Everything Typepad

Tips and Tricks - from the comments

A few weeks ago, we asked you for your best blogging tip. Here's some of the highlights that folks from the TypePad community contributed in the comments.

Christa Wells said..."I think people enjoy humor and authenticity--since I also enjoy humor and authenticity. I make an effort to write with that in mind. A few well-crafted paragraphs that let readers into your life and that bring some joy or hope into their day...that's what I aim for.

Visuals--photographs or video--are great to sprinkle in whenever possible!"

Good Girl Gone Blog said... "My tip is to write posts whenever the inspiration comes to you."

Christopher Ming Ryan said..."Thanks for posting this helpful excerpt. I wrote a post recently on how I get inspired when I get stuck.

It's right here on my typepad powered blog, The Way We Watch, entitled 11 Posts From Around The Web To Motivate Your Blogging."

NJ said... "My blogging tip is too use images in your blog posts. With Typepad blogs you can even create a link from the images to an external URL. People love to "click" on things, why not to something that you want them to visit!"

Noelle Mena said..."...loved the graphic organizer used above. I have always used those for writing period with my students. So is great to see it moved over into blogging! I see where that 'mind mapping' can lead you to writing a great 'series' on your blog. Which of course if its a good one, your readers will keep coming back for more!"

Got more blogging tips to share? Let us know!

This Week's Release: Design, Workflow, and Bug Fixes

Here's a few highlights from this week's release.

Add more awesome to your blog:
We've put together a great list of independent experts who can help make your blog design really sing. Check it out!

We're working on improving the new themes from Japan, too, and should have new widths available soon.

Improving Workflow:
Thanks to some feedback we got in our Get Satisfaction forums, we added the ability for guest authors to schedule posts. This helps a ton of people who are publishing with multiple authors.

Another cool little easter-egg feature for those of us who manage a lot of posts: if you hover over the date that a scheduled post is supposed to go live, you can see the time it's going live, too.

Live Chat Pilot:
We're now offering our TypePad Business Class bloggers live chat support to help with billing and account issues. Learn more about how TypePad Business Class.

Other bug fixes:
Fixed reply by email issue with TypePad Connect.
Fixed posting bug in IE (object tags were getting messed up)
Fixed issues with trackbacks not getting sent at the right time

Blog Tune-Up Service: Taking your small business blog to the next level

Recently, Craig Bowman of Common Ground Consulting purchased a Blog Tune-Up Service from TypePad One. He was very pleased with the results and wrote up a great review.

Craig said:

"Common Ground Consulting is a boutique development firm that works around the world supporting social profit organizations and people who are committed to social justice. We've been blogging on TypePad for years-sharing resources and strategies, connecting people, and telling powerful stories of change. We've also posted a lot of pictures of the foods we've been eating along the way!

"This summer, with the help of TypePad's Tune-Up service, our blog has a new look and feel; and a lot of new followers.

"TypePad's knowledgeable technical advisors provided suggestions specifically tailored to improving our site's accessibility and appeal. After a thorough assessment (including a review of our corporate website at: www.commongroundconsulting.org), they made detailed recommendations about ways to improve a reader's experience on our blog. With our approval, they quickly implemented more than a dozen changes; and even designed a custom banner using an image we provided.

"Throughout each step of the process they provided frequent status updates and made us feel as though ours was the most important blog on the web. Thanks TypePad."

Let TypePad One help your small business today! Don't have a small business? Our services are available to every TypePad member.

Last Week's Webinar Recording is Up

Just a quick THANKS to everyone that joined us for our webinar last week with Anil Dash - click here for the recording and PDF of the presentation.

Also: a TypePad Basics call is this Wednesday and next week we continue our Small Business Webinar Series with the Top 5 Tactics for a Successful Small Business Blog.

The Federal Trade Commission is keeping an eye on blogger freebies

Just as a heads up for everyone in the blogging community: the FTC is planning to start checking on the freebies that you might get from promoting someone or a company on your blog. Taking a cool camera for writing about the awesome snaps it takes? Better read this AP wire story first.

The practice has grown to the degree that the Federal Trade Commission is paying attention. New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers — as well as the companies that compensate them — for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.

It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight.

How do you feel about blogger "perks"? If it's clearly labeled as pay-for-play and taxed appropriately, does that make you feel more trusting of the blogger and the company?