There were two semi-related bits of news yesterday that have the potential to give WordPress-powered blogs even more of an edge in Google search rankings. Two small changes that are going to change how we find and use information, and it all comes down to one word: PubSubHubbub (PuSH).

First we got word that all 10.5 million WordPress.com blogs would support not only RSSCloud but also PuSH. That’s a lot of blog content there. Enough to make a serious difference on its own. At the same time Automattic released the PuSHPress plugin to do the same for self-hosted WP blogs (which I promptly downloaded and activated, just like I did for RSSCloud). Sure alone this is major news (hence why RWW and others covered it—10.5 Million Wordpress Blogs Get PubSubHubbub), now WP.com blogs and those who install the plugin will now push their updates out to readers instead of forcing readers to come to them. Ah the real-time web, it’s getting richer and richer. So, while that is cool, it is trumped by the next bit of news…

Google is going to use PuSH to power real-time indexing and results—Google Index to Go Real Time. See the connection? Out of the box WP.com blogs are going to have a serious edge over most other blogs (I’m sure Blogger blogs will get PuSH soon too). A tight blogging network that stomps out spam blogs without mercy, that encourages great content, and now well tell Google immediately when there is new stuff? I think that’s a pretty powerful thing. Now, add to the mix all the self-hosted WP blogs? Man that has the potential to really influence Google results.

This doesn’t mean that people can be lazy with SEO, on the contrary, I think this should push people to take it more seriously. Look, you’re going to get your content right into the Google index, so making sure you use (good) categories, tags, and writing with keywords in mind only serves to push you higher in the results.

With tens (hundreds?) of millions of blogs pushing updates to Google, don’t you think that those results are going to get priority?

Granted, it shouldn’t take long before Blogger, MovableType, and TypePad have PuSH support as well, but let’s consider volume here. WordPress is poised to become the platform of choice for Google.

WordPress, powering the realtime web, with help from Google.

Very soon after I started blogging, I started using a blog editor to power up my blogging (and prevent the “aiiigghhh I lost my connection and my post!!!!” which was very common at conferences, still is actually). In those days I was using Qumana for the most part, which makes sense since I was a part of the company and helping guide the growth of the app.

For its time, Qumana was a fantastic blogging app. It was almost perfect (I was always pushing for more and better refinement), but Qumana has long dropped from my toolkit as it hasn’t really been updated in a long time. After Qumana, I used Windows Live Writer. Again, almost perfect and probably one of the few apps I miss since switching to a Mac.

Right now my app of choice is Blogo and it’s good enough, but maybe not as great as I’d like. I have ecto, and while it’s good, it lacks a few refinements and doesn’t seem to have any active development going on, which always concerns me when choosing (and paying for) an app. Yesterday I bought the MacHeist nano bundle and it comes with MacJournal, which has a post to blog function. All of which has made me wonder if there is a perfect (Mac) blog editor, and if there is does anyone care?

What got me thinking about this is Paisano’s post on WebWorkerDaily about the “death of blogging” and the iPad as its potential savior (is there anything that the iPad isn’t going to save?):

What’s the Problem?
I think part of the problem with blogs is that they are too static and dull. We need to infuse new life into blogs and make them more dynamic. Just as Flash added a freshness to web sites when it first appeared on the scene, we need to do something that will change the game for blogging.
The other part of the problem involves the incredible shrinking attention span of readers/viewers. Hollywood learned long again that motion pictures need to reach out and grab the audience right away within the first 10 minutes or else its opening weekend will be its last. That’s why most movies look and feel like music videos these days. Quick cut editing and special effects reign supreme. Even the publishing industry has taken its queue from the movie industry and insist that its authors write tighter and more exciting stories.
link: The Future of Blogging – WebWorkerDaily

The key here is the writing part of the blogging problem. I have now three apps for writing and note taking. Between Scrivener, where I do most of my book writing and a lot of other writing as well, Yojimbo, where I gather a lot of the links and such researching for books, etc., and MacJournal, which I haven’t really tried yet, I have a lot of potential blogging firepower, but little practical connections.

I can easily gather a ton of stuff in Yojimbo (I love it’s drop-tab area), but I can’t pull it together and publish from there (easily). I can write my brains out in Scrivener (which I do), and I can pull in a lot of stuff into it, but not as easily as Yojimbo, but I can’t publish directly to any of my blogs. The best I’ve been able to do is write it and copy and paste. I still have to add links and images to finish off the posts. MacJournal … well it might be able to post to my blog (I haven’t tried yet), but the whole collecting of stuff part is lacking.

