Blog books

Matthew Currier Burden founded www.blackfive.net, one of the most popular military blogs on the Internet. His blog began as an homage to a friend killed on duty in Iraq and quickly became a source of information about what was really happening in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In The Blog of War Burden presents selections from some of the best of the military blogs, the purest account of the many voices of this war. This is the first real-time history of a war, a history written even as the war continues. It offers a glimpse into the full range of military experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, from the decision to enlist right through to homecoming. There are powerful stories of soldiers in combat, touching reflections on helping local victims of terror and war, pulse-racing accounts of med-evac units and hospitals, and heartbreaking chronicles of spouses who must cope when a loved one has paid the ultimate price. The Blog of War provides an uncensored, intimate, and authentic version of life in the war zone. Dozens of voices come together in a wartime choir that conveys better than any second-hand account possibly can what it is like to serve on the front lines.

In August 2003, the world gained access to a remarkable new voice: a blog written by a 25-year-old Iraqi woman living in Baghdad, whose identity remained concealed for her own protection. Calling herself Riverbend, she offered searing eyewitness accounts of the everyday realities on the ground, punctuated by astute analysis on the politics behind these events.

In a voice in turn eloquent, angry, reflective and darkly comic, Riverbend recounts stories of life in an occupied city—of neighbors whose homes are raided by US troops, whose relatives disappear into prisons and whose children are kidnapped by money-hungry militias. At times, the tragic blends into the absurd, as she tells of her family jumping out of bed to wash clothes and send e-mails in the middle of the night when the electricity is briefly restored, or of their quest to bury an elderly aunt when the mosques are all overbooked for wakes and the cemeteries are all full. The only Iraqi blogger writing from a woman’s perspective, she also describes a once-secular city where women are now afraid to leave their homes without head covering and a male escort.

Interspersed with these vivid snapshots from daily life are Riverbend’s analyses of everything from the elusive workings of the Iraqi Governing Council to the torture in Abu Ghraib, from the coverage provided by American media and by Al-Jazeera to Bush’s State of the Union speech. Here again, she focuses especially on the fate of women, whose rights and freedoms have fallen victim to rising fundamentalisms in a chaotic postwar society.

With thousands of loyal readers worldwide, the Riverbend blog is widely recognized around the world as a crucial source of information not available through the mainstream media. The book version of this blog will have “value-added” features: an introduction and timeline of events by veteran journalist James Ridgeway, excerpts from Riverbend’s links and an epilogue by Riverbend herself.

Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. The second edition of Smashing WordPress has been updated for WordPress 3.1+, which includes internal, custom post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to post types, the admin bar, and lots of other useful new features. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.

Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond d the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, and e-commerce site, and more. This edition includes new and upgraded examples of cool WordPress usage.

You Will Learn How To:

• Build Beautiful WordPress Themes, including Child Themes
• Create Custom Login Forms and Admin Themes
• Use the Loop to Control Content
• Build Plugins, including Widget Functionality
• Use Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies
• Use Post Formats
• Integrate WordPress with the Social Web
• Use Conditional Control Elements
• Integrate Theme Options
• Build Your WordPress Projects for SEO

Thord Daniel Hedengren is a professional web designer and developer who has created numerous WordPress themes, developed plugins, and put WordPress to good use powering both blogs and big editorial sites. He is the former editor of the Blog Herald, a popular website for bloggers and WordPress users.

Vistit www.wiley.com/go/smashingwordpress2e to download the code examples.

Smashing Magazine (smashingmgazine.com) is one of the world’s most popular Web-design online magazine. True to the Smashing Magazine book series delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers.

From the founders of ClassyMommy.com and MomGenerations.com comes the ultimate guide to helping moms build successful careers at home by doing what they already do online—just better.

To work or not to work—it’s the toughest question for most mothers today. But Audrey McClelland and Colleen Padilla have found the coveted “middle ground,” creating successful careers from home via the Internet. They’ve literally Skyped, blogged, vlogged, tweeted, and Facebooked their way to the top—and in this eye-opening book they show other moms how to find success through these seven basic steps:

1. Find your passion.
2. Hang a digital “shingle” and start typing.
3. Find your tribe.
4. Make opportunity knock and learn how to answer that door.
5. Manage the Benjamins.
6. Don’t forget the children!
7. Live happily ever after by living your values.

Having your own blog isn’t just for the nerdy anymore. Today, it seems everyone—from multinational corporations to a neighbor up the street—has a blog. They all have one, in part, because the folks at WordPress make it easy to have one. But to actually build a good blog—to create a blog people want to read—takes thought, planning, and some effort. From picking a theme and using tags to choosing widgets and building a community, creating your blog really starts after you’ve set it up.
In Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read by blogger extraordinaire Scott McNulty, you’ll learn how to:

• Install and get your WordPress site running.
• Set up your site to ensure it can easily grow with you and your readers.
• Be the master of user accounts.
• Manage your site with the WordPress Dashboard and extend its capabilities with plug-ins.
• Make the most of images.
• Work with pages, templates, and links and—of course—publish your posts.
• Use custom post types and taxonomies to bend WordPress to your will.
• Deal with comments—if you even want readers commenting at all.
• Find a theme and make it your own.

