Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers)) Review

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(More customer reviews)Since I've been blogging (http://www.twduff.com) for quite awhile, this is almost like reading a book to see if you're doing anything wrong. Still, Susannah Gardner does a good job with Buzz Marketing with Blogs For Dummies (Wiley).
Chapter List:
Part 1 - Getting Started with Business Blogs: Checking Out Business Blogs; Discovering the Buzz about Buzz Marketing; Building a Business Blog
Part 2 - Setting Up a Business Blog: Picking a Blog Solution; Setting Up a Hosted Blog; Taking Control with Independent Blog Software
Part 3 - Minding Blog Etiquette and Culture: Understanding Your Audience; Joining the Blogosphere; Avoiding Business No-Nos
Part 4 - Positioning Your Blog: Finding a Voice; Promoting Your Blog; Staying on the Right Side of the Law
Part 5 - Making the Most of Your Blog: Adding Value to a Blog; Making Money with a Blog; Going Beyond Blogs
Part 6 - The Part of Tens: Ten Dry-Spell-Breaking Ideas; Ten Traits of a Good Blogger; Ten Blogs You Should Know
Part 7 - Appendixes: Glossary; Using the Book Blog; Hosted and Independent Blog Solutions; How URLs Work; Case Studies; Index
Based on the title of this book, you'd probably assume that this is geared more for the business use of blogs. And in a significant sense, it is. But that's not to say that the serious personal blogger won't learn a number of things here. Gardner does a good job of taking the reader from "what is a blog" through the reasons they can be very important, and finally ends with the things you need to know to keep your blog fresh and inviting. You'd probably figure out many of these rules on your own, but the blogging world can be unforgiving. Make a mistake involving deception, and you may never get your audience back. Have your blog be nothing more than press releases, and no one will show up.
She also does a good job of bridging the theory and the practical. In addition to all the knowledge you need to understand blogging, she also takes you through some potential blogging software choices and shows how you'd use them to set up a blog. Granted, it's not a comprehensive instruction manual on how to install and configure any one blogging package, but the reader will get an idea of what it takes.
I also mentioned it's a good book for the serious personal blogger. I use my blog to share information with various audiences, but it's also a personal marketing tool. Therefore, many of the same "rules of the road" that she covers apply to me. I'm concerned about finding my voice and style, how to attract readers, and knowing whether or not my audience is getting value from my writings. While I've learned much of what she writes about on my own, I'd have come much further much faster if I had this book a couple years ago.
Good stuff, and highly practical. A very good selection to give to your boss if s/he wants to investigate the subject. Just make sure you explain that "For Dummies" isn't personal...

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In this instant-communication world, buzz means business! And one of the greatest ways to get customers and potential customers buzzing about your business is with a Web log, commonly called a blog. Blogs can help you:
Introduce the people behind your business
Discuss relevant issues
Provide a clearinghouse for information and expertise
Show your business as a good corporate citizen
Support an exchange of ideas
Get honest feedback from your customers
Affect public opinion

If you're new to blogging, or if you know the mechanics of a blog but want some help refining and targeting yours, Buzz Marketing With Blogs For Dummies will get you going right away. An expert blogger shows you the ins and outs of putting together a professional-looking blog, walks you through the jargon, helps you decide what your blog should do, and even explains various software solutions. You'll find out how to:
Set up and maintain a blog, write in blogging style, and observe blogging etiquette
Define your audience and target your blog to reach them
Involve your customers, earn their trust, educate the public, and build community
Avoid possible legal pitfalls while keeping your blog interesting
Encourage contributions and links to your blog
Use images and design an eye-catching format
Optimize your blog for top search engine ratings, track your results, and measure your success

Written by Susannah Gardner, who has taught online journalism, directed multimedia efforts, and provided custom Web solutions to clients, Buzz Marketing With Blogs For Dummies even shares tips from the experts who establish and maintain some of the top-rated business blogs. You'll discover the secrets of success, how to spot and solve problems, what software can enhance your blogging life, and a whole lot more. It like having a staff of experts on call!

