Google Blogger for Dummies

This book was easy to use and had simple instructions to get a blog started. I was up and running within a couple of days of reading.

I've had my blog up and running for a couple of weeks and decided to get this book to help fill in some gaps in what I had learned on my own. I was not disappointed. It is easy to just take a chapter at a time and you can skip around as needed. It is a great reference book. I have a Kindle and started to buy that version, but decided to go with the hardcopy. This was a good call as I have highlighted and dog-eared a lot of the pages so I can easily flip to sections I need to reference. While you can learn a lot about Blogger online, I find it helpful on my eyes to get away from the computer screen every now and then and read a "real" book. Also, there aren't many books exclusively devoted to Blogger (like this one)so this was also a real plus. One of the ways the book helped me the most, was in creating a unique domain name for my blog. I wanted to have a url that didn't have the .blogspot.com at the end of it. The author walked me through the steps and it took all of 5 minutes! This alone saved me a lot of time and was worth the price of the book. [...] Good luck with your blogging!

This book has just about everything you need to know about blogging. I think most people will want to keep it as a reference book, and that is its value IMO. Be aware, though, that the book includes much hype--over and over again--about Google Blogger, itself.

First Line: So you made the decision to start a blog. This is a decision that thousands, if not millions, of people have made. If Google Blogger is the blogging platform chosen, how much help isGunelius' book? A lot! From Part I where the author describes Blogger's features and compares it to other blogging software, Gunelius takes the reader step-by-step through opening a Google account, starting a blog, choosing a template, writing and publishing blog posts-- everything a beginning blogger should know. From the basics, she moves on to covering how to monetize a blog, blogging from different media such as podcasting and mobile phones, how to use social media such as Twitter to network and build a community, and how to obtain your own domain. There's even a section for troubleshooting problems. Everything is written in clear, concise language and easy to follow instructions. People who have been blogging for a while may wonder if Google Blogger for Dummies contains anything worthwhile for them. My answer would be yes. For example, I had questions about obtaining my own domain, just what does "bounce rate" mean, and how to increase my search engine ranking. This book answered all those questions and many others. This book is for everyone using Blogger, both novice and pro.

The "Dummies" franchise is notoriously uneven with lots of low-quality titles and a relatively few good ones. "Google Blogger For Dummies" is a winner. Susan Gunelius effortlessly walks the reader through the history of blogs and Blogger, in particular, the mechanics of starting, maintaining and growing a blog and ehnhancing your blog with templates, widgets, elements and gadgets. Then Gunelius segues into "Making Money with Blogger". This section is surprisingly well done and thorough. It lists a number of resources for monetizing your blog and has a pretty detailed discussion of Google's AdSense program. Gunelius then moves on to networking and relationship building. All in all, Susan Gunelius has turned out a very usable guide to getting started with Google Blogger, growing into as sophisticated a blog as you like and, if you are so moved (and have enough traffic), monetizing and growing it. Good work. Do remember that this guide is oriented toward Blogger beginners. If you'd like a good introduction to WordPress, Google Blogger's major competitor, checkout another "dummies" title, WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)). Jerry