Everything Typepad

Typepad On Pinterest: Retro To Go

Did you know Typepad is on Pinterest? It's true! We love pinning and repinning great content from Typepad blogs in every genre, and we're always looking for great, inspirational content. Are you on Pinterest? Drop your link in the comments, and don't forget to follow Typepad right here! If you're not on Pinterest yet, check it out - it's a great way to promote your blog and connect with others!

Want some inspiration? Check out our featured pinner, Retro To Go!

Retro To Go is your guide to all things hip and retro. If you have an appreciation for mid-century design in fashion, interior design, architecture and more, David and Suzanne are here to share their treasure finds with you!

FOLLOW: Blog | Pinterest

Want to promote your pinterest account on your Typepad blog? Just go to Blogs > Content and add the Pinterest Widget to your Sidebar via the center menu. While you're there, make your blog posts "pinable" by adding the Pin It button to your post footers.

Want even more? Learn how to promote your blog on Pinterest and follow Typepad at www.pinterest.com/typepad.

Typepad 101: Utilizing Categories

Assigning posts to categories can be a great way to organize content on your blog and to direct readers to older content in a subject of interest. Depending on the topic of your blog, you may want to organize your blog in many categories or just choose a few broad categories. Search engines will also index your posts by categories, so keep that in mind.

At Settings > Categories, you can add or edit the default categories.

When composing posts, you can add new categories on the fly too using the Add a new category... link in the right column of the Edit Post page.

See the Knowledge Base article on Categories for more information.

How else can you utilize categories? Read on for more tips.

Create a Featured category to spotlight posts. Posts with large photos are perfect to be highlighted using the Post Carousel. By creating a Featured category, you can make sure posts which include photos are highlighted in the carousel. The sidebar modules - Spotlight Posts and Sidebar Carousel - can also be used to highlight posts in a specific category instead of a text link.

Limit which posts display on the Front Page. By choosing to only display posts assigned to specific categories on the front page, you can essentially create multiple blogs with a single blog. For example, a blog is mostly about DIY projects with occasional personal posts which may not be of interest to visitors looking for DIY ideas. Create a personal category for your blog and link to the category index in the Navigation Bar or use the category feed with the Feeds Module to display the latest posts in the sidebar.

At Settings > Posts, you can opt to display only posts assigned to a specific category on the front page.

For more information, see the article on Posts Settings.

Identify when keywords should be used instead of categories. You don’t necessarily need to assign a post to several categories for search engine optimization. Instead of creating a category for every possible subject, use the Keywords feature to help search engines categorize your posts in search indexes. Think of categories as a way to organize your posts to help readers find related content and keywords as a way to help search engines better index your content. You can add a lot of keywords but use restraint with categories.

For more information on Keywords and other SEO tips, see the SEO Overview article in the Knowledge Base.

Link to the category indexes on a Landing Page. When you opt to start your blog with a Landing Page, you can link to category indexes to allow readers to jump to specific areas of your site - i.e. News, Projects, Events - quickly.

You can find tips for creating a Landing Page in the Knowledge Base as well!

What ideas do you have for utilizing categories?

Featured Blog: Bye Bye, Pie

NAME: June Gardens
BLOG: Bye Bye, Pie
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2007
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: A copy editor by trade, June Gardens started Bye Bye, Pie as a health blog in 2008. The theme didn't stick, but the name did, and it lends an air of charming absurdity to her posts, penned from a humorous perspective. Not to be missed is her book club, and irreverent, witty anecdotes on daily life.

FOLLOW: Typepad | Facebook

Avoiding Common Blogging Mistakes: Design and Structure

Welcome to our series on common blogging mistakes, and how to avoid them. In this series, we've featured posts designed to help you avoid mistakes that are common to both new and veteran bloggers, full of tips and tricks guaranteed to help you become an even more passionate, engaged blogger with a growing audience. If you missed a few, don't worry. You can catch up here!

This week, we're wrapping up our special series on avoiding common blogging mistakes with a conversation about design and structure. As a Typepad blogger, you have your choice of fantastic, professionally designed Themes right at your fingertips (Blogs > Design), and the option to create and customize your own themes with our Theme Builder and Advanced Templates options.

