Nonfiction Book Reviews

WordPress for Dummies: A Reference for the Rest of Us by Lisa Sabin-Wilson was one of the best reference books I’ve ever read on computers/blogging/website building, and believe me, I’ve read a lot of books on that subject!  I have three brainy brothers who are computer geniuses and although I’m not stupid when it comes to computers, I know that I still have a lot to learn.  I am in awe of their level of knowledge, and have read book after book on HTML, PhotoShop, and website building in general, hoping to catch up to them someday. Well, today is not that day, but I am a little closer, thanks to this book.

First off, as in all great reference books, the author injects a lot of humor into the book, which is fantastic.  Example: In the introduction, there are a string of headers with paragraphs underneath each one, “About This Book,” “Conventions Used in This Book,” etc.  Then comes the next header and paragraph:

What You Are Not to Read

Don’t read supermarket tabloids.  They’re certain to rot your brain.

As I explained previously, this books covers the details of how to set up, use, and maintain the software for the three free versions of WordPress.  I don’t intend for you to read this book from cover to cover. (Unless you’re my mother - then I won’t forgive you if you don’t.) Page 3, WordPress for Dummies

It’s the blasé transition there that I just loved.  If you didn’t think that was funny, you need to go have your pulse taken at the doctor’s office - it could be that you’re not actually alive and breathing any longer.  In that case, see the bright light?  Walk into it.

For the alive people out there, you’ll want to make sure to pick this book up if you have any interest in starting your own blog, or if you are blogging for a company and want to have a better idea of how the whole process works.  Why? you say.  Glad you asked! If you’re a blogger for a company, you probably don’t have to worry about things like picking your own theme and plugins, or how to set up a blog, just like you don’t have know how to change the oil or fix the engine in your car in order to drive it.  But you should know how to do these things (or at least the basics) because it makes you a better driver, and in our case, a better blogger.  (BTW, this is a case of do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do, because as I mentioned before, on a good day, I might be able to tell you where the engine is at in my truck.  Maybe.)  Luckily, my interest level is much higher when it comes to blogging than it is automobiles.

So back to WordPress for Dummies.  Lisa is not only funny, but she also knows what the heck she’s talking about.  She’s got the “street creds” as they say - she’s got tons of experience doing what she’s talking about, she isn’t just spouting what she’s heard from others.  She is also uber-patient and takes you through every tiny step of the process for setting up all three types of WordPress blogs: WordPress.com, WordPress.org, and WordPress Multi-User.  She explains the positive and negative aspects to each of these choices, and in general makes you a lot more comfortable with the whole thing.

The book does live up to its name: WordPress for Dummies.  If you’re an administrator of a large and popular WordPress blog or group of blogs, there’s probably little in here that you didn’t know already.  It isn’t for veterans of the field to learn from.  But if you’re just starting out into the big, bad blogging world, then this book will be right up your alley.  I started a blog back in March of 2007 with WordPress.com (I transferred the blog over from Blogspot, actually) and I was SOOO lost when I first did that.  I wish I had this book back then - it would have made my life much easier.  Then I transitioned that same blog over to WordPress.org onto its own domain, and was SOOO lost all over again, LOL!  I had to learn the hard way, and by bothering nice people (like, say, my brothers!) to help me.  I would have been 1000% better off reading this book.

Even now that I’m running two personal blogs, managing a group of 50 blogs, and writing on this blog, I still learned from the book.  It also clarified some things that I hadn’t quite understood before.  Now that I understand the basics, I’m going to delve into more complicated matters: Search Engine Optimization for Dummies, anyone?

I can tell what I’m going to be reading next…

4.5 out of 5 stars (marked down slightly because it was published right before WordPress released a huge new advancement in the admin panel of WordPress [think the change from XP to Vista - it was that kind of big], rendering most of the screenshots worthless and/or very dated.  The publishing company did not time that well.  Sorry, Lisa!!)  Other than that, not many complaints!

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