Making Jeff some money

[awarner20]

I've used SpreadShirt in the past and I've always preferred them to CafePress. I'm not sure of their prices now though...

[chipbennett]

Kind of a lukewarm response to my idea. Themes and merch aren't really my thing, but I can write and edit to a decent level of quality so I guess let me put it this way...

If I posted an ebook outline (like a list of sections/chapters) and you had a blog post in your archives that could roughly fit that section, would you donate it for the ebook?

Compared to the august company of experts here, I'm a nobody. But, I'll gladly contribute.

[JohnM]

Kind of a lukewarm response to my idea. Themes and merch aren't really my thing, but I can write and edit to a decent level of quality so I guess let me put it this way...

If I posted an ebook outline (like a list of sections/chapters) and you had a blog post in your archives that could roughly fit that section, would you donate it for the ebook?

I would. I`d even write a new one.

[dancole]

If I posted an ebook outline (like a list of sections/chapters) and you had a blog post in your archives that could roughly fit that section, would you donate it for the ebook?

Depending upon how much time we had to get it done and what my schedule looks like, I'd write a new article for it.

[chipbennett]

If I posted an ebook outline (like a list of sections/chapters) and you had a blog post in your archives that could roughly fit that section, would you donate it for the ebook?

And let me go even one better. I'll even volunteer for a specific topic: Theming For Non-Developers (a guide to WordPress-specific themes, templates, tags, CSS, and PHP, for non-developers).

[PaulCunningham]

Okay so thats some enthusiasm on display from a few people, thats good! I'll rough out an outline and post it here and see exactly what people would like to throw an old (or new) bit of writing at.

Occurs to me Jeff either hasn't spotted this thread or is keeping out of it, but I hope the idea isn't making him uncomfortable or stepping on his toes.

[conorp]

Occurs to me Jeff either hasn't spotted this thread or is keeping out of it, but I hope the idea isn't making him uncomfortable or stepping on his toes.

He knows about it.

[PaulCunningham]

Alright. It just so happens I was working on a WordPress ebook some time ago so I've basically lifted the outline from that and adjusted it a little. Its rough, I imagine it will evolve a bit over time, but its a starting point.

Here it is. I've stuck a star next to the ones I've got some decent content for already myself.

* Introduction to WordPress and Blogging (who better to write this than Jeff!)

Choosing/Buying a Domain Name and Hosting (Jeff, opportunity for an affiliate work in for you here too)

* How to Install WordPress (I've got some blog posts that would suit with some tweaking)

* First Steps for a New WordPress Blog (already written but probably needs a refresh)

* Writing Blog Posts in WordPress (mostly already written but quite dry so needs a refresh)

Categories and Tags (eg pros and cons of each, and maybe a few real world examples of category/tag usage schemes)

Images and Media (eg how to upload, manage, insert etc)

Pages (eg what, why, how, and maybe a few tricks like static homepage)

Comments (eg managing them, preventing spam)

Improving the Look and Feel (eg how to upload, activate, modify themes)

RSS Feeds (eg setting up Feedburner, good RSS enhancement plugins)

Social Media Integration (eg posting to Twitter, showing your Tweets in sidebar, permitting Twitter/Facebook login for comments, feeding to Facebook Fan Pages, Digg buttons, Sexy Bookmarks plugins, you name it...)

Search Engines/SEO (popular topic so a good section on this could really help sales)

Security (no explaination necessary)

Backups, Upgrades, and Other Maintenance (same again)

Some more thinking:

- if you want to "reserve" a section post a reply here.

- instead of a specific section dedicated to plugins I thought it would make more sense if each section just mentioned the best plugins for that particular topic

- if you've already got a good blog post about one of the topics I guess you could just post the URL along with your permission to use it for the ebook. If you're writing fresh content, I guess email it to me

- it might be cool to have the whole ebook walk through the creation of a new, fictional blog. So maybe once everyone has contributed who wants to we could then walk through the entire thing and align it all with that fictional blog (screenshots etc)

- if you don't want to write but want to contribute, maybe you could throw your hand up to do peer reviews

- lets move *fast*. Nothing makes a project fail like inaction. We've all got outside commitments and pressures so if you're going to contribute a section, a page, or just a few words try to do it quickly.

[Ryan]

I'm about to write a blog post about social media integration so the content of that could be uplifted and dumped into the book with some modifications I guess.

Could probably go into a little more detail in a book too.

[dancole]

I'll write a post covering Security.