Postcards From Myself

Building A WordPress Blog People Want To Read by Scott McNulty is a new book on setting up and running a successful blog. McNulty has written an easy to understand and at times amusing introduction to getting started with what is currently one of the most popular social media platforms.

Both well written and well illustrated, the book covers everything from downloading and installing the software, to setting up the database, defining system parameters, and selecting a template. What is really excellent about these explanations is that McNulty tells you not only what are the best choices, but what impact those choices will have on your blog in the future. There are many selections you can make when setting up a new WordPress installation that can seriously affect how your blog operates in a year or two when it is getting lots of hits, and McNulty helps you to make well informed decisions.


While the book was written based on version 2.6 of the WordPress software and version 2.7 has now been released, there is very little other than administrative interface that does not apply. Most of the setup choices and database decisions are still the same. It would be great to see a physical or on-line update of the book for WordPress version 2.7, but I think that is just me being greedy.

If you are new to blogging, know what it is, but don’t have any experience getting blog up and running, this is the perfect book to start with. You will be given clear and concise instructions on what you need to do and why. If you follow along with the book, by the time you are done you will have a solid blogging platform up and running. Everything will be ready for you to start writing, and there in lies the only real problem with this book — the title.

While the book expertly covers the “building a WordPress blog” half of its title, what it really is not written to address is the what “people want to read” component. With a title like this one I would have expected chapters on what to write, how to interact with your audience, how to optimize for search engines and attract traffic. Also perhaps a few lessons from McNulty’s vast experience on what not to do. Scott McNulty is the founder and author of some important blogs and websites. I would really like to have been privy to some of that experience.

This is a very good book, but it should have been titled, “Building A WordPress Blog: A Guide to Installation and Setup”.

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