Product Description

Among more than 102,000,000 blogs, a few stand out as influential, ground-breaking, and singularly successful. These thirty bloggers, who write about everything from business trends to parenting, have been featured in Wired magazine, Popular Science, and on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, and 20/20. In one-on-one conversations with Michael A. Banks, these innovative, creative thinkers have shared their tactics, their philosophies, what drives them, how they mine for subject matter, and their personal secrets for success. Come and learn from the masters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89902 in Books
• Published on: 2007-12-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 298 pages

From the Inside Flap
They've gained a loyal following that continues to grow. They write about everything from business trends and the inner workings at Microsoft to parenting tips, personal secrets, and prolonging the life of your vehicle. They're passionate about their subjects and about the free expression of blogging. And they're even more passionate about being passionate.

They are thirty of the nation's most successful bloggers, and their stories and secrets—in their own words—fill these pages.

Technorati lists well over 102 million blogs, yet in such a sea of content, these bloggers stand out. Their voices are heard, their words are read, and their messages have an impact. In this fascinating and intimate look at the blogosphere, these influential and innovative individuals tell you what it takes to achieve blogging success.

If you've even thought about starting a blog, you can't afford to miss this wisdom.

the bloggers

• Dave Taylor The Intuitive Life Business Blog

• Chris Anderson The Long Tail

• Gina Trapani Lifehacker

• Ina Steiner AuctionBytes

• Mary Jo Foley All About Microsoft

• Dave Rothman TeleRead

• Frank Warren PostSecret

• Mike Masnick Techdirt

• Mark Frauenfelder BoingBoing.net

• Robert Scoble Scobleizer

• Peter Rojas Engadget

• John Neff Autoblog

• Ken Fisher Ars Technica

• Deborah Petersen Life in the Fast Lane

• Joel Comm JoelComm.com

• Brian Lam Gizmodo

• Kristin Darguzas ParentDish

• Chris Grant Joystiq

• Scott McNulty The Unofficial Apple Weblog

• Philipp Lenssen Google Blogoscoped

• Brad Hill Weblogs, Inc.

• Steve Rubel Micro Persuasion

• Rebecca Lieb ClickZ

• Deidre Woollard Luxist

• Gary Lee An Internet Marketing Web Site

• Richard MacManus Read/WriteWeb

• Eric T. Internet Duct Tape

• Victor Agreda DIY Life

• Steve Garfield Steve Garfield's Video Blog

• Grant Robertson Download Squad

From the Back Cover
"One of the true beauties and powers of blogs is that they can give voice to people who are not heard."
—Frank Warren, PostSecret
postsecret.blogspot.com

"Don't write anything in a blog that you wouldn't say to someone face to face."
—Scott McNulty, The Unofficial Apple Weblog
www.tuaw.com

"For me, the future of journalism is blogging."
—Mary Jo Foley, All About Microsoft
blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/

"I do my best thinking via my blogs."
—Chris Anderson, The Long Tail
www.thelongtail.com

"When I look out at the blogosphere, I don't see lots of inconsequential blogs. I see lots of possibility."
—Gina Trapani, Lifehacker
www.lifehacker.com

why do they blog?

It's addictive. It consumes an incredible amount of time, energy, and effort. It is their passion. And these bloggers wouldn't have it any other way.

Among more than 102,000,000 blogs, a few stand out as influential, ground-breaking, and singularly successful. These thirty bloggers have been featured in Wired magazine, Popular Science, and on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, and 20/20. In one-on-one conversations with Michael A. Banks, these innovative, creative thinkers have shared their tactics, their philosophies, what drives them, how they mine for subject matter, and their personal secrets for success. Come and learn from the masters.

About the Author
Michael A. Banks has written more than forty books, including the bestseller Crosley: Two Brothers and a Business Empire that Transformed the Nation. Online since 1979, he wrote some of the first hands-on guides introducing people to the online world and such services as CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy, as well as the pre-Web Internet. He has also chronicled online activities for Windows magazine, Computer Shopper, PCMagazine, PC World, BYTE, and other publications.
An enthusiastic blogger, Banks has participated in online communities for more than a quarter-century. He sees blogging as the cottage industry of the 21st century, and foresees a variety of new Internet-based business categories changing the shape of business over the next decade.

