Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs [Paperback]

Todd Stauffer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2002

Weblogs -- or blogs -- are taking the Internet by storm! Now you can expand your site using message boards, mailing lists, and numerous other features to maintain and promote community with help from this easy-to-understand guide. Includes practical tips for making tweaks and improvements with HTML, Flash, Web images, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"If you've been thinking about setting up a weblog, but don't know XML from FTP, this book is a great place to start. Learn what a weblog is, what it isn't, and take a step-by-step look at using some of the most popular weblogging tools and hosting solutions available today. I wish I had this book when I was building wilwheaton.net!" --Wil Wheaton, actor and writer

"Blogs have become a really big deal, and Blog On does a great job of showing you how to create your own blog." --Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.org

"A smart, sassy look at the technology and technique of Weblogging that will, for good or ill, introduce a legion of wannabes to the blogosphere. Fortunately, Todd Stauffer's advice is sound, and those who follow it will be better for the exposure." --G.K. Nelson, creator of stonefishspine and former editor of the Web art and literary 'zine, Savoy

Your one-stop resource for creating and publishing dynamic Web content and community

There's no coding required! Create, publish, and promote your very own weblog ("blog") with help from this accessible and informative guide. Weblogs are an amazing way to build a dynamic, community-driven Web site for yourself, your business, or your non-profit organization. Best-selling author Todd Stauffer explains, step-by-step, how to set up your blog, express your style through effective presentation, and create a site that will attract visitors and keep them coming back. You'll find out about hosted blogging options that get you started in five minutes or less, as well as powerful server-based weblog applications. You'll also learn about add-on tools and advanced features that make your site more plugged-in, promoting an active community of readers. Whether you've never had a Web site before or you're an experienced pro looking for new ways to differentiate your site, this book will help you to get your blog on in no time.

About the Author

Todd Stauffer (New York, NY) is the author or co-author of over 25 computer books, contributor to various technical magazines, a humor columnist and the creator of the "How to Do Everything" concept and first book (How to Do Everything with Your iMac) that launched Osborne's How to Do Everything series. More than 500,000 copies of books by Todd Stauffer have been sold and translated into Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish, French and Russian. His titles including the best-selling and award winning How to Do Everything with Your iMac (Osborne) now in its third edition, Mac Upgrade and Repair Bible (Hungry Minds), Small Business Office 2000 for Dummies (Hungry Minds) and HTML By Example (MCP), and Using HTML (QUE). Todd was the writer and co-host of the "Disk Doctors" television show on Knowledge TV. He's also hosted the "Peak Computing" radio show in Denver (with Dave Johnson) as well as other short pieces for radio and audio Web streaming. Before going freelance, Todd was editor of Texas Computing Magazine and an advertising writer. He graduated from Texas A&M University with a B.A. in English Literature. Todd is the publisher of www.macupgrade.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 361 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill (October 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072227125
• ISBN-13: 978-0072227123
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,093,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A miracle: an excellent primer and reference on blogging, May 24, 2003

By 

Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs (Paperback)

This is a truly remarkable book. It is both a detailed primer for weblog novice and serves well as a reference for the experienced blogger or one desiring to attain that level.
Stauffer's organization of his material is unusually well structured. He begins at the very beginning: what is a blog, why you might want one and so one. Then there's a walk-through of four different blogging platforms, which is surprisingly detailed, yet easy to comprehend. This section not only cleared up a lot of mysteries for me, but also introduced me to the remarkable pMachine.
He then moves on to writing, designing and tweaking your blog - with information I didn't find in the other three books I first read. Finally, he concludes with sections on publicizing yourt blog and how to use it in business environments.
Overall, a remarkable tour de fource and in my estimation, the best book on blogging currently available. As noted I've read three of them and looked at all the others. This is the only one I would unreservedly endorse -- and I am not easy to please.

Jerry

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a solid and worthwhile book for a beginner to blogging, October 27, 2003

By 

Frank Carver - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs (Paperback)

This is a well-structured, practical and fairly comprehensive look at blogging. It covers everything from the basic question of whether you need a weblog, through how to set up and use some of the popular software offerings, to writing, tweaking, and publicizing your blog. There's also a small section on using blogs in business. The author comes over as someone who knows his stuff; I like the clear line drawn between using a hosted service, and running your blog on your own machine, for example.

As with any book which gives such precise installation and operation details, this one is likely to date quickly when the available software changes. It also has only thin coverage of more lasting social and community aspects, so if you find a copy that's several years old, make sure the bulk of the book still makes sense before buying. It's not a secret, but the book has a strong affiliation with the pMachine blogging software, and in places this seems to crowd out alternative approaches a bit.

In general, a solid and worthwhile book for a beginner to blogging. This book gives you all the tools and knowledge to get started, but once you decide that blogging is for you and want to take it further, make sure to check out a wider range of software and deeper, more theoretical, books such as Powazek's "Design for Community" and Blood's "The Weblog Handbook".

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blogging Fantastic, August 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Blog On: Building Online Communities with Web Logs (Paperback)

I bought two books when I got this one: The other was Rebecca Blood's "the Weblog Handbook." It's a two-star, at best, while this one is four and 3/4. I only withhold the 1/4 because some terminology wasn't clear. I had read the MacWorld reviews of all the systems Todd covered, and I knew I wanted to use only one of them, because it offered the features I need. The terminology, though, was contained in the chapters on the other systems, so I had to go into the index and look them up. (The term I'm thinking of is "bookmarklet," but there were others.) A separate chapter on terminology would have been helpful. Still, it's the best book out there on getting it up (your Blog, that is). Immediately following finishing the book, I emailed Rick Ellis, the Technical Consultant (and creator of pMachine), got immediate answers, and have signed up to start my blog on Rick's service. The website blogonbook.com is good, too, though it doesn't show correctly in Netscape 4.7. I read the book in two days. Entertaining, informative. (Bill ...)