How To Blog

Excerpts of posts from the NEW How to Blog Site

Remember, How to Blog has moved to it's own domain at http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/

In order to stay current with How to Blog's content, you should start bookmark the new location - thanks!

TypePad has no pagination features (next and previous buttons at the bottom of the page) AND no way of implementing them!!

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/typepad-has-no-pagination-features-next-and-previous-buttons-at-the-bottom-of-the-page-and-no-way-of-implementing-them-316.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Under the category of more absolutely ridiculous things that current blogging platforms are missing the boat on, I just found out that not only does TypePad not have pagination built in, but there is NO WAY of implementing it even through advanced templates.

By pagination, I mean the <next> and <previous> buttons that many bloggers and blog readers are accustomed to seeing at the bottom of a blog page (a feature that is built into WordPress, for example).  TypePad gives you the option of customizing how many posts appear on a page, but no way to easily navigate to posts beyond those appearing on the front page.  For example, How To Blog is set to display 10 posts on the front page.  But when users visit the old typepad version of the site at http://blogging.typepad.com/how_to_blog/ and read through those posts, and want to see the rest of what I’ve written, they have only 2 options, neither of which is optimal:

1. View each category one at a time
2. Go through the monthly archives

I had put it on my personal ‘to do’ list to figure out how to add Next and Previous links to the buttom of my TypePad pages, and when I finally decided to tackle the project and couldn’t figure it out on my own, I submitted a support ticket to Six Apart asking for help with it.  I wrote:

WordPress has built in previous / next page links at the bottom of every page. This makes their blogs much more easy to navigate, especially for beginners. As each page only contains a certain number of posts, without having next and previous buttons it's hard for people to easily navigate the blog.

In addition to making this a feature request, I'd also like to know what code I should use in my advanced templates in order to implement this on my blog on How to Blog.

Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

Thank you!
Emily Robbins

The response I got back from TypePad Customer Support was astounding (bold added by me): 

Hi Emily,

Currently TypePad doesn't offer pagination (Next Page and Previous Page links), so there isn't any code that I can offer you to do this.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. We are always looking for ways to enhance TypePad for our users, so we will keep this in mind as a possible future feature for the system.

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you.

Thanks,
Kymberlie

Excuse me for the double-take, but NO CODE AVAILABLE TO DO THIS?  How can this be when SixApart themselves acknowledged the importance of pagination features in their own article on Six Apart Pronet entitled “Building on Movable Type Part 3: Creating Pagination Controls”, wherein they say (again, bolding is from me):

Pagination controls are sufficiently ubiquitous that our own developers saw the value in creating a reusable mechanism for creating the links developers should all be too familiar with: “next page," “previous page," “last page," “first page" and “you are viewing results X to Y out of Z." This reusable framework is not only accessible within Movable Type, but by plugins as well.

So apparently Six Apart thinks that pagination controls are so ‘ubiquitous’ that we’d be ‘all to familiar’ with them, and they are not only built into the functionality of Movable Type but also accessible by MT plugins.  GREAT.  For Movable Type users.

So how come when SixApart created (and updated and updated) TypePad, this “ubiquitous” functionality was somehow forgotten?

Need someone to create a custom template or plugin for your blog? Need help with SEO? Check out Rent A Coder!

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/need-someone-to-create-a-custom-template-or-plugin-for-your-blog-need-help-with-seo-check-out-rent-a-coder-294.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just found the coolest resource!  It’s called Rent A Coder, and you can post any project that you need help with, whether it be as simple as installing WordPress / MovableType / etc for you on your server, or as complex as asking someone to write a custom blogging platform for you.  Want a custom template for TypePad or a special WordPress theme and don’t have the time or skills to do it yourself?  Just Rent A Coder to do it for you.  You can even find people to help you with Search Engine Optimization, people to write content for you, etc.

Once you post the specifics of the project you need help with, coders will then bid on your ‘job’ and you can decide who you want to hire based on their bid, the feedback they received from other users on other projects they’ve completed, etc.

From their website:

Need a coder to help you create the next 'killer app' or answer questions?  Just post your program or question here and coders from around the world will email you bids on doing the work.

    You can review each bidder's resume and reputation online, and when you're ready to make your decision, you can rent  your personal, expert, coder with just a few clicks! Its that simple!


     Posting a bid request is free, and you are under no obligation to accept any bids sent to you unless you choose to.   Once you accept a bid, you will place your payment into escrow. The money is not released to the coder, till they complete the work according to your original specification. There are no service charges or finders fees for buyers.

