TypePad For Dummies E-Book

Melanie Nelson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 563

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Start, use, and customize a TypePad blog today! TypePad is known for its intuitive user interface, built-in SEO features, optional advertising, free professionally designed templates, fully hosted blogs, and outstanding customer support. This book guides you through the technical tasks necessary for starting, using, and customizing a TypePad blog. Step-by-step tutorials walk you through the process of signing up for a new TypePad blog, while screen shots from real-world blogs bring the book's concepts to life. * Guides you through choosing the right TypePad membership plan, signing up, configuring, using, and customizing a blog using the TypePad system * Explains the process of signing up for a new TypePad blog and publishing your content on the Web * Shares real-world examples that bring the book's ideas to life Get blogging today with TypePad!

Leseprobe

TypePad® For Dummies®

Table of Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Conventions Used in This Book

What You’re Not to Read

Foolish Assumptions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: The Basics of Blogging

Part II: Getting Started with TypePad

Part III: Adding Useful Elements to Your TypePad Blog

Part IV: Taking Your Blog to the Next Level

Part V: The Part of Tens

Appendixes

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: The Basics of Blogging

Chapter 1: Understanding Blogging and TypePad

Dynamics of Blogging

What is a blog?

Why do people blog?

Building a blogging community

Finding an online identity

Understanding Blogging Technologies

Rich Text

RSS feeds

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Hosted versus self-hosted blogging platforms

Chapter 2: The Benefits of TypePad

Discovering the History of TypePad

Blogging for Personal or Business Use with TypePad

Pros

Cons

Choosing the Right TypePad Blogging Package

Micro

Pro Plus

Pro Unlimited

Business Class

Discovering TypePad’s Technical Support Services

Part II: Getting Started with TypePad

Chapter 3: Creating Your TypePad Account and Profile

Signing Up for a TypePad Account

TypePad Micro

TypePad Pro

Signing In to Your TypePad Account

Creating Your TypePad Profile

Sharing your personal information

Uploading your userpic

Connecting your Profile to the rest of the Web

Chapter 4: Touring the TypePad Dashboard

Understanding the Navigation Bars

Locating Your TypePad Library

Finding photo albums

Navigating TypeLists

Managing stored files

Editing Your TypePad Account Information

Summary tab

Notifications tab

Billing Info tab

About Me Page tab

Other Accounts tab

Password Protection tab

Domain Mapping tab

TypeKey API tab

Getting Help

Using the Knowledge Base

Submitting a help ticket

Using Quick Compose

Locating Your List of Blogs

Answering the Question of the Day

Chapter 5: Creating Your First Blog

Choosing Your Basic Blog Settings

Basics tab

SEO tab

Sharing tab

Stats tab

Feeds tab

Posts tab

Categories tab

Comments tab

Authors tab

Post by Email tab

Import/Export tab

Managing Your Design

Checking Your Stats in the Overview

Finding Existing Posts

Managing Existing Comments

Creating More Than One Blog in Your TypePad Account

Chapter 6: Writing and Editing Your Blog Posts

Composing Your First Blog Post

Formatting Your Text

Inserting Extras into Your Blog Posts

Inserting links using the Compose editor toolbar

Inserting images using the Compose editor toolbar

Inserting documents using the Compose editor toolbar

Inserting files using File Manager

Inserting video and audio files to your post

Organizing Your Posts Using Categories

Configuring Post Options

Publishing, saving, or scheduling?

