Everything Typepad

Next Generation Comments and Profiles on TypePad

As we complete the migration to the next generation platform for TypePad that Ben talked about earlier this year we've released many new features for you, our TypePad bloggers: improved design screens, AutoSave, and custom URLs to mention a few) that extend the TypePad service to any blogger across the web. Our vision is that the best way to help TypePad bloggers is to connect them with a wider community of readers, other bloggers and conversations.

Today we are launching three big things for TypePad bloggers and readers alike: profiles (a reinvention of TypeKey), new commenting capabilities in a beta service we call TypePad Connect that is free for all bloggers and extends these features to any site.  This isn’t just about providing comments and profiles for your site, but also connecting your community with the rest of the social web.

New: TypePad Profiles
The first thing you’ll want to do is signup for a swanky new TypePad Profile. TypePad profiles take advantage of things you're already doing, to keep your profile up to date and interesting. If you connect with your Twitter account we'll automatically fill in your status. Leave a comment on a TypePad Connect enabled site and we'll pull that in too.

We’ve also worked hard to make it easy for you to take advantage of our new beta commenting service on your TypePad blog currently via TypePad Connect.  TypePad Connect starts to show how we envision TypePad evolving from a design perspective to make it easier for you to communicate with your community and create great content.  These new comment capabilities integrate seamlessly with the new profiles and have great new features you’ve been requesting like threading, easy pagination, OpenID sign in, email notifications of replies and the ability to reply via email.

Today, TypePad Connect beta is available for almost all of TypePad blogs; we’re working to incorporate these commenting capabilities to every TypePad blog next year.

In the spirit of community, we talk more about how we're making TypePad Connect available to not just TypePad bloggers, but all bloggers, over at our Six Apart News post. We know not everyone in your community is on TypePad (although we're counting on you to help us win them over!) and we want you to be able to manage your own comments across a lot of services.

We're also committing to you as a community that we're here to help you. Our customer care experts are available to help you with any questions or concerns you might have with our support team.

There's plenty more coming, but we’re sure you want to try the beta of comments, profiles and TypePad Connect on your blog right now! We'll graduate comments to a full-fledged feature soon, but we'll keep it in beta until we're ready to release it to the world.

This is just the beginning. Let us know what you think and what else TypePad can do to make your blog even more successful.

Learn more and see the video demo at typepad.com/connect.

Give One, Get One

The future belongs to those who give the next generation reason for hope.

— Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are encouraging bloggers everywhere to support One Laptop Per Child’s Give One Get One program. One Laptop Per Child’s mission is to help the world’s poorest kids to know, learn, and understand. OLPC provides a green, low-cost laptop that’s tough enough to withstand a child’s curiosity, and is full of educational content and software to help them connect to the world around them. Being connected to the web is something we feel passionate about at Six Apart, and being connected can fuel young imaginations for a bigger tomorrow.

Join us and thousands of others and get involved today:

• Give One, Get One. You can buy a laptop for a child around the world and for a child near you with the Give One, Get One program. Purchase online at amazon.com/xo.
• Spread the word. Learn more about OLPC and Give One, Get One and write about it. Your voice will help encourage others. Here are some great videos to share with your audience.

Thanks, in advance, for all of your support. Six Apart is proud to help bloggers continue to change the world.

Changing the URL (Filename) of Your Post

We're particularly excited about this feature because it's one of the top requests from customers, both for post management and SEO purposes.  For those of you that don’t know, SEO stands for “search engine optimization”, which is the process of improving your blog’s page rank within search result pages. Whether you want to use filenames to improve SEO or you just want more control over your content, we've now made it easy for you to edit the URLs of your posts.  Over the coming week, this feature will be rolled out to everyone on the new platform .

Previously, the filename of your post was automatically generated when the post was first saved (either as draft or when published). The filename generated was based on the 'originating' title of the post.  Thus even if you edited the title of the post, the filename would always remain the same.  Those of you who often use drafts understand what a big pain it is to not be able to edit those 'temporary' URLs that you had in draft.

Now you can specify the filename of the post while you’re in Compose, as well as edit the filename of the post anytime afterwards. Additionally you can edit old and new post filenames.  If you’ve edited page filenames in the past, this feature will work in exactly the same way.  This is the first of many SEO improvements to come, so stay tuned to future releases.  Happy posting!

