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Clear Blogging: How People Blogging Are Changing the World and How You Can Join Them
Clear Blogging, an Apress Technology in Action book, answers in non-technical terms what blogging has to offer and why and how you should blog. If you’ve never read a blog, but keep hearing that term on the news, Clear Blogging shows why blogging has shaken up mainstream media, and how you could end up on CNN. If you’ve just begun reading blogs, it’s your travel guide to the Blogosphere. Includes 50 interviews with successful bloggers who influence products, policy makers, potential employers and millions of readers and gain an online reputation - and real profits - from blogging.
373 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2007
About the author
Robert Walsh
200 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This profile might contain books by several authors with this name.
See also
- Robert Walsh, 1784/1785-1859, Diplomat, American Review
- Robert Walsh, 1772-1852, clergyman, historian, writer and physician
See also
- Robert Walsh, 1784/1785-1859, Diplomat, American Review
- Robert Walsh, 1772-1852, clergyman, historian, writer and physician
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 5, 2020
Reading this book is a fascinating look at the ancient history of blogging in 2007, at which time I was already working on both a personal blog beat on LiveJournal and a more essay based blogging on Blogger. In reading this blog one can read between the lines at how leftist activists like the author sought to recruit like-minded people to engage in writing with the point of view of contemporary journalism. To be sure, it appears that the author of this book seeks to conflate the term "clear" with saving the world and both of those terms with a leftist bias that is simultaneously not very self-aware. It is fascinating to read this blog in light of the thirteen years that have gone on since then as well as in light of being someone with very different thoughts and political worldviews than the writer of this book and his ideal audience. One can write very clear blogs without being sympathetic with the author's virtue signalling and his desire to recruit people to at least the outer ring (if not the inner ring) of contemporary leftist blogging, a place I most certainly would not feel personally welcome.
This book is more than 300 pages long and is divided into four parts and fifteen chapters. The book begins with a foreword, information about the author and technical reviewer as well as acknowledgements and an introduction. After that the first part of the book explores the desirability of making noise on behalf of the leftist revolution (I), with chapters on why one should blog (1), hooking into the blogosphere (2), and getting started (3). After that the author discusses building one's blog (II), including some qualities that good blogs share (4), building a personal blog (5) with a personal voice, and professional blogging (6) as well as building a company blog (7). The author then looks at some secrets of influential bloggers (III) in providing some power tools (8) for bloggers, looking at what makes a blogger a success (9), looking at blogs as part of a new fourth estate (10), adding podcasting (11), monetizing one's blog for fun and profit (12), and building readership (13). Finally, the author looks at blogging toward the future (IV) for progressives through blogging on the front lines of the culture wars (14), and welcoming the reader to a dystopian vision of the future (15), after which the book closes with an index.
The bias of this book is breathtaking in its totality. The author praises the journalism of an MSN or CNN, but not Fox News. The author celebrates the community of vox.com and highlights someone who was gratified that their writing was included on the Daily Kos but has nothing to say about RedState or Townhall. The author celebrates the thinking of anonymous police officers and wives writing about their beats and of atheists but has nothing good to say about Christians. And the author looks at citizen blogging that helped to elect Democratic candidates in the 2006 congressional investigations but not the citizen journalists who have helped to bring down corrupt abortionists, for example. Over and over again the author claims the highest journalistic standards for activist leftist bloggers, showing a clear bias but not admitting the bias and the way that it cuts against one's claims to be providing truth that is fair and balanced. This book demonstrates the same sort of flaws in framing and bias that the leftist media in general does, and even shows corporate blogging from the point of view of woke tech companies seeking to use blogging as a way of virtue signalling to others. And if such flaws are clear to me as a reader, one wonders why the writer was not savvy enough or well-advised enough to revise accordingly.
This book is more than 300 pages long and is divided into four parts and fifteen chapters. The book begins with a foreword, information about the author and technical reviewer as well as acknowledgements and an introduction. After that the first part of the book explores the desirability of making noise on behalf of the leftist revolution (I), with chapters on why one should blog (1), hooking into the blogosphere (2), and getting started (3). After that the author discusses building one's blog (II), including some qualities that good blogs share (4), building a personal blog (5) with a personal voice, and professional blogging (6) as well as building a company blog (7). The author then looks at some secrets of influential bloggers (III) in providing some power tools (8) for bloggers, looking at what makes a blogger a success (9), looking at blogs as part of a new fourth estate (10), adding podcasting (11), monetizing one's blog for fun and profit (12), and building readership (13). Finally, the author looks at blogging toward the future (IV) for progressives through blogging on the front lines of the culture wars (14), and welcoming the reader to a dystopian vision of the future (15), after which the book closes with an index.
The bias of this book is breathtaking in its totality. The author praises the journalism of an MSN or CNN, but not Fox News. The author celebrates the community of vox.com and highlights someone who was gratified that their writing was included on the Daily Kos but has nothing to say about RedState or Townhall. The author celebrates the thinking of anonymous police officers and wives writing about their beats and of atheists but has nothing good to say about Christians. And the author looks at citizen blogging that helped to elect Democratic candidates in the 2006 congressional investigations but not the citizen journalists who have helped to bring down corrupt abortionists, for example. Over and over again the author claims the highest journalistic standards for activist leftist bloggers, showing a clear bias but not admitting the bias and the way that it cuts against one's claims to be providing truth that is fair and balanced. This book demonstrates the same sort of flaws in framing and bias that the leftist media in general does, and even shows corporate blogging from the point of view of woke tech companies seeking to use blogging as a way of virtue signalling to others. And if such flaws are clear to me as a reader, one wonders why the writer was not savvy enough or well-advised enough to revise accordingly.
