Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Blogs

#TITLE#Boost Your Business With BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging!#/TITLE Business blog is an incredible online marketing tool that saves you thousands of dollars but provides great business opportunities in just one click. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs are user-friendly, customized and flexible medium for disseminating useful information for effective positioning of your products in the market.


Publish and Prosper:
BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging for Your Business

Companies engaging in business blogging have a definite edge over its competitors. Here are some advantages: ? Word-of-Mouth. In a survey, there are currently 14 million blogs with 80,000 more being added each day and about 30 percent of the 50 million users are blog readers. Imagine how much gain your company will have, if your products are advertised through blogs. With Internet, information spreads so quickly especially if an impressive write-up goes with your product. Soon your blogs will be passed on to hundreds of possible customers. ? Awareness and loyalty. Open communication with your customers creates trust and loyalty among them. Being there to respond to their questions and comments make them all the more willing to try your products and services. ? Feedback. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs is good for product research and reviews. It would be easier to improve on your products if you observe your customers� thinking and behavioral patterns. You can also take immediate action to your customers� concerns. ? Community halo-effect. BlogFree/index2.php'>Bloggers are reasonable, friendly and helpful. They are more than willing to create blogosphere of comments regarding your product. The only thing you have to do is embrace and take active part in the culture and your product will surely be considered in their next stop to the supermarket. For better marketing results, actively promote your business blogs by submitting your blogs to blog search sites and directories. Do not forget to paste in with your blogs, your URL. Be sure that your blogs contain exclusive information with value and are always updated to keep readers popping in, read up your blog, move on to the next and click on again for updates. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog is like a setup booth in the biggest trade show on earth everyday. Marketing possibilities are just around the corner waiting to strike your sale scales up. The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are important too in conjunction with your blogs to get the best benefits. Use effective keyword phrases to generate high ranking status in the search engine traffic. In this way you have better chances of people finding your website leading to your blogs. More traffic means more potential sales. For this to be successful, you can use RSS for news update feeds which can be read through RSS reader application. This is a very useful tool for business and internet marketers as well. If you are already convinced with the potentials of business blogs for marketing and targeting sales increase, your company is now ready to start blogging. But first, you have to be in tune with your company�s business objectives and determine if blogging will really help you achieve your goal. 1. Several blogs are dedicated to teaching people the do�s and don�ts of blogging, READ them! Include in your reading materials blogs that are consumer-based too to give you an idea. 2. Setup several test blogs right away. If your initial try out with blogs worked well, you can now start setting up your blogs. 1. Study blog design. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog hosting services provide pre-designed templates. But if you opt for paid blog service, you can ask your artist to design and layout your blog site to match the company�s identity and needs. 2. Choose a topic. Its good to have a line-up of topics you want for your blogs but be sure they are in consonance with your business objectives. This would be a test of your flexibility and open-mindedness since results may be going against the set objectives. 3. Remember the following safety measures in blogging: ? legal issues are sometimes involved in blogging; it is safer to include disclaimers and limitations of liabilities; ? corporate communication and legal department are responsible in educating the senior management on how blogs might affect business; ? create blogging policies; set limits on who gets to blog and what information are allowed to be made public; ? avoid outright marketing blog or you will shy away your readers; ? make content updated, relevant and fresh; ? reinforce the company�s core values; and, ? encourage employees to use it. 4. Start blogging and complete 20 posts before going to marketing. 5. Begin marketing. 6. Regularly monitor the coming ins and outs of readers and get updates. Then, measure your results. 7. Adjust if needed. You can always play with your designs in the blog site as long as it remains to match the company�s identity. 8. Strive to be consistent with your topic all the time. 9. Try to have unrelated topics with general and broad appeal. 10. Schedule updates regularly. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday would be best to update blogs. Once you have done all these things, you can now ultimately enjoy the benefits of business blogging.
Get a edge on blog Today blog/" target=_blank >blog

Get a edge on blogging Today blogging

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Blogger

#TITLE#BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog Software For All Your BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging Needs#/TITLE Today anyone who has writing ability or is dreaming to be a writer has written a blog in the net. There are blog soft wares that are simple and easy to use and a technically inclined and challenged individuals can easily acquire a blog online.