On the flip side, got skills?  Flaunt ‘em and earn cash!

Looking to earn extra income using your hard-won technical skills?  Rent a Coder lets you locate and bid on coding projects and questions from around the world!  By completing a free registration, you can publicize your skills on the online resume system and receive emails as new bid requests come in.

So those of you who are creating all those great free themes and plug-ins (which I hope you’ll continue to offer for the sake of the blogging community), you may wanna consider listing your talents at Rent A Coder and earning some extra $$ through freelancing. 

I just did.

Turns out MovableType does work in Firefox

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/turns-out-movabletype-does-work-in-firefox-280.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update:  I just got back from a long weekend visiting my adorable new nephew Jackson, and when I went to try and update my MT blog from within Firefox, this time everything worked fine (which is bizarre, since I didn't do anything to upgrade either my MT install or Firefox, but hey, I'm not complaining)  So I don't know what kind of glitch I was experiencing btwn MT and Firefox, but it appears to have been temporary  :)

So I just got a slew of emails allerting me to the huge load of comment spam that just arrived on my demo MovableType site over at Online Travelogue.com (which I haven’t put more work into developing b/c I’ve decided I prefer WordPress to MT when it comes to hosted weblog solutions).  I don’t know why these guys even bother – I have it set so every comment must be manually approved, so their spam never shows up on my pages.  BUT ANYWAY, I digress..

So I click the link in my email to ‘edit this comment’, and since I’ve switched from using Internet Explorer to Firefox, of course this launched a window in Firefox prompting me to log in.  So I log in (AND, I check the checkbox for “Remember Me”).  I click on the comments link – and it starts asking me to login again (didn’t I justdo that?).  So I login again, and now it shows me the page of comments and I click ‘check all’ and then click ‘delete’ and guess what?  It asks me to login again.  Which I do.  And then it asks me if I’m sure I want to delete 1 comment (I’m trying to delete 20), and I click yes, and guess what????  It asks me to login again, which, after doing, prompts me with another ‘are you sure you want to delete 1 comment’, after which I decide it’s time to launch IE.  Sure enough, I login with IE once, and everything goes smooth as silk.  With so many users switching to Firefox these days, how is it that something as popular as movable type doesn’t work in that browser (at least not the UI for the blog owner).

Anyone else have problems using MT with Firefox?

BlogJet allows Windows users to create and edit posts for any blog through an easier, more feature-rich interface

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/blogjet-allows-windows-users-to-create-and-edit-posts-for-any-blog-through-an-easier-more-feature-rich-interface-272.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just came across a very interesting application called BlogJet.  Basically, it’s an easy to use Windows program that acts as a front-end  for posting to your blog from the BlogJet client instead of from your blog software’s own interface (usually your browser). 

From their website: Works with all leading weblog services:

 

Blogger b2evolution Blogging.com BlogHarbor Blogware DasBlog DeadJournal DearDiary Drupal LiveJournal Manila

ModBlog Lockergnome.net MovableType pMachine PUSHlogs Squarespace TypePad .Text WordPress Blogger API MetaWeblog API

Right now I’m using it to post to my ‘How to Blog’ blog on TypePad (the post you’re reading right now, actually).  You can download a free trial copy of BlogJet here.

I’m only just starting to tool around with it, but my first impression is a good one!  Make that great, actually.  Because I think it may provide me with the best of all worlds interface-wise.  For example, one of my gripes about TypePad is that you have to pop open a new window when you want to select multiple categories for your post (which, for me, is all the time).  WordPress, on the other hand, has a bunch of checkboxes and you can check as many as you want w/o having to open another page (it’s just faster, and hey, doing things inefficiently is a pet peeve of mine..).  Well, using BlogJet to compose this post, I notice there’s a drop-down box which - surprise – provides checkboxes next to a list of all my categories.  One less TypePad gripe.  Make that three – I can now change fonts mid post (except it’s a little buggy because I actually changed fonts and switched to BOLD, and clearly this text isn’t bolded when viewed from my actual TypePad site)

 

and I can(NOT) modify the alignment of the post (or a part of the post) w/o editing the html, so for example, this paragraph happens to be centered – at least in BlogJet, but as you’ll notice when this gets posted (meaning, as you read it), this sure isn’t centered – it’s aligned left just like the rest of the post.  Darn.  And while I’m bitching, how come there’s no ‘strikethrough’ option for text?

