Technical Blogging: Turn Your Expertise into a Remarkable Online Presence

277 Pages·2012·8.62 MB·English

by  Antonio Cangiano

What readers are saying about
Technical Blogging
I’m in absolute awe at this amazing book, which goes above and beyond the best
advice I’ve ever heard on the subject. I wish I had read this two years ago, as I
had to learn this the hard way. This book has got me inspired to get back to
writing more.
➤ Derek Sivers
Founder, CD Baby
Antonio covers everything from the philosophy of what makes good blog content
to the nitty-gritty of what software plugins to use and the best time of day to
publish articles. Every few pages, I added another item to my to-do list to improve
my blog.
➤ Andy Lester
Author, Land the Tech Job You Love
Practical, to the point, and overflowing with handy advice and knowledge about
blogging for technical folks—whether to make money, build a career, or just for
fun.
➤ Peter Cooper
Editor-in-Chief, Ruby Inside
Straightforward, informative, and practical, Technical Blogging does a great job
of making sense of many of the key aspects of blogging in a fun, easy-to-digest
manner. I highly recommend it!
➤ Satish Talim
Founder, RubyLearning
Antonio’s book concisely summarizes the lessons I wish I knew when starting out.
If you value your time, read this book.
➤ Kalid Azad
Software developer and founder, BetterExplained.com
I felt as if Antonio were my own private consultant helping me every step of the
way, updating and crafting my blogs for maximum value. I will be reading and
rereading this book every few months to make sure I haven’t missed anything. If
you blog, read this book. If you’re considering blogging, read this book. Do not
let a day go by without reading this book.
➤ Johanna Rothman
Author, Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More
Projects
I’ve been blogging for about six years now and have read much on the Internet,
as well as one book about the subject. I really thought I knew just about everything
I needed to know until I read Antonio’s book! The guidance he provides in this
book goes well beyond the standard advice. I truly appreciate the years of
experience that he brings to this book and can see how using his advice will
substantially increase the quality and interest in any blog by any blogger, regard-
less of experience.
➤ Susan Visser
Avid blogger and publishing program manager, IBM
Excellent book. Too bad competition from high-quality blogs will substantially
increase as soon as this book hits the stores.
➤ Ludovico Magnocavallo
Co-founder, Blogo.it, the leading nanopublishing network
Technical Blogging
Turn Your Expertise into a Remarkable Online Presence
Antonio Cangiano
The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Dallas, Texas • Raleigh, North Carolina
Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products
are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and The Pragmatic
Programmers, LLC was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in
initial capital letters or in all capitals. The Pragmatic Starter Kit, The Pragmatic Programmer,
Pragmatic Programming, Pragmatic Bookshelf, PragProg and the linking g device are trade-
marks of The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.
Every precaution was taken in the preparation of this book. However, the publisher assumes
no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages that may result from the use of
information (including program listings) contained herein.
Our Pragmatic courses, workshops, and other products can help you and your team create
better software and have more fun. For more information, as well as the latest Pragmatic
titles, please visit us at http://pragprog.com.
The team that produced this book includes:
Michael Swaine (editor)
Potomac Indexing, LLC (indexer)
Molly McBeath (copyeditor)
David J Kelly (typesetter)
Janet Furlow (producer)
Juliet Benda (rights)
Ellie Callahan (support)
Copyright © 2012 The Pragmatic Programmers, LLC.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent of the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN-13: 978-1-934356-88-3
Encoded using the finest acid-free high-entropy binary digits.
Book version: P1.0—March 2012
To my wife, Jessica, for making everything
possible. And to my parents-in-law, Lynn and
Rick, for always being there.
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Part I — Plan It
1. What Kind of Blog Are You Going to Run? . . . . . . 3
1.1 Solo vs. Collective 3
1.2 General vs. Niche 5
