Naked Conversations: a classic blogging book written by one of the top bloggers around. In this book, Robert walks you through the steps it takes to make your blog a success and something to be proud off.

ProBlogger – Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income: Darren Rowse doesn’t need any introduction. He provides useful blogging information on ProBlogger on a daily basis. In this book, he teaches you the basics of what it takes to make it as a pro blogger.

Clear Blogging: yet another blog that teaches you the fundamentals of blogging. It’s a great book to get a understanding of how you can connect with your readers in a deeper fashion.

Blogging Heroes: a set of interviews with top bloggers and marketers around the world. It’s always nice to hear what top bloggers have to say about their strategies to increase readership and drive traffic to their blogs.

The Social Media Bible: a wonderful book to understand what it takes to succeed in the world of social media. It’s to the point and gives you a solid understanding of the fundamentals.

Podcast Academy: an informative book that shows you what you need to do to build a killer podcast service for your readers. Whether you want to start your own talk show host or take your blog to the next level with your own podcast, this book comes in handy.

Producing Video Podcasts: want to create your own web show? Maybe you are just interested in adding video to your blog. Whatever the case, this book teaches you how you can produce killer videos.

Feel free to add your favorite blogging books below.

YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day is the latest book on YouTube and everything video. Unless you haven’t been paying attention, video plays a big part in the marketing world today. Whether you are a pro blogger or you work for a company that is looking for more ways to get the word out about its products, knowing how to take advantage of YouTube is a must. YouTube allows you to upload your videos for free and go viral. So whether you want to do a better job branding your business or just want to get the word out about your product or services, YouTube is one great community to be a part of.

YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day is a cool YouTube book that focuses more on what you need to do to build killer YouTube videos rather than just showing you how to sign up for a new account on YouTube. The book does cover YouTube specific topics, so you do get a chance to master YouTube. But the main focus in this book is on content creation, distribution, and promotion. Becoming a killer web producer is not that easy. Not everyone can pull off what iJustin or other YouTube superstars have pulled off. But you can always learn about their approach and find your own way to dominate YouTube. This books shows you what you need to keep in mind to produce high quality and viral videos on YouTube. You are going to learn what makes viral videos, well, viral.

Video optimization for search engines is also covered in this book. A lot of bloggers and affiliate marketers are using YouTube to get ranked high on Google and other search engines. We are seeing a lot of spam as low videos that are highly optimized are getting picked up by Google. But if you have a killer video, you’d be naive not to tag and optimize your videos to rank as high as p0ssible on YouTube. You are also going to pick up a few tricks on how to monitor and analyze your video results.

Making videos and putting them online may not be as tough as it used to be. But you still have to have an idea about what you want to offer your viewers and how you want to reach out to them. Your focus should be on providing the maximum value to your visitors, especially if you expect to increase your subscribers on YouTube. At the end of the day, producing videos is a serious business and needs to be approached in a serious manner. YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day not only shows you how to create videos but also how to push your business online and go viral. If you are looking for a book that goes beyond the YouTube basics, you are going to enjoy reading this book.

Rating: 8.5/10

If you have been following this blog for a while, you probably know what a big fan of vlogging I am. As a start-up owner, I don’t get to vlog as much as I should. But vlogging is a big part of our overall corporate strategy. Video is the present and future of this business, and there are things that you can communicate much better through video than test. YouTube is one of those services that will go down in history as a game changer. It truly changed the way content is shared, and it gave advertisers, content producers, businesses, and TV stations another channel to get involved and get some business done. And let’s not forget that YouTube has made a lot of stars as well.

Learning how to post videos and manage your account on YouTube is not as difficult as it seems, but it does take some work. You can’t just expect to sit in front of a camera, go on a rant, and gain a whole lot of subscribers on YouTube. If you look at all the vloggers who have had success on YouTube, you can tell they have a real strategy, and they implement it wonderfully. So unless you are a natural, you are going to need some training to put your best foot forward in front of the YouTube community. YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day is a wonderful book that teaches you how to get started with YouTube. It not only teaches you how to find your way around YouTube, it also shows you what you need to do to create viral videos.

Why Get It?

This book is not your everyday YouTube book. A lot of YouTube books spend more time showing you how to rate videos and do simple things than giving you the big picture and what you need to do to go viral on YouTube. Here is a summary of what’s covered:

• YouTube Training: learn how to do things on YouTube in no time.
• Viral Videos: learn how others make viral videos and what strategies you can use to do the same.
• Video Production: producing video is actually more of a science than an art. This book gives you a solid foundation on this topic.
• Quality Content: learn what quality content means and how you can go about creating your own killer videos.
• YouTube and Branding: YouTube can be a great branding tool. This book teaches you how to push your brand and get more recognition on YouTube.
• Video Optimization: just like search engine optimization, you need to do a few things to rank better with your videos. Whether it’s tagging or other things, this book has you covered.
• Traffic: once you put your videos up on YouTube, you need to drive traffic to them to get more recognition. This book talks about how you can use other blogs, social networking sites, and forums to build traffic for your videos.
• Video Analytics: learn how to track, measure, and analyze your video marketing results.
• Case Studies: learn from the masters and find out how others have become successful on YouTube.
• Studio Tips: if you want to take your game to the next level and build higher quality videos, this is the section you should read.