Then comes the critical question—does anyone really care?

I can’t remember the last time I saw someone using an editor (someone who I hadn’t shown the benefits of blog editors, btw) to post to their blog. Everyone just logs into their blog and posts directly. What if you can’t get online? Oh well. I guess it will have to wait.

See, I think that the how people post influences what they will post and the quality of the end result as well. Look at the default post area in WordPress 2.9.2:

That is not a lot of area to post in. It is confined and cramped. Yes, I know that you can make the post area bigger, but we’re talking defaults here (and most people never change the default settings). Don’t you think that small area leads to shorter posts? Here is the default posting area of Blogo (and this very post!):

Huge difference, eh? Lots of room. Space to see ideas develop. I think one of the ways we can all improve blogging is working with better tools to improve our writing.

Now, I just wish I could find it.

It’s well worth noting that on of the early versions of Qumana was built on a semantic note-taking principle and you could easy mix and match different things you dropped into to make a post (or other documents as well).

What I’d really like is the writing interface of Scrivener coupled with the drag and drop into a notes area (with tags) like Yojimbo and being able to post as easily as Blogo. Anyone?

little verify code for a beta site:

EAVB_CFKCXLHDBL

Your ever wonder how people keep blogging for years? Decades? It isn’t because these people just never run out of things to say. Okay, maybe some of them don’t ever run out of things to say, but for the most part I think it’s the community they build around their blogs that keeps driving them. Community doesn’t equal traffic either. Community can be the loyal following of a few people who comment on most of your posts. Who inspire you and help refill the creativity well when it runs dry. Community includes the people who you read day after day who add into your stream of ideas.

Not to mention those people who won’t mind if your post is a little short, because the rest of this idea is just escaping me right now…

To really understand this post you need to understand a few things about me:

• I pour over my webstats to learn more about who my readers are, what they read, and how they find me.
• I love discussing the things I write about. That’s why I’ve written about them in the first place.
• After blogging for about six years now, I’ve watched social media grow and evolve a lot, especially in how readers interact with writers.

Since I pour over my stats on a near-daily basis, especially when I see a traffic spike, I have a good idea of how people wind up on my blog. More than half the time it’s from search and lately a good chunk of that traffic (about 15% of visits) is for my My 45 must have WordPress plugins post. This is awesome, since while my yam fries recipe is great, it isn’t what my blog is about in the greater scheme of things. The rest of folks come through links of some sort, most of those via Twitter. Nothing to complain about there. I think it’s great that people come to read what I’ve written.

Okay, a few more people clicking on ads would be great, but, I can’t have everything.

I’ve noticed something really interesting. It hit me over the weekend and all came together in the last day or so—there aren’t as many links from other bloggers anymore. I do get a few via Zemata—makes me wonder if I added the plugin would it add links for me even if I post remotely—but that’s about it. A link here and there.

Then there are comments.

I like comments because I get to continue and extend the conversation. Oh sure I know comments are a hit and miss thing. I tell new bloggers that sometimes you get tons of comments on posts that you’d never figure and ones that you’d think would ignite a firestorm, nothing. So I’m not going to be whining that no one leaves me any comments, that isn’t the point.

What I’ve noticed, is that “discussion” is measured in a currency of tweets and retweets, not links or comments. A quick (very quick, so not terribly scientific) scan of FriendFeed makes me think that’s becoming a ghost-town as well. Not long ago many bloggers, myself included, were talking about how we couldn’t keep up with the fragmented commentary that was going on around the web. Now I wonder if we’re having any commentary at all.

Sure the RT economy is great. I retweet posts I like all the time, just like I share them through Fever as well, and that is supposed to mean “This is interesting, maybe you’ll like it too.” but I’m not leaving many comments anymore either.

Huh.

I know that lots of blogs get lots of comments on some posts. Often so many comments that I don’t know if I want to dive into that pool. Which becomes a circular argument. We don’t comment when there are lots of comments because often there is no way to manage that discussion. Maybe we don’t comment for a similar reason—that coming back for the discussion is more effort than it’s worth.

And I don’t have any answers (sorry).

I would love to know what you think about a post. I would love to extend, expand, and elaborate on the topic. I also don’t want the discussion to become so unwieldy that readers feel they can’t comment.

Maybe if there were a way to have a Twitter hashtag for each post, automatically generated, that if you tweet with that hashtag that tweet becomes part of the post. Hmm, that sounds like an idea. Oh HootSuite, maybe that could be a little pet project? Dave? Maybe Melanie and PostRank are well equipped to pull it off.