There is a small group of you whose blogs are still in the process of being migrated to the new platform (we want to make sure we make the transition as smooth as possible for you) but we should be on track, as Ben predicted, to have everyone on the new platform by the end of the year.

AutoSave to the rescue

We know how frustrating it is to lose a post before you've have a chance to save it -- whether to a browser window closed accidentally, a power outage that shuts down your PC, or a spilled cup of tea that shorts out your laptop. So, we're very happy to announce that we're adding AutoSave -- one of your top feature requests -- to the new TypePad Compose screen. This feature will be rolled out to everyone on the new platform over the coming week.

Here's how it works:

TypePad now automatically saves your post (or page) every 15 seconds...

If you lose a post before saving or publishing, return to the Compose screen where TypePad will give you the option to recover it...

When you click "Recover it", TypePad recovers the last saved version of the post...

There is a small group of you whose blogs are still in the process of being migrated to the new platform (we want to make sure we make the transition as smooth as possible for you) but we should be on track, as Ben predicted, to have everyone on the new platform by the end of the year.

Submit Your Top 10 List to Blogs.com

Want the world to know about your favorite blogs? The most popular feature on Blogs.com is the Top 10 lists, and now you can submit your own! If your list is featured, we’ll link directly to your blog. Help get the word out about your favorite blogs - submit your list today.

Vote!

If you're a registered voter in the United States today, Six Apart wants you to get to your local polling place and vote!

No matter who you're casting your ballot for, Six Apart's politics.typepad.com has been highlighting some of the best and brightest of our TypePad political blogs. We've got all the best blogs for political news, opinion, and everything in between - both before and after you vote. TypePad is proud to have politics.typepad.com representing a cross-section of our favorite TypePad blogs from all points on the political spectrum.

TypePad's got just about everyone blogging with us. There's mainstream media political blogs such as Forbes and the LA Times, and the global viewpoint from The Independent and The Times. We're proud to host longtime TypePad bloggers Obsidian Wings, and local issues bloggers from red, blue and purple states like 13th Floor, Kentucky Politics, and the New Jersey Herald, too.

Take the time today to exercise your rights, and vote!

Donors Choose: A Shoutout For Helping Students

As we mentioned before, hundreds of bloggers engaged in a friendly bit of competition during the month of October to see who could raise the most money or reach the most kids for Donors Choose. Donors Choose is an organization that matches donors with classroom projects specified by public school teachers all around the country.

The results of the competition are in: Once again, Sarah Bunting of Tomato Nation blew every other blogger out of the classroom by raising $111,352 and helping over 19,577 students via her giving page. Sarah demonstrated the power of blogging by producing a campaign ad that asked her readers to vote with their wallets. It worked: over the course of October, 1,162 donors “voted”.

As the sponsor of the prize for the bloggers who reach the most kids, Six Apart would like to give a shout out to Sarah and the bloggers in each category who reached the most students:

(This is our San Francisco team. The New York, Paris, and Tokyo teams send their thanks too.)

Nearly twice as many bloggers attracted 50% more donors than last year, making the competition fiercer than ever. But leaders emerged in each category, and we'd like to acknowledge their fine efforts:

In the Tech Blog category, Fred Wilson’s AVC blog reached  4,545 students

In the Science Blog category, David Ng and Benjamin Cohen’s The World’s Fair blog reached 1,780 students

In the Topical/Local Blogs category, Ralph Alswang Photography reached 522 students

In the Mommy Blog and BlogHer category, Alice of Finslippy reached 1,676 students

In the Knitting Blogs category, Rose-Kim Knits reached 597 students

In the Music Blog category, music teacher Walt Ribeiro reached 910 kids

In the Black Bloggers for Education category, The Assimilated Negro reached 100 students

In the Sports Blog category, Sports Crackle Pop reached 465 kids

In addition to this literal shout-out, each winner will receive some choice schwag from our team at Six Apart.

As the creator of three leading blog platforms - Movable Type, TypePad and Vox - and the provider of social media services and advertising solutions, we’re thrilled to participate in an event that raises awareness about the power and influence blogging can have while raising money for a very worthwhile cause: future bloggers of America!