Changing the timestamp on your post

Displaying your comments

Using trackbacks

Setting keywords for your post

Customizing a post excerpt

Featuring blog posts

Using the Share This Post option

Editing Existing Posts

Understanding the Difference between Posts and Pages

Chapter 7: Interacting on Your Blog

Inviting Users to Comment on Your Blog

Standard Commenting versus TypePad Connect

Options offered by both

What makes them different

Establishing Settings for Your Desired Commenting Option

Configuring settings for the standard commenting format

Configuring settings for TypePad Connect

Managing Existing Comments

Taking action with your comments

Taking action with trackbacks

Blocking comments

Replying to your readers’ comments

Part III: Adding Useful Elements to Your TypePad Blog

Chapter 8: Using TypeLists and Widgets

Understanding the Different TypeLists

Creating New TypeLists for Your Blog

Creating a Links TypeList

Creating a Notes TypeList

Adding a Books TypeList

Adding an Album TypeList

Editing and Configuring an Existing TypeList

Managing settings for a TypeList

Editing a TypeList

Publishing a TypeList

Searching a TypeList

Deleting a TypeList

Finding Creative Uses for TypeLists

Product recommendations

Your favorite blogs

Your favorite Web sites

Places to go

Share more about your blog

Other places readers can find you

Adding Blog Functions with Widgets

Understanding widgets

Using the Embed Your Own HTML widget

Finding and activating new widgets

Turning widgets off and on

Chapter 9: Adding Multimedia to Your Blog

Creating Photo Albums and Galleries

Choosing your photo album design

Choosing your photo album settings

Optimizing images for the Web

Should I use JPG, GIF, or PNG? And what’s the difference?