Well I’ll just have to see what comes through in the comments, won’t I?

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• The Death of the Blog Comment? (markevanstech.com)

If you’ve watched even one Superbowl, Superbowl pre-game show or halftime show, heck even any NFL game during the year, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about here. Football commentators, and the ones for the Superbowl especially, are almost like no other group of folks in the world, well except for bloggers.

Getting fired for blogging doesn’t get as much attention as it did in 2004-2005. Back then, the media was a buzz about people getting fired because they were blogging, when, in truth, very few people were actually fired for blogging. Oh yes, some people were fired for blogging, that much is true. I’m sure many of the cases had little to do with the blogging parts as it did with something else going on. However the “fired for blogging” thing did do one good thing, it forced companies to realize that people were blogging and set up blogging policies.

I cover blogging policies in Create Your Own Blog, from Sun’s massive one to the “unofficial blogging policy” from Microsoft: don’t be stupid. Blogging is different than almost anything else you do in your spare time because it is public. If you blog about your boss being a doofus, well that blog better either be private or you’re blogging anonymously because there’s a good chance you’ll eventually get turfed for stuff like that. No, calling your boss a doofus isn’t illegal, it’s just not too smart. You don’t think it won’t get back to him or her? Think again. Oh and the anonymous blog thing? Yeah that doesn’t usually last too long. Most anonymous bloggers who gain any kind of following are eventually revealed (or reveal themselves before being outed by others).

Blogging and your job treads into the territory of other social media and employment. Facebook is now the latest target in the “get you fired” or “keep you from being hired” discussion, and honestly the issues haven’t changed. If you publish something online not only is it there forever, there is no guarantee that something to mark or think is private will stay that way. Just as blogging that your boss is a doofus isn’t smart, tweeting or updating your Facebook status that you’re goofing off when you really called in sick isn’t going to do you any favors. It will get around. Trust me. Maybe not that time or the next time, but it will sometime and you’ll be hooped.

This is why I’ve always liked Microsoft’s blogging policy: Don’t be stupid. It’s simple and to the point. Yeah I know it’s subjective, but just consider what you’re doing as if on of your friends told you they were going to it or did it. If you cringe and think “Oooh that was stupid…” Well, then you have your answer.

So, no, neither blogging, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media tool gets you fired, often you do it to yourself by being stupid.

Don’t be stupid.

When I’m helping people first start blogging, one of the first objections (fears, concerns) is that no one will be interested in what they have to say. In nearly six years of blogging I have yet to find someone start a blog that didn’t have some kind of audience.

Think about it this way, no matter what your topic, issue, hobby, whatever is there has got to be at least one other person (and most likely more) in the world who shares your feelings/experience/passion. The world is a huge place and we all share so many common experiences that coupled with the global reach of the Internet you are sure to find an audience.

The fact of the matter is that if you write about what you love, from the heart, and with passion readers will connect with you and the post. People like to connect. People like stories and understanding others just a little bit more. There are so many amazing stories out there yet still to be told and I hope and over time, more and more people will contribute their stories to the world-wide library of humanity: The Internet.

Feeling a little anxious about posting something to the world is completely understandable. I still feel that why when I’m writing a post on the edges of (or outside of) my comfort zone. I worry that people will stop reading. I worry that what I write will go over like a lead balloon and there will be just the sound of virtual crickets chirping after I hit “Publish”. If you’re starting a new blog, don’t worry, for the first while you’re writing for yourself. People won’t likely find your blog unless you link to it from Facebook, Twitter, or just plain tell people about it. It’s not that people won’t ever come it’s that they don’t come right away. Consider this your safe time to write and get your feet under you.

Relax. Just write and post and find your voice. People will come, don’t worry.

You might also try using Google Blog Search to find other blogs in your niche. Just go there and search for your hobby or interest. Let’s say you’re really into watching planes and like to know which ones are which. A quick search for plane spotting came up with some great results. Adding your local airport code (for me it’s YVR) gives you local results. Now not only do you have more blogs to read, but you also have a potential audience. Read their blogs, leave comments, link to their posts from yours.

Before you know it not only will people be wanting to read what you’re posting, they’ll be begging you to post more!

Remember, blogging is supposed to be fun and about your passions. The rest will just work itself out.