1.3 Pundit vs. Instructional 8
1.4 Business Blogs 9
1.5 What’s Next 10
2. A Rock-Solid Plan for Your Blog . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 Define Your Blog’s Main Topic 11
2.2 Analyze the Size of Your Niche 13
2.3 Give Readers a Compelling Reason to Stick Around 18
2.4 Set Goals for Your Blog 20
2.5 Choose and Register a Domain Name 22
2.6 What’s Next 28
Part II — Build It
3. Setting Up Your Blog . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Choose Your Blogging Software and Hosting 31
3.2 Configure Your Domain Name 37
3.3 Install WordPress 40
3.4 Configure WordPress 42
3.5 Enhance WordPress with Plugins 51
3.6 What’s Next 54
Contents • viii
4. Customizing and Fine-Tuning Your Blog . . . . . . 55
4.1 Pick a Professional Theme 55
4.2 Enable Tracking of Your Site’s Visitors 57
4.3 Customize Your Sidebar 63
4.4 Encourage Social Media Sharing 66
4.5 Win Over Subscribers 69
4.6 Don’t Get in Trouble—Use Disclaimers 75
4.7 Master On-page SEO with Platinum SEO 77
4.8 Performance Considerations 80
4.9 Enable Code Highlighting in Your Posts 82
4.10 What’s Next 82
5. Creating Remarkable Content . . . . . . . . 83
5.1 Content Is King 83
5.2 Write for the Web 84
5.3 Can Linkbaiting Be Ethical? 86
5.4 Write Catchy Headlines 87
5.5 Develop Your Own Voice 89
5.6 Where to Find Ideas for Your Posts 90
5.7 Case Study: Math-Blog.com’s Headlines 92
5.8 Get Readers to Explore Your Content 95
5.9 Copyright Matters 96
5.10 Back Up Your Content 100
5.11 What’s Next 101
6. Producing Content Regularly . . . . . . . . 103
6.1 What’s the Post Frequency, Kenneth? 103
6.2 Consistency Is Queen 105
6.3 What Days Should You Post On? 105
6.4 Schedule Time to Blog 106
6.5 Manage Your Time with the Pomodoro Technique 107
6.6 Survive Writer’s Block 109
6.7 Get Others to Write for You 111
6.8 What’s Next 115
Part III — Promote It
7. Promoting Your Blog . . . . . . . . . . 119
7.1 Market It and They Will Come 119
7.2 Correct a Self-Sabotaging Mindset 120
Contents • ix
7.3 Perform On-page and Off-page SEO 121
7.4 Not All Links Are Created Equal 122
7.5 Guest Blog on Other Blogs 124
7.6 Other Forms of Article Marketing 128
7.7 Participate in the Community 130
7.8 Leverage Foreign Blogs 132
7.9 The Dark Side of Link Building 133
7.10 Promote Your Articles on Social Networks 134
7.11 Promote on Technical Social News Sites 137
7.12 Case Study: ProgrammingZen.com’s Referral Traffic 142
7.13 What’s Next 142
8. Understanding Traffic Statistics . . . . . . . 145
8.1 Baseline vs. Spike Traffic 145
8.2 Key Site Usage Metrics You Need to Consider 146
8.3 Interpret Visit Quantity and Quality 147
8.4 Where Do They All Come From? 149
8.5 Analyze Google Analytics and Clicky Statistics 150
8.6 Keep Track of Your Blog’s Growth 155
8.7 What’s Next 157
9. Building a Community Around Your Blog . . . . . 159
9.1 Engage Readers 159
9.2 Supplement Your Blog with Community Tools 163
9.3 Forms of Criticism 164
9.4 Your Mantras When Dealing with Criticism 169
9.5 What’s Next 170
Part IV — Benefit from It
10. Making Money from Your Blog . . . . . . . . 173
10.1 Common Monetization Strategies 173
10.2 Make Money with Ads 173
10.3 Make Money with Sponsors 180
10.4 Make Money with Affiliate Offers 183
10.5 Make Money with Other Monetization Strategies 194
10.6 Case Study: My Monthly Income 196
10.7 What’s Next 198
x • Contents
11. Promoting Your Own Business . . . . . . . . 199
11.1 A Checklist for Company Blogs 199
11.2 Identify and Understand Your Readers 202
11.3 Craft Your Content for Your Prospective Customers 204
11.4 Convert Readers into Customers 207
11.5 What’s Next 214
12. Taking Full Advantage of Your Blog . . . . . . . 215
12.1 Improve Your Skills 215
12.2 Advance Your Career 216
12.3 Obtain Freebies 219
12.4 Prepare for Success 221
12.5 Other Benefits for Startups 223
12.6 What’s Next 224
Part V — Scale It
13. Scaling Your Blogging Activities . . . . . . . 227
13.1 Scale Your Blog Vertically 227
13.2 Hire a Team of Bloggers 228
13.3 Build Your Blogging Empire 233
13.4 What’s Next 235
14. Beyond Blogging: Your Strategy for Social Media . . . 237
14.1 Define a Social Media Strategy 237
14.2 Select the Social Networks You Intend to Target 238
14.3 Create Your Social Media Profiles 239
14.4 Cross Promote Your Site and Social Properties 243
14.5 Post Frequently and Interact with Your Followers 245
14.6 What’s Next 252
15. Final Words of Advice . . . . . . . . . . 253
15.1 Try It Out 253
15.2 Blogs to Follow 254
15.3 Keep in Touch 254
A1. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257