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My iPhone (covers 3G, 3Gs and 4 running iOS4) (4th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)
I had been using the basic features on my iPhone intuitively... flipping once in a while through the thin booklet and the PDF file that Apple provides as a user manual. After a month, I decided that to make the most out of my purchase I had to more proactively learn about all the features.
The presentation in this book is clean and stylish. It's also very clear -- THE INSTRUCTIONS are detailed and ACCOMPANIED BY SCREENSHOTS, which are LABELED WITH NUMBERS that correspond to each step. There's no way to get lost.
It's comprehensive. For instance, there's a section on iTunes and iPod, which is especially useful for the complete novice who need step-by-step instructions about building playlists, finding podcasts, etc. (The Dummies book is limited in this area; there's a separate "iPod & iTunes for Dummies" book.)
If you're already familiar with certain features or there are some you're not interested in learning about, the book is arranged in such a way that you can skip ahead or hop from one section to another. There's an index, of course, but the Table of Contents is as helpful because the headings and subheadings are straightforward, instead of cutesy titles.
The only thing that the Dummies book has extra is a list of ten web resources at the end. They probably have more informational nuggets spread around, but I personally found it unencouraging to wade through all the text. In this book (My iPhone), every page has screenshots and you can see every step illustrated -- it's very visual.
I found a typo on page 94 ("Inlcude" for "Include"), and the iPhone seems to have added a few modifications to the map functions since it first came out. You can find out about those on page 81 of Apple's PDF guide. No biggies. The traffic icon is no longer a car, and there's an icon for finding your approximate location on the map you're looking at.
Thumbs-up.

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Step-by-step instructions with callouts to iPhone images that show you exactly what to do.Help when you run into iPhone problems or limitations.Tips and Notes to help you get the most from your iPhone.Full-color, step-by-step tasks walk you through getting and keepingyour iPhone working just the way you want. The tasks include how to:• Connect to the Internet, Bluetooth devices, Wi-Fi networks, other iPhones, iPods, and iPads• Manage your apps with the iPhone's new multitasking capabilities• Customize your iPhone with folders, wallpaper, ringtones, and much more• Configure and sync your information, and efficiently manage contacts and calendars• Communicate via FaceTime videoconferences, conference calls, text, email, and more• Make the most of Safari to browse the Web and Mail to manage all of your email from one inbox• Listen to music, subscribe to podcasts, and watch video–including movies and TV shows• Capture photos and HD video• Use your photos in slideshows, for wallpaper, and your contacts or share them via email, MobileMe, and texts• Find, download, install, and use iPhone apps, including the amazing iBooks to read ebooksBONUS MATERIAL: Find additional tasks and other helpful information on this book's website at quepublishing.com/title/9780789747143CATEGORY: Apple Digital MediaCOVERS: Apple iPhoneUSER LEVEL: Beginning-Intermediate

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Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the past few years, I have read many UX books, and most of them were either extremely boring or very badly written, so I approached this one with a lot of cynicism. Luckily, it is neither boring nor badly written: it actually has a very good pace, talks about most aspects of User Experience just in the right length, and maintains a tone throughout that relaxes you and makes you feel that you're actually doing something that you enjoy.
The authors maintain the position that some UX work in design is better than none, and show ways how research, design and production can be influenced by User Experience work (performed by you, the reader) without big budgets or a sense of perfectionism.
Having worked in various companies large and small for UX teams both successfully and unsuccessfully, I found that the relaxed approach by the authors resonated with me. It's a bit like books by Steve Krug, but less descriptive in what needs to be done. "Undercover User Experience Design" rather gives you a range of possibilities to tackle problems along the way, and it's up to the user which one to pick. The book quite masterfully describes the techniques with just the right amount of detail: if you're okay with a bit of uncertainty, you can probably do the exercises straight away, but if you're a bit anxious because you've never done it before, the book gives you plenty of leads to follow up on.
I rarely recommend a book for both beginners in UX and seasoned professionals, but I felt that it spoke very well to both parties: beginners get a 5-star introduction into what can be done, a bit of how-to as well, while professionals can use it as a quick-reference guide in case they hit a snag somewhere in their projects.
Oh, and it's under 200 pages, which makes it much more likely for you to actually read ;-)

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Once you catch the user experience bug, the world changes. Doors open the wrong way, websites don't work, and companies don't seem to care. And while anyone can learn the UX remedies usability testing, personas, prototyping and so on unless your organization 'gets it', putting them into practice is trickier. Undercover User Experience is a pragmatic guide from the front lines, giving frank advice on making UX work in real companies with real problems. Readers will learn how to fit research, ideation, prototyping and testing into their daily workflow, and how to design good user experiences under the all-too-common constraints of time, budget and culture.

