Publish and Prosper: Blogging for Your Business

Books Details :

Author : DL Byron, Steve Broback
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: New Riders Press (June 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 0321395387
Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 7.7 x 0.3 inches

Book Description

While personal blogs take up much of the blogosphere, blogs are quickly gaining popularity in business as an inexpensive and amazingly effective marketing tool. It’s time for a practical book about business blogging: this is the first book to demonstrate how businesses are blogging and how you can use blogging technology to converse with your customers to build your brand and sell your products.

Written from the business person/designer’s perspectives, this book shows how businesses can leverage current, real-world blogging techniques, tools, and platforms to promote and enhance their ventures. The key idea is that the conversation with your market is stronger and more meaningful with a blog. Filled with practical information and a how-to approach, this book provides case studies of companies as large as Boeing or General Motors and as small as Clip-’n-seal. Readers will learn about the types of business blogs, how companies use blogs, how to sell blogs to management and IT, effective blog design, content, and conversation, pitfalls to avoid, how to develop Web presence, and more.

About the Author

DL Byron has just completed the development of Boeing's blogs. He is currently working on the next Blog Business Summit and rolling out a network of sponsored blogs.

Steve Broback is the co-founder of the Blog Business Summit and the i3forum conferences. Steve manages the editorial blogs rawformat.com and pixelupdate.com which are the center of Avondale's marketing strategy.

Spotlight Reviews :

Reviewer: Marcus Connery (Seattle, WA United States)
This a great book for anyone thinking about blogging be it for business or just for pleasure. Even if you are just doing a personal blog, the point is you want people to see it, otherwise you could just write in a journal and put it under your pillow. They lay out in very detailed yet understandable terms how to go about getting it set up, what options you have, and where to go do so. Then once set up, the whole point is getting it out there. Thats where this book really shines. Lots of books and articles and yes, even blogs, have been written about how to blog. These guys take it to the next level and explain how to get it out to the masses.

All in all, concise, informative, and easy for people that might not be all that tech savvy. Just what I was looking for.

Reviewer: MANUEL J HERNANDEZ "http://askmanny.com" (Orlando, FL)
As a longtime blogger and an entrepreneur I approached this title from New Riders with interest. I was happy to find out a wide range of information that I immediately put to good use in my own blogs. Interestingly enough, though the focus of the book is on blogging for businesses, the elements it presents are not limited to the business world. As a matter of fact, there at times throughout the book that you forget about the title of the book and get sunk into it due to the usefulness of the knowledge the authors share from their experience.

The framework Byron and Broback offer makes perfect sense, taking the reader through a natural progression to make sure the resulting blog is a success. From determining the focus of the blog, how much to write and how to design and implement it; to getting down to the task of posting, getting traffic and monitoring it, the book is thorough in spite of the fact of being less than 200 pages in length.

So, if you are considering to start a blog for your business, do yourself a favor and read this book before. I suspect you will thank me for it!

Reviewer: Charles Ashbacher "(cashbacher@yahoo.com)" (Hiawatha, Iowa United States)
When used in the context of the Internet, blog is an abbreviation for weblog and refers to an online journal. The most advanced blogs allow readers to contribute to the journal, creating an inline discussion group. Many businesses have found blogs to be a valuable tool in increasing their internal and external communications. Internally, a blog can serve as an online discussion group between employees, where issues can be resolved and decisions made. By doing so online, the participants do not have to leave their offices and can contribute, even though they may be a continent away. The online community of blogs is known collectively as the blogosphere.
Externally, some companies are using blogs to maintain better communications with their customers. However, this is not without risk, in that the solicitation of feedback can lead to a great deal of negative expression. The fact that these negative comments will be there for all to see unnerves some people to the point where they are reluctant to insert their company into the blogosphere.
This book is not technical by any means, written at the level of the manager. It is also not evangelical in any way, the advantages and disadvantages of using blogs are clearly and completely stated. It is by now a cliché, but it is also true that blogging is like everything else. If you take the time and make the appropriate effort, blogging can return substantial rewards. However, if that is not done, it will be a disaster that will explode very quickly. Word travels fast in the blogosphere, which is an advantage if you are doing it right and a severe detriment if you are not.
There are signs that the blogosphere may alter marketing as we now know it. To many people, marketing is an area of loud hype and dubious claims made by people who really don't understand the product they are trying to sell. I am one of the many people, when I read a testimonial I wonder if the person being "quoted" really said that or meant it if they did say it. In the blogosphere, people who are users of the product can honestly state their experiences. It also gives the producer an opportunity to get more and better feedback from their customer. As the concept of blogging continues to develop as a marketing tool, the era of marketing by hype may begin to pass from the scene. I for one will feel no sadness if and when this occurs.
If you are a manager and have heard about blogs but don't know what they are or how they can be used, then this book is right for you. The messages are clear, complete and will prove invaluable if you are considering or planning an entry into the blogosphere.

Reviewer: Debbie Weil (Washington, DC USA)
Byron (as he's known to friends and colleagues) and I exchanged feverish emails last fall while we were chained to our respective desks and slogging away on our books. His slim elegant volume - co-authored with Steve Broback - belongs on your blogging bookshelf. Er, right next to my book - "The Corporate Blogging Book"! I love all the screenshots and the practical advice on tools and techniques for effective blogging. Chapter 3 cogently addresses the *time* issue - a key roadblock for many would-be business bloggers.

P.S. If Byron and Steve's book had been out before I completed the manuscript for The Corporate Blogging Book, I would *definitely* have included it in my Recommended Reading list. Now for heavens sake, go order my book along with Byron and Steve's! The Corporate Blogging Book will be released August 3rd, 2006 by Penguin Portfolio.