Introduction: It's All about Storytelling 1
Wait, You're a Professional Blogger? 2
How to Use This Book 3
1 Welcome to the Blogosphere: Planning Your First Blog 5
A Brief History of Blogging 6
The Blog Heard Round the World: Blogging Gets Mainstream Attention 8
The Blogosphere's Giant Dysfunctional Family 9
Blogs, the Mainstream Media, and Journalism-World Turned Upside Down 10
Blogging: Pet Rock or New Foundation? 11
Starting Your First Blog 12
Choosing a Topic for Your Blog 13
What's in a Name: Picking a Name for Your Blog 14
Summary 18
2 Installing and Setting Up Your First Blog 19
Choosing a Blog Engine 20
Getting Started 26
Signing Up for a Hosted Blog 26
Setting Up a Self-Hosted Blog 28
Touring Your Blog's Dashboard 34
Content block: Posts, Media, Links, Pages, and Comments 34
Administration Block: Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, and Settings 36
Tweaking Your Blog Setup 39
Tweaking and Tuning a WordPresscom Blog 40
Setting Good Permalinks 45
Anti-Spam 46
SEO Tuning 47
Categories and Tags 48
Blogrolls 48
Comments and Trackbacks 49
Security 49
About Page 49
RSS Feeds 50
Themes and Colors 51
Tracking Your Blog's Stats 52
Improving Your Blog's Search Capabilities 53
Summary 55
3 Writing and Creating a Conversation 57
Turning an Idea for a Blog into Blog Posts 58
Capture Inspiration Whenever and Wherever It Strikes 58
Finding Your Voice 61
To Anonymously Blog or Not: The Line Between Public and Private 62
Write Until You've Said Your Piece 65
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 71
Other Bloggers 71
Real World 74
Reader Comments 74
Writing with Search Engines in Mind 74
Keywords 75
Writing for Search Engines 77
Categories and Tags 77
Summary 78
4 Building Community 79
Encouraging Comments and Discussion 80
Commenting on Other Blogs 82
Spam, Trolls, and Vermin: The Comments You Don't Want 83
Spam 83
Trolls and Other Vermin 84
Finding Other Blogs in Your Niche 86
Linking to Other Blogs 88
Connecting with Other Bloggers 89
Twitter, Microblogging, and Lifestreams 90
Facebook and Social Networks 91
Summary 92
5 Creating a Personal Blog 93
What to Put in a Personal Blog 94
Writing 95
Privacy 97
Comments 98
Multimedia 100
Pictures 100
Podcasting 105
Video 111
Hosting Your Personal Blog 118
Summary 118
6 Creating a Business Blog 119
Content 121
Writing 121
Privacy 124
Comments 125
Blogging Policies 126
Multimedia 128
Pictures 129
Podcasting 131
Video 134
Building and Hosting Your Business Blog 138
Choosing a Template for Your Business Blog 138
Stats 139
Summary 141
7 Creating a Podcast Blog 143
Content 144
Recording Your Podcast 145
Tools 145
Your First Recording 147
Editing Basics 151
Mixing in Music 152
Exporting to MP3 155
ID3 Tags: Like Dog Tags, but for Music 156
Internet Radio Renaissance 158
Hosting and Promoting Your Podcast 160
Where and How to Host Your Podcast Blog 160
Posts with Your Podcast 161
Submitting Your Podcast to iTunes 162
Summary 165
8 Video Blogging 167
Content 168
Recording Your Video Blog Posts 169
The Camera 170
Your First Recording 172
Editing Basics 174
Using Copyrighted Works in Your Videos 176
Mixing in Music, Titles, and Extras 177
Exporting, Compression, and Video Formats 178
What Does YouTube Say? 178
Hosting and Promoting Your Video Podcast 180
Submitting Your Show to iTunes 181
Posts with Your Episodes 182
Hosting Your Blog 184
Summary 185
9 Creating a Portfolio Blog 187
What Makes for Good Content on a Portfolio Blog 188
Picking the Right Tool for the Job 189
WordPresscom 190
DIY or Self-Hosted Blogs 190
How Do I Choose Between WordPresscom and DIY? 190
Making a Site a Site 191
Picking a Good Theme for a Portfolio Blog 191
Plug-Ins for Portfolio Blogs 194
Pulling It All Together 196
Gathering, Exporting, and Presenting Pictures 197
Adding Documents of All Shapes and Sizes 202
Final Word on Content 203
Summary 203
10 Creating Your Online Lifestream 205
What Goes into a Lifestream Blog? 206
Why Lifestreams? Wasn't Blogging Enough? 207
Starting Your Lifestream Blog: Inputs 208
Quick Posts 210
Twitter 214
Flickr and Other Photo-Sharing Sites 216
Your Blog(s) 217
YouTube and Other Videos 218
Sharing from Your Feeds 218
Pulling It All Together 219
FriendFeed 220
Cliqset: The New Kid in Town 222
DIY Lifestreams 223
The Comment Conundrum 226
The Problem: Comments, Comments Everywhere! 226
The Solution: More Services! 227
Summary 228
11 Making Money Through Your Blog 229
Nuts and Bolts of Making Money from Blogs 230
Making Money Directly 231
Making Money Indirectly 236
Final Word on Ads 242
Pulling It Together on Your Blog 243
Ad Codes 101 243
Optimizing Your Blog's Template 245
Tracking Your Performance 246
Summary 247
Index 249