Publish and Prosper:
BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging for Your Business

For some individuals, blogs are their projects of every day living, as they talk about their daily episodes as well as make tribute to friends and family. Furthermore, blogs assume a profound meaning written to compose and assemble political statements, endorse a product, supply information on research, and even offer tutorials. Any subject that are of your interests, you can be sure that someone has written a blog about it. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs are now being written by musicians, politicians, sports figures, novelists, newscasters as well as other known figures. It is this blog fever that has raised controversy. The fact that anyone can compose and regarding any subject matter under the sun, complaints about certain write-ups are an issue. In a lot of blogs, names are being mentioned; do bear in mind that although you are entitled to write anything that interests you in a blog, you have to be very careful and take in a lot of responsibility. Do not make any statements which can become controversial; or else, be very prepared. Why a BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog? 1. For personal acquaintances, relationships and hobby. A person can write a blog about his daily activities, what�s going on with his life as his way of telling his family and friends the things that goes on in his life. Likewise, one may also write a blog just so he can express what he feels about himself, or about a certain subject matter that is of interest to him. 2. Topical. Some blogs are committed to a precise topic, like computer hardware or politics. These are frequently read like magazines. 3. For marketing. Corporations are too, into blogging; when well written and implemented, this kind of blog can be a powerful instrument for business communications, forming eagerness and anticipation regarding their products and services offered, or used as tool within the company, keeping employees well informed about company issues and news. Why someone else's software? A lot of Web designer and creators will laugh at the belief and idea of utilizing the software of someone else. This is can be correct especially when each software greatly differs from the particular requirements that a client may have. Yet on the other hand, when it refers to a Weblog software, there is no reason for apprehension in the use of a package that is pre-written, as most packages were developed through years of study; not just knocked together over a couple of days. In addition, one may study its feature set. For a developer, it would take a lot of time and effort to write and compose from �nothing at all� every single feature in the Weblog software packages of today. For most people, a blog is there for the main reason that chooses to publish or make known your literature and texts on the Web, so you want to spend your time more on writing than coding. Hosted Services If one wishes to start broadcasting on the Web, yet does not have web hosting, one can consider looking into a hosted service, which includes BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogger, TypePad, Live Journal, and more. These services are operated or handled for an individual, so there is no need to concern one about technical upkeep of one�s Weblog; instead, one can concentrate on his blog's appearance and content. In just minutes, after signing for an account, one can readily start his own blog. Many such services are offered free, such as blogger. TypePad charges a minimal amount for monthly service fee. Self-Hosted When one has Web hosting on hand, or is eager to buy hosting, in which one feesl that the advantage will prevail over the problems of keeping up your own blog connection and installation, then you may want to take into account a package that is self-hosted, which includes Movable Type, Textpattern and WordPress. Other hosting companies did construct the process of installation easier, permitting installation with just a click from a control panel that is browser-based. It is important that you check with a hosting company so you can view if this function is offered. Similar to hosted services, some self hosted packages are made available either for free or for a certain fee which is dependent on the type of package that you choose as well as the basis why you are using it. Get a edge on blog Today blog/" target=_blank >blog

Get a edge on blogging Today blogging

Friday, October 26, 2007

Blogger

MediaShift is a weblog that tracks the way the Internet and technology are reshaping the mediasphere, with a focus on how blogs, podcasts, wikis, and citizen media ... read on..

Get a edge on blogging Today blogging

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Blogging

Apart from the chat rooms, instant messengers and electronic mails created for communication and dialogue beyond turf are the emerging innovations that help man build opportunities for interaction. The need for a personalized and human face aspect of building online communities is slowly changing the technological landscape of the Internet.


The
BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging Church

BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs / �weblogs� or blogging are the newest gift of Internet technology to people all over the world. These are updated posts, crop up entries or personalized life snippets, of mundane or bizarre in nature. For most, a �blog� is a personal, unedited, and authentic journal meant to be shared in an online community. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog site is a place where bloggers can publish anything; his thoughts, feelings, photos, special events, experiences, comments on issues and so on. It is more of an online diary with videos, links, documents, newsletters and opinions on just about any topics you are interested.


