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Posts from May 2015

Individual Accounts Now Used for Bitly Links

Recently bit.ly made changes to how their system interacts with Typepad.  We took this opportunity to upgrade the experience for you, our subscribers!

If you weren't already familiar with bit.ly, they are a free service you can use to shorten the length of permalinks when sharing posts around the web. The shorter links will automatically be used when sharing to Twitter and Facebook. You can also use Bitly to track traffic to every post on your blog.

What this change means to you, is that now you can easily integrate your own personal bit.ly account into Typepad, allowing you to view your blog's bit.ly links within your own bit.ly account.  Previously these links were housed within Typepad's own bit.ly account.  This change means that you can see all of your links in one place, including the ones you shared through Typepad.

To use your own bit.ly account, simply go to Settings > Add-Ons and scroll to the bottom of the page.  You'll see a section for bit.ly.  Click on their orange logo and you'll be redirected to their site.  Approve the connection and you're done!

image from help-orig.typepad.com

Now, when you go to Overview and click the bit.ly listed under "Recent Social Media Traffic," the links listed there will allow you to view additional information on their clicks under your own bit.ly account. Just click a link to get more detailed stats.  Any links created previously will still retain their stats.

Don't have a bit.ly account yet?  You can register for free here.

We have more information on this topic in our helpful Knowledge Base.

Have any questions or need help with something?  Assistance is just a click away!


Typepad On Pinterest: Homegrown Hospitality

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, Homegrown Hospitality

Alright Scrapbook folks, this one is for you! Stephanie Ackerman designs rubber stamps and is very involved in the Paper Crafting world. She teaches workshops and online classes specializing in journaling, lettering, fun doodle art and more.

Screen Shot 2015-05-26 at 3.28.49 PM

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: Uploading Images to Your Sidebar

As a blogger, you love to share your passions with your readers.  One of the best - and easiest ways - to do that is to upload images to your blog.

You probably know how to add an image to a post (click that little icon with a picture of a mountain), but you might not know how to add an image to your sidebar.  It's a great way to have an image that's always there that you'd like your readers to see.  It can be of you, your family, your pet, a book you wrote - anything.

It's easy to do, so let's get to it! First, go to Design > Content and look for the Widgets category.  Find the "Add a Sidebar Image" option and click the "Add this module" button. Click the Upload Image button to open the Insert Image window. Click Browse or Choose File, locate the image on your computer, and click Open. Finally, click Insert Image.

image from help-orig.typepad.com

Once you've done this, you'll have several options that you can use to enhance your photo.  You can give it a caption to be displayed along with the image.  You can even link the image to a new URL or open the original image in a pop-up window.  It's so simple and a great way to make a big impact on your blog.

image from everything.typepad.com

As always, our Knowledge Base has additional information on this and many other topics.

As a special bonus tip, don't forget that you can set up your Instagram photos to automatically display in your sidebar too!

Have any questions or need help with something?  A member of our support team is ready to help you!


Featured Blog: WomanOnWheels.ca

NAME: Jil McIntosh
BLOG: WomanOnWheels.ca
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2008
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Whether you love cars, or consider them a necessary evil to get from A to B, you'll love WomanOnWheels.ca. Blogger Jil is a professional auto reviewer who thinks like an everyday driver, writing about cars in a way that everyone can understand. With a focus on road safety, new technologies, and fun with old cars, this unique blog really stands out. If you've ever been confused by an auto review, WomanOnWheels.ca will set you straight!

WomanOnWheels

FOLLOW: Typepad | Twitter



Getting to Know Nimble: Showcase Your Photos with the Highlight Bar

Getting to Know Nimble: Tips & Tricks to Make Our New Design Lab Work for You

Welcome to Getting to Know Nimble, a special series full of tips and tricks to make our new Design Lab work for you. In this series, we'll take a look at everything the Nimble Design Lab has to offer, what it can do, and how you can utilize its features to make your blog stand out. Check out the rest of the posts in this series here!

We start the series with one of our favorite new features exclusive to Nimble - the Highlight Bar. We often receive requests from Typepad bloggers asking how they can make the front page of their blog look a bit more like a magazine, where the front page posts put your photos front and center, and there is an excerpt of each post with a link to read more.

You can set this up manually as you compose each new post, but why go to all that work? Instead, start by heading on over to Settings > Posts and scroll down to the bottom. Here you'll see a section called Auto-Generated Excerpts. Put a check in the box labeled "Display excerpts instead of full posts on index and archive pages". A new check-box will appear when you do this, which says "Show featured image with excerpt". Make sure that this is checked as well.

Auto-Generated Excerpts

Now go on to Design > Style. You'll immediately see that the Live Preview has updated to show an example featured image with excerpt below and that there is a band across the image with the post title and post date. This is the Highlight Bar. If you like how it looks, you don't need to make any further changes, just start posting to your blog and adding photos to your posts and Typepad will do the rest.

Maybe you'd like to make the Highlight Bar a different color, or move it to a different position on the image, however. To do this, click on "Posts" in the menu to the right of the live preview.

Posts menu

This will open a section where you can modify the style of your posts. At the bottom of this section is the configuration area for the Highlight Bar.

Highlight Bar section

Click on the colored rectangle to open a small window where you can chose a new background color for the Highlight Bar.

Color picker

Keep in mind that the highlight bar will be slightly transparent so that the image can be seen through it. The text color for the post title and post date can be set above, along with the font and the size. You can also choose whether the Highlight Bar should appear across the middle of the post (this is the default) or across the top or bottom.

