Typepad Responds: Domain mapping without the www

My domain mapped URL is working great, except when I try to use it without the www prefix. How do I fix this?

Domain mapping is Typepad's feature that allows you to use your own custom domain - like www.myblog.com - for your blog or blogs. When setting up domain mapping, we generally recommend using a CNAME record that points www to your Typepad base URL (like example.typepad.com). Because of this, you use the www when adding the domain in Typepad.

In some cases, this means that the non-www version of the domain needs to be set up separately. For that, we recommend using a simple forward or redirect at your registrar that points the non-www version of the domain to the www version.

So, for example, you'd redirect myblog.com to www.myblog.com and that will route all traffic to that URL to the right place. Some registrars don't support that type of redirect. In cases like that, your best option is to contact your registrar and see if they have suggestions for what you can do.

We have lots of information about domain mapping in our Knowledge Base. The FAQ is a good place to start.

Hope this helps!

Colleen

Typepad Responds: Trouble with the Tip Jar

Welcome to Typepad Responds! As an experienced support team, we know that people often have similar questions, and we're dedicated to reaching as many bloggers as possible. In this five-week series, your expert Support team will select a question we've received from a Typepad blogger, and we'll answer it right here. Let's get started!

Help! My Typepad Tip Jar is no longer working. What should I do?

Many Typepad bloggers have noticed that the Tip Jar (an easy way to accept donations right on your blog) is not currently working as expected. We're so sorry about that, and we are investigating the issue right now. We know how important it is for you to continue accepting donations, so in the meantime, we highly recommend setting up a Donate button via PayPal. It's a great, easy alternative that will allow you to continue to accept donations right into your PayPal account, and you can still display a button right on your blog.

To get started, head on over to your PayPal account. You can see and customize your options for your own Donate button right here.

Once you set up your button and copy the provided code, just log in to your Typepad Account and click to Design > Content. Add an Embed Your Own HTML module, and paste the code into the box (Read more about adding HTML code to your Sidebar here). Click OK, drag the box into place on your sidebar, and save your changes. You're all set! We hope to have the Tip Jar working again soon, but this will get you on the road to accepting donations again ASAP!

Have a great day!
Melanie

Create A Page For Your Blog Without Sidebars

At the end of each article in the Knowledge Base, you'll find a very brief survey asking you if you found the article helpful. In addition to updating the Knowledge Base from your suggestions, we also get ideas for blog posts from the feedback you submit. Recently we were asked how to remove the sidebars from Pages. This is a question we receive on occasion and we wanted to share our recommendation with you.

By default, any Pages added to your site will use the same design as your blog. However, you can add a bit of CSS in the body of any page to hide the sidebars and expand the content of your page to fit the full width of your blog.

First, you'll need to determine the layout applied to your blog, and we'll provide you with the correct code for each of the classic layouts. You can go to Design > Layouts to determine which layout you are using for your blog.

Two Column (Right)

<style>
.layout-two-column-right #alpha { width: 100%; }
#beta { display: none; }
</style>

Two Column (Left)

<style>
#alpha { display: none; }
.layout-two-column-left #beta { width: 100%; }
</style>

Three Column (Right)

<style>
.layout-two-column-right #alpha { width: 100%; }
#beta { display: none; }
#gamma { display: none; }
</style>

Three Column (Right)

<style>
#alpha { display: none; }
.layout-two-column #beta { width: 100%; }
#gamma { display: none; }
</style>

After selecting the code which applies to your layout, you'll want to add the code to your Page. It is best if you finish writing the page before adding the code, because once the code is added, you will not be able to work in Rich Text mode.

At Posts > Pages, click on the title of the page to edit it. Click on the HTML tab to view the code for the post. Place the code at the end of your page and click Publish.

Please note you should not click back to Rich Text view after adding the code to hide the sidebars. Use the Preview button to see how the published page will appear on your blog, instead of Rich Text view.

The above code provided for each layout works beautifully without further adjustment for many themes. Some themes, however, may require additional tweaks, depending on borders and padding for the selected design.

The opposite of hiding the sidebars on a Page is displaying a specific module only on specific pages of your site. We have an article which covers this as well. Check out the article on setting a sidebar module to display only on a set page, post, or index for more information.

