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Book Review: WordPress for Business Bloggers

• by Andy Gongea
• Mar 3, 2009
• 3 Comments »

I am often asked by newcomers or designers wannabes different questions about WordPress. The most common: where can I get that? … or how can I do that? The answer is very simple in most cases – you search for the solution. Although sometimes this approach is misunderstood, there is no better way to learn than to research. This is the best solution but in many cases it takes time. An alternative is to read books dedicated to WordPress.

In this post I will review an interesting book about WordPress that is dedicated to designers, developers and entrepreneurs. It was written by Paul Thewlis and it is entitled WordPress for Business Bloggers.

Published by Packt Publishing, Paul Thewlis’ book covers most of the topics involved in a blogging based business. It has a great hierarchy and it is based on a case study: the Chilli Guru blog. Speaking of hierarchy, the first thing you will notice at this book is that it has a great structure. The book takes you step by step and delivers many best practices from the blogoshpere. It will take you through steps that will be helpful in creating a powerful blog.

Book content in details

The book has a good approach and it starts with the basis for the upcoming blog. In the first pages of the book you will find samples of business blogs and their goals and perspectives. In this way the book gives you an idea about the multiple ways of creating your business.

The next thing that you will learn is how to make a WordPress theme. In this step you will not learn how to create your design in Photoshop, instead you will see how a website is structured, what files are involved in. Also standard information regarding typography and color theory is provided. Apart from this basic information, the book gives you the knowledge to create your own theme using the Sandbox theme from the HTML and CSS perspective.

After you create your design, the author takes care of the content problem. In the following pages, you will get familiar with managing and publishing images and videos on the blog. Also with the help of plugins, Paul creates a gallery on the blog – a feature that is pretty familiar in the blogoshpere. Video is also embedded in posts since lately this type of content has been omnipresent on the web.

Speaking of content, the next section of the book covers this topic. Best practices regarding posts length, headlines and writing tips are also provided in this book. This is a sign that the author wants to create a solid base from the beginning that will help the future blog.

In order to become popular, the blog must be promoted. This area is also covered by Paul very well. Here you will find how important is the search engine optimization. After this, he gives some samples of applications and ways of promoting better your blog like: Feedburner, Technorati, Share This, Twitter.

In the last part of the book, you will find out how to analyze your traffic with the use of Google Analytics tool. Also in this section you will discover several strategies of monetizing your blog like advertising and affiliate programs.

Conclusion

This is definitely one of those books that have 90% of the information you need. Paul Thewlis had the ability to create a comprehensive book that will take the user from the early stages of installing WordPress, to the days where he can wait for the paycheck. It is for sure a great resource for WordPress wannabes but at the same time it has useful tips for more advanced developers and designers.

Don’t expect to find here how to create WordPress plugins or advanced tweaks regarding WordPress. This book has a straight line that takes a basic blog and shows you the steps that a blog owner should take in order to be successful.

I really enjoyed the book and hopefully you will too.
Many thanks to Pack Publishing for providing this book and also 2 thumbs up for Paul and his WordPress for Business Bloggers book. Cheers!