Blogging in a Snap

While most of this book focuses on Google's Blogger service rather than blogging in general, many of the tips included about HTML code, building community, and using other services with your blog are applicable to other blog tools as well, so even WordPress or Movable Type users will find something useful in this book. Meloni is very good at balancing her explanations so knowledgeable users will not find them condescending, but novices will not be confused. If you want to take Blogger beyond stock templates and a stock blog, this book is indispensable.

I've looked through lots of basic blogging books and this one is definitely one of the best. It's written clearly and the explanations interface really well with the illustrations. As a writer myself, I was impressed with the tone and style of this book. Another book I'd recommend is the McFredies book 'Idiot's Guide...Web page & Blog': it is also a high caliber basic manual. Some others that are popular are definitely Grade B level writing, but not these two. Of course, this book is a bit limited as it focuses on google blogger, but that is its purpose.

Blogging in a Snap By Julie C. Meloni SAMS Publishing ISBN 0-672-32843-7 270 pages Price: US $24.99, CAN $34.99 £17.99 If you've been thinking about starting your own blog but haven't figured out how and where to begin, Blogger.com is a very popular place to check out. Its simple user interface can get you up and blogging in no time. Though the set up instructions for Blogger.com is are relatively easy, Julie Meloni's Blogging in a Snap explains the obvious and not so obvious ins and outs of blogging on Blogger.com. She takes you through the process of setting up your account, selecting a template, configuring your comments settings, creating your blogging profile, naming your blog, writing and publishing your first posts, and bringing potential readers to your site. If you've already begun a blogging on Blogger.com and you want to expand your use, Meloni explains how to modify your template using HTML and CSS codes, how use third-party tools, and how to create a moblog, a type of blogging done with your cell phone. I was surprised that she doesn't explain how to edit the link list, which is an essential part of every Blogger template. Unlike other blogger platforms, Blogger requires that you manually add links in the template itself using HTML code. I've visited many Blogger.com websites and noticed a number of new bloggers who seemingly don't know how to modify their site, such as the elements in the sidebar. They haven't learned how to add links or change the names of the subheadings. Perhaps the reason for this is because they have to open up and modify the blogsite's template. Users with little or no knowledge of HTML code might even wonder why they have access to this coded template. What on earth do you do with language that looks like this: Meloni tries to demystify the template code and show you ways to customize your Blogger site. Like other SAMS Teach Yourself books, Melon's step-by-step instructions include numerous screen shots that reflect and expand on what she explains in her textual instructions. She includes the template code for one of Blogger.com's basic templates and identifies and explains its major elements, like the header, sidebar items, the comments-related area, and the metadata. Her best instructions are when she takes you step by step through a particular template modification, like including images in your blog posts, adding tables, displaying recent comments and adding a blogroll on your main page. However, some of her other perhaps more advance HTML and CSS modification strategies are too brief and could use more explaining or a second book for intermediate and advance users. Learning and using HTML and CSS code can be daunting for many users. Working through this book gave me the idea to print out a copy of my Blogger template and peruse it using Meloni's guidelines. There's little risks making modifications to your template if you back-up a copy of it and use the preview button before saving your ch