If you're a "ready to go right out of the box" person, you're in luck. Just visit the Design area of your blog, and click the Choose a theme button. We've even started offering gorgeous, high-impact Responsive themes that display beautifully on all devices, from tiny mobile phones all the way up to giant widescreen monitors. Check those out under Responsive!

Design loving (and adventurous) types with a more advanced skill-set can take advantage of our Theme Builder, Advanced Templates, and Custom CSS features. The Theme Builder (Pro Plus and above) and Advanced Templates (Pro Unlimited and above) can be located in Design > Choose a new theme, under the Customizable heading at the left. Custom CSS (Pro Unlimited and above) can be found at Design > Custom CSS. Go for it!

Wait, wait. Before you go for it, let's talk about a few of the mistakes many bloggers make in the course of designing a new blog or renovating a well loved one. These common blunders can be easily avoided, helping to ensure that you are presenting a well-designed, beautifully organized blog to the world. We'll tell you what they are and how to avoid them.

1. Poor color choices. Are you using color irresponsibly? Clashing colors, light text on a light background, and an over-abundance of different colors should all be avoided. Instead, stick to a few complementary colors that reflect your theme and personality, and make sure your text is easy to read and links are easily distinguishable to your readers. Need a little help? ColourLovers is a great resource for color palettes.

2. Cluttered, under-utilized sidebars. Take a look at your sidebars. Are they crammed with ads, widgets, and lists of links taking up every inch of space? Are things stacked willy-nilly with no rhyme or reason? If so, simplify, and get those widgets organized. Take an honest look at what you have displayed on your sidebars, and remove anything that isn't essential to the form or function of your blog. A cluttered sidebar can be distracting and confusing for your readers, instead of directing them to look at the specific items there. Need a little guidance on how to organize your sidebars? We have just the thing, right here.

3. Too much text on the front page. Posting frequently is a fantastic way to build your SEO and keep your readers interested, but displaying too many posts, or several long posts on the front page of your blog can lead to longer load times and infinite scrolling for your readers. Displaying fewer posts on your front page, and using the Split Extended Entry feature to display an excerpt while keeping the rest of your longer post under a "Continue reading" link are two easy ways to keep your blog tidy. You can even generate excerpts automatically! Here are a few more tips to help with load time, and make sure your content is quality.

4. Lack of visual impact. You may write the most interesting blog in the world, but without a little eye candy, reader interest is bound to wane after awhile. Including images, embedding relevant video, and adding interesting graphical elements to your posts make it easy to be eye-catching. Check out these tips on maintaining high quality images, embedding video, using the signature module, and adding a text overlay to your images for some visual appeal. Want to take your navigation and visual impact to the next level? Add the Post Carousel to your blog - you won't be sorry.

5. Missing vital elements. A great looking design, and well written and structured posts are what discerning readers look for in a favorite blog, but are you leaving out other vital elements that will help them utilize your blog effectively? Including a search option, Navigation Bar, and About Page are not to be missed, and adding things like subscription options, a welcome message, and social sharing options are highly encouraged too.

How are you using design and structure to make an impact with your blog? Tell us about it and leave a link to your blog in the comments!

PS: We hope you've enjoyed our special series on avoiding common blogging mistakes! We're getting our next special topic ready now, so watch this space for more great tips and tricks to help you become a better blogger!

Featured Blog: Fly

NAME: Andrea Pippins
BLOG: Fly
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2006
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Fly is a journal of all things beautiful, creative and inspirational. Updated daily, visitors can find anything from DIY videos, color trends, fashion and design to art and elements of pop culture. Fly's purpose is to inspire viewers to be fabulously creative.

FOLLOW: Typepad | Twitter

Typepad On Pinterest: Gone With The Family

Did you know Typepad is on Pinterest? It's true! We love pinning and repinning great content from Typepad blogs in every genre, and we're always looking for great, inspirational content. Are you on Pinterest? Drop your link in the comments, and don't forget to follow Typepad right here! If you're not on Pinterest yet, check it out - it's a great way to promote your blog and connect with others!

