by Susannah Gardner Author of Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies and Shane Birley Blogging FOR DUMmIES ‰ 2ND EDITION 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page i 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page ii by Susannah Gardner Author of Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies and Shane Birley Blogging FOR DUMmIES ‰ 2ND EDITION 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page i Blogging For Dummies,®2nd Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2007942521 ISBN: 978-0-470-23017-6 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page ii About the Authors Susannah Gardner is the co-founder and creative director of Hop Studios Internet Consultants (www.hopstudios.com), a Web design company spe- cializing in custom Web solutions for content publishers. Susannah is also a freelance writer and author; she is the author of Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies, co-author of BitTorrent For Dummies, Dreamweaver MX 2004 For Dummies, and Teach Yourself Visually: Dreamweaver MX 2004, all from Wiley Publishing. From 1997 to 2003, Susannah was an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California School for Communication, where she taught in the School of Journalism. Her classes in online publishing took students from zero to Web site in a semester. Prior to running Hop Studios, Susannah worked in the Online Journalism and Communication Program at the University of Southern California, writing curriculum, teaching, and conducting research at the intersection of technology and journalism. She was a senior editor of the Online Journalism Review (www. ojr.org), the media industry’s only Internet-focused journalism publication. Susannah also spent four years at The Los Angeles Times, one of six editors responsible for launching that newspaper’s Web site. During her time at LATimes.com she established the site’s multimedia lab, which produced ground-breaking Web audio, video and animation. She also launched and edited MetaHollywood, an online-only publication that covered new Hollywood technology and was LATimes.com’s single largest revenue source in 1998. Susannah earned bachelor’s degrees in Print Journalism and American literature at USC. Today she is pursuing a master’s degree in Public Art Studies, examining issues that cross the traditional of boundaries of Internet publishing, journalism and art. To learn more about her Web design company, visit www.hopstudios. com. Susannah keeps a poorly updated personal blog at www.unfavorable pink.com. Shane Birley is a Vancouver-based Web developer, creative writer and blog consultant with more than 14 years of experience in developing Web sites. In January 2006, he co-founded Left Right Minds Initiatives with his partner Allyson McGrane. Left Right Minds is a creative solutions company for nonprofit societies, char- ities, and businesses. The business evolved from Shane’s work with developing Web sites (through his previous company, Vicious Bunny Creative) and Allyson’s ongoing work with nonprofit arts groups. Both partners have expe- rience giving workshops about their areas of expertise and in training others to use new technology and business skills. In addition to Web development, the company manages and represents performing artists with the support of the Canada Council for The Arts. 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page iii As a partner in Left Right Minds, Shane is now working to develop Web sites using content management systems that let his clients edit and update their own Web content. He regularly gives workshops on blogging and did extensive research for BitTorrent For Dummies. Shane has a background in improvisational theatre and a B.A. in English -- these qualifications enable him to translate diffi- cult computing concepts into easy plain language. To learn more about his Web company, visit www.leftrightminds.com. He also writes a personal blog at www.shanesworld.ca. Authors’ Acknowledgments Susannah: As with every book I have worked on, I find it unfair that my name is on the cover when so many people played such an important role in get- ting this book finished. My husband and business partner, Travis Smith, deserves a huge portion of my thanks. Without his help in keeping our home and company running smoothly, I would have lost much more sleep than I did writing this book. His help late at night when I couldn’t decide how to explain a technology or just to give me a little extra encouragement is noted, appreciated, and loved. Thanks are also due to Shane Birley, a good friend, who is my co-author on this book. He met deadlines, turned in screenshots, and was generally so on top of the process that he put me to shame at times! I look forward to work- ing on more writing projects with him in the future. Thanks are due also to Shane’s life and business partner Allyson McGrane, who kept him fed and functioning during deadlines. As always, special thanks go to Janine Warner, For Dummies author extraordi- naire, who invited me to co-author Dreamweaver MX 2004 For Dummies with her and started me down this road. Her recent books -- Dreamweaver CS3 For Dummies and Creating Family Web Sites For Dummies are great resources. This book would never have been possible without the patience and good humor of Rebecca Senninger, my editor, and acquisitions editors Melody Layne and Tiffany Ma at Wiley. There are many at Wiley Publishing whose names I don’t know but who nonetheless played an important role in making this book possible: Thank you to all of you. 