.

“We the Media, has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better.” -Financial Times

Big Media has lost its monopoly on the news, thanks to the Internet. Now that it’s possible to publish in real time to a worldwide audience, a new breed of grassroots journalists are taking the news into their own hands. Armed with laptops, cell phones, and digital cameras, these readers-turned-reporters are transforming the news from a lecture into a conversation. In We the Media, nationally acclaimed newspaper columnist and blogger Dan Gillmor tells the story of this emerging phenomenon and sheds light on this deep shift in how we make–and consume–the news.

Gillmor shows how anyone can produce the news, using personal blogs, Internet chat groups, email, and a host of other tools. He sends a wake-up call to newsmakers-politicians, business executives, celebrities-and the marketers and PR flacks who promote them. He explains how to successfully play by the rules of this new era and shift from “control” to “engagement.” And he makes a strong case to his fell journalists that, in the face of a plethora of Internet-fueled news vehicles, they must change or become irrelevant.

Journalism in the 21st century will be fundamentally different from the Big Media oligarchy that prevails today. We the Media casts light on the future of journalism, and invites us all to be part of it.

Dan Gillmor is founder of Grassroots Media Inc., a project aimed at enabling grassroots journalism and expanding its reach. The company’s first launch is Bayosphere.com, a site “of, by, and for the San Francisco Bay Area.”

Dan Gillmor is the founder of the Center for Citizen Media, a project to enable and expand reach of grassroots media. From 1994-2004, Gillmor was a columnist at the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley’s daily newspaper, and wrote a weblog for SiliconValley.com. He joined the Mercury News after six years with the Detroit Free Press. Before that, he was with the Kansas City Times and several newspapers in Vermont. He has won or shared in several regional and national journalism awards. Before becoming a journalist he played music professionally for seven years.