Business Blogs: A Practical Guide is Now Available

Yesterday, we announced the availability of our book, Business Blogs: A Practical Guide. Amanda Watlington and I have been working on this for the past eight months and it is great to see it out. As we said in the press release, the book draws on the experience of busy, successful people from all walks of life that have used blogs to build their businesses, connect with professional colleagues, try out new ideas and create communities of interest. This new book is presented in two parts.

The first is a 220 page guidebook that covers the “what” and “how” of blogging in clear, accessible language. The second part includes 290 pages of interview notes drawing on the blogging experiences of 70 bloggers. It includes both “A-list” bloggers who have built broad readership and individuals who have intentionally built small, select but highly interconnected communities with whom they exchange information via the Web. The volume includes over 700 links and 100 illustrations.

In developing the book, we talked with ten or more bloggers in each of five groups; small businesses, individual consultants, non-profit organizations, individuals in large organizations, and blog tool and service providers. This was great fun and a useful learning experience for us. We asked each blogger such questions as: when and why did you start blogging? How has it met your objectives? Have your objectives evolved? What have been the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them? How do you benefit from other blogs. What are your favorites and why? What advice do you have for other bloggers?

The book also offers criteria to help decide if a business blog is right for you. In addition, it addresses technical topics such as how to write a blog that wins readers, how to get noticed by building search engine traffic, how to select the right blogging platform, and make the most of RSS technology to gain subscribers.

My co-author, Amanda Watlington, is a marketing consultant and strategist who has been working with the Web since 1993. She is an expert in the search industry, where she has developed patent-pending tools and methodologies for search marketing. Her background complimented my business experience in knowledge management and learning. We enjoyed putting the book together and we hope you will find the useful.

Comments

[Jozef Imrich]

Good luck Bill and Amanda

It is great to see a reference to your book on Google news. I gather it is the same Bill who gets another news reference ;-)

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/5/emw241155.htm

http://www.thedailystar.com/news/stories/2005/05/14/brite3.html

[Bill Ives]

Jozef - Thanks for your support on the book. The second link to the Daily Star is to a different Bill Ives. There are ssveral of us running around so it can be confusing. I have met a few. Cheers, Bill