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Contents at a Glance

Introduction ...... 1 Part I: The What, Where, Why, and How of Weblogs ...... 7 Chapter 1: Understanding Blogging at Last ...... 9 Chapter 2: Blogging Options ...... 25 Chapter 3: Living the Blogging Lifestyle...... 35 Part II: Starting a Blog Today...... 57 Chapter 4: MSN Spaces...... 59 Chapter 5: Yahoo! 360 ...... 73 Chapter 6: Finding a Home in Blogger ...... 85 Chapter 7: Creating a TypePad Blog ...... 113 Part III: Installing Your Own Blog Program ...... 149 Chapter 8: The Ins and Outs of DIY Blogging...... 151 Chapter 9: Running a Movable Type Blog ...... 167 Chapter 10: Blogging with WordPress ...... 189 Chapter 11: Power Plus Ease in Radio UserLand ...... 225 Chapter 12: Hybrid Blog Hosts: Power Without the Pain...... 241 Part IV: Total Blog Immersion...... 249 Chapter 13: Hooking into RSS Feeds ...... 251 Chapter 14: Rules of Blogosphere Citizenship ...... 267 Chapter 15: Blogging for Bucks (or Pennies)...... 283 Chapter 16: Using Your Real Voice: Podcasting...... 297 Chapter 17: PhotobloggingCOPYRIGHTED and Audioblogging...... 305 MATERIAL Part V: The Part of Tens ...... 313 Chapter 18: Ten Blog Engines and Directories ...... 315 Chapter 19: Ten Resources for the Power Blogger ...... 331 Glossary...... 341 Index ...... 349 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page x 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page xi

Table of Contents

Introduction...... 1 About This Book...... 1 Conventions Used in This Book ...... 2 How to Use This Book ...... 2 What You’re Not to Read...... 3 Foolish Assumptions ...... 3 How This Book Is Organized...... 3 Part I: The What, Where, Why, and How of Weblogs ...... 4 Part II: Starting a Blog Today ...... 4 Part III: Installing Your Own Blog Program...... 4 Part IV: Total Blog Immersion...... 5 Part V: The Part of Tens...... 5 Icons Used in This Book...... 5 Where to Go from Here...... 6

Part I: The What, Where, Why, and How of Weblogs...... 7

Chapter 1: Understanding Blogging at Last ...... 9 The Truth about Blogs ...... 10 The technical answer...... 10 The practical answer ...... 12 Understanding Blog Mechanics...... 18 Entries, posts, indexes, and archives ...... 18 More about archives ...... 19 Common blog elements...... 20 The Design and Appearance of Blogs...... 23 Chapter 2: Blogging Options ...... 25 Blogging in Social Networks ...... 26 Blogging and Nothing but Blogging ...... 29 The High Road: Self-Installed Blogging Programs...... 30 Web Hosts with Blogging...... 32 A Comparative Look at Blogging Options...... 32 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page xii

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Chapter 3: Living the Blogging Lifestyle ...... 35 The Rhythms of Blogging...... 36 Different paces for different cases ...... 36 The rhythms of readership ...... 37 Finding a Voice...... 40 Using Comments in Your Blog...... 41 Understanding TrackBacks...... 43 TrackBack basics...... 43 TrackBack specifics ...... 47 Obsessing with Blog Search Engines...... 49 Promoting Your Content ...... 52 Digging for traffic...... 53 Del.icio.us links...... 54

Part II: Starting a Blog Today ...... 57

Chapter 4: MSN Spaces ...... 59 MSN Spaces Overview...... 60 Customizing Your MSN Space...... 61 Designing your page...... 62 Making other space settings ...... 65 Blogging in MSN Spaces ...... 65 Sharing Photos in MSN Spaces...... 67 MSN Spaces Recap...... 72 Chapter 5: Yahoo! 360 ...... 73 Getting Started in 360 ...... 74 Me-centric, Not We-centric ...... 74 The Yahoo! 360 Page...... 77 Blogging in 360...... 78 Photos in 360 ...... 81 The Yahoo! 360 Upshot...... 82 Chapter 6: Finding a Home in Blogger ...... 85 The Blogger Look ...... 86 Getting Started with Blogger ...... 89 Three Crucial Settings ...... 91 Writing and Posting Entries in Blogger ...... 93 Composing an entry and publishing it ...... 93 Editing your entries...... 96 Inserting a photo in an entry ...... 98 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page xiii

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Personalizing Your Blogger Blog...... 99 Switching Blogger templates ...... 99 Building your Blogger profile...... 102 Adding a photo to your Blogger profile...... 104 Audioblogging in Blogger...... 106 E-mailing Entries to Blogger...... 109 On the Road with Blogger ...... 110 Chapter 7: Creating a TypePad Blog ...... 113 Signing Up with TypePad ...... 114 Starting your TypePad account...... 116 Choosing a service level...... 118 Setting Up Your Blog...... 120 Personalizing Your Blog Profile ...... 123 Blogging Entries in TypePad...... 124 TypePad Themes and Layouts ...... 128 Choosing TypePad themes and layouts ...... 129 Creating a TypePad template...... 130 Creating a custom theme...... 135 Putting Photos in Your TypePad Blog ...... 136 Creating a photo album ...... 136 Inserting a photo into a blog entry ...... 141 Filling Your Sidebars...... 143 Choosing your sidebar content ...... 143 Creating TypeLists ...... 144 Moblogging in TypePad...... 147 A Final Note...... 148