Do you have other design changes you want to make to your blog but you're not sure how to get started? Search the Knowledge Base for answers, and if you don't find a relevant article, take a few minutes to complete the survey at the end of the article. Let us know if you didn't find what you were looking for, if the articles which came up didn't relate to your search keywords, request new articles, or anything else you want to share! We look through all the survey results and update and add articles based on your feedback.

And if you have any other questions, you can always ask the Typepad community for tips in the forum.

Tips for adding and updating your Twitter Widget

As we recently discussed, the folks at Twitter made some changes to their API that affected how Twitter interacted with different sharing platforms, including Typepad. For many people, this means that you will need to replace your current code to ensure that your widget works again, and continues working in the future.

The old Twitter API will be retired on March 15, 2013, so if you're not using the new Twitter widget by then, your tweets will no longer be displayed on your blog.

Ready to get the new Twitter widget? Here are some tips to easily configure your new widget and add it to your sidebar:

1. Go to https://twitter.com/settings/widgets and sign in.
2. Click the "Create New" button.
3. Enter your Typepad blog address in the Domains field (i.e. example.typepad.com or www.example.com). This is very important - skipping this step will cause your tweets not to display.
4. Adjust the other available options.
5. Click "Create Widget," and copy the code provided.
6. Log in to your Typepad account.
7. Open the Blogs menu and select the blog you want to add the Twitter widget.
8. Click to Design > Content.
9. If you currently have Twitter code installed, click into the appropriate module and replace the code there with your new code. If you're adding the widget for the first time, select the Embed Your Own HTML module from the center column, click Add This Module, and paste the code for your Twitter widget into the pop-up box.
10. Click OK, rearrange the module in your sidebar, and click Save Changes to update your blog with the new widget.

Please note if you are using Advanced Templates, Mixed Media Layout, or Chroma Theme for your blog's design, you will not have the Embed Your Own HTML module option. Instead, you can use one of the other options to add content to your sidebar described here.

Important notes about the width of the new Twitter widget:

The width of the new Twitter widget is controlled remotely by Twitter, and is designed to automatically fit your blog's sidebar with a minimum width of 220 pixels. Therefore, the widget will appear cut off if your blog's sidebar column is not at least 250 pixels. At this time, there is not a way to manually change the width of the widget.

If your sidebar width is less than 250 pixels, you will either need to update your column width or switch to a newer Theme with wider columns, like Chevron, Chunky, Metropolitan, or the Theme Builder, which allows sidebars up to 300 pixels.

Bloggers at the Pro Unlimited level who are using a Pre-Defined Theme can increase their column widths by using some Custom CSS.

Bloggers at the Pro Plus level or below will either need to switch to a theme with wider columns or the Theme Builder, as mentioned above. If you want to keep your current theme but need access to the Custom CSS feature to increase your column width, you'll need to upgrade to the Pro Unlimited level. We're happy to provide bloggers who would like to upgrade to Pro Unlimited to take advantage of Custom CSS a discount to offset the increase in price. Just open a Help Ticket in your Dashboard after you've upgraded and let us know!

As always, be sure to check our Knowledge Base for more information!

Twitter API Changes & Adding The New Twitter Widget

Update October 22, 2012: See the Add Twitter's Timeline Widget article in the Typepad Knowledge Base for more detailed information if you are not seeing recent tweets after adding the widget or the widget is being cut off.

Many of you noticed issues recently with the Twitter related features available for your Typepad blog. (You can read the discussion in the forum thread.) Most of the issues have since been resolved!

Twitter made some changes to their API which Typepad uses to provide the options to sign in to Typepad using Twitter, connect a Twitter account, and share posts to Twitter. Due to the changes to the Twitter API, these features were not available for a few days. The Typepad team worked over the weekend to develop a fix which was released on Monday afternoon.

The ability to share posts to Twitter, sign in to Typepad using Twitter, and add Twitter to the Other Accounts module has been restored. The option to sign in to comment using Twitter will only be available if you are using Typepad Connect comments. The default commenting system, however, does not allow you to sign in to Twitter to comment at this time, but you can sign in using one of the other options. We are working on resolving this issue as well.

