Blogging

Want to make money from your creativity? Here's how

If you're a blogger or podcaster, an artist or musician, or someone who creates any other type of online content and dream of earning income from your creative efforts, you have endless options on the Internet. But to seize them, you must become part businessperson—a creative entrepreneur. If that thought intimidates you, you're not alone.

JD Frazer has been there, and he shares with you everything you must know about syndication, advertising, branding, merchandising, copyright protection, ethical considerations, how to attract consumers, and more. If you want to earn a living from what you create, here's what you need to do:

• Make wise decisions that protect your intellectual property and your interests
• Approach the subject of paying for content without alienating your audience
• Understand the realities of self-syndication
• Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of membership features on your Web site
• Learn how branding and merchandising apply to your art
• Be prepared for fame as well as anonymity, and the hazards of both
• Recognize the ethical balance that exists between creator and consumer
• Explore online resources that assist the creative entrepreneur

Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks
Customer Review: Helpful and well written
Interesting overview on the topic. As the subtitle suggests this book talks about "turning web sites, blogs, and podcasts into cash". The book is not hard to read, it's language is very friendly and easy to understand, while it's ideas are very mature. The author, it is evident, is very wise on the topic and shares his experience with the readers. There are no fluff or extra talk. Just useful material, ideas, web links, books, web sites, and suggestions based on many years of experience as a content provider. I took this book from a library, but now I'm considering buying it, so much I liked it! Highly recommended.
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Weblogs--frequently updated, independently produced, and curiously addictive--have become some of the most popular sites on the Web today. The Weblog Handbook is the first book to explain how weblogs work and explore their impact on the media landscape.

There is no formula for creating a superb weblog--but there are lessons to be drawn from maintaining one. In The Weblog Handbook, Rebecca Blood draws on her experience as an early participant in the weblog community to share what she has learned in three years of "living online."

With a clear and engaging voice, Rebecca explains how to choose among the available tools, even walking the beginner through the process of creating their first weblog. Along the way she answers commonly asked questions concerning weblog etiquette, how to attract readers, and the qualities that make a weblog stand out, alerting the novice to considerations--and pitfalls--they didn't know to ask about.

For students of digital culture, The Weblog Handbook provides an account of the history of the movement, an explanation of the "weblog method", and a thoughtful examination of weblogs and journalism.

Finally, Rebecca examines how the weblog community has grown and changed, the dangers confronting it, and the ways in which weblogs are affecting and affected by both online and offline culture.
Customer Review: decent and wise counsel
Rebecca Blood loves her craft. In a world moving as fast as the cyberworld is, a book written in 2002 and reviewed now in 2007 is bound to show its age. The Weblog Handbook does so. Yet for sheer, innocent (but not inexpert), joyful description of a weblog community that discovered itself almost accidentally between 1999 and 2002, this delightful little book is both a period piece and a still-useful introduction to weblogging for novices. Seven well-written chapters make the experience of reading this old-media production (ironies abound) a pleasure. 'What is a Weblog?' (chapter one, pp. 1-25) does what its title makes obvious. Along the way, the author utilizes her impeccably accessible prose to highlight the serendipitous, communal, and artistic-creative aspects of most blogs, or at least of those that set the movement afoot. Blood's second chapter (her generous first-person style makes a reviewer who has never met her refer to her simply as 'Rebecca'; 'Why a Weblog?', pp. 27-37) dispenses wisdom regarding how the beast can take over the life of the beast-er. She indicates three motives for blogging: 'information sharing, reputation building, and personal expression', with careful attention to what the practice does for the writer as well as for the reader. The secret is to align what one already does with one's life as Daily Chronicler of Something. Chapter three ('Creating and Maintaining Your Weblog', pp. 39-57) puts the 'p' in the first word of the author's subtitle. A newbie in the field will appreciate the absence of condescension as Blood introduces him to the nuts and bolts of his new hobby. Every successful artist or otherwise public persona experiences that memorable moment when she understands who she is in her given role and why that is a natural place to be. According to Rebecca Blood, bloggers are no different (Chapter four, 'Finding Your Voice', pp. 59-76). Though she gives due attention to the blogger-audience dynamic from several angles, she is very much aware that a blogger who wants her craft to be an integral aspect of her life finds her voice (including the topic upon which she can write knowledgeably) and sticks with it. Rebecca concludes 'Finding an Audience' (chapter five, pp. 77-99) with this judicious and provocative statement: 'If your objective in keeping a weblog is to gain a wide audience, I advise you to quite today. Webloggers who care about the size of their audience are always unhappy.' By the time she has worked her way to that declaration, however, she has provided twenty pages of helpful guidance to, well, finding and building an audience. One gains the impression that here is a woman of balance, willing to help you do the thing you want to do but aware that it may turn out to be something other than that. Kudos to her for writing a professional manual that takes itself with appropriate levity. Blood utilizes her sixth chapter to blend garden-variety journalistic ethics and etiquette with the peculiar idealism of the early weblogging community (chapter six, 'Weblog Community and Etiquette', pp. 101-125). Though she breaks her counsel into 'do not do' and 'do' categories, her approach is not rigid. Rather it is altruistic, idealistic, and communal. Even if those traits do not guarantee a better world, they are better than their alternatives. Blood capably guides the novice through the unspoken expectations that linger like minefields before the new weblogger who is clueless, belligerent, or some combination of the two. Reader beware. Chapter seven ('Living Online', pp. 127-145), provides Blood with her clearest opportunity to disclose what the experience of doing what the title suggests has meant to this civil and entertaining author of 'Rebecca's Pocket'. As with so much of what she has written here, the basic principle is common sense, even if that uncommon virtue must now be applied to a recent and uncongealed new medium of public disclosure. Living online does not mean that the blogger or his friends, acquaintances, and even the defenseless objects of his drive-by observations do not preserve and need a private life. Blood offers sensible guidance for observing those limits and avoiding the unwelcome intrusions to which technology has added such unwelcome afterlife. An afterword and several appendices complete a fine introduction to what in the hands of some must be regarded as a craft. When entering theological seminary many years ago, I was urged to read Helmut Thielicke's A LITTLE EXERCISE FOR YOUNG THEOLOGIANS. That slim, heartfelt volume did not teach anyone how to be a good theologian, yet it punched above its weight by setting a course for decent progress by practitioners of a craft who would now be more aware of self and community than would have been the case had Thielicke kept his pen locked away. Rebecca Blood's little book does the same for aspiring bloggers. Perhaps all that one has with which to repay her are five well-earned stars.
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"We need a solid book explaining and illustrating and letting teachers know about these powerful tools. This book meets the need in an awesome way!"
-Mike Muir, Director
Maine Center for Meaningful Engaged Learning

