BLOG: Dena Dyer
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2005
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: A speaker and author of 8 books, Dena Dyer loves encouraging hurting and harried women, using gentle humor to provide advice, inspiration, faith, and a bit of guidance on how to take themselves less seriously.
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, Marc Johns
Marc Johns drawings are a mix of fantasy, playfulness, and a dry sense of humor which he shares for everyone to enjoy in his posts. His art has been featured in publications like Newsweek, National Geographic, Tommy Hilfiger and more.
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.
Last year, we introduced the Copyright module as a new feature. This is a quick and easy way to add a copyright notice to your blog's sidebar.
On the Design > Content page for your blog, locate Copyright in the listing of modules and click the Add Module button. The module already has a copyright symbol and your blog's name in it. If that's all you need, click OK to add the module and then drag and drop it to the desired place in your sidebar. You can also add more text if you want or edit the existing text.
The Copyright module isn't the only way to add a copyright notice to your blog, however. Maybe you use sidebar header images to dress up your blog's design and you'd like to have your copyright notice match this.
Create the image that you wish to use and then go to Design > Content again. Choose the Add a sidebar image module. Select the desired options in the pop-up window and then browse for the image that you created. Click "Insert Image" to upload the image and then OK to add the module, then drag and drop.
Perhaps you're a big fan of Creative Commons licenses that allow people to re-use your content in specific ways that you choose. Creative Commons provides badges that you can add to your sidebar. Head on over to their Choose a License page and set the options that you want. You will then see some code that you can copy.
Back at Typepad, go to Design > Content and choose the Embed Your Own HTML module. Paste the Creative Commons code into the module and click OK to add it, then drag and drop.
Maybe you want to put your copyright notice at the bottom of the page instead of on the sidebar. For this, you can use the Advanced option for the Blog Footer module. On the Design > Content page, locate Blog Footer and click the pencil icon to edit it. In the pop-up window, choose the radio button next to "Advanced". There may be some code already present, which creates navigation links. You can either leave this as it is or remove it. Type in your copyright notice, then click OK to update the module.
The Blog Footer will appear on every page of your blog, but perhaps you'd like to put the copyright notice immediately underneath each post so that people can find it more easily (maybe you're worried they won't scroll all the way down).
Go to Design > Content and locate the Signature module. Click the pencil icon to edit it then type your desired copyright message. Click OK to add the module.
All of these options are great, but they work best for short copyright notices. What if you would like to set out a detailed content use policy for your blog? For this, you can use an informational page. Look for the yellow Compose button and click the arrow to the right. This will open a little menu where you can choose New Page. This will take you to the Compose editor where you can write and publish your content use policy.
To make it easy for readers to find your policy, copy the URL for the page you just created, then go back to Design > Content. Locate the Navigation Bar module and click the pencil icon to edit it. Add the title of your page and the URL to the list of links, then click OK to update the module.
There you have it! Six ways to display a copyright notice that protects your blog's content.
Do you display a copyright notice on your blog? Tell us how you added it and share any tips or tricks in the comments!
BLOG: Tosa Book Club
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2007
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: The Tosa Book Club describes itself as "a fun and feisty group of book lovers based in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin" and their blog, run by artist and designer Julie Terwelp, reflects those sentiments perfectly! You'll find book discussions from in-depth to irreverent, accompanied by meeting anecdotes and fantastic, relevant recipes. If you're looking for great book recommendations with inspired companion dishes, this is the blog for you. Dig in!
As a blogger, you already know that your readers are one of your best resources for sharing your content; they regularly click the buttons in your post footers to like your stuff on Facebook, share on Twitter, and pin on Pinterest, helping to spread the word about your blog, and grow your audience.
To make it even easier for your readers to share your content - and even give your older, relevant content a boost - consider adding tweetable links to your blog posts! A tweetable link allows your readers to quickly share your content with a single click, and it's easier than you might think with Click to Tweet!
To get started, just head to Click to Tweet and choose the option for Basic Link or Dynamic Link. To start with Basic (completely free, and it works well for most bloggers), just click Basic Link:
For Dynamic Links (your first five are free), just sign in with Twitter, authorize the app, and you're ready to go!
So, what's the difference between Dynamic and Basic Links? With Dynamic Links, you can easily view and keep track of the links you've created in the past, and will have access to edit, view stats, and more. Again, users on the Free plan are limited to five Dynamic Links, so if you find them useful, you might want to upgrade to a Premium plan.
For most users, however, Basic Links are all you need, so that's where we'll focus today. Just create your link by adding your text and the link you'd like tweeted, then click Generate New Link. Next, copy the URL, and you're ready to go. Hint: if you go over the 140 character limit, shorten your URL with Bitly (read more about Bitly in our Knowledge Base!):
Once you've copied your link, sign in to your Typepad account, and in the body of your post, add the text you want readers to tweet. Then, add something like "tweet this," highlight the "tweet this" text and then create a link in your editor to the URL you'd like to link to, pasting in the URL provided by Click To Tweet.
Highlight your link text and click the Insert Link button:
Then, add the link from Click to Tweet!