Podcasting on TypePad

Linking from File Manager

Using <embed> code

Adding Video to Your Blog

Sharing video from a third-party site

Linking to or embedding a video

Sharing video from File Manager

Chapter 10: Exploring Social Media

Understanding Key Social Media Sites

Adding Your Social Networks to Your Blog

Twitter

Facebook

FriendFeed

Publishing Flickr photos on your blog

Using Bit.ly Links to Track Social Media Traffic

Understanding and Using Social Bookmarking

StumbleUpon

Kirtsy

Digg

Delicious

Chapter 11: Finding and Using a TypePad Theme

Grasping Basic Design Principles

Consider your voice

Be consistent

Use color well

Incorporate change wisely

Make your posts easy on the eyes

Minimize the clutter

Keep things moving left to right

Locating and Navigating the Design Tab

Your current design

Create a new design

Your designs

Finding and Applying a TypePad Theme

Browsing the available TypePad themes

Applying your chosen theme

Selecting the Layout of Your Theme

Choosing and Ordering the Content Modules on Your Blog

Selecting the modules to include

Arranging the modules on the page

Using the Theme Builder

Banner

General

Posts

Sidebar modules

Inserting an Image into Your Sidebar

Inserting a sidebar image using a Notes TypeList

Inserting an image using the Embed Your Own HTML widget

Understanding the sidebar image HTML

Managing Existing Designs

Customizing a saved design

Taking other actions on a saved design

Part IV: Taking Your Blog to the Next Level

Chapter 12: Making Money with Your Blog

Understanding How You Can Make Money with Your Blog

Sidebar advertisements

Affiliate advertising

Paid blog posts

Other projects

Making Your Blog Attractive to Advertisers

Using TypePad’s Own Advertising Program

Running Your Own Advertising Campaign

Create a media kit

Set your prices, terms, and conditions

Chapter 13: Importing, Exporting, and Archiving

Understanding TypePad’s Import and Export Options

Importing an Existing Blog to TypePad

Importing a TypePad or Movable Type blog

Importing a WordPress.com blog

Importing a WordPress.org blog

Creating an Export of Your TypePad Blog

Chapter 14: Tweaking Your TypePad Theme with Custom CSS or Advanced Templates

Choosing Custom CSS or Advanced Templates

Using Custom CSS

Using your own banner

Changing your blog’s background

Removing the border around your custom banner

Fine-tuning your navigation bar

Changing the font, style, and color of the post heading

Changing column widths

Using Advanced Templates

Installing Advanced Templates

Understanding your templates

Installing a custom banner image

Changing the navigation bar

Adding widgets and TypeLists in Advanced Templates

Changing your picture

Deleting or replacing the post-title asterisk

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Ten Tips and Tricks

Set Reasonable, Measurable Goals

Use an Editorial Calendar

Keep Solid Records

Submit Your Site to Directories

Use the Blog It Widget

Blog Offline with Windows Live Writer

Post via Your Phone

Protect Your Writing

Protect Your Images

Use a watermark

Shrink-wrap your images

Offer E-Mail Subscriptions

Chapter 16: Ten Places to Find TypePad Resources

Everything TypePad Blog

Six Apart Status Blog

TypePad Small Business Center

TypePad Beta Blog

Six Apart Professional Network

TypePad Services

Get Satisfaction TypePad User Forum

Six Apart’s Twitter Feed

Blogging Basics 101

Build a Better Blog

Chapter 17: Ten Bloggers Using TypePad Well

Allsorts

Career Hub

Eat Local Challenge

Economist’s View

Finslippy

Hey There’s a Dead Guy In the Living Room

Money Saving Mom

Raisin Toast

Smart Dog

HELLO My Name Is Heather

Chapter 18: Ten Blogging Etiquette Tips

Link Frequently and Accurately

Don’t Overly Promote Yourself in Someone Else’s Comment Section

Don’t Ask for Reciprocal Links

Give Others the Benefit of the Doubt

Leave Comments Freely at Other Blogs

Be Up Front Where Products Are Concerned

Consider the Privacy of the People You Blog About

Consider Your Readers’ Best Interest

Manage the E-Mail Issue Well

Think Before You Post

Appendix A: Domain Mapping

Validation

Branding

Marketing

GoDaddy

Network Solutions

Yahoo! Small Business

PairNIC

Begin the domain-mapping process

Change your domain’s DNS record

Finish the domain-mapping process

Appendix B: Third-Party Stat Counters

Getting started

Understanding your FeedBurner stats

Using Google Analytics tools

Navigating your Google Analytics Dashboard

Doing more with Google Analytics

Finding out more about Google Analytics

TypePad® For Dummies®

by Melanie Nelson and Shannon Lowe

TypePad® For Dummies®

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.111 River St.Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. TypePad is a registered trademark of Six Apart, Ltd. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920258

ISBN: 978-0-470-55094-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Authors

Melanie Nelson: Melanie has been blogging since 1998 and working with social media since 1995. In that time she has worked with every major blogging platform, including TypePad. She currently owns and writes Blogging Basics 101 (www.bloggingbasics101.com), where she provides tips, instructions, and advice for bloggers. She has spoken at both the Blissdom and BlogHer blog conferences as well as local professional development events. Melanie is also a social media consultant, a Contributing Editor at BlogHer.com, and a technical writer and editor. She has a master’s degree in technical writing. Melanie lives in Oklahoma with her husband and two children.

Shannon Lowe: Shannon has been a TypePad blogger since 2006, writing the award-winning parenting blog Rocks In My Dryer (www.rocksinmydryer.net). She is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in books and magazines such as Good Housekeeping, Parenting, Chicken Soup for the New Mom’s Soul, and The Social Cause Diet. She has been a guest speaker at several blogging conferences, including BlogHer, Blissdom, and SheSpeaks. In February 2008, she and a team of U.S. bloggers traveled to Uganda with Compassion International to live-blog their child advocacy work. She lives in Oklahoma with her husband and four children.

Dedication

To Bill and Mac, for everything.

Authors' Acknowledgments

This book was a team effort, in every sense. We heartily thank our hard-working and patient project editor, Susan Pink — we learned so much from you! Many thanks to Amy Fandrei and Jodi Jensen of Wiley Publishing, who helped us in countless ways. Still more thanks to the rest of the Wiley team. Thank you, too, to Andy Wibbels of Six Apart for serving as our technical editor.

We give our deep thanks to the readers of our blogs, Blogging Basics 101 and Rocks In My Dryer. You guys are the reasons we get to do what we do and we’re endlessly thankful you’ve taken the time to offer us your support and encouragement over the years.

Melanie: I would like to thank my husband, Bill, and our awesome, funny children. Without your patience and support my blogging endeavors, let alone writing a book, wouldn’t be possible. Our life is the life I always wanted.

I also want to thank Jann Nelson, Donna Monthei, and John and Robin Monthei for always being available to help with anything that came up; Robert M. Brown, PhD for being a constant voice in my head telling me to write well; and Kathy Cordeiro for so many things I couldn’t possibly list them all. I appreciate all of you.

Shannon: I’d like to thank my parents, Don and Cathy Dunn, and my grandmother, Bonnie Young, for all the practical help and support through this hectic book-writing process. To the other family members and friends who offered healthy doses of sanity and encouragement — thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you!

