If you're here to read this review, you already know enough about the Internet to be familiar with the term blog, and may have had your own experiences with it. You know, for example, that a blog can be anything from a public online diary to a business tool. That's the kind of information that is covered in Part I: The Basics of What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere, essentially a blog on blogging.

The book is compiled by Ted Demopoulos, and is composed of 101 separate contributions, or posts if you will, since the book itself is rather like a group blogging project. Under each topic area are a number of posts by assorted bloggers, each covering different aspects of the content of content and context. (No programming guide here; it's not about html or css.)

It is an easy and quick read, but with the sort of uneven quality you would expect from any work compiled of that many different individuals. It is composed of the opinions of a collection of individuals and, being the sort of opinionated individualist that I am, I don't agree with everyone about everything, and some of the things that I do agree with are so basic that they are practically redundant from the get go. "Most important" one contributor says, "a blog is trivial to update. Adding a new post is as easy as sending an e-mail." Another contributor suggests trackbacks and conversational tone as essential elements. Still, there is content of interest here, opinions on whether or not to moderate comments, conversations on different blogging software, blog types, and blogging benefits, such as how they help position you in your industry.

Below you will find a listing of the topic areas:
1. The basics
2. Some business uses of blogs & podcasts
3. Planning your blog
4. Making money
5. Promoting your blog & tracking statistics
6. Podcast specific topics
7. Other blog & podcast considerations
8. The future
 
A benefit of this book is its presentation. Organized into topics, with topics subdivided into smaller target areas, it is quite easy to go right to items which are particularly interesting. However, even though it has practically an encyclopedic arrangement, it really isn't a wealth of fact; it is a compilation of opinion. Business uses and promotion sections may well be of interest to writers who maintain blogs--not as an end-all resource, but as a one-time read. I would be surprised if reading from cover to cover would take more than an hour and a half. As someone who is already familiar with blogs and blogging, would I buy this book? No. But it is fine for reading at the library, or perhaps as a contribution to a writing organization's library.

Reviewed by Allie
© July 2007