Tired of filling up your blog with boring posts? Take the next step and get inspired to create something unique. Author Margaret Mason shows you the way with this fun collection of inspirational ideas for your blog. Nobody Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog is a unique idea-book for bloggers seeking fun, creative inspiration. Margaret gives writers the prompts they need to describe, imagine, investigate and generate clever posts. Sample ideas include:

• Writing a serial novel
• Conducting unnecessary experiments
• Creating your autobiography
• Public eavesdropping
• And much, much more

Want your own free website and a free blog too? Did you think only a professional web-designer could create that? If so then you're in luck, because it's never been easier or less expensive to make your own free website.
Yes, you really can do this; anyone can because it's easy! There's no need to learn HTML coding anymore because venues like Webs, Yola, Wordpress, Blogger and others have made it simple with WYSIWYG editing (what you see is what you get). This book is a comprehensive, straight to the point, simple to follow guide. It's written in terms anyone can understand from the computer beginner to advanced users who will benefit from extra advice and over 150 useful links. Jason Matthews is also the author of How to Make, Market and Sell Ebooks All for Free and Get On Google Front Page. He knows from experience a myriad of online tools, programs and software that are freely available for anyone to make the most of an internet career at absolutely no cost.
With this guide you'll learn to:

• Make Free Websites.
• Make Free Blogs.
• Customize Your Widgets.
• Sell With PayPal buttons and shopping carts.
• Drive Traffic with Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, YouTube, etc.
• Maximize SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
• Rise in Google-Yahoo-Bing rankings.
• Submit free Online Articles and Press Releases.
• Grow an Email List of Contacts.
• And much more.

Plus it's easy, fun and makes the most of entirely free tools. You are guaranteed to save time, money and effort. Today is the day to jump-start your online presence and make your own free website! This book was written in 2010 and has been updated for 2012.

Creative Blogging shows you how to start blogging for the very first time to express your creativity, reach out and be heard—and even how to make money with your blog!



You'll start at the right place: The beginning! Learn answers to the most important and popular questions: What is a blog? Do I need a blog? How do I get started? What do I blog about? How do I blog? Creative Blogging then takes you through the how-to aspects of blogging, so you can quickly learn the terminology and get started. You'll then be able to choose the right blogging tool for you!



Soon, you'll be prepared to unleash your creativity! Like a good author, you'll learn how to find information to blog about, and how to express yourself in your blog in the ways that you want. Your creativity is what will make your blog successful, but every artist needs an audience. Creative Blogging reveals how to draw people to your site!



You'll also discover how to work with images and video, how to integrate your blog with Twitter and Facebook, and even how to make money with your blog! Let your creativity bring your audience to you and your blog with Creative Blogging.

What you’ll learnThis book is for beginners looking to start a new blog and let their creativity find their audience within the blogosphere. You'll learn the basics of how to blog, how to show your creative self on your blog, and how to find your audience.

• What a blog is—everything you need to know!
• How to choose the best blog tool for YOU!
• How to set up and organize your blog
• How to be creative in your blog's design and layout
• How to work with images to create a beautiful blog
• More advanced blog techniques and strategies
• Tools to promote your blog, increase visits, and make money!
• How to connect with popular social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook
• Where to find help, tools, tips and tricks

Who this book is for

Anyone creative who's never blogged before, but wants to reach an audience, be it for the purpose of business or pleasure.

Table of Contents

1. Where to Begin
2. Blog Layout and Design
3. Let’s Blog
4. More Than Just Text
5. Advanced Blog Design
6. Setting up a Custom Domain
7. Increasing Traffic & Visitor Tracking
8. Social Network Integration
9. Setting Up Shop
10. HTML/CSS Basics
11. Blogging Tips

Demystify the latest Web tools and demonstrate easy-to-use applications that strengthen information literacy, emphasize Internet safety, and enhance students’ academic achievement across grade levels and content areas.

Includes: DVD (51 min.), Facilitator’s Guide, CD-ROM, Companion Book

Blogging has become a very popular medium to communicate. We see ordinary people blogging about ordinary things in their everyday lives just for the simple satisfaction of connecting to others. The business world use blogs to market their products and services to get customers. Many others use blogging to make money and build lifetime wealth. To start blogging, you will need a blog. Additionally, you will need to build that blog with long-term success in mind. Laying down a strong foundation using the right format and theme with the right keywords, tags and other blog stuff in place will help tremendously on how your blog will perform in the entire blogosphere. Creating a blog is only part of the starting steps. With millions of blogs out in the blogosphere, the newbie blogger will also need to think about how to promote his blog resourcefully and productively so that many people can find it and read it. With this complete and very detailed blogging handbook the beginner blogger will learn: 1. How to build a blog the right way with SEO tips in mind, and 2. How to promote a blog the right way using highly effective online marketing strategies. These step-by-step instructions and other extremely helpful tips for blogging will surely help any new blog get noticed quickly and become popular. With the high traffic and popularity, you can then make lots of money by blogging!