Tip: Use a blockquote and other formatting options to make it stand out, like so (if you're using the Edit HTML tab - with Rich Text, What You See Is What You Get!):
Finish your post and publish it, and your link will look something like this:
Want to grow your audience? Check out our tips on Blogging Best Practices! (Tweet This)
Try it out by clicking the Tweet This link above! You can add as many Tweet This links to your post as you'd like, but keeping it to a minimum is probably a good idea - less is more, after all.
And there you go! Click to Tweet makes it easy for your audience to promote your content!
We hope you enjoyed this handy guide, and found it helpful! Are there other topics like this you'd love to see us cover? Let us know in the comments!
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!
Previously in our series about getting to know Nimble, we covered how you can style your Highlight Bar that appears over your post excerpt images and the different options available for the Navigation Bar. Today, we're going to review the options available for the blog banner.
With Nimble, you have two base options for your banner - you can upload an image banner or use the Style page to select options for a text banner. Your blog will look great with either option!
Most folks opt to show an image banner. On the Banner page, you'll see that there are two options for the banner display. You can choose to have the banner span just the width of the blog area or it can span the entire browser width. There are size suggestions for your banner image on the page as well.
Below are examples of how the banner looks when it spans the blog's width versus when it spans the browser's width.
Continue reading "Getting To Know Nimble: Banners" »
NAME: Nicole Engstrom
BLOG: What Matters Most Now
TYPEPAD MEMBER SINCE: 2012
WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT: Blogger Nicole Engstrom is a bliss-making Pacific NW grant writer who dreams, takes pictures, adores her family, seeks serendipity, tests recipes, and loves connecting lives. What started out as a place to write creatively, record her recipes and share snippets of life turned into a space where she explores who she is as a person, and shares with others so that they can explore too!
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, The Butterfly Collector
Shae is an artist living in a bayside town near Melbourne, Australia. She uses her wild imagine to create art that inspires, generates smiles, and brings out your inner child.
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.
We've been hard at work on making the Nimble Design Lab even more useful and today we're excited to announce not one, but two huge new features!
The first is the ability to submit your own theme and have it appear as an option for other Typepad subscribers to use! If your theme is selected for inclusion, we'll apply a free month of credit to your Typepad account. You'll also receive credit and a link to your website on the design's thumbnail page.
You can easily submit your blog's current design by clicking the orange "For Designers" button at the bottom of the left sidebar. Once you do that, you'll see the details of the theme, a screenshot of it, and a form where you can enter the theme name, your name, and a link to your own site.
Nimble already comes loaded with seventeen pre-made designs by the Typepad Team plus the default Nimble Design Lab design that you can click and choose, including Off the Grid, the design in the screenshot at the top. If you like one of the pre-made designs but aren't finding it the perfect fit, use the Nimble Design Lab to tweak it to perfection, making it just right for your blog.
At the same time, we're also releasing the 3 column layout for Nimble, with options to have the sidebars on both sides of the content column or on only one side. This brings the total number of layouts available to a Nimble design to six.
The 3 Column option is available immediately for all users, but the Beta Team only will have access to the Theme Submission section. If you want to try the Theme Submission option - and all the other Beta Nimble Design Lab features out now - you can do so simply by going to the Account tab, checking the box to join the Beta Team, and saving your changes.
You can read more about the Nimble Design Lab in our always helpful Knowledge Base.
We've got even more planned for Nimble, so we encourage everyone to keep watching Everything Typepad for more announcements. We're also eager to hear what you think about Nimble, so leave any feedback, questions, or feature requests in the comments or send a reply to @Typepad on Twitter. You can also always reach out to us directly by opening a new ticket.
We've shared with you in past articles and series how important it can be to forge a connection with your blog's readers. It's not always your content that immediately draws someone in; sometimes it's as simple as an introductory message and image. Encourage readers to give your blog more than a cursory glance by sharing information about yourself. A good introduction provides an engaging, friendly, or interesting sample of who you are, and what you and your blog are about.
In the screenshot below, you'll see a profile image and an introduction at the very top of the sidebar on the right. While the content on the left is designed to engage the visitor's eyes, they're pulled to the image and introduction on the right. You can use this to your advantage to provide the visitor a brief "here's who I am and what I'm about; I use this blog as a platform for..." summation. Consider trying different content by changing it up on occasion, and see if you notice any changes in engagement.
The features you'll use are the Profile Photo and Introduction modules. To find them, go to Design > Content. For the Profile Photo module, select About You > Profile Photo (don't forget to first upload a photo to your profile). For the Introduction module, select About You > Introduction.
You'll find that the Profile Photo module provides two sets of options:
Play with the options until you find the combination that you feel looks best with your blog and style. In the example above, the combination is 250px and circle.
The Introduction module is an open text field that allows you to enter any text you feel is pertinent; in this case, a summary about you and/or your blog. It allows HTML, so you can create paragraphs, add inline CSS, and more. (If you need a brush-up on HTML, why not review our Back to Basics series on HTML!) If you prefer not to use HTML, you can use multiple Introduction modules and arrange them in the order you want them to read via the Content screen.
Adjust the position that the modules have in your sidebar, and you only have to take the next step of saving your changes. That's it! Two simple-to-use features that provide you the opportunity to transition your visitors into readers.