My Web 2.0 Blogging Book is Here!
Well, it took me about six months longer to write that I’d expected, but How to Do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog is finally available. I got my author copies the other day, and I just noticed that Amazon is live and shipping. The book covers choosing a blogging application (I cover Blogger, TypePad, ExpressionEngine and, of course, WordPress) and then goes into some depth with customizing the blog’s design, multimedia offerings, headlines and so on and so on.
The book focuses mostly on incorporating existing Web 2.0 content into your blog and extending it onto the Web using social bookmarking and other services, and it even has a chapter that goes into how you can make money from your Web 2.0 blog. (Step One: write a book about Web 2.0 blogging. No, I’m kidding. Don’t do that. Less money for me.)
The one thing to watch out for in the Amazon description — I don’t know where they get that stuff…probably from the proposal. The book doesn’t really cover much PHP or AJAX scripting, as I figured out early on that I couldn’t fit that in a 400-page primer. Still, it lives on in the Amazon description, mocking me forever.
Anyway, if you’re interested in getting started with a blog and would feel more comfortable with a book by your side, check it out!
‘My iTunes’ Widgets For Blogs
Now you can advertise for Apple with nearly no benefit to yourself! Whoo-hoo!
Actually, I’m sure some folks will find the ‘My iTunes” widgets appealing — they enable others to peer into your iTunes buying habits and link to the albums and artists you tend to check out the most. (This, of course, would be hideously embarrassing to me, what with my penchant for show tunes and karoake tracks.) The widget uses flash and can be added to your standard issue blog sidebar.
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EE Updated; Multiple Site Manager announced
The folks at EllisLab have updated ExpressionEngine to a new version that includes a new Pages module, as well as releasing a new tool called Multiple Site Manager, which is not an Extension, Module or Plugin — it’s an Expansion. (Whoa.) ExpressionEngine is my favorite for-pay blogging tools, offering some amazing features for sites that taking blogging (or something beyond blogging) very seriously.
TypePad and MovableType Get Updates
News from SixApart, makers of TypePad and MovableType, is that their flagship product TypePad is getting an upgrade to better support static pages, while MovebleType 4.0 is being released in beta and will be fully open source by the fall of 2007.
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I Heart DealMac
As whiz-bang and gizmo’ed as Web sites may continue to become, you’ve got to appreciate that, at least nine times of out ten, hard work is what wins the day for a successful site or blog. (Did that sound like your grandpa wrote it? Eh? Ya derned whippersnapper?!)
If you’ve got a gift for bringing together useful information and a niche to serve well, you’ve got a nice little formula for a successful Web site.
That’s why I’ve enjoyed DealMac for years. (Their sister site, DealWeb is a fun ride, too.) By doing some heavy lifting, DealMac has made itself a one-stop stop for finding the best price of Mac-compatible peripherals –and slightly unrelated but no less interesting HiDef TVs. (And I dig their writing voice and the semi-famous, “with the mail-in rebate, it’s the lowest price we’ve seen by $12.)
It’s a good lesson for bloggers, too, to take something you’re really obsessed with (in a good way, hopefully) and then be willing to do some hard work to make the information useful for others. If you find a niche like this and can bring a certain passion to the work, it’s a great way to build some traffic for your blog.
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