A Review of “Building a WordPress Blog ….” by Scott McNulty

“Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read” by Scott McNulty could be the new standard for anyone either just starting to blog or just starting to use WordPress as their blogging platform.  Written in McNulty’s (easily noticeable if you have ever visited his blog) light, easy to read, style, the book does a great job of guiding the reader through virtually all of the basics of the software, the “Dashboard (admin area), posts, pages, widgets, plugins and so much more.

Subjects covered via the fourteen chapters include:

1. Why WordPress; the upside, downside and difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org
2. Installing WordPress (the basics and general – not referencing a specific host)
3. Managing User Accounts
4. The Dashboard (general introduction to the admin area)
5. Future Proofing Your Blog (the Settings Menus)
6. Preparing to Post (all the tech aspects – nothing to do with content subjects)
7. Publishing Your Post (again the tech side of working with WordPress)
8. Working with Pages (creating, managing and so forth)
9. Handling Links (configuring, managing, etc.)
10. Coping with Comments (all things comment related!)
11. Working with Themes and Widgets (adding, etc.)
12. Themes: To Find or Build (discussion oriented, not strong on the build side)
13. Using Plugins (again … the basics and mentions a few you need)
14. Troubleshooting and Maintenance

Considering the relatively low cost from sources such as Amazon.com (less than $20), I definitely recommend “Building a WordPress Blog People Want to Read” as either a great introduction to WordPress or a great reference for those tasks not commonly performed.

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