The GM's Corner

Hello fellow TypePadders! I am thrilled to be writing this letter to you from The Corner Office (ahem) as the General Manager of TypePad. As a longtime TypePad blogger and newly minted champion for this vast and sprawling community, my biggest and most urgent priority is you — the TypePad user.

Over the past few weeks I've heard from many of you about your fears, hopes and dreams. (Oh, and a little bit about how we can improve TypePad ;) I want to ensure assure you that the interests of the TypePad community are first and foremost in my thoughts and will drive the next generation of the TypePad application. We'll be reaching out to the community frequently to get your thoughts as we move forward in 2011.

The TypePad team, with the full backing of SAY Media, is committed to supporting the TypePad community with technology and services to help you blog better — better content creation and management tools, more support to build your brand and audience and opportunities to generate income from your work. As such, I'm going to post here at Everything Typepad as frequently as possible to give you insight into our thinking and to get your feedback. I look forward to hearing more from you about what you want to see and hear from us in the weeks, months and years to come, so please keep an eye out for "GM's Corner" posts. Together we can make TypePad better.

 

Comments

[Account Deleted]

I love TypePad and not just because Seth has stayed true. It is just such a great way to think and share ideas. Bring it on - and on.

[S. Abbas Raza]

You may wish to correct "I want to ensure you..." to what I assume you wanted to say: "I wish to assure you..." :-) Best wishes in your new job.

[Manuel Molina]

Hi Jeff, congratulations on your new job.

I am one of the many typepad fans that decided to stay with you after the SAY medai deal.

One of the things that I would really like to see is the ability to set up the official Twitter button (with retwit count) on each post, without having to switch to advanced templates. Just like we already have it with facebook. The current twitter button just doesnt cut it.

Hope you consider it.
Thanks

[Ravens]

Would like to see a revenue model for small blogs - 20-200 hits a day. Saymedia said not interested, I currently can use Google Adsense, but would like to see a Typepad solution.

[David Saunders]

I love Typepad and was an avid user when I lived in the US. I was one of those early years people when Ben and Mena first moved into San Francisco (proper)

I remember some really cool customer service from Laura? Ginerva and more.

Now I'm back in England and would sign up for Typepad again were it to be a lot more social like Ning or SocialGo

I am starting an online news portal for my home City and would need a forum, blog features and such

I remember years ago I had a Typepad site redesign and it was not too costly

Love it that you are still around

David
Plymouth, England
http://www.abfabseo.com

[Lynn McBride]

Hi Jeff,
Congratulations on the new job, and thanks for asking for feedback. I'm a happy Typepad user. but here is one suggestion: when I open up Typepad, your title page features examples of 3 or 4 blogs. I've been using it for a year, and it's always the SAME 3 blogs. What a wasted opportunity! Why not put a fresh set of blogs there every week or even every day? ( I'm getting pretty tired of looking at Heather). It would give bloggers a little boost and hopefully bring in some more traffic. You guys are the blog for bloggers, surely you can change your header from time to time? Of course I humbly suggest Southern Fried French as the first new header...
Thanks,
Lynn

[Gerry]

The best thing you could do for me (and for all of my family) is to reinstate VOX or provide the VOX feature set in Typepad. There is nothing available that provides the family privacy sharing that VOX provided and we all miss it dearly.

[Account Deleted]

Hi Jeff,
I kindly ask you for a previous permission to publish your article translated into Portuguese on my blogs on Typad and at
http://biometrio.blogspot.com
Please send your respounse to my e-mail
[email protected]
With this translation I expect to make a small advocacy about Typepad in Brazil and Portuguese speaking countries.
All the best,
Jorge Purgly
My social map at
http://xeesm.com/JorgePurgly

[jeff reine]

Thanks!

