Blogging for Dummies

How This Book Is Organized

Words. Sentences. Paragraphs. Pages. Chapters. Parts. It’s a thing of beauty.

Part I: The What, Where, Why, and How of Weblogs

The three chapters in Part I present a bird’s-eye view of the entire blogging landscape. Here you glean not only what a blog is (it’s amazing how many people don’t really know, even if they read blogs) but also what elements typically go into a blog, from entries to archives, from comments to RSS feeds. The information in this part summarizes, illuminates, and points you to later chapters that explain more completely how it all works.

Also in this part (Chapter 2, specifically), I identify the four types of blog services covered in this book and begin to compare them in a way that helps you decide which level contains your comfort zone.

It might seem presumptuous to consider blogging a lifestyle, but this part gladly presumes just that, and outlines the perks and pitfalls of that lifestyle. You don’t have to be a full-time blogger to gain insight into the blogging mindset from Chapter 3.

Part II: Starting a Blog Today

Part II gets right to it, helping the eager first-time blogger find the quickest path to publishing a blog. Chapter 4 explores MSN Spaces, a social network that includes an attractive blogging platform. Chapter 5 focuses on another social network — Yahoo! 360, which provides one of the simplest starting points for the beginning blogger. Blogger.com, the subject of Chapter 6, is by some measurements the world’s most popular blogging service and is popu¬lated by many newcomers trying out their first blogs. Chapter 7 details TypePad, a full-featured blog service subscribed to by many serious bloggers.

Part III: Installing Your Own Blog Program

The chapters in Part III are the most challenging of the book, but I don’t assume any special knowledge. Any ambitious reader can reach an advanced power-blogging state by taking these chapters one step at a time.

Of the five chapters in this part, Chapter 8 is the most important for any reader curious about using a self-installed blogging program. The self-installed programs, which get installed on a server (not on your PC), offer unmatched power and features, along with a steeper learning curve than the hosted blog services. Installation is the hardest part, and Chapter 8 covers the principles encountered when installing any of the big blog programs.Movable Type and WordPress are the two server-installed programs covered in this book, and each gets a chapter that clarifies how they work after instal¬lation. Then I move on to Radio UserLand, a blog program and service that is installed on your PC and connects to a server where your blog actually lives. That setup is unique, and Chapter 11 explains it completely.

Finally, Chapter 12 covers the best of both worlds: power-blogging software that somebody else installs for you, in specialized Web hosts whose accounts come equipped with Movable Type or WordPress ready to go.

Part IV: Total Blog Immersion

My hope is that you become profoundly hooked on blogging in Parts I, II, and III, and then thirst for more information and cooler things to do with your blog. Part IV explores blog culture, blog revenue, podcasting, photos, video, music, and — most importantly — syndicated feeds. Ah, the feeds. Please don’t neglect Chapter 13, the first chapter of this part. Feeds are important not only because they make it easy for a global audience to read your blog, but also because fluency with feeds makes it possible for you to follow a global network of blogs and other news sites. Feeds tie together the two sides of blogging: creating blogs and consuming blogs.

Podcasting is a hot topic as I prepare this manuscript, and it will no doubt be hotter as you read it. Thousands of podcasts exist, but millions of people don’t know how to get started. Chapter 16 advises you on a handful of ser¬vices that can get you started.

Part V: The Part of Tens

This part carries on the For Dummies tradition by providing selections of blog search engines and directories as well as blogging resources for your browsing pleasure. The Part of Tens is always a fun portion of the book to write and, I hope, fun to read.
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