Customer comments on this selection.
 Very Informative
This book is really great if you are into blogging as a PR tactic. It has a lot of great tips and tricks. Shel Holtz really breaks everything down so blogging becomes easy to understand. Anyone who wants to start a blog for their company or wants to become a serious blogger should read this book.
 Great Reference Book
If you are new to blogs or an experienced blogster, I recommend having this book on your reference bookshelf. I suggest that you refer to it often. Its a GREAT How To reference guide.
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br /I read this book before Naked Conversations. I think it should be the other way around. The most valuable part of this book is after you have a strategy and focus. Blogging for Business has a couple of chapters that are pure gold and should be reviewed continually especially the section on search engine optimization.
 Read the title carefully: the book may not focus on what you think.
This book is authoritatively written and does not pretend to offer any 'secrets' of blogging. But the emphasis on the book is for blogging for already established companies. Much of the book focuses on the importance of establishing a web presence for corporations, and uses as examples, CEO's and other managers, who use blogging to keep the news of their companies up-to-date and to create a more 'intimate' relationship between the agenda setters and stakeholders. It isn't particularly valuable for one-person business operations, and has little discussion of the fine points of various software programs. There are about 10 pages of basic info. about Google's blogger, but nothing you wouldn't find on the Blogger help page. It also does not instill confidence to see the authors plugging their own businesses by using as examples their own blogs. The overarching metaphor of the book is that a corporate blog serves pretty much the same purpose as a intra-corporate video distributed by the CEO to his/her employees and customers--the difference being the blog can be continually updated. Basically just a 'user friendly' version of what is or was called 'corporate communication'; it's old wine in a new bottle.
Great Book on Blogging
Of all of the blogging books that I have read recently, I felt that this was the most practical, and well organized book. It provides the nuts and bolts about blogging, and provides the reader with the steps needed to enter the blogosphere.
Best how-to book on blogging
Two weeks ago my new boss hired me to start a blog for her dot.com business. Someone told her that she could increase sales if she had a blog. She knew I know nothing about blogs, but that I like to write and generally can figure things out. She said that the quicker I get a blog up and running, the bigger my raise will be. So I hit the blogosphere and Blogging for Business came into my life.
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br /This book told me all I need to know to get started. It defined all the blogging jargon for me. It told me what factors separate a hugely-popular blog from a doomed-to-obscurity blog. It helped me to decide which blogging-application software to use. It showed me how to create my first blog and what metrics to use to measure its success. Ted and Shel's writing is clear, direct, and easy-to-read. I consumed it FAST and effortlessly! But I suppose these features are what I'd expect in a good how-to book.
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br /What I didn't expect was all the inside info on the blogosphere. Now I understand why blogging is critical for a growing business. I learned the importance of reading competitors' blogs and customers' blogs. Ted and Shel call it 'monitoring the blogosphere'. I explained their ideas to my boss and we expanded my job description.
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br /This book made me look good in front of the boss and the CFO. I came off as a semi-expert at our 9:00am meeting about blog-application software. Little did they know I had just read the info 6 hours earlier during a bout of insomnia. Minutes before the meeting I prepared a handout by discreetly typing up some of the key tips I found in Ted's pocket-sized book, "Secrets of Successful Blogging: 101+ Tips for blogging more efficiently, effectively, and profitably". This book and Blogging for Business will stay on my shelf at work as valuable references.
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br /Now my boss thinks podcasting is the next new direction, so I'm on to reading Ted's "What no one ever tells you about...Blogging and Podcasting".
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br /Thanks Ted and Shel.
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