Essential Blogging: Selecting and Using Weblog Tools [Paperback]

Shelley Powers (Author), Cory Doctorow (Author), J. Scott Johnson (Author), Mena G. Trott (Author), Benjamin Trott (Author), Rael Dornfest (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596003889 | ISBN-13: 978-0596003883 | Publication Date: September 4, 2002 | Edition: 1

Anyone can run a blog (an online journal). From personal diaries to political commentary and technology observations, bloggers are making their voices heard around the world. Essential Blogging helps you select the right blogging software for your needs and show how to get your blog up and running.

You'll learn the ingredients of a successful blog, and then get detailed installation, configuration and operation instructions for the leading blogging software: Blogger, Radio Userland, Movable Type, and Blosxom. After showing you how to acquire, set-up, and run these leading software packages, Essential Blogging takes you through the more advanced features, so that by the time you finish, you'll be up and blogging with the best of them.

Essential Blogging covers:

• the important components of a blog and a blog post
• installing and configuring the tools
• a survey of desktop blogging clients
• advice and experience from real-world bloggers
• hosted blogging with Blogger and Blogger Pro
• desktop blogging with Radio Userland
• server blogging with Movable Type
• posting, editing, and deleting blog entries
• adding pictures to blog entries
• syndicating your stories with RSS
• consuming RSS feeds with Radio Userland
• customizing the appearance of your blog with templates
• managing and customizing archives of blog entries
• adding comments to your blog
• self-hosting your blog vs using a blog-hosting service
• going under the hood with the Blosxom blogging system

Written by prominent bloggers and authors of blogging tools, Essential Blogging is a no-nonsense guide to the technology of blogging.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you're not a Blogger user then Essential Blogging, the king of the 'how to' books, would me more appropriate." "Packed with tips and code examples it is a treasure trove for the writer who wants to move beyond the standard templates bundled with each system. Even advanced users are likely to find some value in its discussion of BloggerAPI clients used for posting to a blog without firing up a browser." PCW, March "... Essential Blogging, the king of the 'how to' books... Packed with tips and code examples it is a treasure trove for the writer who wants to move beyond the standard templates bundled with each system. Comprising first-hand accounts of what blogging means to some of the community's leading lights, it is precisely what The Weblog Handbook should have been." - Nik Rawlinson, PCW, March

About the Author

Rael Dornfest is a Researcher at the O'Reilly & Associates focusing on technologies just beyond the pale. He assesses, experiments, programs, and writes for the O'Reilly network and O'Reilly publications. Dornfest is Program Chair of the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Chair of the RSS-DEV Working Group, and developer of Meerkat: An Open Wire Service. In his copious free time, he develops bits and bobs of Open Source software and maintains his raelity bytes Weblog.

Shelley Powers is an independent contractor, currently living in St. Louis, who specializes in technology architecture and software development. She's authored several computer books, including Developing ASP Components, Unix Power Tools 3rd edition, Essential Blogging, and Practical RDF. In addition, Shelley has also written several articles related primarily to web technology, many for O'Reilly. Shelley's web site network is at http://burningbird.net, and her weblog is Burningbird, at http://weblog.burningbird.net.

is a programmer and the co-creator of Movable Type. With Mena Grabowski Trott, he is a partner and co-founder of Six Apart. He develops all of the backend code for Movable Type, contributes regularly to CPAN (the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), and has written for Perl.com. Benjamin likes cryptography and Serge Gainsbourg, and he dreams about universal wireless, so he can travel in France.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (September 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596003889
• ISBN-13: 978-0596003883
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,909,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Plain. Writer.

Shelley Powers has been working with, and writing about, web technologies--from the first release of JavaScript to the latest graphics and design tools--for more than 15 years. Her recent O'Reilly books have covered the semantic web, Ajax, JavaScript, and web graphics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to blogging for the true novice, November 13, 2002

By 

R. Geissman "Lodi Shopper" (Lodi, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Blogging: Selecting and Using Weblog Tools (Paperback)

I picked up this book after deciding that I was going to turn my website into a blog. I had no backround in blogging and this book is geared towards the novice. Blogging is explained and then they go in to detail on using either Radio Userland, Blogger, or Movable Type to get your blog up on the web. The order of the chapters is kinda crazy to me but you can read them in any order you like I suppose. By the time I was done with the book (2 evenings) I was up and running under Radio Userland blogging away like an old pro. I borrowed this book from the library and only had it two days and wouldn't need to look at it again as all the information included is available on the web as well.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good guide to some specific software, July 25, 2003

By 

Frank Carver - See all my reviews

This review is from: Essential Blogging: Selecting and Using Weblog Tools (Paperback)

"Blogging" (the practice of keeping a public on-line journal to record personal thoughts, observations and links), is hot news on the internet these days. Many of the best-known names in the business keep such journals, so it's not surprising that the book publishers want to cash in.

Things in the world of blogging move fast. Minor celebrities rise and fall, new software is continually being released, new jargon is invented. It's hard for a paper book to keep up. There are some aspects of blogging which are gaining some permanancy. Unfortunately, this book only skims those topics, preferring to spend nearly 200 pages describing how to use particular (late 2002) versions of a few blogging tools.

The most incisive and thought-provoking part of the book is the last ten pages - interesting quotes from a range of bloggers. It's the only bit which shows any of the excitement and "buzz" of blogging and gets you wanting to get involved.

This is not a bad book. But it's not really the book described in its own advertsing. If you want a rough guide to comparing, installing and using a small selection of the well-known blog software offerings, this book is right for you. If you want a more thoughtful and detailed overview of what blogging is all about, why you should do it, what the terminology means, or how it works "under the hood", keep looking.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blogging introduction and manual, December 30, 2002

By 

G. Crisp (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Essential Blogging: Selecting and Using Weblog Tools (Paperback)

Essential Blogging appeals to the its audience as:

- an introduction to the tools of blogging
- a users manual to some of the more prolific blogging tools
- advice for those who might value the opinions of more well-known bloggers

Having been a dabbler in blogging for the past year, I find the introduction to blogging of little use. For me, the most useful contents are the chapters on Userland Radio, my blog tool of choice. The advanced chapter (ch. 6) is of specific value, as it details the mechanics of how the tool works 'under the hood', and how it can be customized. Although I only skimmed the chapters on Blogger and Moveable Type, those sections seem just as informative about their perspective tools, and should prove equally valuable to their users as the Userland chapters are to me.

The discussion of desktop blogging tools (ch. 2) is of equal value. It shows how one might use a more feature-rich editor in conjunction with the robust, content-management back-end of Userland. There is also a brief but informative discussion of the API's that make integration between blogging tools practical.

Of questionable value is the final chapter (ch. 10), which contains quotes from various bloggers opining the virtues of blogging and their own, personal experiences. Some of these comments are insightful. Some are clearly the pontifications of those who are legends in their own minds. Deciding which are which is left as an exercise to the reader.