Part III: Installing Your Own Blog Program ...... 149

Chapter 8: The Ins and Outs of DIY Blogging ...... 151 Master of Your Domain...... 152 Buying a domain...... 152 Starting a hosting account ...... 154 Basic Blog Installation ...... 156 Downloading the blog program...... 157 Configuring the files ...... 158 Uploading the program...... 163 Initializing the Blog ...... 166 Chapter 9: Running a Movable Type Blog ...... 167 Getting an Overview of Movable Type ...... 168 Naming Your Blog...... 170 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page xiv

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Writing and Posting Entries ...... 174 Creating categories and subcategories ...... 176 Posting with a Movable Type bookmarklet...... 178 Installing One Essential Plugin: StyleCatcher...... 180 Adding Links and Photos to the Movable Type Sidebar...... 184 Adding a sidebar blogroll ...... 185 Adding a photo to the sidebar...... 188 Chapter 10: Blogging with WordPress ...... 189 Understanding the Ups and Downs of WordPress...... 190 The Look and Feel of WordPress...... 193 Getting WordPress ...... 194 Essential WordPress Setup ...... 196 Establishing your identity ...... 197 Adding a registered user ...... 198 Choosing a title and other basic settings...... 201 Setting your categories...... 204 Finally — Writing a WordPress Entry ...... 205 Composing and publishing a post...... 206 Configuring the Write Post page...... 208 Editing Entries ...... 209 Uploading and Posting Photos in WordPress...... 212 Finding and Changing Themes ...... 218 Downloading a WordPress theme ...... 219 Uploading and activating a theme...... 220 Side Content...... 221 Chapter 11: Power Plus Ease in Radio UserLand ...... 225 Understanding Radio UserLand’s Unique Operation ...... 226 Downloading and Installing Radio UserLand...... 227 Setting Up Your Blog...... 229 Writing and Posting Entries ...... 231 Including a Photo in a Blog Entry ...... 234 Using the Built-In Newsreader...... 236 Changing Themes...... 239 Radio UserLand: The Upshot...... 239 Chapter 12: Hybrid Blog Hosts: Power Without the Pain ...... 241 The Unique Power of Hybrid Hosts ...... 242 The price of hybrid hosting ...... 242 Evaluating hybrid hosts...... 243 Movable Type Hosts ...... 243 AQHost...... 244 LivingDot ...... 244 MediaTemple...... 245 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page xv

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Nexcess.net ...... 245 Pair Networks ...... 246 2MHost...... 246 WordPress Hosts ...... 246 BlueHost ...... 247 PowWeb ...... 247 DreamHost...... 248 Laughing Squid ...... 248

Part IV: Total Blog Immersion ...... 249

Chapter 13: Hooking into RSS Feeds ...... 251 Understanding the Greatness of RSS ...... 252 Spreading Your Word...... 253 Feeding on Feeds...... 255 Choosing a newsreader ...... 255 Subscribing to feeds...... 261 Chapter 14: Rules of Blogosphere Citizenship ...... 267 The Truth about Truth ...... 268 Speed and accuracy: A difficult match ...... 268 Rules of correction...... 268 On Competition and Cooperation...... 270 You didn’t do it alone...... 270 Blog spam...... 272 Link, don’t quote ...... 273 Mastering the Link ...... 273 Avoiding the “Blog Firing”...... 276 RSS Strategies ...... 277 Chapter 15: Blogging for Bucks (or Pennies) ...... 283 Frontiers in the Business of Blogging...... 284 Raising the Visibility of Your Blog...... 285 The quest for links ...... 285 Practicing optimization habits ...... 286 Feed the nets...... 287 Using FeedBurner...... 288 Experimenting with Ads ...... 290 Self-Serve Ads from Google and Yahoo!...... 292 Chapter 16: Using Your Real Voice: Podcasting ...... 297 Tuning In to the New Radio ...... 297 Getting a First Taste...... 299 02_770841 ftoc.qxp 12/28/05 7:54 PM Page xvi

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Creating and Distributing Podcasts...... 302 Recording a podcast ...... 302 Distributing a podcast ...... 303 Chapter 17: Photoblogging and Audioblogging ...... 305 Preparing to Photoblog ...... 306 Going digital ...... 306 Choosing a photo-friendly blog service ...... 307 Moblogging with Photos ...... 308 Audioblogging with Audioblog...... 310

Part V: The Part of Tens ...... 313

Chapter 18: Ten Blog Engines and Directories ...... 315 PubSub...... 316 Blogdex...... 319 Clusty...... 321 Blogwise ...... 323 Blogdigger ...... 324 Daypop ...... 327 Three Directories ...... 328 Top 100 Lists...... 328 IceRocket...... 329 Diarist.net...... 330 Chapter 19: Ten Resources for the Power Blogger ...... 331 Blogging Pro...... 331 Wizbang Standalone TrackBack Pinger...... 332 Bloglet...... 333 Blogjet...... 334 How to Write a Better Weblog ...... 335 Blogarithm ...... 335 Google Directory of Weblog Templates...... 336 BlogRunner ...... 337 BlogPatrol...... 338 The Blog Herald...... 339

Glossary ...... 341

Index ...... 349