Blogging for Dummies Book Review

For my book review, I chose Blogging for Dummies by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley. I chose this book because there are tons and tons of blogs out there, and I wanted to get back into writing. Blogging allows everyone that has a voice the opportunity to say what they want. This book has something for everyone, whether the Internet is a big scary monster, or you’re an experience surfer.

There are six parts to the book, and part one starts out by wading into the shallow end of the pool. The first three chapters introduce readers to the world of blogging: what blogging is, why people do it, and how to make one yourself. It has easy, step-by-step instructions in how to start a blog, maintain it, and gives helpful hints on how to make your blog stand out. What this book also does is remind everyone that what you put out there, everyone can read. A lot of people tend to forget that what they post on their blog can come back to bite them. All you have to do is look at famous athletes, like NBA-star Gilbert Arenas and former baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, to see how blogging can get you unwanted attention.

Part two takes you more in depth into creating your blog. These are much more advanced ideas in creating a blog, such as fiddling with HTML to customize your blog, adding a YouTube video, even how to get your own domain name. There is also a section on the different blogging software that’s out there. I really liked the fact that the book didn’t just cater to Google and Blogger. The book also talks about programs like Movable Type and ExpressionEngine. This is the next step in creating a great blog.

The next section, part three, is about focusing your blog, hitting your target audience, and making sure the people that read your blog aren’t overwhelmed by spammers. Spam is a major obstacle in creating a blog. Ads for things you don’t want on your blog can ruin your day, and can be a pain to your audience. Chapter 10 goes into depth about how to deal with not only spam, but rude and surly posters as well.

Parts four, five, and six are all about taking your blog to the next level and making it really stand out. Part four dives into big-time bells and whistles, such as how to use Flickr photos, and how to create a podcast. This section really caught my interest as a former radio DJ. While I haven’t posted a podcast, it has been very interesting to experiment with the suggested software (Jahshaka) and trying to create something similar to my old radio show. Part five is about marketing your blog, and part six is called “The Part of Tens”, where the authors give a top ten list of things to check out, such as ways to increase community action, cool tools, and even blogs to follow.

Overall, this book falls in line with the other Dummy books. It is clear, concise, and explains all the jargon that goes along with blogs and blogging. I like how the book doesn’t dive head first into the nuts and bolts of blogging, which can overwhelm true beginners. The intended targets of this book are beginners and people who want to expand their knowledge of blogging. The authors did not keep people who are already Internet experts in mind when they wrote this book. It goes through things slowly, and in plain terms. That said everyone can improve their blogging by reading this book.