Customer Reviews

Bloggers, read this!
Page 30: "A successful blog is like a hungry pet that needs to be walked, fed, washed, cleaned up after, and loved regularly."

Nothing beats hearing from the top bloggers themselves about what it takes to achieve blogging success. Michael A. Banks has taken this huge effort of interviewing 30 of world's top bloggers. He shortlisted interesting blogs in several categories from business trends and the inner workings at Microsoft to parenting tips, personal secrets, DIYs, technology tips and many more.

A lot of background work went into the project: Finding the 30 people to interview by consulting the Technorati lists, Digg, Alexa and other resources; research on each blogger that often resulted in follow-up questions and revisions, contacting and inviting them to be a subject in the book; and logistic arrangements where mostly those interviews were conducted by telephone due to advantage of audio cues, not to mention other stuff too such as recorder and other telecommunication facilities. When cancellation happens, he had to quickly find backups and then there were technical glitches. After all of that, there were transcriptions, writing and editing. Although this is mostly a book about business blogging, the tips and secrets shared are very much applicable to personal bloggers as well.

There is a standard set of questions though you could see them worded differently in different interviews, and then you'll see them progress into more complex matters such as getting traffic, maintaining quality, mining for subject matter, dealing with difficulties, and so on. Some of the questions posted were as follows (not in their exact wordings):

1) What inspired the bloggers to start blogging?
2) Were they blogging for money?
3) How much time do they spend blogging?
4) Do they post or drop comments on other blogs?
5) What tips or advice do they offer other bloggers?

... and many more, in context with the progression of the interview.

At the end of each interview, readers can review the main points that are of special interest to them under the section "Points to Review". Recurring themes seem to be in order in most, if not all the interviews i.e.

- Write with passion
- Find a niche and focus on that niche
- Keep up to date by reading other blogs that interests you
- Use RSS
- Write well (grammatically correct, friendly tone, etc.)

I'd love to quote Chris Anderson in his interview: "A blog is a scratch-pad, and a discipline to collect your thoughts, compose your thoughts, advance your thoughts, and do it in public in a way that can amplify your thoughts by not only reaching an audience, but also getting feedback on your thoughts."

THE BLOGGING HEROES that I owned is full of highlights, with notes in the margin, and a bit of doodle here and there. It's a book that stimulates thinking and once you see something useful, you can't wait to apply them. It affirms some of practices I've already incorporated in my blogging and that's reassuring. My favourite interview is Frank Warren of PostSecret, partly because his blog has been one of my favourites for the longest time, and also it's amazing to read how he organizes his weekly post by going through the creative process of looking through thousands of postcards that he receives on a daily basis.

This is truly a very readable book. Get into the heartbeat of these top bloggers and get a feel of what drives them (passion and not money). No matter at what stage of blogging you're at, this book will be a gem. I also like the bright green word cloud cover cleverly designed by Michael Trent.

Thoroughly solid
This was an intriguing book to pick up at the bookstore and thumb through, although less fulfilling to read. Most of the bloggers are full-time paid, and most of them report on the very latest up-to-the-minute breaking news in their mostly-technical field. Most of them give you pretty much the same advice: Write about what you care about, and don't use black hat SEO techniques.

Frank Warren, of PostSecret, is the only completely out-of-the-box blogger covered.

I'll take comfort from the assurances that if I keep putting good content out into the blogosphere, Google will eventually find me. I'll add a few new writers to my RSS feeds. Elsewise, my blogging life will not change as a result of this book.

Good to have read; find it at the library, or buy it new or used according to your book budget.

Good Book to Read in the Store
I did not find this book useful. The author has spent time interviewing famous bloggers and compiled it. Most of the information is available online . Its a book which you can read when your are browsing in the store. Not worth to buy it