Blog Books

Over a dozen books on Blogging are now listed here, along with several related resources for getting at reviews of these books.  It is now about a 2 pages in length.

While working on my essay Blog Software vendor directory, there were some general books on Blogging, so I thought it might be a good idea to start a directory of that also, since doubtless we'll be wanting to consider what is out there in general, in addition to that which is focused on our vendor of choice.  Some of these may also get listed other places, relevant to context.  Also review my Blog Software essay for links to other background resources and how to articles on blogging, which I may later split off into a separate page.

I suggest y"all print this and take it with you to your favorite book store.  In my experience, customer service at major book sellers do not have the foggiest notion what Blogging is, and having a directory like this to hand them will save you a lot of time, so as to make a distinction between weblogging and the infinity of books on other building blocks for making usable web sites.

I have added a few links here to dynamite articles that explain "What is Weblogging", or what is some aspect of it.  I tentatively plan a later article that has just that stuff, but I not yet decided if I shall call it "Blog Articles" or what.  in all probability I shall want several separate stories focusing on different aspects of the subject.

• Amazon UK has a list of Blog Books.
  • There are links to reviews of their books on their site.
• Amazon USA has a list of Blog Books.
  • Similar to Amazon UK. 
  • Some of these books are available used.
• Biz Stone book on Blogging = Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content. 
  • Major sections of the book (there is a very impressive appendix)
  • Basic Blogging
    • what is blogging
    • major providers
    • HTML that bloggers need to learn (not all HTML but that which is relevant to weblogging)
  • Beyond the Basics
    • Style
    • Blog Money
    • Archives
    • Groups Teams multi-author and comments
    • Corporate Blogging
    • Search feature, e-mail subscription
    • Our voice, permalinks, auto text bookmarklet
    • increasing traffic to our blog
  • Power Blogging
    • News Aggregation and RSS (see Understand Radio News Aggregation for how Al Mac feels that this is like a different application or direction, that is a primary reason to have Blog Software, and it is inappropriate to place this as something that is for advanced users only.)
    • Side blogs
    • e-mail blogging
    • alternative interfaces
    • site management
    • bloglets
    • other goodies
  • Mini review by Al Macintyre
  • My first impression of the book is that it has great links, but the author, as a Blogger customer, seems insensitive to differences between the vendors.  He often explains how something is done for some topic or other, using how it is done in Blogger, without making the distinction that some other Weblogging software does this a different way.  
  • Thus, if your Blog Software is something other than Blogger, and if you are a newbie, this is not the primary book for you, because you might not be advanced enough to see where the book is misleading.  However, if you are a Blogger customer, then this is a great book for you to get.
• Blog On: Building On Line Communities with Web Logs, by Todd Stauffer.  
  • Do not confuse this 360 page book with Blog On! article by Rick Klau, that explains what Web Blogging is all about, with brief introductions to Blogger, Moveable Type, Radio Userland (see Blog Software for my directory of what is out there), with links to other folks also trying to explain this phenomena.
  • Major sections of the book
  • What is a Weblog, choosing your weblog software and server
    • Weblog Jargon section includes definitions and explanations for (if any of this stuff a bit foggy in your mind then perhaps worth spending the $30.00 for this book):  CGI; ISP; Hosting; HTML documents; Perl; PHP; SQL and MySQL; SSIs; Web server computer.  There's a lot of jargon I not see here, but then perhaps it not needed for the target audience of the book.  However, the jargon collection is more representative than complete.  I think this is something that belongs in an Appendix with a url where to go for jargon from each of the major Blog Software since I think a lot is not relevant to all the different kinds.
  • Using weblog - simple and some detail on Blogger, Live Journal, Greymatter, Movable Type, pMachine, using a hosted weblog like Radio Userland
  • Extending your weblog - writing, designing, tweaking, add-ons
  • Publicising your weblog, and using weblogs in organizations
  • Internet resources for webloggers
  • Mini Review by Al Macintyre
  • Remember my gripe with Biz Stone, that he had sections how to do this and that with Blogger vs. other Blog Software and sections talking about Blogging in General, but often in the latter he would say how do something that was relevant to Blogger only, without so specifying it.  Todd Stauffer is much more sensitive to the differences between the vendor capability how to.   I list over 100 vendors in my Blog Software directory, so we cannot expect any one author to be aware of all nuances of all the different.  It is evident that unless a book is specifically for one particular one, or clearly stated in somewhere about some bias, the readers can expect an author to have more know-how than is reasonable.
  • I also have comments above within my praise, where this or that could be a little better.
• Blogging Software Roundup is a big article by John Hiler explaining Blog Software Types.
• Blogroots has a directory of Blog Books, Hosting Services, Tools, and other resources.
• Design for Community, by Derek M. Powazek.
• James Garrett's Elements of User Experience See down below, coming review from [Radio Free Blogistan].

• [Boing Boing] QUOTE GoogleHacks -- search engine tricks for everyone. GoogleHacks, an O'Reilly book with 99+ interesting and productive things to do with Google -- written by Tara "Researchbuzz" Calishain. Link Discuss (via Raelity Bites) UNQUOTE [Boing Boing Blog]

• Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet (2nd ed.) by Rick Klau has a section on weblogs
  • Ernie the Attorney] QUOTE
  • Rick Klau's new book The Lawyer's Guide to Marketing on the Internet (2nd ed.) is available for purchase from the American Bar Association. The book is a collaborative effort between Rick, Deborah McMurray and Greg Siskind. Rick has also tooled up a multi-author blog to accompany the book. 

  • UNQUOTE [Ernie the Attorney]

• Micro Content News has a list of Blog Books.
• Micro Content Weblogs and Headline Syndication by Doug Kaye.
• O'Reilly published Essential Blogging, which uses a cluster of authors familiar with each of several different Weblogging software.  Radio Userland was not too pleased with how they were presented by the book's preview and organized this discussion group about that book, to hopefully get some stuff fixed in the final edition.  The book includes: Blogger; Blosxom; Moveable Type; Radio Userland.  See down below, coming review from [Radio Free Blogistan].  Here is what O'Reilly says about this book, with links to info on the authors, and a sample chapter, as featured in the Oct 11 Search Day at:
  http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd1011-news.html
• O'Reilly also published Practical Blogging, whose write up sounds the same as what I have seen about Essential Blogging.  I suspect the title got renamed along the way.
• Running Weblogs with Slash, edited by Brian Aker and Dave Krieger.
• We Blog, Publishing On Line with Weblogs, by Paul Baush, Matthew Haughley, and Meg Hourihan, published by Wiley.  See down below, coming review from [Radio Free Blogistan].
• Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining your Blog, by Rebecca Blood.  See down below, coming review from [Radio Free Blogistan].
• Rebecca Blood's Essay Weblogs: A History and Perspective is a good introduction to where weblogs came from and how they evolved.
• Web Redesign by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler.
• We've Got Blog: How Weblogs Are Changing Our Future, is reviewed by [Sarah at alterego].  She thinks it is more like a window into what weblogs currently are today. See down below, coming review from [Radio Free Blogistan].

[Radio Free Blogistan] QUOTE 

Adding to my 'to review' list. I got my copy of We Blog from Amazon today, and I received Jesse James Garrett's The Elements of User Experience, a beautifully designed explication of his seminal model of the same name. For reviewing purposes, though, I'm afraid these go behind my reviews in progress (The Weblog Handbook, We've Got Blog, and Essential Blogging. 

UNQUOTE [Radio Free Blogistan]

Last update: 11/12/2002; 3:06:24 PM.