What's In Store: Books on Blogging

by Amanda Vogel

A fter months of facing rejected queries that I know would have easily sold a year or two ago, I'm reevaluating the number of career and bread-winning "eggs" I place in the progressively fragile magazine-industry basket.

So I turn to blogging. After all, it's becoming increasingly important—and profitable—on the Internet landscape, where anyone can publish anything, anytime. Successful bloggers even get book deals! Who better to be part of the blogging revolution than those of us who already know how to write well (and regularly), hook readers, and shape a story (or post)—three hallmarks of successful blogging.

I already have a couple of blogs, and it wouldn't hurt to steer my freelancing services toward blogging on magazine websites and helping corporate clients thrive in the increasingly competitive blogosphere.

The three books I reviewed dole out much of the same advice—blog often, make it about the conversation, build your posts around authenticity, and encourage and respond to commenters. However, each title tackles blogging from a different angle. Here's the breakdown.

ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six- Figure Income, by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. John Wiley and Sons, 2008, 220 pages, $24.99.

ProBlogger is a useful resource for blogging newbies who want to learn the nuts and bolts of getting started. For example, the authors cover which blogging software to choose (they favor self-hosted Wordpress, no big surprise), how to write effective blog titles and how to measure—and boost—a blog's success. This book even includes html code for customizing a blog template.

What about the promise of a six-figure income? Realistically, I'm not sure how many secrets in this book would lead to a six-figure revenue stream for most bloggers. But the book covers how to monetize your blog through direct and indirect means, such as selling advertising space and freelance blogging. Plus, if you're serious about making money, you can join a blogging network or sell your blog (I had no idea you could "flip" blogs like people "flip" houses!).

ProBlogger is the kind of resource you want on your desk as you muddle through setting up a blog for the first time or stare at your computer screen wondering what to blog about (reading the section on 20 types of blog posts can help).

The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging, by the Editors of The Huffington Post. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2008, 230 pages, $15.

Sure, this book offers helpful hints on what to blog about and a Glossary of Blogging Terms (troll: "a disruptive commenter bent on making trouble on a site"), but it stands out as the most entertaining of the three books I reviewed, partly because it contains actual blog posts—political rants, funny observations—from the famed HuffPost. And this book points to multiple examples of how blogging has advantages over mainstream media because of its immediacy (instant publishing), shared community, personal nature, and platform for covering or uncovering stories that mainstream media ignore or, even better, don't know about.

While this book offers basic advice for launching a blog, there's not much detail on the nitty-gritty technical side of actually getting started and running a blog. Instead, pick up this title for an enlightening, entertaining, and inspiring look at how the blogosphere is reshaping the media, and why you should start or keep blogging.

Naked Conversations: How Blogs Are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. John Wiley & Sons, 2006, 251 pages, $24.95.

If your corporate clients are having trouble seeing the value of hiring you as a blog writer or consultant, consider citing one or more of the case studies in this book. Naked Conversations is all about convincing businesspeople why they should blog. The authors (Scoble runs the enormously popular Scobleizer. com) use real-life examples to illustrate the business-related benefits of good blogging and the perils of bad blogging.

While some case studies went into more detail than I needed (Microsoft: I'm glad blogging helped you elevate your public image), I particularly liked the chapter on why blogs go wrong. For example, inauthentic blogs cause companies to quickly lose credibility among customers online. I'm glad I missed the McDonald's Lincoln Fry blog, which the company quickly canned after members of the blogosphere labeled the blog about a French fry resembling President Lincoln as incredibly lame.

This book reminds readers that blogging is two-sided communication, where businesses engage and respond to customers, compared to the traditional marketing model of talking at people. Use the lessons in Naked Conversations to both build your own blog community and help your corporate clients create a more meaningful and powerful connection with their customers.

A specialist in health and fitness writing, Amanda Vogel blogs for business and pleasure over at http://FitnessWriter.blogspot.com. In addition to writing for Best Health, Chatelaine, SELF, Prevention, and Health, Amanda is the co-author of Baby Boot Camp: The New Mom's 9-Minute Fitness Solution (Sterling Publishing, January 2010). Website: www.ActiveVoice.ca. Tweets: @amandavogel.