Blogging for Dummies

The Essential Family Guide to Borderline Personality Disorder: New Tools and Techniques to Stop Walking on Eggshells This is the best "Dummies" book I've ever read. Its best feature is that it gives readers both the big picture (why are you blogging?) and fine detail (links to vital info). I am planning a blog for my web site and books, and thanks to this book I went from knowing nothing to feeling fairly confident I know what I'm getting into. I got my copy from the library, but am considering buying a copy of my own as a resource.

This is a very helpful book for anyone who is beginning to blog and even for a person like me who has started to blog for about eight months but is still learning along the way. The authors give many websites where the reader can go to see exactly what the text is referring to. I finally learned the HTML code for doing lists in posts from this book. It also covers suggestions for getting traffic to your blog and how to get and handle comments. I highly recommend it for any blogger, especially beginners.

Like many Dummies books, this book is comprehensive! It's a thorough introduction to blogging from rank Internet newbie, to the typical active blogger seeking to learn more about the medium. As a 2008 book, it's reasonably current. This is one of those Dummies books the publishers will need to update annually. I recommend readers always seek the latest possible edition of any blogging book, as popular technologies change so rapidly in the field. RSS, comment spam, social networks and podcasting are all given their due space. An entire chapter is devoted to adding and managing photos for your blog. Two large chapters offer the fundamentals of blogging for business and adding advertising. This won't be specific enough to get any would-be pro blogger rich, but *does* provide enough basics to get started with affiliates, AdSense, TextLink Ads, AdBright and the like. Lots of screen captures and sidebars explain complex concepts quite clearly. I enjoyed one sidebar in particular about why comment spam exists (and hint; it's more about page rank juice than possible click-throughs). I'd recommend this book for the newbie through advanced blogging beginner. Intermediate level bloggers looking to to brush up on the basics would likely enjoy adding this as a reference to the bookshelf, and might find a few gems they originally missed. Advanced bloggers won't find much useful here...but as it's a Dummies book, that's to be expected! From all the blogging books targeting the beginner, this one offers the most bang for your buck, and really does a nice job of holding your hand along the way.

Don't let the "dummy" title fool you. With so many blog "how-to" papers written, I wanted a good "how-to" book that would walk me through and hold my hand as I venture into the blogosphere. Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley provide just that ... a perfect reference book that takes you one step at a time until you are ready to publish. Thanks Susannah and Shane.

Blogging For Dummies is a fabulous resource for bloggers, new and old. This book is full of great information, tips, ideas, suggestions and resources that any blogger can benefit from reading. Written by two Pros in the field of blogging, you can't go wrong if you're looking for a one-stop, desktop reference on the world of blogging. Highly recommended!