Bloggers R Us

Blogger is a blog publishing system from Google with a friendly interface specifically designed for creating and maintaining weblogs.

It allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with great content and many outstanding features including RSS feeds, link-backs, photo slideshows, and integration with popular Google applications like Picasa. Its versatility and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users.

If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will focus on transforming a typical blog into something fresh and professional that stands out from the crowd. It starts with an introduction to an example blog, discussing what it is lacking, and then adding all the features of Blogger to make it successful. This book will tell you how to transform a slow-paced typical business blog into an attractive and interactive profit-making blog with measurable results. It has a very user-friendly approach and shares tips, tricks, and resources to continue to grow your blog.

What you will learn from this book?

The book aims to be a “complete” guide to working with Blogger. The focus is on more advanced, professional uses. You will learn everything you need to know to extend your blog and grow beyond the basics of using Blogger. This book will cover the following:

• Customizing and creating templates to make your blog attractive
• Adding social bookmarks to your blog to promote your site
• Joining the blogosphere to drive traffic to your site
• Customizing your blog by using widgets effectively
• Customizing your blog’s RSS and Atom feed, so that the Blogger feeds are available to the users
• Managing ads and adding e-commerce features
• Monitoring viewers and ads using Google Analytics
• Managing and optimizing your blog for search engines
• Integrating your website with your blog

Want to break into blogging but don’t know where to start? Dynamic duo Joelle Reeder and Katherine Scoleri of The Moxie Girls^TM show you how to start your first blog, polish your prose, get involved in blogging communities, make sense of RSS feeds, podcasts, photos and more — all with fun, humor and attitude!

Inside you will find the need-to-know info to get your blog noticed: How to choose the right blogging platform or content management tool, select a web host, dress up your blog, manage blog content and keep your privates private! When you are ready for more, The Moxie Girls will treat you to insider dish on blog etiquette, analyzing blog traffic, blogging for business, creating podcasts and adding bling to your blog with plugins, add-ons and more. Throw in the refreshing cocktails, beauty tips and gossip with the Girls at the end of each chapter and you’ll be Blogging with Moxie in no time. So, what are you waiting for?

The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging With Moxie is packed with the content you need wrapped in casual, engaging dialog and a cheeky, bite-sized format.

• Bargain-blogging with tools such as WordPress®, TypePad®, and Vox
• Choosing a content management system like Expression Engine or Movable Type
• Managing blog content, using tags and moderating comments
• Selecting a professional designer and choosing from off-the-rack templates
• An introduction to podcasting and videocasting
• Finding, joining and managing blog communities
• Protecting your online identity
• Using a blog to better your business

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

If you want to give yourself a Web presence without spending a lot of time or money, a blog is your answer and this is your guide. Blogs (Web logs) are short, diary-like entries on a Web site that has a chronological, journal format. Fun or informative, but not formal, blogs are easy to set up, maintain, and update. You can share your personal, stream-of-consciousness musings or your expertise on any subject ranging from your family vacation to world peace. This guide helps beginners (even technophobes) get started fast, with the essential info on:

• The elements of blogs, such as entries, sidebars, categories, comments, and index pages
• The different types of hosting services, from free to fee and from “turn key” services that are easy-to-use to DIY programs
• Details on two popular, free “social community” hosted Web services that are ideal for casual bloggers—MSN Spaces and Yahoo! 360
• The scoop on Blogger, a popular free hosted service that has some community tools like the social networks, but is basically blog-intensive
• DIY blogging, covering three of the most powerful and flexible blog programs—Movable Type, WordPress, and Radio Userland
• Hooking into RSS feeds to distribute your blog entries beyond your site
• Choosing a newsreader
• Ways to raise the visibility of your blog and make money from blogging

Complete with step-by-step instructions and lots of screen shots, this guide walks you through everything from setting up your blog and posting your first entry to adding photos, audio, and more. It includes the URLs of lots of sample sites to see to give you an idea of blog possibilities. In addition to the essential how-to, it fills you in on:

• The blogosphere, blog culture and etiquette, snarks, macrologues, and more
• Moblogs that let you post entries remotely using your portable computer, PDA, or cell phone
• Buying a domain through a registrar such as Network Solutions, Register.com, or Go Daddy
• MP3 blogs, vlogs (videoblogs), photoblogging, audioblogging, podcasting, and more

You know you have something to say, whether it’s heavy stuff or just your thought for the day. Make your opinions known. Get your photos shown. With Blogging For Dummies, you’ll soon be blogging with the best of ‘em.