A very special thanks to my four fantastic kids for being such good sports. I’m proud of this book, but I’m a million times prouder to be your mom.

Most of all, thank you to Mac for being Mac, which is always just exactly what I need.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development

Project Editor: Susan Pink

Acquisitions Editor: Amy Fandrei

Copy Editor: Susan Pink

Technical Editor: Andy Wibbels

Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Patrick Redmond

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Christine Williams

Proofreaders: Lindsay Littrell, Kathy Simpson

Indexer: Potomac Indexing, LLC

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Composition Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Introduction

The blogosphere is a busy place. It’s hard to nail down a firm number, but the best estimates indicate that there are more than 200 million blogs bumping around globally in cyberspace. It can be daunting for a beginning blogger (or even an intermediate one) to comfortably find a spot of his or her own in such a crowd. Where can you learn all the technical jargon you need to know? How do you host a blog? How do you manage a community? What do you do about privacy concerns? Is it really even possible to make money in the blogosphere?

Fortunately, TypePad exists as a very large and streamlined toolbox to help bloggers of all levels of experience and interest manage their home on the Web. It is widely regarded in the blogging world as a simple, affordable, and easy-to-manage platform, used by millions of bloggers around the world. TypePad is frequently updated with new features — including a complete overhaul in 2009 — in an effort to offer users the best of the blogosphere.

We have our own TypePad history — professional and personal. Melanie is a technical writer who has blogged professionally for years on numerous blogging platforms, including TypePad, giving her a solid basis for comparison. Shannon is a personal blogger who has been hammering out posts from the TypePad Dashboard since 2006. Just like you, we started out as beginners. We studied the TypePad help section and submitted help tickets. We discovered some shortcuts and found out other things the hard way. We asked the same questions you’re asking now, and we’re eager to show you what our own TypePad experience has taught us.

About This Book

Because you’ve picked up this book, chances are you fall into one of two categories: You want to start your first blog, and you’ve heard that TypePad is a user-friendly way to find your place in the blogosphere; or you already have a TypePad blog, and you want to better understand some of the significant changes Six Apart made in 2009 when it released the newest version of TypePad. Or we may be completely off-base and you just picked up this book because it’s a pretty yellow color. Whatever the reason, we’re glad you’re reading it.

We’ve written this book with the beginning to intermediate TypePad user in mind and have included information on the most recent features available to users as of late 2009.

Even beginners can expect to find TypePad a hassle-free tool for building a polished, professional blog. Just as TypePad is known for its user-friendliness, we’ve written this book to be user-friendly as well. You won’t find an abundance of technical talk, because we know that many TypePad users choose TypePad specifically to avoid technical headaches. We tell you the terms, techniques, and processes you need to know to navigate this software like a pro, even if you do not bring a lot of technical experience to the table. Whether you’re blogging as a hobbyist or as a professional, we fully expect this book to give you what you need to build a stellar TypePad blog.

Conventions Used in This Book

Conventions are large and scary gatherings of unknown people with name tags, but don’t worry — we don’t have any of those in this book. The conventions we’re talking about in this book are simply formatting rules we’ll follow to make it easier to navigate the information we’ve shared. Here are the ones we’ll use.

When we place a word in italics, we’re telling you that it’s an important word you need to know, and we define it immediately. Let’s try it out:

Your userpic can be a picture of yourself or your brand. A brand is simply a concept or visual image your readers associate with you.

When you see a word written in bold, we’re referring to specific text that you need to enter in the designated field on your screen. Here’s an example:

If you’re looking for a post you wrote about the world’s best hash brown casserole, typing hash brown in the search bar will pull up every post you’ve written that contains those words.

When we change the font to look like this, we’re indicating that this is a Web address (URL), an e-mail address, or a piece of code. Here’s one last example:

Choose your blog URL. The URL is your blog’s address online (for example, http://www.typepadfordummies.typepad.com).

What You’re Not to Read

You certainly don’t have to read this book from cover to cover. We expect that you’ll likely jump around between chapters, searching for answers to your particular questions. We’ve written this book with that in mind — you’ll notice that we frequently point you toward another chapter where the topic is discussed in further detail.

