Heather Wright-Porto - Creative Blogging: Your First Steps to a Successful Blog

Creative Blogging: Your First Steps to a Successful Blog

Copyright 2011 by Heather Wright-Porto

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner and the publisher.

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4302-3428-9

ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4302-3429-6

Printed and bound in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

President and Publisher: Paul Manning

Lead Editor: Ben Renow-Clarke

Technical Reviewer: Thomas Rushton

Editorial Board: Steve Anglin, Mark Beckner, Ewan Buckingham, Gary Cornell, Jonathan Gennick, Jonathan Hassell, Michelle Lowman, Matthew Moodie, Jeff Olson, Jeffrey Pepper, Frank Pohlmann, Douglas Pundick, Ben Renow-Clarke, Dominic Shakeshaft, Matt Wade, Tom Welsh

Coordinating Editor: Jessica Belanger

Copy Editor: Sharon Terdeman

Compositor: MacPS, LLC

Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services

Artist: April Milne

Cover Designer: Anna Ishchenko

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To Gerry, my dear husband, my love,

Thank you for your continued support, love, and encouragement,

but most of all, for being you.

To my beloved children, my heart, Michaela and Luke,

I love you more than words can say.

To Mom, Dad, Kim, and Laura, my family,

I love you.

Contents at a Glance

Contents

About the Author

Heather Wright-Porto has a master's degree in computer information systems and has had her own computer consulting company since 1995 (Premier Computer Solutions LLC). She has trained clients on Microsoft Office, as well as on Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark, and other graphic design applications, in addition to developing databases (using Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle), programming in Visual Basic, and creating web sites (using ColdFusion, HTML, and JavaScript). Heather also worked at NYU School of Medicine as a senior database developer for more than nine years. In November 2009, her focus shifted to expanding and building her Blogs by Heather business, www.BlogsByHeather.com.

In July 2010, she published her first book, Beginning Google Blogger, and that fall began writing her second, this book, Creative Blogging. Heather enjoys writing and sharing her blogging knowledge and experience with her readers. She hopes to continue writing technical books and maybe will even write a children's book some day. Besides her business and her writing, Heather's days are also filled with raising her young children, Luke and Michaela. As a creative outlet and for her love of art, she became a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in October 2006. She is what is considered a hobby demonstrator, but enjoys making and selling cards at local shops, and holding child and adult craft programs at local libraries, as well as workshops at her home for customers, friends, and family. Heather is easy going, but very ambitious and detailed-orientedhow does that combination work? She gets great enjoyment in helping others, and even more in making people smile. She is blessed and fortunate to have the life she has, and to be surrounded by a loving family and wonderful people.

About the Technical Reviewer

Thomas Rushton has been slaving over hot keyboards since the early 1980s when he started with a Sinclair ZX80, and was on the Internet before the World Wide Web was unleashed and the place got crowded. He is a long-standing denizen of a precursor to the social web, Monochrome (see www.mono.org for more information), which has provided many of the core features now seen on blogs and other sites, such as Facebook and MySpace.

In the Real World (TM), Thomas spends his time working as a SQL Server Database Administrator (currently on contract at MessageLabs, part of Symantec), and as an occasional technical reviewer for Apress. He has, in the past, worked for a variety of financial and legal institutions, some of which have survived the ravages of the latest recession. He has only recently started working as a contractor, rather than as a permanent employee, so is interested in this idea of managing one's personal brand through blogging.

Thomas lives in England and has one wife, one child, one dog, and one chinchilla. When they let him, he likes to play double bass with various local opera groups and orchestras.