This morning I had the wonderful privilege to be on Donna Maria’s awesome Indie Business Radio show and when we got to talking about podcasting I said that it was about time I wrote an updated Podcasting 101 post and thus…

I started podcasting about a year after I started blogging. My “Walk About Podcasts” were pretty good, considering I didn’t edit and I had no clue about recording or cleaning up audio files, but hey that was then…

Today I use a Blue Snowball USB-microphone with Apple’s GarageBand (and I actually understand a little about audio engineering now) to record my podcasts and some of my voice-over work for screencasts. To get started podcasting you don’t need fancy software or equipment, you just need a microphone and (if you don’t have a Mac with GarageBand) Audacity to record and export to MP3. Yep, pretty much that simple for starters.

Let’s talk mics first. If you have a laptop with a webcam built-in, chances are you have a microphone built-in as well. Now, the onboard mic is fine to start with, but the recording quality isn’t the greatest. It’s not your fault, the onboard mics are designed to catch sound in a pretty wide cone around the front of your laptop, so there can be a lot of background noise. That and you aren’t going to be sitting terribly close to the mic, well you might be okay with the results for a short bit. To get started, I’d suggest a basic headset mic. I would choose a USB version over a one with the plugin jacks, but there is little difference between the quality. Note: Mac users, pick USB..the audio in line on most Macs doesn’t work the way you’d expect (it requires power I’m told). Expect to pay about $20-30 for a decent headset.

Yes you can get a mic that sits on your table, but unless you’re used to working with mics, you might find it hard to get consistent recordings. Using a headset mic the mic part is going to be close to your mouth all the time (it should be about two-fingers width away from your mouth). Part of the secret to good recordings is keeping the mic close and speaking clearly. That and relaxing and a glass of water, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. Let’s switch gears to software…

I’ve used an arsenal of tools over the years to record podcasts, but I really like GarageBand for the number of great, professional tweaks I can use. Oh, right, 101… Okay when you start up GarageBand pick the Podcast option, create the file and click the vocal track you want. When you’re ready, click record.

Did you do your mic check? Make sure that you’re getting sound in from the right source.

Let’s switch gears to Audacity.

It works essentially the same way as GarageBand, click the Record button and a new track will be created. Don’t forget that mic check…

Once you have recorded your first podcast (try for less than 5 minutes to start), you’re going to need to export it to an MP3 file. For Audacity, this is under the File menu and choose Export. Pick MP3 from the list. For GarageBand it’s under the Share menu and choose Export Podcast to Disk.

(Note for Audacity you need to follow these directions for getting the MP3 LAME encoder)

Now that you have this MP3 file on disk, you’re going to need to upload it somewhere so other people can listen to it. Sorry, YouTube is for video only. The only free podcasting service that I know of is PodBean, now if you already have a website you can upload the file there (this is what I do and have done for years). Listening?

If you’re using most blogging platforms you can link to the file just like any other file, now if you are on WordPress you can use the PowerPress plugin from Blubrry which will do all the hard work for you and help you get your feed ready for iTunes. But that’s for another post.

Yes, condensing a Podcasting lesson into one post is rather a lot, but here’s a video that might help:

I couldn’t cover everything in this post, so if you want more you can always buy my book …

The music in the podcast is Mighty Mullane from my friend Derek Miller

Yes, I want a tablet. No, actually it doesn’t have to be an iPad, though that would certainly be wonderful, but an Internet-enabled tablet is what I think would best suit the things I’d like to do with something not a laptop/netbook and more than a smartphone. Sure I’d love an e-reader, but I know that I’m going to want to do more than just read a book or two on it. I’m going to want to jot some notes, probably sift through my RSS feeds, send a quick email. These are things that I’m not going to be able to do with a Kindle or Sony eReader (which are the only ones I could get my hands on at the moment if I wanted one ASAP). I seems that I’m not the only one who feels this way:

This may come as a surprise to you (although probably not, you smart devil), but it turns out that plenty of people are dissatisfied with their current e-reader options — according to a recent study conducted at the University of Georgia.

link: Study finds people want more from their Kindles, less from their newspapers — Engadget

If you read on, you’ll find the younger crowd (that would be me I hope), want a touch screen and other apps. Older readers missed the comics and crosswords. Okay while I can do without the crossword (I’ve never liked doing them), comics are key. Regardless, the fact of the matter is that a straight eReader using e-ink might be great for reading, but it’s a one-trick-pony in a tech world filled with … multi-trick-multitasking-ponys. That’s just not going to fly, then is it.