Want some inspiration? Check out our featured pinner, Gone With The Family!

Lisa is a mom who is on a mission to show her little girls the world and expose them to different cultures and new adventures.  Her blog documents the trips they've taken and hopes to inspire other parents to do the same with their children.

FOLLOW: Pinterest | Blog

Want to promote your pinterest account on your Typepad blog? Just go to Blogs > Content and add the Pinterest Widget to your Sidebar via the center menu. While you're there, make your blog posts "pinable" by adding the Pin It button to your post footers.

Want even more? Learn how to promote your blog on Pinterest and follow Typepad at www.pinterest.com/typepad.

Customizing the "Continue Reading" Link with CSS

Note: Today's tip uses the Custom CSS feature, which is available at the Pro Unlimited subscription level and above. Upgrading is easy - learn how here.

If you use the Split Extended Entry feature, you know that it's a great way to tease your readers with an excerpt of your post on the main and archived pages of the blog. The link that appears then easily guides the reader to the rest of the post content.

Here's how it looks:

Let's learn how to jazz that link up a bit. The class name for the link is entry-more-link, so that will be our starting point. To keep things simple, let's make the link a little larger in size and bold, like this:

.entry-more-link a { font-weight: bold;  font-size: 125%; }

Changing the font is as easy as:

.entry-more-link a { font-family: Courier, Arial, sans-serif; }

It's a good idea to stick to websafe fonts. You can learn about those at w3schools.

A color change for the link is easy, too! You can find a ton of colors to choose from here. Just replace the CC6600 in the example below with your own color code.

.entry-more-link a { color: #CC6600; }

If you want to get really fancy, you can replace the entire link with one image. This is great if you have a special font you want to use or if you want to draw attention to the link with a graphic.

First, create your image and save that to your computer in a websafe file format - GIF, PNG or JPG. The image shouldn't be too large. Our example is 160 pixels by 35 pixels - large enough to stand out but it doesn't dominate the post too much.

Then, go to Library > File Manager in Typepad and upload your image. After uploading the image, click on the filename in the listing. That will open the image so you can copy the URL from the browser's address bar.

Next, go to Blogs > Design > Custom CSS and add in this code:

.entry-more-link a {
display: block;
text-indent: -999px;
background: transparent url(http://example.typepad.com/folder/read-more.gif) left center no-repeat;
padding: 10px 0;
}

Be sure to update the code with the URL for your image in the area highlighted above. You may also need to adjust the padding to allow your full image to show. When you save and view the blog, you should see your image where the "continue reading" link was, like this:

Looking good! And it wasn't too difficult, right?

We love to share little ways to make your blog special. What are some customizations you'd like us to cover? Let us know in the comments!

Featured Blog: Off the Shelf

NAME: Shelli and Lexie Koestner
BLOG: Off the Shelf
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2011
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Off the Shelf is all about experiencing childhood by being creative, imaginative, messy, thought provoking, and inquisitive. By visiting Off The Shelf, Shelli and Lexie Koestner hope you'll feel you are coming to spend some time in a quaint little children’s bookshop filled with the best books, inspiring activities, and a certain amount of unexplainable childhood magic.

FOLLOW: Typepad | Twitter

New for Beta Users: Blog Welcome Message

One of the great things about having a blog is that it will always be new to someone.  New readers will find you in a variety of ways (search engines; shared links; social media platforms; etc.) and it's nice to be able to welcome them to your blog. For our Beta team members, we've just introduced a way to easily do that with our Blog Welcome Message.

The Blog Welcome Message allows you to add either an embedded or a popover message to first time visitors to your blog. This can include HTML to format the message or just text. You can also include code for links and images.

An Embedded Welcome Message.

To add this to your blog, go to the Settings tab.  Select if you'd rather have the popover or embedded option, enter your welcome message, check the box, and save your changes.  Now, the first time a visitor comes to your website, they'll see your welcome message.

Do you have something new or noteworthy that you'd like to share with both your new and returning visitors?  Simply come back to the Settings tab, update your message, check the box, and save your changes.

