Home > Store > Web Development > Content Management Systems
Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro, 2nd Edition
- By Tris Hussey
- Published May 8, 2012 by Sams. Part of the Create Your Own series.
- Copyright 2012
- Dimensions: 7-3/8" x 9-1/8"
- Pages: 288
- Edition: 2nd
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-672-33597-2
- ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33597-6
Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.
Product Author Bios
Tris Hussey is a speaker, former training manager, charter member of the Professional Bloggers Association, and Special Projects Manager for Media 2.0. He has been a blogger since 2004, and was one of Canada's first professional bloggers. The author of thousands of posts and articles on social media and blogging, he was named one of Vancouver's top 20 social media people. He is also a professional photographer.
Create Your Own Blog
6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro
Second Edition
6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro
Personal Blogging Using WordPress.com • Build a Website Around Your Blog
• Business Blogging Using WordPress.org Software • Multimedia Blogging
• Portfolio Blogging for Artists • Blogging with Tumblr
Build a great personal or business blog… absolutely no experience needed!
Want a personal or business blog of your own? It’s easy! In this simple guide, one of the world’s most experienced bloggers walks you through every step of building your own WordPress blog, from getting started to building a worldwide
audience. Tris Hussey covers it all, from low-cost blogging tools to high-powered writing tips! Get this book, and get started fast—with a professional-quality blog that meets your goals, whatever they are!
6 Easy Projects
Build great blogs like these, the easy way!
¶ Personal Blogs
¶ Business Blogs
¶ Audio and Video Podcasting Blogs
¶ Portfolio Blogs for Artists
¶ Blogging with Tumblr
¶ Creating a Website with WordPress
Learn from a pro! Discover tips, tricks, and great solutions for:
¶ Setting up your blog the right way—in just minutes!
¶ Writing blog entries people want to read
¶ Handling comments—even nasty ones!
¶ Creating a conversation and building a community
¶ Publicizing your blog
¶ Choosing the right free or low-cost blogging tools
¶ Avoiding beginner mistakes
¶ Earning cash from your blog!
You won’t believe how easy it is to create your own blog… or how much fun!
Tris Hussey is a speaker, teacher, charter member of the Professional Bloggers Association, and social media consultant. He has been a blogger since 2004 and was one of Canada's first professional bloggers. The author of thousands of posts and articles on social media, blogging, and technology, he was named one of Vancouver's top 20 social media people. He is also a professional photographer and regularly teaches blogging, WordPress, and social media at several Vancouver-area universities.
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
A great guide,
This review is from: Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
This is among the few manuals I have read through nearly page to page. And, I don't even plan to write a blog. That's even though people have asked me through the years to write a blog for various reasons. After studying this issue in much detail, I decided that starting my own blog was not a productive use of my time or that helpful for my readers. Yet, writing a blog can be an incredibly fun, productive, and lucrative endeavors for many people. I know off people who have succeeded doing exactly that (the author is certainly one of them). And, I know many who have tremendously strengthen their business marketing and professional credibility by maintaining a blog or a website.I found Hussey's book hooky because I wanted to better understand the world of blogging. The first chapter on the history of blogging gives you a great chronological overview of this rapidly changing field. Previously, I was not perfectly clear on the difference between a blog and a website... Read more
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great for beginners, repetitive for veteran bloggers.,
This review is from: Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
First and foremost, I must admit that it bothers me that this book includes only Wordpress and Tumblr as blog hosts. Blogger is still a very large presence, yet only the aforementioned hosts received sections in this book.Beyond that, if you are looking to start a blog I will say that there is a lot of great information packed into these pages...though the book doesn't look quite as attractive as other blogging books I've read, it's probably the best I've seen so far when taking content into consideration. Unfortunately, if you're like me and have been blogging for a while, you likely know all of the technical/blog setup stuff as well as most of the major ins and outs of what to post/not to post etc. etc. Those subjects are the meat and potatoes of "Create Your Own Blog" and if you've been blogging for, say, a year or more this is not the book for you.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Great for newbies, By
This review is from: Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
While this is certainly an adequate explanation of how to set up a blog I was really hoping for something more advanced. I also hoped the information would be more visually engaging. Perhaps it was the two color scheme but I found myself not as engaged as I would have preferred. I think the book is best for those just starting to blog.But on balance this book would be excellent for the beginning blogger. Chapters include how to install and set up your first blog, creating Content, how to build a community around your blog, and creating a multimedia blog. |
Online Sample Chapter
Creating a Personal Blog with WordPress.com
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About the Second Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
It’s All About Storytelling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Wait, You’re a Professional Blogger?. . . . 3
How to Use This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1 Beginning the Story: Blogging Then and Now 7
A Brief History of Blogging . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The Blog Heard Round the World:
Blogging Gets Mainstream Attention . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Blogging Comes into Its Own . . . 12
Culture of Sharing, Connecting, and Caring. . . . . . . . . . . 13
Blogs, Society, and the News. . . . . 13
Gaze into the Looking Glass and the Future of Blogging . . . . 15
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2 Installing and Setting Up Your First Blog 17
Starting Your First Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Choosing a Topic for Your Blog. . 18
Picking a Name for Your Blog . . . 19
Choosing a Domain Name. . . . . . 23
Choosing a Blog Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Signing Up for a Blog on WordPress.com . . . .. . . . . 30
Setting Up a Self-Hosted Blog. . . . 32
Touring Your Blog’s Dashboard. . . . . . . . 38
Content Block: Posts, Media, Links, Pages, and Comments . . 38
Administration Block: Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools, and Settings. . . . . 40
Tweaking Your Blog Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Tweaking and Tuning a WordPress.com Blog. . . . .. . . 42
Setting Good Permalinks . . . . . . . . 47
Antispam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
SEO Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Blogrolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Comments and Trackbacks. . . . . . 51
Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
About Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Themes and Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Tracking Your Blog’s Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3 Creating Content for Your Blog 55
Turning an Idea for a Blog into Blog Posts. . . .. . . 56