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The Web Startup Success Guide (Books for Professionals by Professionals) Review

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(More customer reviews)This should be a couple of blog entries in a B+ blog, not a $20 book.
The book is not only badly written, it does not hardly any useful content either. Everything said here should be obvious to any person who has lived for any time near any web business. The author has unnecessarily made the book fat by having many long interviews with his friends - most of them add little to the content .
If you find this book useful - you should ask if you are the right person to run a business and perhaps spend sometime learning "basic business stuff" first.
Here is my recap of content:
* Chapter 1: Introduction: Funding a web startup today is easier than ever and many options exist including self-funding (duh!!)
* Chapter 2: Create value. There is no shortage of just "ideas" (duh, again !!)
* Chapter 3 & 4: There are lot of tools available to you like SaaS platforms, open source cms and local meetup groups (duh, duh ,duh !!)
* Chapter 5 is about raising money. It is filled with meaningless generalizations ("raising money is like falling in love") - none of them of much use.
* Chapter 6 is about social media. More generic stuff. Nothing said here is so remarkable that you cannot find it online - just google "how to market on social media" and just read the top 5 links. you will be WAY AHEAD of this book.
* Chapter 7 - The summary is - You need to be clear about what your USP is (duh !!)
* Chapter 8 - A long chapter on GTD methodology. There is no reason for it to be in this book. If GTD is your way, read a book on GTD.
* Chapter 9 - a needlessly long chapter about author's recommendation of 6 blogs to read.
Throw this book in fireplace - that will be more useful.

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For every one brick-and-mortal business that is created, there are ten web startups, begun by everyday folks who have development knowledge and access to a web browser. The Startup Success Guide is a highly readable, on-point text written by an authority in startup consulting. Packed with unique interviews with successful startups and their founders, and offering loads of practical advice and what-not-to-dos, this book clearly has a time and a place in today's economy, where the ranks of un- and under-employed developers increases.

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Google Power: Unleash the Full Potential of Google Review

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(More customer reviews)Although this book is well written and contained much information, there was little information included that is not already available on Google's Help pages for free. Buy this book only if you don't like reading online help pages.

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Learn advanced techniques for maximizing the Google search engine and extract the best content from Google without having to learn complicated code. Go under the hood and learn a wide range of advanced web search techniques through practical examples. This is an ideal resource for students, librarians, journalists, researchers, businesspeople, lawyers, investigators, and anyone interested in conducting an in-depth search.

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Death Valley Book Of Knowledge: An Encyclopedia & Anthology From The Land Of Legend Review

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(More customer reviews)This book contains a wealth of knowledge and provides a vast amount of information for those who wish to do more research on such an amazing park-Death Valley National Park. When I received the book it seemed overwhelming but once I read through the introductions and table of contents it was not daunting at all. Worth every penny!
Edit: I did make my trip to Death Valley and this book is incredible. We used it the whole time. If we came across something we needed more information about it was at our fingers within a moment. Great book for anyone planning to go to DV!

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unveiling The LEGEND ... one MYSTERY at a time From time immemorial to the future ahead, the eclectic cast of a sweeping Death Valley saga takes center stage. A widespread encyclopedia of 1,149 entries, and 28 collateral chapters, reveal countless distinctive aspects of this wild world that ever perpetuate Death Valley National Park?s inimitable legacy. Here is exposed the heart and soul of our lowest, hottest, driest, and most feared National Treasure!

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Dangerous Law Practice Myths, Lies and Stupidity Review

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(More customer reviews)A colleague recommended "Dangerous Law Practice Myths" and I was glad I read it. I have a two-person personal injury practice and my partner and I thought we were on the right track. After reading some of the stories, I realized that we have been making some truly horrendous mistakes and making assumptions that are way off base. Now I know why we had the same problems crop up time and time again--we thought that these issues were unavoidable but DLPM showed us that there was a way to run our office more efficiently and more profitably.
"Dangerous Law Practice Myths" is fun to read and easy to reference. I'm going to buy copies for all of my colleagues, even though it would be much more fun to let them labor in ignorance. It's a terrific addition to any lawyer's library.

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Discover what myths, lies and stupid things lawyers are told to do when starting, growing, or running a law practice that are a waste of time and money, or even worse, will get you into trouble. Many of the recommended practices are so dangerously out of date that they can put your firm at serious risk. Today s technologies including the Internet, email, and e-discovery are often perilously incompatible with older common knowledge.

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