University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Bloggers Boot Camp
Book

Bloggers Boot Camp

Learning How to Build, Write, and Run a Successful Blog

Charlie White and John Biggs
Focal Press, 2011
Buy book or audiobook

Read or listen offline

Amazon Kindle
  • 0.5×
  • 0.75×
  • 1×
  • 1.25×
  • 1.5×
  • 1.75×
1×

Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Applicable

Recommendation

In the right hands, a blog can be thought provoking, enlightening and entertaining. But too many blogs blossom and soon fade when, a few days or weeks after starting out, their bored creators abandon them. If you have blogging ambitions and want your blog to endure, Charlie White and John Biggs can show you exactly how to proceed. These veteran bloggers cover the elements that add up to a great blog: good software, sparkling writing, incisive reporting, and more. They explain how, with hard work and diligence, your blog can also put cash in your pocket. Stylistically, the book would be more reader friendly if it had more white space amid the blocks of type. While the authors’ advice may be too basic for experienced bloggers, getAbstract recommends their guidance to beginners eager to carve out their own little corners of the Internet.

Summary

Got a Niche? Now You Can Begin to Blog

A blog that meanders and pronounces opinions on every topic is not a blog – it’s a personal journal and will eventually become uninteresting. Creators of such blogs frequently become fed up and stop writing, and their start-up efforts sit abandoned on the web. Bloggers by definition are laypeople, not professionals, but good bloggers are knowledgeable in their subject areas, and they practice a new type of journalism. A worthy blog explores a niche – that is, a specialized interest area or market you can explain succinctly – or expounds a unique viewpoint.

Before you choose a niche, ask yourself four questions:

  • “Who are you?” – You should be a doer who is motivated and committed to putting daily effort into a blog. It helps to be impervious to criticism.
  • “What do you know about?” – Proficiency in your topic, especially an unusual one, gives you an advantage over rival bloggers.
  • “What are you passionate about?” – Love your niche. It should never bore you.
  • “What are you going to write about?” – Choose unique aspects of your topic, interesting angles your competitors ...

About the Authors

Journalist and TV producer Charlie White is a senior editor at the popular blog Mashable.com. Technology expert John Biggs is a New York Times reporter.

Comment on this summary