"This author is a gem! It startles me to be 'pulled' so happily through a text about these new Web tools in the context of good literacy instruction."
-Gary Graves, Senior Research and Evaluation Advisor, Technology in Education
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory��

Discover how to harness Web tools to motivate and update student reading, research, and communication!

This book brings teachers a bold vision and on-the-ground Monday morning practicality. It will move educators to think differently about technology’s potential for strengthening students' critical thinking, writing, reflection, and interactive learning. Will Richardson demystifies words like "blog," "wiki," and "aggregator" making classroom technology an easily accessible component of classroom research, writing, and learning.

This guide demonstrates how Web tools can generate exciting new learning formats, and explains how to apply these tools in the classroom to engage all students in a new world of synchronous information feeds and interactive learning. With detailed, simple explanations, definitions and how-tos, critical information on Internet safety, and helpful links, this exciting book opens an immense toolbox, with specific teaching applications for

• Web logs, the most widely adopted tool of the read/write Web
• Wikis, a collaborative Webspace for sharing published content
• Rich Site Summary (RSS), feeding specific content into the classroom
• Aggregators, collecting content generated via the RSS feed
• Social bookmarking, archiving specific Web addresses
• Online photo galleries

This book makes it possible for anyone, no matter how inexperienced, to harness this amazing technology for the classroom today!

Customer Review: OK for teachers, great for everyone else.
This book is excellent for anyone interested in the basics internet technology. It is pitched at teachers, but actually I felt that most of the recommended teaching practices were impractical. I used to teach at a laptop school, and I wouldn't be able to implement most of them there, let alone at a school with only a computer lap. However, teachers can use these techniques to stay up to date in their subject area and to learn about new teaching practices. That alone makes this book worthwhile.
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From the creator of the number one business blog comes a powerful exploration of how, and why, businesses had better be blogging According to these experts, blogs offer businesses something that has long been lacking in their communication with customers-meaningful dialogue. Devoid of corporate-speak and empty promises, business blogs can humanize communication, bringing companies and their constituencies together in a way that improves both image and bottom line. With a Foreword by Tom Peters, author of such business bibles as In Search of Excellence, this book uses more than 50 case histories to explain why blogging is an efficient and infinitely more credible method of business communication. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs are easily linked, allowing information to spread rapidly, and blog readers are active, not passive, participants in the communication. Business and marketing decision-makers will find themselves excited about the possibilities after just a few pages. Interviews with Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks, Bob Lutz from General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems, and other prominent business leaders showcase how businesses are beginning to use blogs to connect with customers in new ways Explores how blogging has changed the rules of communication and competition Gives business owners the tools to launch an effective blogging strategy and the reasons why they should Robert Scoble (Redmond, WA) is a technical evangelist who helps run Microsoft's Channel 9 Web site. He is also the company's best-known blogger, whose blog is read by more than 3.5 million people annually and is the top-ranking business blog among Technorati's Top 100. Shel Israel (San Carlos, CA) has been a consultant for more than 20 years and played a key strategic role in introducing some of technology's most successful products, including PowerPoint, FileMaker, and Sun Microsystems' workstations.
Customer Review: Very Helpful
As a novice blogger and blog reader, I found this book to be a very helpful initiation into the culture of blogging. While the authors can be a bit "preachy" at times, they do get their message across and I find that their views on what blogging is all about ring true. If you are already out there in the blogosphere, you will probably not find anything new here. However, if you are just getting your start, and especially if your business is just getting its start in blogging, this is an important book to read.
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For all of your video and audio blogging business and professional communication needs, this book is it!