There is a barrier to the tablet, however, and that is Internet access. Oh WiFi is easy. A tablet with WiFi is great. The problem is that we haven’t been able to secure the free-ubiquitous WiFi thing yet. Now 3G Internet, that’s almost everywhere. Here in Vancouver the new Canada Line was built with 3G repeaters all along the underground section. I can surf and take calls pretty much without issue. We know, though, that 3G isn’t free.

What this means is that to have a tablet do what we really want it to do, we need to be online all the time. To do that we need 3G to connect to and that will mean another contract and bill. Yeah, that’s not going to go over well.

Maybe what we’ll just have to learn to enjoy are more things that are great offline as well as online while using are really cool and awesome tablets.

Or I should just be happy with my netbook.

Not to take away from any of you being interested in Create Your Own Blog, but as many of you also know before CYOB was finished I started on my second book, Using WordPress. Using WordPress is a beginners guide to WordPress with screencasts and podcasts to compliment what you’re reading in the book.

For example, while you’re reading about how to find and install plugins, you can watch me find and install plugins on screen. When I started this book in the “Using…” series, it was the multimedia parts that got me most excited. I think combining reading, listening, and seeing will help everyone in the all important doing part.

This morning before I sat down to continue work on Chapter 10 (the second half of the book), I thought you might like a sneak peek at what the cover of Using WordPress is going to look like (at least at this moment). I really like this style of cover. Cool, techie and catchy I think.

As for when this book is coming out, my understanding is this year. I am on a tight, tight timeline to finish the book by early March so things will be moving fast (and I won’t be getting out much).

Now, it’s time for me to get cracking on how to use WordPress for more than just a basic blog…

Yeah, I’ll admit it. I’m pschyed about the iPad. No, it isn’t perfect. Yep there are some obvious flaws (lack of USB port or SD card reader are big ones for me), but I’m excited about how this will change how we use computers. I remember I wasn’t too keen on the iPhone at first, but I knew from the moment I saw it that it changed how we would use and interact with smart phones from then on. Same with the iPad (I agree, the name is terrible, just awful). Maybe the iPad isn’t what everyone will be carrying, fine, but I think Apple’s endorsement of the form factor and technology will boost all tablet makers. Sony and Amazon, well they have some catching up to do. Nothing that a color screen won’t fix though.

What I’m most interested in seeing with the iPad is how ebooks can combine multimedia within a book. Even live websites. Right now I’m writing Using WordPress, which is a beginner-focused WordPress book. In each chapter there will be screencasts and audio segments. Being able to pull those up in line with the text they refer to? Holy smokes that would be awesome. How about a special “section” at the end with updates and changes pulled live from the Internet?

Think about paying less for academic textbooks. Think about textbooks that can self-update over the Internet.

Sure these aren’t nearly as interesting a a game or drawing program. But I certainly can imagine using an iPad to review changes to chapters, jot notes, read books …

Now I just need to imagine the money I need to buy one.

I found out that my video camera can do interval recording! So I set it to record one frame every second. Now when you play it back at 30 frames/second you get the fast forward look.

So I don’t really type that fast, but I wish I did!

I’m going to tell you something that us “experts” don’t want you to know. Ready?

Blogging is dead.

Wha? Blogging is dead? Didn’t you just write a book on creating your own blog? Yeah I did, but let’s get this straight—blogging is writing and a blog is just a website that makes it really easy to do that. When I took on writing the book that would become Create Your Own Blog, I have to admit I was a little reluctant at first. Not because I didn’t think I could do it (I wasn’t smart enough to be worried about that), but because I think getting stuck on the idea of blogs and blogging as what changed things in the last five years sells us all short.

Here’s what made blogs great:

• We wrote like we meant it
• We linked to lots of other people and sources
• We commented
• We read what each other wrote
• We used tools (aka blog engines) that made all of this easily.

And none of that has changed since then. I think we’ve only gotten better at it, in fact. The fact of the matter is that little of what we’ve been doing needs to be tied to a word.

Humans like to define things. People wanted to find a ways to differentiate what became to be called “blogging” from the myriad (plethora?) of websites that cropped up like mushrooms between 1995 and the early 2000s. That was fine. Then when “blogging” took off, a blog took on some kind of mystical quality that if you had one all your marketing problems would be over. With a blog, anything was possible. Yeah well like a young lady I know once said:

“Come on, don’t you know a blog is just a website…”

And that is 100% true. What people forget is that when more and more people started to use blogging tools something more interesting was happening. Suddenly writing something and putting it onto a website didn’t require much more than knowing how to use HotMail. Suddenly you could write as much as you wanted, post, and then people freakin read the stuff. Yeah we read a lot of stuff back then. RSS readers were essential to the digerati, so we read a lot.

