Everything Typepad

Verify Your Blog With Pinterest

Pinterest is a popular social media platform. If you're familiar with Pinterest, you've likely spent an afternoon or more (we won't judge) dreaming about and pinning future projects. If you're on Pinterest, take a moment and make sure your blog is verified.

Not on Pinterest, what are you waiting for? Create your Pinterest Business account today. Once your account is set up, easily share it with your readers by adding a board or your profile to your blog sidebar. Make it easy for readers to share your posts on their Pinterest boards by adding a Save button to your images. When you verify your blog with Pinterest you get access to more analytics to inform your strategy on Pinterest. A verified blog also shows a small globe icon that appears next to your URL on your Pinterest profile. Readers can be assured they're viewing pins from a reliable source. 

There're two ways to verify your blog with Pinterest: add HTML tags; or upload an HTML file. Today we'll walk you through how to verify your blog each way. 

Log into your Pinterest Business account, click on the down arrow on the top right. Then click on Settings. 

Now click on the Claim tab. Under Claim your website, enter your  blog domain. Don't enter the www, only your domain like in their example.

In the pop-up you're given the option to Add HTML tags or upload an HTML file. Below you'll see the steps for both options.

Add HTML Tags

Select Add HTML and some code will show up in a box. Copy the code and add it to your Head module in Typepad. You need the unlimited plan or higher to have access to the Head module.

In a new tab, log into your Typepad account. Click on the Blogs tab, then the name of the blog. Select the Design tab, then Head on the left. Paste in your code from Pinterest and click on Save Changes. 

Now go back to Pinterest and click on the red Next button. The next pop-up will confirm you have added the code to your head module. Click on Submit. 

Now Pinterest will review your blog and email you once it's approved. This can take up to 24 hours. 

Upload HTML File

Select Upload HTML file and then click on Download. 

Save the file to your computer. Don't change the name or anything about the file. We recommend you save it to your desktop so you can easily find it. 

Open a new tab and log into your Typepad account. In Typepad go to Library > File manager. What you do next will depend on your domain. If you are using your example.typepad.com URL you will upload the file to your Home folder. The Home folder is the default folder when you go to the File Manager. On the top right, click on Choose file and select the Pinterest file from your computer. Then click on upload. 

If you have a domain mapped to your blog, you want to add the Pinterest file to the blog folder. From File Manager, click on the specific blog folder, then upload the Pinterest file to that folder. 

Pro Tip: Not sure what blog folder to look for? Click on Blogs > Name of blog > Settings. Next to Blog Folder you will see the name of the folder. This is the folder name you're looking for under File Manager. 

In Pinterest, click on the Next button and then Submit to claim your blog with Pinterest. Pinterest will review your blog and email you once it's approved. This can take up to 24 hours

Once your blog is claimed you will see a green check-mark next to the domain in Pinterest

Now you're verified with Pinterest! We'd love to see how you're using Pinterest, so drop your Pinterest board links in the comments below.

How To Make Simple Changes So Category Links Stand Out

The Category Module automatically alphabetizes the category names on your blog. By adding a bit of code to the category name you can customize the order seen on your blog. In this post, we'll talk about other ways you can customize your category list. Let's get started! 

Find Your Categories

All your categories are listed in one place. Click on the Blogs tab, then the name of the blog. Select Settings, then Categories to view all your categories. Next to the category name, click on Edit to make any changes. 

Change Category Order

To update the order add <!--1--> before the name of the category. Save your changes and then go to the next category and add the same thing but change the number to 2.  This will sort your categories to be in a specific order. 

Category Names: 

<!--1-->BBQ Books
<!--2-->BBQ Tools
<!--3-->Favorite BBQ Recipes
<!--4-->BBQ Failures

Customize The Links

You can make your links stand out further by customizing the font, color, and style. Using our Design Lab themes, you quickly update the sidebar links on the Style tab. If you are using one of our other design themes, you can use the Custom CSS tab customize. We can show you how. 

Design Lab

From your Design tab, click on the Styles tab. On the right, click on the Sidebar. Here you can customize the color and font of the links to match your branding. 

Quick Tip: If you don't see the Custom CSS tab you will need to upgrade to an Unlimited Plan or higher.

