As an Australian living in the Netherlands, I always get really excited when the local library has great English language books alongside the Dutch ones. “Blogging for Creatives” grabbed my attention immediately with not just the topic, but also the beautifully presented pages.
Published in 2012, this book is a very useful starting point for either a beginner or slightly more advanced blogger who would like clear, step by step instructions on what to think about for your personal or business blog. The chapters cover:
- Get started
- Blogging tools and technology
- Step-by-step setup
- Creating an eye-catching blog
- Creating great content
- Blogging on the move
- Promoting your blog
- Being social
- How to turn blog visitors into cash
- PR and your blog
- Monitoring your blog’s performance
- Troubleshooting
- Blogging inspiration and niche blog communities
I teach digital marketing at The Hague University of Applied Sciences so one of my main motivations was to check if there are any gaps in my classes for students. Though I don’t focus purely on blogging in my lessons, I believe that it’s an important part of digital marketing for any business.
Any book on blogging is likely to date fairly quickly, but this is still interesting and relevant when reading it 6 years after publication. Sure, there is plenty of information online about how to blog, but I like having a print book which takes you in a logical process through how to create, build and maintain a great blog.
One of the most useful sections was “what type of blogger are you?” where the author offers this categories:
- Hobby blogger
- Authority blogger
- Pro blogger
- Journal blogger
Another offers ideas for 12 blog posts that work such as:
- List
- Story
- How to/practical advice
- Photo
- Point of view/my take
- Controversy
- Review/preview
- Contest/giveaway
- Interview/profile
- Predication
- Round-up
- Something different
She also discusses options such as group and guest blogging, covers aspects of design like type and layout, looks at different platforms including WordPress, Blogger and Tumblr (with the pros and cons of each). Connecting your blog to social media, using it as a PR tool and monetising your blog is also presented in a clear, practical manner. Overall, with beautiful visuals, plenty of case studies and lots of links for further information, this book is a pleasure to read.
Flicking through this book was enough to gain plenty of ideas and inspiration, and I do wish I had more time to read it in more depth – but have to take it back to the library today! Luckily it’s still readily available online in both print and ebook version. I’m in the Netherlands so can buy it via bol.com or if you’re elsewhere you may like to try amazon.com.
You can see a preview of Blogging for Creatives over on Google Books
Though the official blog for this book is now “closed” (not being updated any more), it still has plenty of useful information.:
Zestee 