If you already have a decent amount of TypePad experience, you’ll probably skip some parts of this book altogether. The earliest chapters, especially, are geared toward true beginners. If that isn’t you, skip ahead until you find the information you need. Likewise, if you’re just starting out as a blogger, some of the later chapters about custom CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and advanced templates may seem overwhelming. Don’t sweat it. Get comfortable with the easier parts of the process and then look at the later chapters in a few weeks or months. They won’t feel so overwhelming then.

So scan ahead, reread, underline, make notes, draw daisies in the margins — do whatever you have to do to make this book helpful. That’s why we wrote it.

Foolish Assumptions

Assumptions can be dangerous, but we had to make a few as we wrote this book. We’ve assumed the following:

You either own a computer or have access to one, and you are familiar with its most basic functions.

You know how to access the Internet, and you know how to maneuver around Web sites by pointing and clicking. (If not, you might want to check out The Everyday Internet All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies, by Peter Weverka.)

You have an e-mail address and know how to use it.

You have a general sense of what a blog is and probably have already read at least a few of them. (If not, you’d benefit from Blogging For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Susannah Gardner and Shane Birley.)

You may not know much about TypePad (at least, not yet — we’ll fix that soon enough), but you do understand that TypePad has something to do with blogging, and you want to find out more.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into five parts. Our goal is to introduce you to everything you’ll need to best use TypePad as your blogging platform. We start by explaining the basic premise of blogging, move on to setting up your TypePad account and blog, and then show you how to take your blog to the next level (with customized designs, for example).

Part I: The Basics of Blogging

If you’re new to blogging, Part I is where you want to start. We explain the dynamics of blogging so you can understand why people blog and why community is such an important part of blogging. We also discuss how you can develop your own blogging identity and build a community around your particular niche. Then we introduce you to some of the basic technology that powers blogs (such as RSS feeds and search engine optimization). By the end of Chapter 1, you’ll know the difference between hosted and self-hosted blogging platforms and which is right for your blog’s purposes.

In Chapter 2, we introduce you to Six Apart (TypePad’s parent company). We explain the costs of TypePad and help you decide which pricing level to choose based on whether you’re blogging for business, pleasure, or both.

Part II: Getting Started with TypePad

Part II helps you establish your account with basic settings and billing information. Then we describe a TypePad Profile and why it’s important, and we walk you through setting up your own Profile. We show you what the Dashboard is and discuss each of the options and features it offers. Next, we get to what you’ve been waiting for: setting up your first blog. We walk you through choosing your basic blog settings (for example, handling your RSS feeds and sharing your content), checking your stats (to see who’s visiting your blog), and managing your posts after you’ve written them. We not only give you instructions to compose a blog post (including how to insert images into the post, format the text, and set keywords for your post) but also address how TypePad can help you manage your blogging community as your blog readership grows.

Part III: Adding Useful Elements to Your TypePad Blog

In Part III, you find the real nuts and bolts. You begin to customize your TypePad blog to reflect what suits you — and your readers — best. We tell you about dozens of tools available to TypePad bloggers who want to maximize their online space. We show you how to use TypeLists (TypePad’s way of sharing content in your blog’s sidebars) and widgets (bits of code that offer additional functionality for your blog, such as a search bar) to help you organize your content and make your blog more user-friendly. We also explain how to integrate podcasting and video into your blog.

We figure if you’re blogging, you probably have other social media accounts as well (maybe Twitter or Facebook?), and you’ll want to connect those Profiles with your blog. We have you covered. If you don’t have other social media accounts or would like to know what social media is, don’t worry. We define it and explain how you can use it to promote your blog.

Part III also deals with the meaty issue of TypePad blog design. We show you how to harness TypePad’s powerful design tools.

