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Create Your Own Blog: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro: 6 Easy Projects to Start Blogging Like a Pro, 2nd Edition
- By Tris Hussey
- Published May 7, 2012 by Sams.
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Description
- Copyright 2012
- Dimensions: 7-3/8" x 9-1/8"
- Edition: 2nd
- eBook
- ISBN-10: 0-13-296743-X
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-296743-3
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.
Sample Content
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