On the flip side, one of my gripes with WordPress is that they don’t have a rich text editor – you can’t just copy something from your browser and paste it into WordPress’ edit post textbox and expect it to preserve it’s formatting (and linking) structure.  But BlogJet does have this funcationality – and so now you could have rich text editing and a WYSIWYG display for your WordPress posts.  Which might sway me towards choosing WordPress as the ultimate blogging tool (when used in conjunction with BlogJet) because the features, plug-ins and customizability of WordPress are the best I’ve seen thus far.

Initially I though BlogJet had a huge drawback - no place to enter URIs for sites you want to send a trackback ping to. And a search through their online help (at the BlogJetWiki) for ‘trackback’ came up blank.  But on a lark I clicked the ‘Properties’ tab at the bottom of the window, and lo and behold, there are all of my advanced post options, including Trackbacks!  It’ll be interesting to see if and for how long I’ll actually be using BlogJet to create my posts.  As always, I’ll keep ya updated (oh yeah – BlogJet’s got tons of built-in smiley’s, if emoticons are your thing…)

It will also be interesting to see how BlogJet compares with it’s competition – w.blogger, which calls itself “The best interface between you and your blog” and is Freeware (vs. the free 30 day trial I’m using of BlogJet).  Oh, so much to do, so little time!

Update 3/22 – I’ve done all of my latest posting using BlogJet, and one of the things I’m really liking about it is that I’m not limited to a small edit box for creating/designing my post.  Hell, I can go full screen if I want to.  On the other hand, I’ve noticed yet another bug in the product — my posts are appearing in the reverse order of when I’ve created them for each particular date.  In other words, I publish Post 1, then later I publish Post 2, and then even later that same day I publish Post 3.  In the blogosphere, posts that are archived by date should be displayed in the following order:  Post 3, Post 2, followed by Post 1.  For all of my posts created on 3/22, they’re showing up in the reverse order of when they are published – Post 1, Post 2, Post 3.  So my newest post isn’t at the top.  That’s no good…  Hopefully w.blogger won’t have this little glitch… (I still haven’t had a chance to try it)

Update 3/31 – Inconsistent behavior when dragging and dropping from IE 6 pages – sometimes is retains formatting from original site (and linking), other time not.  Sometimes crashes (I was trying to retrieve my list of posts and got the following error, “Access violation at address 00435113 in module 'BlogJet.exe'. Read of address 00000000 Class: EAccessViolation” — note that this has only happened once in the entire time I’ve been using the software, and shutting it down and relaunching solved the problem..).  Can’t create new categories from w/in their interface – must log into your blogs control panel to do so.

Using TypePad to create templates for Movable Type without having to learn CSS?

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/using-typepad-to-create-templates-for-movable-type-without-having-to-learn-css-265.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I've been short on time these days, I've been sticking with the system that's been the easiest for me to work with with barely any learning curve - which makes TypePad the ultimate blogging tool for me at the moment.  But ultimately, some of the customization that I expect I'll want to do will leave me wanting to work with a hosted solution with a wealth of available plug-ins such as WordPress or MovableType.

But both WordPress and MovableType require you to know CSS (cascading style sheets) in order to customize the look and feel of your blog and your templates.  While I'm quite certain I could learn it, Elise Bauer has written a great article about using TypePad styles with MT (MovableType) that indicates I may be able to use the simplicity and grace of TypePad's interface to customize my templates and use those templates in MT.  Since I'm already paying for a webhosting company for some of my other websites, like Hotel Reservation Network.com, it would be cheaper for me to use a hosted solution rather than paying another monthly fee for TypePad -- after all, I've already prepaid for the bandwitdth with my webhost.

As soon as I have a chance to test out this trick, I'll post a link to the demo and my impressions of its ease of use (as well as exactly what I did and how).

HaloScan brings TrackBack functionality to Blogger, Blogspot, and other blogging tools w/o their own commenting and trackback features

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/haloscan-brings-trackback-functionality-to-blogger-blogspot-and-other-blogging-tools-wo-their-own-commenting-and-trackback-features-259.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Link: News - HaloScan.com.

Trackback and commenting go hand in hand, especially in the weblog community, but unfortunately, there hasn't been an easy way for Blogger, Blogspot, Diaryland, Diary-X, iBlog, Newspro, Pitas, and many other weblog users to implement trackback capabilities until now.

