Keep It Simple: Keep Your Blog Organized with Categories

When it comes to building an audience for your blog, attracting visitors is only half the battle. The real key is to keep their interest once they've arrived. Having a well-organized blog can be your secret weapon. Readers should be able to see at a glance what topics your blog covers, and then explore the ones they're interested in with just one click. TypePad's categories feature makes this easy.

First, set up the categories you want. The easiest place to do this is the Settings > Categories page, where you can add, delete, and rename categories all at once. Realized later there was a category you should have added? You can do this from the Compose page while you're writing your post. Just click the "Add a new category" link below the Categories listing.

After you've added all the categories you want, the next step is to assign your posts to them. Whenever you write a new post for your blog, use the Categories check boxes on the Compose page to assign the post to the desired categories. If you have some older posts you didn't put in categories, you can quickly assign them to categories from the Posts tab. Select the posts you want, then choose either "Add Categories" or "Replace Categories" from the "More Actions" drop-down. If you have existing categories you want to keep the posts in while adding them to new categories, choose "Add Categories". If you want to switch the categories, select "Replace Categories".

Finally, you'll want to display your new categories on your blog. From the Design > Content page, add the "Category Archives (List)" module to display a simple list in alphabetical order. Or if you would like to highlight those categories with the most posts in them, choose the "Category Archives (Cloud)". Now your readers will see a list of all categories that have posts in them and can click through to read the posts on their chosen topic. At Settings > Feeds, you can turn on category feeds for your blog, so that people who use feedreaders can be notified of new posts in that category.

We also recommend displaying each post's categories in the post footer. To do this, go to the Design > Content page again, click the pencil icon on the Post Footer module and put a check next to Category, then save your changes. This way, if people like a post they're reading, they can easily click through to read more posts on the same topic.

Want to get fancy? You can limit the recent posts page by category. For more information on these tips and others, check out our Knowledge Base.

Comments

[bobbyp124]

can you make money on type pad

[bobbyp124]

if you can how much can i make on here posting blogs let me know bpuopolo@yahoo.com

[Jen]

Hi Bobby! With TypePad Pro, you can include advertisements on your blog to generate income from your published content. We published a recent post which might find helpful with tips on including advertisements on your blog:
http://everything.typepad.com/blog/2011/04/keep-it-simple-placing-ads-on-your-blog.html

[Account Deleted]

Nice instruction.Easy to understand and easy to apply.

[PCCB - UoA]

it is me dude!

[Mulugetaashango]

ALL CHANCES ARE BETTER BUT WHAT ADVANCED IS WHICH UPGRADES.

[Account Deleted]

you can include advertisements on your blog to generate income from your published content. We published a recent post

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[Account Deleted]

ou can do this from the Compose page while you're writing your post. Just click the "Add a new category" linaluminyumk below the

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