[jeff reine]

Wait. Hold up. Southern, Fried AND French? mmmmm

we absolutely need to do a better job featuring content from around the network for SO many reasons

[con-tain-it]

I have been with typepad for over three years now and I'm not going anywhere...because you get what you pay for and typepad in my opinion is the best deal around. ESPECIALLY for us bloggers who do not want to spend their time being techy and would rather be writing and creating blog posts like me ;) I'm in the process of breaking my blogs out into five different blogs with one main landing page. My only request is that there was an easier way to transfer over my existing blog posts to my new blogs in a way that keeps all the links and pictures as well as the original posting dates intact. The existing process has made me put off my launch because it's so time consuming. Thanks ;)

[jeff reine]

Thanks, David, what do you mean "a lot more social"?

[BaToCo Barriletes]

Estimado Jeff,

Nuestros saludos y respetos por su designación. ¡Felicitaciones!
Ahora bien, desde que se realizó el anuncio de Say Media en Septiembre de 2010, hemos tenido espectativas sobre la evolución de la herramienta.

Debo admitir que me siento decepcionado, pues hasta ahora se ha mencionado el futuro estupendo de Typepad y sus potenciales desarrollos pero ningún anuncio sobre mejoras concretas.

La mayoría de vuestros competidores en estos últimos cuatro meses han entregado mejoras a sus servicios: nuevos temas, mejoras en las galerías de fotos, manejo de audiencias, etc. En fin, la lista que desde hace bastante tiempo los usuarios de Typepad solicitan.

Creo que es su responsabilidad ser franco y honesto con los usuarios, anunciando concretamente cuáles serán las mejoras y en qué tiempo. A partir de allí podremos evaluar si continuamos con éste servicio o decidimos contratar uno nuevo.

Agradecemos desde ya su deferencia y lo saludamos con especial estima.

Cordialmente,

Gustavo Sonzogni

[Cookie!]

A window adjacent corner office, no less. ;^)

Jeff, what about those of us Typepad bloggers who aren't looking to make a buck? Or who already know how to attract and keep readers? Anything we can look forward? Heaven knows I've got a wish list.

[Susan Joakim]

Typepad has been an excellent communication tool for our business. Our customers LOVE pictures. The more I can post, the happier our customers are. However, I find that it takes a very long time to upload large amounts of photos, unlike facebook and other free blog sites. If there was any way to make the uploading of photos quicker; I would be much happier! Thanks.
Susan

[Susan Joakim]

I have thought the same thing many times! How about rotating actual Typepad title pages everyday!
Susan

[Account Deleted]

my request is to make it easy like blogger to change my backgrounds! there are all these free blogger backgrounds -none for typepad that I can find. I don't want to spend money to pay someone to do the CSS- I don't know how to and dont' have time to learn. I was thinking of switching to blogger, but I was told all my links and pictures won't transfer. So can you make it as easy as blogger to do backgrounds, custom buttons, etc?????

[jeff reine]

Estimado Gustavo, gracias por su repuesta honesta y directa. Estoy un miembro nuevo del equipo de TypePad y espero que tener anuncios mas concretos en el futuro proximo.

(Sorry if my spanish is a bit rusty! I hear you, Gustavo. You want more than general statements. So do I. We'll get there, and we'll get there soon. As you can imagine there is a lot involved with combining two businesses and then planning next steps.)

[jeff reine]

I sure think so, Cookie. But I'm sure you understand that now is not the forum for any such announcements. But please feel free to tell us about that wishlist. Perhaps over at http://getsatisfaction.com/sixapart/products/sixapart_typepad?

[jeff reine]

Oh, and I think your squirrel friend actually climbed an orange tree :))

[Cookie!]

Good. Oh, of course. You need to get used to your new job before we start shouting demands at you.

[Cookie!]

Maybe. However, he was not in the orange tree when I took his picture. He was sitting in a different tree. I really do think he has pockets or something.

[Account Deleted]

What I am looking for in the social media scene is a way for content to be shared across the board at one writing. There are folks out there charging hefty fees to take content and get it to blog, Facebook and other social media sites, newsletter (email) and web pages.

For instance if I have content, say a monthly class schedule, I want to post it on the appropriate web page, drop it in a newsletter and blog, link Facebook and the other s.m. sites I am using, all in one easy process. With images!!!

Can it be done?

[Linda Dessau]

Congratulations on your new position, Jeff!

I've been a happy Typepad user since 2003, and I'm not going anywhere either.