HaloScan fills this need by providing you not only with the (free) commenting services we have provided for the last one and half years, but also easy, seamless integration of trackback services (both incoming and outgoing ping support) to all existing and future Haloscan members. All this at the unbeatable price of $0.00--FREE. Getting started requires minimal work--sign up, log in and follow the simple, two-step directions to install trackback and/or commenting into your weblog. We highly recommend that all existing and new users install both the commenting and trackback services but you can also install just one or the other as needed. If you have trouble with any part of this process, we'll be glad to help! Also, be sure to send a trackback ping to this post if you install the trackback system or write about us in your weblog.

Hmmm -- so many things on my plate, but I can't wait to try out Blogger combined with HaloScan's free remote commenting and trackback system.   Could this make Blogger a true competitor to TypePad (or perhaps even superior - given that its FREE)?

I'll post my findings soon!

Update: It's not as simple as it seems.  According to their tutorial on sending a trackback ping, each time you want to send a trackback from Blogger (or similar tool), you have to

1. login to HaloScan
2. click 'Manage Trackback"
3. click "Send a trackback ping"
4. Paste the TrackBack ping URL into the edit box for 'URLs to Ping'
5. Fill in your blog name
6. Paste YOUR permalink URL
7. Paste a copy of your Post Title
8. Paste (or write) an excerpt from your post
9. Click the 'Ping Now' button.

Yikes - that's more work/typing/copying & pasting than I want to bother with. 

There's a thread in their forums about adding some code to your Blogger templates which enables auto-discovery of TrackBack URLs (something that tools like MovableType and TypePad already do), which, if it works, could save some time - but as you'll see in the thread people have found it difficult to implement.  Your mileage may vary.

New book "Movable Type 3 Bible" recommeded by Six Apart team

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/new-book-movable-type-3-bible-recommeded-by-six-apart-team-250.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the words of Six Apart, the makers of Movable Type, "It looks to be one of the best books on Movable Type that's been published, including coverage of the application all the way up to version 3.1 and even includes dedicated chapters on creating and using plugins, managing syndication files, and working with the weblog APIs supported by the application."

Sounds like I'm gonna need to get myself a copy of the Movable Type 3.0 Bible Desktop Edition!  Of course, once I do I'll post my own review at How to Blog

Why Neil chose Movable Type over Wordpress

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/why-neil-chose-movable-type-over-wordpress-249.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neil turner wrote a really cool article on his reasons for choosing MT over WordPress.

Some of the deciding factors for him were the better templates that Movable Type comes with (as well as the ease of editing them without having to know cascading style sheets and PHP), a larger base of existing plug-ins (for now) and better documentation.

I'm curious to see if MovableType has been (or will be) updated by Six Apart to improve it's interface to allow for rich text editing (WYSIWYG publishing) and a spell checker like they've done with TypePad.  As I already pay for my own dedicated server, I don't like having to pay extra fees to host my TypePad site elsewhere, so if I could have typepad's functionality and ease of use hosted on my own server, in the long run that'll be more affordable for me.

Feedburner service allows bloggers to add Amazon associates links to your feeds!

THIS POST HAS BEEN MOVED TO:

http://www.emilyrobbins.com/how-to-blog/feedburner-service-allows-bloggers-to-add-amazon-associates-links-to-your-feeds-246.htm

Please update your bookmarks to reflect the new, permanent location of How to Blog.  Comments and trackbacks on this post are now closed.  If you wish to comment on this post, please visit the new site!  Thank you!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you're hoping to make some extra cash from your blog, but all of your monetized links are in your sidebars or headers, etc, then you're losing out when people view your blog from feed readers. Not so if you use Feedburner - now you can beef up your feed to integrate links to relevant products using your amazon associate ID, as well as further enhance your feed by splicing photos and links into it AND get stats on your traffic. VERY COOL!

Neil Turner has blogged about his experience with experimenting with Feedburner, and while his post doesn't reference the ability to incorporate amazon links, he does show you how he's spliced in his Flickr photostream.

Here's how the service works:

FeedBurner detects your feed categories and then asks you to assign an Amazon store to any category for which you want to include the Amazon Associates program. For example, you might choose to associate the music store with your music category, DVD's with your Pop Culture category, and nothing at all with your Personal and Family categories. You, the publisher have total control over the frequency with which Amazon Associates links appear, and whether they should appear alongside really short posts or only very detailed posts.

FeedBurner then leverages the latest 4.0 release of Amazon Web Services to match your posts to relevant Amazon content for that store, and FeedBurner transforms that link and content from Amazon Web Services into a simple linked GIF tied to your feed item.

Publishers have total control over which (if any) parts of their feed get amazon links, which amazon stores they want to map to their content, and how frequently they want these associate links to appear.