Please also note the changes to Twitter's API impacted other third-party tools which offer up widgets which display your recent tweets. If you have a widget which is not functioning, we would recommend configuring a new recent tweets widget using Twitter's widget creator. We have outlined the steps to configure the User Timeline widget here:

1. Go to https://twitter.com/settings/widgets. You'll be prompted to sign in to Twitter if you aren't already.
2. Click the Create New button.
3. Enter your Typepad blog address in the Domains field. i.e. example.typepad.com or www.example.com
4. Adjust the other available options.
5. Click Create Widget.
6. Copy the code provided for the widget.
7. Go to Typepad. You'll be prompted to sign in to Typepad using your email and password if you aren't already.
8. Open the Blogs menu and select the blog you want to add the Twitter widget.
9. Click to Design > Content.
10. Select the Embed Your Own HTML module from the center column.
11. Click Add This Module.
12. Paste in the code for the Twitter widget in the pop-up box and enter a Label (optional) which will not display on your blog.
13. Click OK.
14. Rearrange the module in your sidebar.
15. Click Save Changes to update your blog with the new widget.

Please note if you are using Advanced Templates, Mixed Media Layout, or Chroma Theme for your blog's design, you will not have the Embed Your Own HTML module option. Instead, you can use one of the other options to add content to your sidebar described here.

Tips To Maintain High Quality For Images In Your Posts

Using images in your blog posts makes an immediate visual impact on your readers, and is a great way to supplement your writing. Of course, you'll want to display the photos in your posts at the highest quality available. The Insert Image function uploads your photo to Typepad at the original quality, but depending on the settings you specify to display the images, the quality of the image can be degraded. We have several tips to allow you to maintain image quality:

• Do not choose the Full option for Image Width. The Full size option can result in your image being scaled to fit your column reducing the quality.
• Use the Custom option for the Image Width to set the best fit width for your blog's layout.
• Set an Image Width in 50 pixel (px) increments. e.g. 350px, 400px, 450px, 500px
• Keep in mind most themes include 15px of padding on each side of the column reducing the available column width by 30px. For blogs with 500px columns, the recommended width for images is 450px.
• Increase the main content column width to allow for wider images and add 30px to accommodate for the padding. For example, a main content column of 830px would allow you to display 800px wide images. See the article on customizing column widths.
• Do not choose the option to have your image open in a pop-up window. When you opt to not have the image open in a pop-up window, the thumbnail image by default will link to the original image allowing readers of your site to see the high quality image originally uploaded in addition to the thumbnail image included in the post.
• Resize large images using a photo editing program to be closer to the size the image will be displayed at on your blog. An image which starts at 3600px by 4320px will need to be resized a lot which is not ideal. Use an aspect ratio calculator to determine the best size for your image.

For more technical details on inserted images, see the Technical Specifications For Inserted Images article.

Do you have a photography blog? Share your tips for optimizing your blog for photos in the forum.

Blogging Best Practices Wrap-up

We hope you've enjoyed our Blogging Best Practices series. We've gotten a lot of great feedback! In case you missed a tip, here's an overview:

Optimize Your Posts for Search Engines
How to use your posts' titles, permalinks, keywords and descriptions to draw in more traffic from search engines.

Improving Your Blog's Speed
If your blog is loading a bit slow, we have some tips for speeding things up.

Photo Use and Attribution
Images add a lot of personality to a post but how do you use them responsibly? Make sure to check out the comments for more great info from the community.

Publish New Posts Frequently
This is the #1 best way to get more traffic to your blog - post regularly and often. Your readers and search engines will keep coming back for more.

Build and Engage Community with Comments
The hows and whys of using comments to build a community around your blog.

Grow Your Audience
Five basic guidelines for bringing attention to your blog, making your content interesting, and drawing in return readers.

Structuring Your Posts Effectively
A general outline for structuring posts so that they're easy to understand and enjoyable to read.

Make it Easy to Subscribe to Your Blog
The title says it all - if you make it dead easy for people to get updates from your blog, they'll stay engaged with your content.

The Power of Personality
The most unique and valuable thing about your blog is you. Here's how to easily set yourself apart from all of the other bloggers in your niche.

Do you have any tips to share? Make sure to leave a comment on this post and tell the community about it! And if you have a request for future tips from the Typepad team, just let us know and we can write about it.

Blogging Best Practices: The Power of Personality

We hope you're enjoying our series of posts on Blogging Best Practices! Each Thursday, we've been debuting a new post designed to help you create great content, share it with the world, and become a better blogger. Check out other posts in the series here!