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page iv Paul Chaney, Internet marketing director at Bizzuka, Inc., took time from his busy schedule to be the technical editor for this book. You can blame any errors in the how to instructions on him. Just kidding! Paul’s attention to detail has prevented more errors than I can count. Friends, family, colleagues and clients all cut me some slack while I was meet- ing deadlines for this book. Thanks go to Matt Gardner, my parents and sister, my mother-in-law Pat Smith, and my sister-in-law Virginia Smith, all of whom got to witness a little stress-induced behavior. And thank you, reader, for giving me your time and attention. I hope this book is everything you need it to be. Shane: Thanks to Susannah for giving me the opportunity to collaborate with her on this book. It was an amazing experience and one I hope to repeat. I appreciate the love and support of my friends and family. I especially want to thank Ken Driediger who keeps me focused and on track when stress gets the better of me and to A. Traviss Corry of The New Wrinkle video podcast who reminds me that once in a while fun and silly behavior just must be had. Thanks also to Scott Petersen, Anita Bleick, Nicole Morisette, Travis Smith, David Kelch, Aaron Mok, Sue McCarthy, Robin Thompson, Jennifer Chin, Gillian Gunson, and to my mother — who bought me my first TRS-80 com- puter, when I really wanted a Coleco video game console. And most of all, thank you to my partner Allyson. She was very supportive in helping to proofread, listening to me report on all the latest blog technolo- gies, and most of all walking our pug Serendipity when I was focused on get- ting the next paragraph just right. 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page v Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions and Editorial Project Editor: Rebecca Senninger Acquisitions Editors: Melody Layne, Tiffany Ma Copy Editor: Virginia Sanders Technical Editor: Paul Chaney Editorial Manager: Leah Cameron Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond Layout and Graphics: Reuben W. Davis, Melissa K. Jester, Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore, Christine Williams Proofreaders: John Greenough, Evelyn W. Still Indexer: Valerie Haynes Perry Anniversary Logo Design: Richard Pacifico Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Service 01_230176 ffirs.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page vi Contents at a Glance Introduction .................................................................1 Part I: Getting Started with Blogs..................................7 Chapter 1: Discovering Blog Basics .................................................................................9 Chapter 2: Starting a Blog................................................................................................27 Chapter 3: Entering the Blogosphere.............................................................................53 Part II: Setting Up Your Blog.......................................71 Chapter 4: Choosing Blog Software................................................................................73 Chapter 5: Dropping Code into Your Skill Set...............................................................95 Chapter 6: Hosting Your Blog........................................................................................107 Chapter 7: Customizing Your Blog ...............................................................................119 Part III: Fitting In and Feeling Good...........................131 Chapter 8: Finding Your Niche......................................................................................133 Chapter 9: Creating Great Content...............................................................................147 Chapter 10: Handling Spam and Comments................................................................165 Part IV: Adding Bells and Whistles.............................181 Chapter 11: Reaching Out with RSS .............................................................................183 Chapter 12: Building the Sidebars................................................................................195 Chapter 13: Making the Most of Photos ......................................................................215 Chapter 14: Saying It Better with Podcasts.................................................................233 Part V: Marketing and Promoting Your Blog ................253 Chapter 15: Measuring Blog Presence.........................................................................255 Chapter 16: Making Mad Mad Money ..........................................................................271 Chapter 17: Blogging for Companies............................................................................291 Part VI: The Part of Tens............................................313 Chapter 18: Ten Ways of Growing Community ...........................................................315 Chapter 19: Ten Cool Tricks for MakingYour Blog Shine...........................................323 Chapter 20: Ten Blogs You Should Know ....................................................................337 Appendix: Glossary ...................................................349 Index .......................................................................353 02_230176 ftoc.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page vii 02_230176 ftoc.qxp 12/4/07 5:18 PM Page viii