You can read more about the Blog Welcome Message in the Knowledge Base.

Beta Team, we'd love to hear what you think about the Blog Welcome Message or any of our other great features still in Beta!  Please open a help ticket with your feedback so that we can make this the best feature possible.

Avoiding Common Blogging Mistakes: Filler Content

Welcome to our series on common blogging mistakes, and how to avoid them. Every other week, we'll debut a new post designed to help you avoid mistakes that are common to both new and veteran bloggers, full of tips and tricks guaranteed to help you become an even more passionate, engaged blogger with a growing audience.

In light of the recent Google Panda algorithm sending some bloggers' statistics into decline, one of the more common issues that bloggers reported being penalized for was having what we refer to as a filler post.

A filler post is one that doesn't consist of much content: a lone image or file; or a short paragraph without substance. The rare filler post, served as a quick update to your readers, may be acceptable, but we highly encourage blog owners to consider how they can write a more complete post so as not to be penalized for something that's avoidable.

Ways to Kill the Cheap Fill

• Can't keep up with your posting schedule?
  Decide whether you need to change it to make it less demanding (it is your blog after all). Post your best and you won't disappoint yourself or your readers, even if that means posting once a week or less.
• In a creative funk?
  Make better use of when you're feeling your most creative by jotting down notes, taking photographs, mapping destinations, writing a bulleted list, creating pie charts—it's up to you! Once you have those items, you can use the momentum to create drafts of posts in your blog that you can then go back to develop at a later time. This can help rejuvenate you when you're in a slump, saves you time, and reduces stress.
• Still don't feel like some of your post topics can stand on their own just yet?
  Shelve them and go back to them later! Or perhaps what you need to do is challenge yourself in some way related to the topic—consider all angles, try something different, approach it from another direction, or completely flip it on its head and do the unexpected. Work it until it solidifies. Don't chew it to death, but there should be meat enough to entice the reader to keep looking, keep reading, and to keep coming back for more.

When You Can't Avoid the Fill? Reinvent it.

Reinvent what a filler post means for your blog. Instead of publishing a post that's essentially a fluffy bit of nothing, change what filler content means for your blog, without the fear of search engine penalties. How you choose to reinvent it is up to you, as well as what your goals are for your blog. You can brainstorm and decide what's right for you, but here are a few ideas to get the wheels turning:

• Invite guest bloggers to post on a specific topic.
  This can be something you'd like to cover as well, giving readers different views on the same topic, or it can be something you'd like to learn more about and think your readers would as well.
• Write up a report on some event or thing.
  This doesn't have to be a book report like the ones that made your insides squirm back in your school days (unless you were a lovable nerd like some of the support staff who loved book report days). Take a step back and consider how your readers might be curious about some of the things you do, create, have, succeeded or failed at, and so on. You may not have thought it would be of interest to them, but we bet there are more than you think.
• Start a discussion with your readers.
  Blogging doesn't have to be a one-way street—in fact, it really shouldn't be, unless that's what you prefer. Posting discussion points, and trying to engage your readers, is more than just slapping questions in a post. Take care to answer them yourself so that it's communicative and real content. An added bonus of building a community through discussion is that it can provide a place where an unexpected exchange of ideas happens, giving you more to write about at a later time.

Quantity Isn't Everything

An important factor to remember about blogging is that the amount of posts you publish each week, month, or ever, isn't everything; that should never be your real goal. Quality beats quantity every time, and why that is lies in one aspect of blogging that is often forgot: the general format of blog posts and blogging is setup to foster connections.

Readers want to establish a connection, to find something interesting in what you say and share—to find that common denominator so they can relate. Giving anything less than that to your blog, and to your readers, so that you can appear to have more real content than you do, can become exhausting—more to the point, disheartening.

To feel like the quality of your work means something, and to avoid having your blog penalized for filler, strive for the quality. Stop thinking about filling the gaps between published dates. You'll find that even some of your shorter posts become less fill and more substance.

Have thoughts about filler posts and how to avoid them? Leave a comment and let us know!