The Hands-on Guide to Video BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging and Podcasting provides tremendous value to those content publishers, big and small, that want to create syndicated video blog and podcast conte...
Customer Review: Essential for Video BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging and Podcasting
If you want to get into Video BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging and Podcasting this is the best book on the market today. Covers every aspect in detail while still making it all seem easy.
Customer Review: Best Guide to Podcasting I have read yet
I work for Loyola Marymount University. We recently decided to make all lectures available via Podcasts. I went searching for books on the subject in order to find a solution for the school. This book was by far the best book on the subject. It even gave us some ideas for video blogging that we hadn...
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Virtual collaborative team environments face unique challenges because their communication is not face-to-face. Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools provides practical advice for managers of distributed teams who must design the internal systems and meet deadlines with a diverse team, and for team members who want to develop and maintain professional relationships. To address these needs, this book is divided into three parts. Part I discusses team dynamics, project management and development, and forms of communication. Part II covers the types of tools currently available for collaboration such as wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, and more, and describes the different feature sets of each. Part III explains the various features of the book's companion wiki.
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Wordpress is a simple and powerful way to start blogging. If you're not an IT expert but want to use a state of the art blogging system to give your blog the best chance of success, while giving you the time to focus on content and your readers, WordPress is the right system for you, and this book is the right place to start. It will give you a rapid and straightforward introduction to the rich and powerful features of WordPress and get you up and running with a state of the art blog as quickly and painlessly as possible. WordPress is an open source blog engine released under GNU general public license. It allows users to easily create dynamic blogs with great content and many outstanding features. It is an ideal tool for developing blogs and though it is chiefly used for blogging, it can also be used as a complete CMS with very little effort. Its versality and ease of use has attracted a large, enthusiastic, and helpful community of users. If you want to create powerful, fully-featured blogs in no time, this book is for you. This book will help you explore WordPress showing you what it offers and how to go about building your blog with the system. You will be introduced to the main aspects of a blog - users, communities, posts, comments, news feeds - and learn how to manage them using WordPress. You will develop the skills and confidence to manage all types of content, be it text or images, on your blog, and also understand how users interact with the blog. In working through the book you'll be inspired as well as informed, and have the capability and the ideas for make your blog cutting edge and exciting to maximise its impact. From this book you'll learn about: Installing and configuring WordPress on a local development machine or a web hosting service Managing posts and comments Working with Image galleries, calendars, etc. Organising users and Communities Creating and Installing themes to control the page layout Linking to the outside world - Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting Customising Widgets and Plugins Using WordPress as a regular CMS Written in a clear, easy to read style, the book takes you the essential tasks required to create a feature-rich blog as quickly as possible. From initial setup to customizing modules, each task is explained in a clear, practical way using an example blog developed through the book. Who this book is written for This book is a beginner's guide to WordPress, for people who are new to blogging and want to create their own blogs in a simple and straightforward manner. It does not require any detailed knowledge of programming or web development, and any IT confident user will be able to use the book to produce an impressive blog. The table of contents is: WordPress and the World of BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging Getting Started with WordPress Choosing and Installing a Theme BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog Your Heart Out Non-BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog Content Feeds, Syndication, and Podcasting Getting the Theme Tailor-Made for You Managing Users and Building Communities Widgets and Plugins Administrator's Reference
Customer Review: Good for beginning Wordpress developers, bad for the rest of the world.
This book is over-priced, padded with useless screenshots and poorly edited. The first 100 pages - and some of the back hundred for that matter - are filled with distracting explanations of topics irrelevant to properly using and building bloggy websites with Wordpress. The English is a mishmash of South Asian/British/American that reads like it was written by a tired programmer at 3 in the morning, and edited by someone with their eye on the clock rather than on the text. That said, while end-users should just say no - the online Wordpress documentation is better and more to the point, and there are some good third-party websites as well - for a beginning Wordpress developer the chapters on theming and coding plug-ins are quite helpful. Well, at least I did found them so while doing a quick WP project. If only there had been 2 or 3 more chapters extending those lessons! In short: this book is definitely over-priced. End-users should avoid this book; beginning WP developers will definitely find two or three chapters excellent how-tos on theming and coding plug-ins.
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