Then we left comments.

Then we wrote our own posts and linked to other posts.

This is how blogging seemed to have superpowers. This is how a single post could start a tempest in a tea cup or bring down a presidential candidate. We could write and distribute information as fast as we could type (and some of us type really freakin’ fast).

Today smart companies use blog engines to power their “regular” websites because they figured out that a WordPress-powered website was easier to update and maintain than one made up of lots of individual pages. Is that a blog or just smart publishing?

Don’t worry if people and pundits tell you that blogging is dead.

Don’t worry if people think you’re yesterday’s news launching your new WordPress blog/site.

Don’t worry because the word “blogging” might have lost its allure, because “writing and sharing good stuff” never does.

Just start.

Just write.

Just create “an interactive, dynamic, database-drive website where publishing is really easy.”

Yeah, just blog.

It’s been almost six years since I started blogging. Not nearly as long as some of my friends, but long enough to have a few things that I know I’d do differently. With the book out and review coming in, like this review from the Vancouver Sun, I’ve had a little time to think about how and why I started blogging.

It’s not hype or urban legend, I did start my first blog on a whim. It was actually my second blog, I deleted the first one within days of creating it, but I still think of it has when I really started blogging. I started on Blogger; it was pretty much the safe bet back then for a free blog. Which brings me to the first and second “if I started today…” today I would start on WordPress.com or use a one-click install on my host (since I had web hosting even then) and I wouldn’t have picked “A View from the Isle” as the name of the blog. Yeah View from the Isle seemed like a good idea at the time. I was living on an island, and I continued to live on an island until mid-2008, but now it’s a little hard to explain.

Using WordPress is obvious, back then Blogger was pretty cutting edge. I hadn’t heard of Typepad yet, and it would be a few months until I switched to Blogware. I started to figure out that Blogger wasn’t all that when I couldn’t use those new-fangled “trackbacks” (they were new back in 2004), but hey starting out free is a smart idea when you’re testing the waters. WordPress.com makes starting a blog, then moving it later to your own domain a pretty easy affair. Blogger’s FTP-based solution for having your own URL was odd to say the least. And speaking of moving to your own domain…

I wouldn’t have used larixconsulting.com (my original domain), but the domain I have now trishussey.com. Finding a good, clever, and even cheeky domain name is often a matter of sheer luck. Trying to spell larixconsulting.com is hard enough, okay spelling my own name to people is annoying too, so keeping your domain simple should be high on your priority list.

What about the rest of the stuff? Would I have written the same way? Would I have “gone pro”? Yeah, I would have. It’s funny the only parts I’d really want to change are the boring structural pieces, not the stuff that really counts—the writing.

I’ve managed to deal with moving from Blogger to Blogware (and breaking all my links in the process) and Blogware to WordPress (and again breaking all my links in the process) without doing too much damage. Sure my blog has had lulls. Yeah, I’ve gone through periods of time when I was blogging so many different places that “what’s your blog” wasn’t an easy question to answer (might have done that differently). Through it all there is one thing that has been constant: writing with passion.

You want the moral to this story is? Don’t worry about how you start. Don’t worry which platform you pick or URL you buy (you should buy a URL pretty fast, IMHO). Just start and write. No one is going to laugh at you. No one is going to judge your blog as being less than some other person’s. If you write with passion. If you write about what you want to write about. If you just write what you feel. It’s going to be a great blog.

I promise.

If you’ve being wondering how good Create Your Own Blog really is, now’s your chance to find out because I have a free sample chapter for you (the Introduction is also included, though I’m not sure I’d call that a bonus or not). Pearson has made Chapter 3, Writing and Creating a Conversation (1.5 MB, PDF) available for you to read and enjoy.

Chapter 3 is one of my favorite chapters in the book and I chose it because I think it is a great piece of work on its own. When my editor asked which chapter to offer for free, I had an internal debate, I wanted to offer a good, solid, interesting chapter so that people would get something out of reading it, but I also wanted to hook people in to want to buy the rest of the book! I think Chapter 3 is a great balance between the two ends of the spectrum. I feel that you are getting some great information without buying the book, which is giving back to the community that has helped me so much over the years, but also missing some of the “good stuff” like how to get your blog going, set up a podcast or sell things on your site.

Enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think in the comments.