Part IV: Taking Your Blog to the Next Level

Part IV is for those of you who are ready to blog like a pro. We tackle the issue of migrating an existing blog to TypePad from more than one blogging platform. If you’re interested in making money from your blog, we help you sort through the various monetizing options (affiliate marketing, ad networks, or personal ad campaigns) so you can determine which one fits you best. Last, if you’re not afraid to get your hands dirty in some coding, you may be ready to customize your TypePad experience at the coding level. We share a few easy tweaks (such as changing color options or using your own header image) and move on to more advanced changes (such as using custom CSS). We also explain Advanced Templates, starting you down the path of making this powerful option work for you.

As we stated, if you’re a beginning blogger, Part IV may be daunting. However, many experienced TypePad bloggers can tell you stories of jumping in feet first when they first began blogging. It really is the best way to learn — you might surprise yourself by discovering that you enjoy the technical parts!

Part V: The Part of Tens

Part V is the place to find a list of quick-reference tips and tricks. We’ve found the best tips, TypePad resources, and TypePad blogs and listed them for you (with their URLs, of course). You can find out how to publish a post through e-mail or your cell phone and add e-mail subscriptions to your blog. We also tell you where you can find help for your TypePad questions, and we share a few tips on engaging courteously and professionally with your blogging peers. Finally, we show you some phenomenal examples of customized TypePad blogs that will blow you away with their originality. These bloggers are implementing the best that the TypePad platform has to offer.

Appendixes

This section offers you some additional helpful information for polishing up your own blog. Interested in having your own domain name? We walk you through the how’s and why’s of owning your own domain name, helping you put your most professional foot forward. We also show you how to install a third-party statistics counter and give you some basic pointers about interpreting the blog traffic that funnels through these counters.

Icons Used in This Book

Pay special attention when you see this icon, because it means we’re sharing something especially important. Read it, highlight it, and read it again.

This icon may not appear very often, but when it does, it means we’re sharing some especially technical information that the Average Joe probably doesn’t really need to know. But if you’re a tech geek, or you want to become one, look for this icon to give you some technical tips. If technical tips make your head hurt, skip right past it.

We all love finding tips that make life easier, and we give you plenty of them in this book. When you see this icon, know that you’re reading a trick or a shortcut worth learning — maybe we can save you some time.

This spooky little icon has a bomb on it, but never fear: You probably aren’t going to blow anything up. We use this icon to point out potential problems with certain issues, and we give you the know-how to avoid them.

Where to Go from Here

This one’s easy: Just turn the page, and let’s get started. Right away, we want to fill you in on some basic blogging principles, and then we’ll fill you in on some simple history about TypePad. If you already have a TypePad account, you might want to skip ahead to Chapter 4 (where we explain what the Dashboard is and how to use it). If you have some solid TypePad experience behind you, you can jump ahead even further, to Chapter 8 (where we discuss using TypeLists and widgets). Wherever you rejoin us, we’re looking forward to helping you navigate this user-friendly blogging software with confidence. It’s our goal that this book will put you solidly on the path to a TypePad blog that represents you or your business well.

Part I

The Basics of Blogging

In this part . . .

Let’s start at the very beginning! This part of the book is aimed at those who are new to blogging and aren’t familiar with TypePad. We explain the basics of blogging technologies and help you understand what TypePad has to offer you.

Chapter 1

Understanding Blogging and TypePad

In This Chapter

Getting familiar with your blogging community

Establishing your blog’s standards

Sharing your blogging identity

Understanding core blogging technologies

Using search engine optimization techniques

Choosing hosted or nonhosted blogging options

Before we move ahead with some technical TypePad how-tos, let’s start at the beginning. If you’re not an experienced blogger, this chapter provides a simple framework for you, explaining the basic social dynamics and technology of blogging. The definitions and concepts we introduce in this chapter are used throughout the book, so a solid understanding of them is helpful. If you’ve already been blogging for some time, feel free to skip ahead to the next chapter.

In this chapter, we help you understand the social dynamics of a blog — how it works and why people even do it in the first place. We discuss the idea of community — a key difference between writing for a blog versus writing for a book or magazine — and we offer considerations for managing this community. We also explain some of the fundamental technological elements of a blog (including RSS feeds and search engine optimization) and how you can harness these elements to create a successful blog. All these points work toward producing a polished, attractive, user-friendly blog that invites participation from readers.