One improvement I would love to see is a direct link to edit my pages, without having to click through to the Posts page first. I use my Typepad sites as "blogsites" and so I'm editing pages quite a bit.

Thanks!
Linda

[Account Deleted]

Good luck, mister. Been bitching about you guys for six-and-a-half years. Look forward to another six-and-a-half!

(And, remember, kids act out with people they love not strangers.)

Mwah!

[jeff reine]

Why do we always hurt the ones we love? :)

[Account Deleted]

I keep wondering why I bother with this blog? Noone evens checks out my blog. And I pay for to boot. Maybe I just should cancel it and forget about trying to help people or giving out my advice. Since nobody even sees it.
Signed tana

[jeff reine]

Don't despair, Tana! Make sure your blog is connected to your Facebook and Twitter accounts and keep on writing. But whatever you do, never stop trying to help people.

[Beth]

I love typepad. I recently tried wordpress thru a host engine. I worked for a week to try to understand the set up. It is not for me. I will stick with you guys. I do have one complaint. No advertising with Say Media until you have an audience of 25,000 unique visitors. OMG. That is huge and feels quite unrealistic. In todays economy it would be nice to make a little money doing what you love. I was banned from adsense last year because I linked to a site that they considered MLM. I thought it was just about the law of attraction. No second chances, just banned for life. Anyway congrats on your job.
www.chefgregskitchen.net

[Jason G]

Tana, maybe your advice is reaching the wrong crowd. Marketing oneself in the blog world means the difference of getting interested readers and just filling up a page with warm advice to have only your friends read it.

Just food for thought.

[Jennifer]

Hooray! I have mentioned this more than once. I love Typepad, and I've been with all of the platforms. I can say that the one thing both Blogger and Wordpress do WAY better than Typepad is promoting the community. Typepad only promotes a few 'bigger' blogs. They're great and all, but I'd like to discover more than those half dozen - I'd love to have a lot more favourite Typepad blogger updates showing up in my dashboard when I log on.

[Market]

the old typepad is back he past couple days, running slow, locking up

[jeff reine]

Running better for you today, Stephen?

[Market]

yes, it seems to be temporary glitches, but its been so consistently good for months that Im always nervous slipping back to some previous periods when I had problems.....thanks for your response, though

[Lenore Buth]

I've been with Typepad for almost three years. One thing I notice on blogs from WordPress, etc., is that most bloggers have a signature line that's unique to them. When I inquired how to do that on Typepad I got a response--as always and thanks for that--describing a more laborious process than it seems it should be.

I'd like to be able to press one icon or one key and be able to insert my signature so it feels more personal.

One more thing. Since the last changes kicked in the possible border around a photo can not be set beyond 5 px. Why? Previously, before we got "upgraded," there were more choices.

Other than that, good job, everybody and good luck, Jeff!

[jeff reine]

Thanks, Lenore! "I'd rather be lucky than good." - Lefty Gomez

By "insert my signature" do you mean at the end of every blog post?

[Lenore Buth]

Hi, Jeff,

That's exactly what I mean, as when one signs a letter.

[Account Deleted]

Thanks Jason for your response to my question? So here is another question for you? How do I reach new reader's. And how can I promote my blog so new people are asking my advice.
tana

[Luci Weston]

I agree with Lynn. Using the title page to promote different blogs from the Typepad community would be an extra perq.

[Kofla Olivieri]

Love Typepad! Congratulations on the new job!

[Catherine Fitzpatrick]

I love Typepad and I would like to stick with it now that SAY has taken over. I was accepted into the original SixApart ad system and was transitioned to the new system, yet I still don't have payments and still don't have answers to a basic query -- how to put ads on my other Typepad blogs.

But I've asked numerous times to get the code to put the previous SixApart ads that I was signed up with, on to a second and third blog account I have with Typepad. I've been assured personally numerous times that this would happen, by email, in person, by staff, and it just never happens. I never get the code, and never get an answer about any approvals procedure.

The entire system of ads and the transition from the old system of SixApart is confusing and not clearly stated. Like Google AdSense, which I have, we should be able to repaste the ad code on to other Typepad blogs automatically, or at least have a fairly automated system for applying for approval to put the ad code on other Typepad blogs.