Publish and Prosper:
BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging for Your Business

BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs are made to welcome the insights and opinions of all and therefore, should not be written to sound intimidating and too formal. This kind of blog is a sure way to put off the readers. In the basics of blogging, conversational tone would be more appropriate to reach the desired audience. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging is all about individuals reaching out to other individuals. Having a blog has its own set of advantages: ? Freedom of Expression. If you want people to hear you out and give their own opinion, this is the best way to create a line of communication; ? Networking is at its best. Having a blog is a good platform for exchanging genuine ideas from consumers to you as marketer of a certain product. Sound opinion and point of view is better than just showing the price quote; ? Excellent advertising platform. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging is a new way to advertise products, a refreshing change from the traditional advertising outlets and it is cost-effective. ? Gauging public opinion on products and services. The key is nice and catchy titles with new ideas presented in your content. This is an assurance of quick and repeated responses from your readers. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs is an excellent spot for the exchange of ideas between the seller and the consumer. Good for measuring public opinion regarding services and products, even political and business matters alike. ? Useful tool for internal communication. This will help your company to build a knowledge-based community of employees. Also good for harnessing employee relations and identifying human resource issues in advance. ? Other benefits like search engine optimization (SEO) will help your blogs to be seen often by as many people as you wish. This is very good exposure for your products and services. Many blog hosting services are available on the Internet. But the basic question is which one of the services will be the best to start off your business blog program? Business people are usually clueless to recent technological innovations which would help them maximize their marketing potentials. For these beginners, it is best to study first the services offered by blog hosts. An ineffective business blogging program may damage marketing opportunities instead of enriching them. A company may decide to do the following depending on its capacity and needs: 1) Host their own blog service, 2) Pay someone else to host the service, or 3) Setup a �blog aggregator page� and ask the employees to select their blog hosting services individually. There are paid and free services available for individuals. For business blogs, they are required to have the latest blogging features; if not, this will prevent them from maximizing their marketing, public relations and SEO potentials. Keep in mind that blogs should have the following basic essentials: COMMENTS. Welcoming comments provide opportunity for dialogue. In business blogs, they are a good customer feedback mechanism. This helps develop better customer relations based from loyalty and trust. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging is an innovative way to converse with your customers. TRACKBACK. This helps in maximizing company and product exposure. Through this service, consumers can get back to you for more posts and updates without the difficulty of locating you. If your blog is popular in a specific online community chances are links going back to your blog site are everywhere online, other blog sites or even websites. CATEGORIES AND TAGS. These both help in classifying blog searches for ease of navigation and on site search. Categories act as libraries because it classifies posts by subject matter such as business, distance learning, e-commerce, online auctions, etc. Tags, help in the classification, especially in the blog search engine Technorati. Possible customers and new clients locate blogs about certain topics of interest by just clicking the tags. RSS FEED. Really Simple Syndication is the feed from your blog that is sent out over the internet, and collected through the various newsreaders and aggregators. If your company is to establish a business blogging program, considerable options should be made available by the hosting companies shortlisted for the services. Free blog hosting services are popular but they are much appropriate for individual online journals. Paid blog hosting services offer unlimited packages best for your company�s needs. You may want to suggest checking out some blogs that use the host first, read and examine their layout and design. Another important thing to consider is a reliable technical support the host has. After, choosing the blog host, a team should be ready to plan the design and structure of the blog: The team should: ? create a style that meets the needs of the audience; ? establish an open, credible tone; ? schedule weekly updating of blog - ideally, a few times a week; ? include weblinks of other website and blogs; ? blog post should be in the �first person;� ? focus on the business blog objective; and, ? maintain an honest, engaging conversational quality. Remember, whatever the look, style and content found on your blog is a reflection of you and your company. Get a edge on blogging Today blogging

Get a edge on blogging Today blogging

Monday, October 22, 2007

Blog

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly
The Internet has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. But it has also changed the way businesses communicate with their customers (and those who they want to be customers). In the old days, companies could only communicate through the filter of expensive advertising or media ink placed by a PR firm. Today the rules have changed entirely.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR shows you how to leverage the potential that Web-based communication offers your business. Finally, you can speak directly to customers and buyers, establishing a personal link with the those who make your business work. You can reach niche buyers with targeted messages that cost a fraction of your big-budget ad campaign. Rather than bombard them with advertising they’ll likely ignore, you can focus on getting the right message to the right people at the right time.

When people visit your company’s Web site, they aren’t there to hear your slogan or see your logo again. They want information, interaction, and choice—and you’d be a fool not to give it to them. This one-of-a-kind guide to the future of marketing includes a step-by-step action plan for harnessing the power of the Internet, showing you how to identify audiences, create compelling messages, get those messages to the right people, and lead those consumers into the buying process. Including a wealth of compelling case studies and real-world examples, this is a practical guide to the new reality of PR and marketing.
Customer Review: web demands new approaches
This is a great book - I wish I had written it myself. It's the first book I have seen to really seize on the totally new game of web-based marketing in all its forms - blogs, podcasts, even viral marketing! Even if readers don't plan to use all these approaches, if they inhabit, or their customers inhabit the web, they need to understand it. The book has a fabulous action plan, and even if companies chose to time-phase their new marketing approach by hitting only one or two items to start, the sequence of rapid-fire new marketing solutions is easy to hook into as this approach takes over.


Hands-on Guide to Video Blogging and Podcasting (Hands-On Guide Series)
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...


Single Blog
Single BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog demonstrates that girls just want to have fun - and plenty of it. Rain Li (House of Mahjong) stars as Kitty, a reserved young woman who discovers her boyfriend (Derek Tsang) cheating on her. Given the opportunity to reinvent herself, she throws herself into the singles scene with surprising sexual abandon, and learns through experience how to please men - not to mention, how to please herself at the same time! Meanwhile, adventurous roommate Vivian (Jo Koo) finds her wild ways tamed by a straight-laced dope (Chan Fai Hung) who cares for her in ways her usual one-night-stands won't. Finally, adorable Mei (Monie Tung) is dumped by her boyfriend, and rebounds into the arms of her sexy female boss (Anya). Will she switch sides and enter into a same-sex relationship? The film's screenplay was based on numerous personal encounters related on Chinese-language blogs, and is filled with many knowing observations on modern relationships, not to mention some surprising sexiness and raunch. The actresses turn in daring, eye-opening performances, and the parade of handsome guys (including Andrew Lin Hoi and Raymond Wong Ho Yin) certainly up the eye candy meter. Notoriously based on fact rather than fiction, Single BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog is a hilarious, sexy, and undeniably entertaining girl's night out!


WordPress Complete: set up, customize, and market your blog
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.


Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers
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.


Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools (Wordware Applications Library)
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.


The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Blog
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.


Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
"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.


Get a edge on blogging Today blogging

Sunday, October 21, 2007

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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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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Saturday, October 20, 2007

Blogging

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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With an exclusive look inside Google, Disney, Yahoo, IBM, and others, this book shows how your company can use blogs to raise its visibility and transform internal communications

All companies, large and small, know that reaching customers directly and influencing--and being influenced by--them is essential to success. BlogFree/index2.php'>Blog Marketing

shows marketing and PR professionals as well small business owners how to do just that without spending a lot of money. Readers will learn how to tap into the power of blogs to create a direct line of communication with customers, raise the company's visibility, and position their organizations as industry thought leaders.

"BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs will soon become a staple in the information diet of every serious businessperson . . . . BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogs offer an accelerated and efficient approach to acquiring and understanding the kind of information all of us need to make business decisions."

-- John Battelle, Business 2.0


Customer Review: Informative primer for corporate bloggers
A very useful book for those who want to understand how corporate blogging works, how their companies could use blogs and how to succeed in corporate blogging. Among the things I particularly like are: (1) The assertion and further elaboration that BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging is really about three things: "Information", "Relationships" and "Knowledge Management". (2) "Be Real: The Scoble Story" which highlights the importance of authenticity and honesty in blogging. (3) "External BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogging Personality Types" where the values of different blogging styles (e.g. The Barber, The Blacksmith, The Bridge, The Window, The Signpost, The Pub, The Newspaper) was discussed.
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Get a edge on blogging Today blogging