| Got a blog? Want one? Feel like you need one but you’re not sure where to start? Whatever the case, I’d suggest flipping through this book and seeing what you might be able to learn on this little journey through the latest and greatest in blogging. Yes, “Web 2.0” is at least 25 percent marketing term and 25 percent Internet hype, but it’s also a way of thinking when it comes to creating, designing, and updating a weblog (or similar community site) on the Internet. It’s about a simpler approach to Web design and it’s about designing sites that encourage interaction with others.
If you don’t yet have a blog, but you do feel you have something to say, then dive right in. You’ve got plenty of options for getting started, ranging from free tools to nearly free blogging services to inexpensive blogging applications that you can load on your own Web hosting computer. You’ll get started quickly and, with the help of this book, you can reach out to many of the other “Web 2.0” services on the Internet for image sharing, video, audio blogging, and so on and incorporate those services into your blog quickly.
If you’ve already started blogging, I think you’ll find some valuable discussion in this book on how to take your blog to the next level, including the creation of a sense of community for your blog, building more traffic to your site and, if you’re so inclined, there’s even some discussion on how to make a little money from your blogging.
All in all, though, this book is about using and incorporating the latest tools and ideas into your blog—not just to make it “buzzword-compliant” but to make your corner of the Internet that much richer—and to make the ideas and experiences you share with others that much more vivid and compelling. “Web 2.0” can be a fun journey for both the user and the creator. Here’s hoping you’ll find this book handy as you become a little bit of both. |