As I have not had ad payments since last summer, although Google payments proceed as they always have, I think something in the system is broken, and I found others at the NYC meet-up with the same issue.

Can you examine how you are doing the ads, what troubleshooting can be installed, and whether you can move to a system with automatic pasting of ads on to other Typepad blogs?

Catherine

[Prokofy Neva]

This information isn't in the knowledge base; the article there is from 2009.

I haven't heard this issue yet of "25,000 unique visitors" -- where was that said?

I also don't see where I can get that information on my blog. For example, right now I'm showing "31,875 page views" for 30 days, but where can I find the unique visitors? It's not a metric that the Typepad platform provides.

I've suspected that something like this was "up" for quite a while because I can't get any straight answers about the ads despite repeated contact in person via email with staff who assured me at first they were going to send me code.

So it sounds like even if we were accepted into the old Six Apart ad program, even if we were transitioned, if we failed to have 25,000 unique visitors, we were dumped without notification?

[Beth]

I got the information direct from say media. I even "replied" to her email and confirmed this was true.
I applied for advertising through six apart and was given this info from a say media "specialist".
How can I get my views up to that amount. Would love to. Probably wouldn't need them then.

[johnsmolowe]

i like the way my weblog looks. however, i find the method of text entry so cumbersome for the long essays i post that i've gotten quite discouraged about posting. first, the text entry box is so small that it's impractical (and very slow) to edit. second, if i write in word so that i can edit, when i paste the essay into typepad, the word formatting becomes messed up in typepad. i have asked tech support, and they have no useful solution on my mac. please give us a large text entry box!

[jeff reine]

So I am hearing lots of interest and confusion about how to best take advantage of our advertising options. I've asked one of my colleagues to write a guest post next week. Hopefully we can clarify things a bit better and move forward.

[Account Deleted]

Could you write a comment for the Recent Activity blog for that appears on the dashboard welcoming page? How can a company leave a blog that is the welcoming page for users idle for five months? Is no one home?

[Desmond Cleary]

Just get on with it and lets see what you bring to the table. Self serving promotion is good for openers, now lets see where is the beef. Competitors are steaming ahead and TypePads swag bag diminishing !!!

Good Luck

[Phil Cubeta]

How come ads for Vaseline are showing up on my dashboard? They want advice on creative uses of Vaseline. For creative uses of Vaseline, I recommend contacting top management at Typepad. How do you use Vaseline, Jeff, creatively? How does SAY media use Vaseline?

[jeff reine]

Hey, Phil - we're more of an Aquaphor house.

[Ricky]

Hey Jeff,

Any update on what features are on the TypePad product roadmap? Eager to get some new functionality. Also, could we a more in-depth stats tool from Typepad? The dashboard is great, but once things fall off you can't dig into the data.

Also, sidebar sometimes takes long to load. I know I have a ton of widgets in there, but would be great to see it load more quickly.

[Dana Lynn Smith]

I have been a TypePad user for about three years and have also designed several sites here for clients. TypePad has a number of fine features, including good technical support and easily understandable instructions. But, because I use TypePad for my business, I am concerned about what will happen to the platform under the new ownership.

I am also very frustrated with how dysfunctional the Rich Text Editor is. I waste a lot of time having to manually adjust HTML code because the Rich Text Editor makes such a mess of it. I import plain text from NotePad before formatting it with your Rich Text Editor, so these problems are not caused by importing junk code from MS Word. I can provide a number of specific examples, if there is a way for them to be sent to your developers.

I have two other requests:

I work with Pages a lot and it’s annoying to have to click on “Posts” button each time to get to “Pages” button, so I can click that button to see the list of my pages. Can you put a “Pages” button at the top of the screen, next to the “Posts” button?

When there is a serious technical glitch (like a blog suddenly failing to display properly), we need a way to get in touch with support right away, rather than submitting a help ticket and waiting for 24 to 48 hours for a response. Perhaps an option on the help form could list the problem as “Urgent – site not functional” or something like that.

Thank you and best wishes in your new job.