As you make each change, the Live Preview will update to show you how it will look. (Isn't the Live Preview the coolest feature ever? We're still geeking out over it ourselves!) Once you're satisfied with how you've styled the Highlight Bar, click "Save Changes" below the Live Preview to save your style. You can then check it out on the published blog by clicking "View Blog" in the top right corner of the page.

Highlight Bar

If you're on the Pro Unlimited plan or above, and if you're comfortable with coding CSS, you can customize the Highlight Bar further using the Custom CSS feature, such as by adding a border around the Highlight Bar or the featured image. To add a thick, solid, black border around the Highlight Bar, for instance, use the following code:

.overlay-text { border: 5px solid #000000; }

Our Knowledge Base article on CSS borders has more information on the different border styles you can use, if you'd like to learn more.

Want to see how the Highlight Bar looks on a real blog? Check out Swoonish:

Swoonish

Are you using the Highlight Bar on your Nimble blog? What tips and tricks do you recommend for bloggers who would like to add it? Tell us in the comments below!


Featured Blog: Madonnalicious

NAME: Clare Parmenter
BLOG: Madonnalicious
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2007
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Madonnalicious is the UK's number one Madonna fansite, full of photos, facts, and news. It has been honored with the BT Digital Music Award for Best Unofficial Fansite, and named as one of Entertainment Weekly's 25 Essential Fansites. Madonnalicious is fun, informative, and popular with fans and press alike!

Madonnalicious

FOLLOW: Typepad | Twitter


Typepad on Pinterest: Pink Paper Peppermints

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, Pink Paper Peppermints

How does a Crafty Blogger get kicked out of their 8th grade Home Economics class? Let Melissa tell you how marching to the beat of your own creative drum is not such a bad thing. Pink Paper Peppermints has plenty of tutorials, downloads, and awesome freebies to enjoy.


Screen Shot 2015-05-12 at 3.44.15 PM

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: Using a Different URL for Each Blog

Here at Typepad, we want our subscribers to get as much out of their accounts as possible. One great feature we offer is allowing for multiple blogs within the same account. Subscribers at our Plus level are able to create three blogs and subscribers at the Unlimited level and above are able to create as many blogs as they'd like.

When you create a new blog, it will use the subdomain you've chosen for your account, like example.typepad.com. Have you ever wanted to create an additional blog on your account but wondered how you'd use a separate URL for that content?

The answer is domain mapping. This allows you to purchase a unique domain for your blog, like www.exampleblog.com, and configure that in Typepad so it becomes the new URL for the blog. The original Typepad URL will still work. You won't lose any incoming traffic to those URLs but the domain address will become the new default. Over time, search engines will index the mapped URL and phase out the Typepad URL. You'll retain any search engine ranking you started with prior to mapping.

Each blog on your account can have its own domain mapped to it, even if you already have one of those domains mapped to the entire account. This will allow you to have totally separate blogs with different URLs without having to open multiple accounts.

Domain Mapping with TypepadIn the past, purchasing a domain was very expensive but most registrars now offer affordable pricing and easy-to-use interfaces. We've recently added integrated domain mapping with a registration partner that offers very competitive pricing.

You can get started in Account > Domain Mapping and full details and steps are here. Registering your domain through Typepad allows you to do everything in one place, including receive support for any questions you have.

If you already own a domain through another registrar and want to use it for a Typepad blog, you can do that, too. The only requirement is that the registrar will need to allow for CNAME records. We have a full overview in our Knowledge Base.

If your registrar doesn't allow for CNAME records, you may be able to transfer the domain to our registrar. Just open a help ticket and we can guide you through the process.

Do you have questions about domain mapping? Check out the FAQ or open a help ticket in your account and we'll be happy to help!


Update to Typepad Comments: No More CAPTCHA

You may have noticed the great strides Typepad has made over the years with comment spam.  We've changed systems, implemented different strategies on the backend, and given you additional tools so that you can join in as well.

We're confident in these changes and how they've made a positive impact on Typepad, so we are removing the option to require a comment verification.  This is also known as CAPTCHA.

If you're not sure what a CAPTCHA is, it's a way of verifying a commenter is not a robot by entering an alphanumeric string.  However, the option that we added that puts a JavaScript requirement in place last year provides the same function.

While it may sound conflicting to remove the CAPTCHA, we often get reports from readers that are frustrated with trying to read it.  Due to many of the aforementioned changes, the comments that CAPTCHA was designed to flag as spam will already be caught.  Removing the CAPTCHA will help alleviate reader pain points while leaving your comments as safe as they were before.

If you haven't already, we recommend making sure that you've enabled the option that requires readers to have JavaScript on to comment at Settings > Comments.  This will not affect a vast majority of your commenters, but will greatly help stop spammers.

You can read more about your comment settings in our Knowledge Base article.


Featured Blog: Elaine Phipps

NAME: Elaine Phipps
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2005
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Painter Elaine Phipps is a nuts-and-bolts type of creative who lives and works in the northwest of England at the foot of the West Pennine Moors. Acrylics are her thing, but she embraces other mediums, using layering to produce unique landscapes, seascapes, and abstracts on both canvas and board. Her work beautifully captures visceral, living landscapes and expresses the euphoria of coming home to the sea.

Elaine Phipps

FOLLOW: Typepad | Twitter