Recently, we discussed how letting your personality shine through your blog posts can help grow your audience. Today, we're back with three easy steps to make your blog even more dynamic:

Embrace storytelling. Even the most professional blogs benefit from sharing anecdotes from time to time, so don't be afraid to make it personal. Stories create connection, and go a long way in keeping your posts fresh, interesting, and easy to relate to. Invite people into your daily life, and watch your readership grow.

Include a photo of yourself on your sidebar. Creating an area on your blog's sidebar with a recent photo and a few short sentences about yourself and your blog is a fantastic way to welcome people to your blog, and it makes a great attention grabber. Check out our step by step instructions for adding a photo to your sidebar, here. Not keen on having a photo in the sidebar? Add it to the body of your About page instead! Showing your face helps your readers to know who you are.

Promote with charm. If your blog is connected to Twitter and Facebook, then you already know how to share your posts (if not, check here and here for an easy how-to). Take your sharing to the next level by turning on the charm. Injecting personality into your tweets and Facebook posts increases your chances of capturing your followers' attention, and getting them to click your links.

Whether your niche is parenting, fashion, finance or entertainment, your personality is what makes your blog unique, setting you apart from the sea of other bloggers on the Internet. Don't be afraid to let it show!

Add A Landing Page To Your Blog

The Pages feature allows you to add static web pages in addition to your blog, and you can create a Landing Page that visitors will see first when they arrive at your site. The Pages feature is ideal if you want to create a site which is more like a website than a traditional blog.

First, you can create a Page by selecting New Page from the Compose drop-down menu or going to Posts > Pages > New Page. A page is created similar to a post using the Rich Text editor.

After publishing the Page, you can designate the Page as the Front Page of your site. Go to Settings > Posts, select Display a "page" as the front page, choose a page from the drop-down menu, and click Save Changes.

See the article on creating a landing page for more information.

Instead of displaying on the Front Page, the recent posts will be available by adding blog_index.html to the end of your blog's address. i.e. http://example.typepad.com/blog/blog_index.html

You can highlight the link to the recent posts by adding a link to the blog index to the Navigation Bar. At Design > Content, click the pencil icon next to the Navigation Bar module, add the blog index link, click OK, and click Save Changes.

The Navigation Bar can also be used to add other pages to your site. You can create pages with information about your site, contact information, and much more. See the article on adding pages to the Navigation Bar for more information.

Blogging Best Practices: Make It Easy To Subscribe To Your Blog

Welcome to our series of posts on Blogging Best Practices! Each Thursday for 10 weeks, we'll debut a new post designed to help you create great content, share it with the world, and become a better blogger. Check out other posts in the series here!

Visitors to your site need an easy way to be notified when you publish new posts to your blog. You should let your audience choose how they prefer to be notified of updates, and it is a good idea to offer a variety of options for subscribing.

• Enable Post Feeds: By enabling the Post Feed at Settings > Feeds, readers of your site can subscribe to your feed in their preferred feed reader.


• Add The Subscribe Link: At Design > Content, add the Post Feed module to place the Subscribe link and RSS chicklet in your blog's sidebar.


• Connect To FeedBurner: By connecting your blog to FeedBurner, anyone who tries to view your blog's feed URL directly in their browser will be presented with an easy to read website with options to subscribe to the feed via Google, AOL, and several other services. Click here to get started!


• Add Email Subscribe Form: Many visitors to your site may not be familiar with feed readers and prefer to receive an email with your new posts. Using FeedBurner's Email Subscription feature, you add the form to your sidebar. Anyone can enter their email address in the form to begin their subscription. Click here to get started!


• Add Facebook Like Button: At Settings > Sharing, click to connect to Facebook to add the Like button. Anyone who clicks the Facebook Like button added to your blog will see any updates to your blog directly in their Facebook newsfeed. Click here to get started! (Facebook also has other Like button options if you would prefer a Like Box or a Badge.)


• Add Follow Me Module: At Design > Content, add the Follow Me Module to your blog's sidebar to give others in the Typepad community the option to follow your Typepad activity directly from their Typepad Dashboard. (more info)

By offering options to subscribe in a feed reader, sign up for email notifications, track updates in their Facebook newsfeed, and follow with Typepad, you are making sure no one misses the great content you publish to your blog!