All in all, YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day is a wonderful book that teaches you not only how to build videos and master YouTube, but how to grow your business and become a YouTube superstar. If you are into vlogging and feel you’ve got what it takes to become the next video hit on the web, this book is a great place to start.

Rating: 8.5/10

I recently had a chance to read Arianna Huffington’s most recent book on blogging. I have a read a lot of blogging books in my time, and I don’t quite get impressed by just any book. But I found the book to be an easy read and very inspirational, especially if you are planning to start your blog. I keep saying that you should start your blog now but I guess it works better if you hear it from someone like Arianna.

The Internet is full of information that can help you get started with blogging. The problem, as I have found out, is not the lack of desire, but rather the uncertainty involved with starting a new blog. You don’t know how many blogs you should post weekly, how to get noticed, or how to build a community. The Hufftington Post Complete Guide To Blogging (aff) tackles these very issues.

I would say that finding your voice is the biggest challenge with any new blog. There is just no formula or certain way to do it. You have got to do it for yourself. Until you have found your voice, you are going to struggle attracting visitors and building your community. But many bloggers find their voice after a few months of blogging, so I strongly encourage you to get started today!

Overall, the Huffington Post’s Complete Guide To Blogging is a great motivational book. I highly recommend this book as one to read when you feel discouraged or unwilling to do what you need to do to succeed with your blog.

I have mentioned a few times earlier this year that if you haven’t started with video-blogging, now is the time. But a lot of folks still feel hesitant about jumping on this trend. The truth is, a lot of folks feel uneasy about having their faces shown on the screen (on YouTube or wherever). But there is more to video-blogging than you sitting in front of a camera and talking. 15 Minutes of Fame is a book dedicated in showing you how to achieve success on Youtube. Here is my review of this fairly recent book on YouTube:

15 Minutes of Fame tackles the concept of vlogging from the very beginning (when YouTube started). YouTube has failed to make lots of money for Google, but we are going to look back at YouTube as a game changer in the video publishing industry. The fact that more folks are getting out of their cable contracts to surf YouTube shows how the game has changed.

15 Minutes of YouTube fame goes over what you need to do publish your video on YouTube. Fredrick Levy talks about how you can create viral videos with your camera and even your mobile phone camera. And let’s not forget that some of the most viral videos in 2008 were about cats! I like the fact that the author talks about the simple video-blogging concepts such as embedding videos and capturing video with web cam. These may seem simple to you but if you haven’t done any video in the past, it is essential to learn as much as you can on these topics.

The author also discusses some of the best tips you can get from YouTube superstars. A lot of folks can learn a lot by watching the masters. But some folks keep watching and still get no clue. That’s where these tips come in. You are going to actually read what the masters have to say about making it on YouTube. The good thing about making videos is the fact that it’s going to be unique no matter what. No-one can take on your unique personality, and that’s why video-blogging is fun and rewarding.

The last chapter of 15 minutes of Fame is about the future of video-blogging. The future is bright. I can tell you that. But unless you jump on the latest trends in the industry, you are going to find behind. Once you get started with video-blogging, you are going to get rolling (depending on your level of enthusiasm), and it would be easy to implement new things as you will be the CEO.

Overall, Becoming a Star in the YouTube Revolution is a great little book that can help you get started with video-blogging. It is definitely not the only book you need to read to get up to speed, but it does help to read the superstars’ tips. Grade: B+/A-.

Darren Rowse is a legendary pro blogger and a very successful one at making money. He has been named in magazines, newspapers, and anything you can name off. There is no doubt in my mind that ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income is the best of Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. What I don’t understand is why most successful bloggers are in Australia

Blogging for Dummies is the best blogging book for beginners bar none. It shows you the very basics of what it takes to make it in the blogging world.

I don’t know about you but I personally learn a lot from reading about the experiences of successful bloggers and marketers. Blogging Heroes is just the book if you are into that as well. I always try to figure out the blueprint these guys are using to make money left and right, so these books work very well for me.

Not every good book is listed on Amazon. Blogging to the Bank 2.0 is one of those books. I have done a seperate review on BTB 2.0. If you are looking for a practical book, then you should definitely check this out.

Most blogging books teach you how to write effective posts or attract more readers to your blog, but not many of them teach you how to run your blog as a business. That’s why I like Start Your Own Blogging Business. It’s very practical and brings up the business issues that you will face in your blogging career.

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog is absolutely my favorite book as it talks about the mentality that it takes to be successful in the blogging world. Really! No one cares what you had for lunch.