January 6, 2009
Although there are hundreds of blogging books in print, from my surveying this one appears to be the most relevant practical guide -- so I gave it an extra star. I liked it for the following reasons:
(+) good tips on building readership (plus some SEO)
(+) explanations of importance of garnering and giving referent links
(+) practical tips on monetization
(+) coverage of some useful tools I might not have otherwise discovered
(+) highlighting some popular blogging platforms
(+) engaging writing style
(+) accessible as a book you could give to a co-worker, or even less-technical family member
(+) gets reader excited about blogging
However, it has the following problems:
(-) some material highly subject to aging (e.g., blogger how-to steps could have been omitted)
(-) promotion of some obnoxious tools (e.g., White Smoke grammar helper, user-unfriendly Microsoft Live Spaces)
(-) very little mention of WordPress (you wouldn't realize its popularity by reading this book)
(-) not enough emphasis on blog *reading* (Google Reader got one sentence, but its features and best practices could been expanded to a whole chapter). Optimizing your reading habits/patterns is a critical skill for surviving blog-bombardment
(-) no mention of the role of pinging (and necessity by some services)
(-) too many interviews (police wives and military perspectives didn't add anything for me)
(-) a number of grammar and spelling mistakes
(-) audience target may have been too broad (I would expect Apress to have had a better techie focus)
Overall, I thought the book could have been half the length and still had the same impact. But as a new blogger I got quite a bit out of the book, and I still recommend it to anyone who is not already a pro. Just be prepared to do a lot of skimming, and try to get a library/used copy that has important points highlighted.
(+) good tips on building readership (plus some SEO)
(+) explanations of importance of garnering and giving referent links
(+) practical tips on monetization
(+) coverage of some useful tools I might not have otherwise discovered
(+) highlighting some popular blogging platforms
(+) engaging writing style
(+) accessible as a book you could give to a co-worker, or even less-technical family member
(+) gets reader excited about blogging
However, it has the following problems:
(-) some material highly subject to aging (e.g., blogger how-to steps could have been omitted)
(-) promotion of some obnoxious tools (e.g., White Smoke grammar helper, user-unfriendly Microsoft Live Spaces)
(-) very little mention of WordPress (you wouldn't realize its popularity by reading this book)
(-) not enough emphasis on blog *reading* (Google Reader got one sentence, but its features and best practices could been expanded to a whole chapter). Optimizing your reading habits/patterns is a critical skill for surviving blog-bombardment
(-) no mention of the role of pinging (and necessity by some services)
(-) too many interviews (police wives and military perspectives didn't add anything for me)
(-) a number of grammar and spelling mistakes
(-) audience target may have been too broad (I would expect Apress to have had a better techie focus)
Overall, I thought the book could have been half the length and still had the same impact. But as a new blogger I got quite a bit out of the book, and I still recommend it to anyone who is not already a pro. Just be prepared to do a lot of skimming, and try to get a library/used copy that has important points highlighted.
August 23, 2009
I really enjoyed this book. I started my WordPress web design blog several years ago but had kind of let it languish for awhile. I read this book in July 2009 and it inspired me to start blogging again.
Although there's a lot of information for new bloggers, the part I found most useful was the section on defining 'beats' or topic areas. My blog is much more focused now and is drawing more attention, and it's easier to choose things to write about when you have a limited scope.
Although there's a lot of information for new bloggers, the part I found most useful was the section on defining 'beats' or topic areas. My blog is much more focused now and is drawing more attention, and it's easier to choose things to write about when you have a limited scope.
October 30, 2008
If you want to learn about blooging for your business, this is the book for you. The author outlines different tips, strategies for blogging for various types of business large and small. This book also contains interviews and real life examples of business blogs. I rented this from the library but wouldn’t mind owning a copy.
March 12, 2009
This is a must-have manual for anyone seriously considering setting up a blog. The information is clear, very practical, well organized. I can't praise the author (or his editor) enough for the step-by-step approach used in each chapter, complete with handy summaries for quick review. Chock full of relevant examples and down-to-earth insights.
January 20, 2012
A lot of good information, although, given that the copyright date is 2006, I suspect much of it is already long out of date. But the basic overview is good, as well as the information on tags, RSS feeds, linking to other blogs, commenting on other blogs, blog layout and composing a post.
March 20, 2008
This is a useful book if you're new to blogging. It was light on the practical stuff, and too heavy on the interviews/blog examples.
February 25, 2010
good clear how to book for technophobes, a bit dated, but easy and informative
July 7, 2011
If you're new to blogging, this is probably a good book. If you're a veteran, this book isn't worth your time. The authors were likely well aware of this, I wasn't.
June 22, 2016
Absolutely engaging read with easy steps to follow. I have a lot of homework to do, but now I know I'm headed in the right direction
November 4, 2016
very practical and well organized.
You do not need to read every chapter, you can jump to the one which meet Your needs directly.
You do not need to read every chapter, you can jump to the one which meet Your needs directly.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews