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.
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.
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.
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.
Blog Marketing 
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.
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!Publishing a Blog with Blogger: Visual QuickProject Guide
If you want to start blogging fast, but don’t want to get sidetracked by the details, then you need a Visual QuickProject Guide!
Writing in a journal is all well and good, but when you're ready to share your musings with the world (and you think the world is ready to receive them!), a blog is the way to go. For just $12.99, this compact guide shows you how! Using big, bold full-color pictures and streamlined instructions, it covers just the need-to-know essentials that will get you blogging with leading free blog software--Google’s BlogFree/index2.php'>Blogger--in a matter of minutes. Best-selling author Elizabeth Castro takes you through each step of the blogging process--from acquainting you with the interface to setting up your blog, creating your profile, posting email, adding pictures and audio, and more. Occasional sidebars and tips point out other useful blogging tips and tricks.
Customer Review: Great book.
I love the Visual Quick Start series, and this book is no exception. It has jump starred my blog and I feel it is worth keeping around for hints and questions that come up. I wasn't sure if the book being published a few years ago would still be relevant but it is.
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