WordPress is the best blogging platforms in the world. The community behind the WordPress platform makes it possible to build powreful blog sites using WordPress. WordPress MU allows you to run blog networks. The 2nd Edition of WordPress for Dummies gets down and dirty and teaches you all you need to know to be dangerous with WordPress.

Understanding the social media takes you this closer to becoming a better blogger. The newly released Secrets Social Media Marketing targets folks who are looking for the real way to market to social media (e.g. to FaceBook users). It’s fresh and a must read.

Social Media Marketing: An Hour a day is a shocker of a good social media marketing book. It’s substantive and shows you the steps it takes to successfully utilize the social media to push your blog over the top.

The Back of the Napkin is for those of us who have trouble coming up with fresh blogging ideas day in and day out. It’s a magnificent must read book that shows you how you can apply innovation to your everyday blogging process.

Anything Else?

Did I miss anything? What are your favorite books? What is the one must read book when it comes to blogging in your opinion?

I often hear from folks who are interested in getting started with blogging but have no idea what platform they should choose. There are a few good ones out there such as Blogger, MovableType, and Expression Engine, but I personally do not recommend anything but WordPress. WordPress has been very good to me, and it is the platform used by the majority of blogger on the WWW.

The community behind WordPress is very strong, which means there are people out there who will help you out if you are having trouble with your site. Self-hosted WordPress may be a little bit tricky for folks to figure out, which is why I am glad to introduce you to the 2nd edition of WordPress for Dummies.

Don’t let the title fool you. WordPress for dummies is for serious bloggers who need to know enough about WordPress to be very dangerous. It’s true that you can find other tutorials on WordPress on the Web, but this book has everything you need to get started without wasting too much time. So go check it out.

P.S. this book is available for Kindle owners as well.

Start your own blogging business was my very first blogging book and thought me how to treat blogging as a business and not a hobby. A hobby is not going to put food on the table, and you may not give it a 100% effort. But if you treat your blog as a part of your business, then there is a good chance that you can achieve great things with your blog.

I’ll admit that when I started blogging, I had no idea how to approach the whole process of content creation. I thought that I could write about anything and everything on my blog, and there was simply no focus on my approach (believe it or not my oldest blog is still up but I am too embarrassed to point people to it). No one cares what you had for lunch is very dear to my heart as it thought me how blogging works and what you shouldn’t do on your blog. That was key for me.

Blogging for dummies was the last beginner’s book that skimmed through for ideas and tricks to improve my blogging skills. I did not expect to get much out of it due to the funny title, but in fact it was more useful in more ways than one. By the time I read this book, I already had a lot of blogs up and running for quite some time, so I didn’t expect to get much out of it. But the book was published in 2008, and I thought, what the heck? Let’s see what today’s beginners learn in these books. The book is excellent in teaching you how to deal with blog spams or how to increase your blogging presence. If this book was released ealier (like a few years ago), I probably would’ve read this one first.

There you have it. While the above books are excellent resources for beginners, you may want to reduce your training time after a couple of month to focus more on doing things and less on reading things. When I started blogging, I spent days after days going through training material. At some point, you realize that you haven’t really accomplished anything except finishing every training content that is out there. Keep your eyes on the ball and go do things!

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform and is growing fast thanks to the open source community behind it. Now if you are thinking about starting your blog and you have decided on going with WordPress, you are going to need a template that is catchy and search engine friendly.

You have three options really:

1. Order a custom made template: This is usually the best option as you get your own unique design that sets you apart from competition. But you could end up paying thousands for a template, so this option is not for everyone.

2. Choose a free or premium template: Many bloggers use this option but I simply don’t recommend using free templates. Think about it. If it’s free, it’s probably being used by thousands of other bloggers. Premium templates (could cost as low as $50), bring the competition down a notch, but still your blog design will not be unique.

3. Write your own WordPress Template: This option is for the brave. If you know PHP well, then you are already a few steps ahead of everyone else. Of course, you need to know CSS and possibly AJAX to write a “cool” theme for your blog, but you can always mix and match existing CSS files that are made available with free themes. You can also use the book pictured above to feel your way through the process of making your first theme. WordPress Theme Design is an intermediate to advanced book so if you don’t know PHP or haven’t heard of WordPress yet, you may want to keep away for now. But it’s an excellent book for those who know PHP. I only recommend this option if you know what you are doing. It could save you thousands if you use your own skills to write your theme but that also means that you will have less time to do other things such as marketing for your blog [On a side note, if you check SitePoint's Marketplace, you will see that many developers sell fairly simple templates there for $200 - $500 a pop. So your efforts won't go unrewarded if you learn to develop templates fast! ].

I personally like the first idea if you have enough money to outsource your blog design to professionals. Having said that, the second option works the best for beginners. Make sure you know what you are getting yourself into by choosing one option over the other. The first option is more costly, the third option is more time consuming, and the second option is less time consuming and costly but will require you to do a unique redesign when you have the money. But it’s good to have options!