Capture Inspiration Whenever and Wherever It Strikes . . . . 57
Finding Your “Voice” . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
To Anonymously Blog or Not: The Line Between Public and Private. . . . . . 62
Write Until You’ve Said Your Piece. . . . . . . . . . . 64
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 . . . 70
Other Bloggers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
”Real” World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Reader Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Writing with Search Engines in Mind ....73
Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Writing for Search Engines . . . . . . 75
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4 Building a Community Around Your Blog 77
Encouraging Comments and Discussion. . . . . . . . . 78
Commenting on Other Blogs . . . . 80
Spam, Trolls, and Other Vermin: The Comments You Don’t Want . . .80
Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Trolls and Other Vermin. . . . . . . . . 82
Finding Other Blogs in Your Niche . . . . 83
Linking to Other Blogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Connecting with Other Bloggers. . . . . . . 87
Twitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Facebook, Google+, and Other Social Networks . . . . . . . 89
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5 Creating a Personal Blog with WordPress.com 91
Getting Started with WordPress.com. . . 92
Creating Your Account . . . . . . . . . . 93
Key WordPress.com Settings and Configuration . . . . . . . 96
Themes and Customizations . . . 100
Focus on the Content—What to Put in a Personal Blog . . . . . . . . 107
Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Adding Videos to Your Posts. . . . 118
Growing with WordPress.com . . . . . . . . 120
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6 Creating a Business Blog 123
Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Privacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Blogging Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Pictures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Podcasting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Building and Hosting Your Business Blog . . . .. . 138
Choosing a Template for Your Business Blog . . .. 138
Stats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
7 Creating a Website 143
Isn’t This a Blogging Book? . . . . . . . . . . 144
Blog Engines to Run Websites . . 144
Blogs Are the New Websites . . . . 145
Let Technology Help You . . . . . . . 145
It’s About the Content. . . . . . . . . . 145
Does a Website Have to Have a Blog, Too?. . .. . . 146
Getting Started: Technology . . . . . . . . . . 146
Domain Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Host . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
Platform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Getting Started: Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Required Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Getting Started: Installing WordPress and Other Key Components . . 149
Installing WordPress. . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Installing Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Recommended Plugins . . . . . . . . . 156
Installing Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
What Will the Home Page Be? . . . . . . . 161
Static . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Modular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Choosing and Customizing Your Theme . . . . . . 168
Headers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Backgrounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Widgets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Choosing Content for Your Website . . 172
Post or Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Categories and Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Multimedia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Final Touches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
Measuring Your Success . . . . . . . . 175
Search Engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Maintaining. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
8 Creating a Visual Artist’s Portfolio Blog 177
What Makes for Good Content on a Portfolio Blog . . . . . 178
Picking the Right Tool for the Job . . . . 179
WordPress.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
DIY or Self-Hosted Blogs. . . . . . . . 180
How Do I Choose Between WordPress.com and DIY? . . . 180
Making a Site a Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Picking a Good Theme for a Portfolio Blog . .. . . . 181
Plugins for Portfolio Blogs . . . . . . 183
Pulling It All Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Gathering, Exporting, and Presenting Pictures. .. . . 185
Final Word on Content . . . . . . . . . 189
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
9 Blogging with Tumblr 191
Why Tumblr and Not Others?. . . . . . . . 192
Getting Started with Tumblr . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating a Blog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Tumblr Versus WordPress. . . . . . . 204
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
10 Creating a Multimedia Blog 205
All About Audio and Video Content....206
Podcast Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Recording Your First Podcast . . . . . . . . . 209
Laying Down the Main Track . . 211
Podcast Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Adding Audio Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Fades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Podsafe Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Exporting to MP3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Video Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Recording Your First Video Blog . . . . . . 221
Video Editing Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Exporting, Compression, and Video Formats .. . . . 227
Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Where and How to Host Your Podcast or Video Blog. . . . . 230
Posting Podcasts and Video to Your Blog. . . . .. . . 230
Submitting Your Show to iTunes. . . . . . . . 232
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
11 Making Money Through Your Blog 237
Nuts and Bolts of Making Money from Blogs . . . . 238
Making Money Directly . . . . . . . . 238
Making Money Indirectly . . . . . . 244
Final Word on Ads . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Pulling It Together on Your Blog . . . . . 250
Ad Codes 101. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Optimizing Your Blog’s Template . . . . . . 252
Tracking Your Performance . . . . 253
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Index 257
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 5 and Index)
This book includes free shipping!
This book includes free shipping!
eBook (Watermarked)
$19.99
$15.99
Includes EPUB, MOBI, and PDF
About eBook Formats
This eBook includes the following formats, accessible from your Account page after purchase:
EPUBThe open industry format known for its reflowable content and usability on supported mobile devices.
MOBIThe eBook format compatible with the Amazon Kindle and Amazon Kindle applications.
PDFThe popular standard, used most often with the free Adobe® Reader® software.
This eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discretely watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.
- Request an Instructor or Media review copy.
- Corporate, Academic, and Employee Purchases
- International Buying Options
Get access to thousands of books and training videos about technology, professional development and digital media from more than 40 leading publishers, including Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Cisco Press, IBM Press, O'Reilly Media, Wrox, Apress, and many more. If you continue your subscription after your 30-day trial, you can receive 30% off a monthly subscription to the Safari Library for up to 12 months. That's a total savings of $199.