You can bold or italicize your category links with some CSS code. From the Design tab, click on Custom CSS. Paste in the CSS code below and click on Save Changes. 

Bold: 

.module-categories .module-content a { font-weight: bold; }

Italic

.module-categories .module-content a { font-style: italic; }

Bold and Italic

.module-categories .module-content a { font-weight: bold;font-style: italic; }

Other Themes

Using our other pre-made themes, Magazine theme, or Theme Builder, you can add Custom CSS to change the color and style. From the Design tab, click on Custom CSS. You can add the CSS below to customize.

.module-categories .module-content a { color: #003366; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; }

color: #003366; - Update the hex value to the hex value of the color you want. You can also delete it if you like the current color on your blog.

font-weight: bold; - This will bold the text. You can delete it if you don't want the text to be bold. There are other font weights you can try. Other options are bold, bolder, lighter, and number. Play with the different weights and see what you like the best. 

font-style: italic; - This will italicize your text. You can delete it if you don't want the text to be italic. Another option is oblique. Oblique is a form of type that slants slightly to the right.

Once you are done making the changes, click on Save Changes and view your blog! After you've customized your categories link, share your blog in our comments. We would love to see what you have done!

Quick Tip: How To Add A Quick And Easy Message To Your Comment Form

Do you want to let your readers know about your comment policy before they comment? By adding a small bit of CSS code to your Design Lab or Magazine Layout - Featured Cards theme you can add a message over the comment form. If you have comment moderation enabled, for instance, you can let your readers know their comments won't appear right away. Or you may just want to ask for all commenters to submit their name and not a pseudonym.

Custom CSS is a feature available with the Pro Unlimited and higher plans. If you're on a lower plan, you'll need to upgrade. 

Typepad offers three types of commenting options: the default comments, Typepad Connect , and Disqus comments. The CSS code is slightly different depending on the commenting system you're using.

Not sure which commenting system you have on your blog? There's an easy way to check. Click on the Blogs tab, then the name of the blog. Select the Settings tab, then Comments. Along the top, it'll either say "Typepad Connect is currently enabled for the blog", "Typepad's default commenting system is currently enabled for the blog", or "Disqus Comments Enabled". Once you know the commenting system your blog is using, you can use the correct code below.

Please note, if you're using another 3rd-party commenting system, the below code will not apply.

Here's what our example will look like: 

For the default commenting system, you can use the CSS code below:

#comments-open-login:before {
content: "Comments for this blog are held for moderation before they are published to the blog.";
display: block;
margin: 10px auto;
text-align: center;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color: #f9f9f9;
}

For Typepad Connect comments, you can use the CSS code below:

#comments-signin:before {
content: "Comments for this blog are held for moderation before they are published to the blog.";
display: block;
margin: 10px auto;
text-align: center;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color: #f9f9f9;
}

For Disqus comments, you can use the CSS code below:

#disqus_thread:before {
content: "Comments for this blog are held for moderation before they are published to the blog.";
display: block;
margin: 10px auto;
text-align: center;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #ccc;
background-color: #f9f9f9;
}

Within the CSS, you can edit the following attributes:

• The content attribute is where you'll include the text you want to display above the comment form.
• The margin can be increased or decreased to increase the space around the note.
• The text-align attribute can be set to center, left, or right.
• The padding around the text can be increased or decreased. Since our example includes a shaded box, the padding determines distance between the text and the outside of the box.
• The border settings can be changed too. If you don't want a border, remove this attribute entirely.
• The color code for the background-color can be adjusted. If you don't want to have a background color, you can remove this attribute.

You can also include other attribute snips — for example: font-weight: 600; — will make the text of your message bold. You can find other formatting attributes in the article on styling the post title with CSS.

After you customize the CSS specific to your comment type, go to Design > Custom CSS, enter the CSS code in the text field, then click Save Changes to update your site.

Do you already use CSS to insert a message to your readers above the comments? If so, share your tips to make it stand out or let us know in the comments how well it's working for you!

Learn How To Create An Informative 404 Error Page

What do your readers see when they stumble upon a broken link? You can now create a custom 404 error page that will share the fun side of your brand and help readers find the information they need.  Let's get started!

Creating a 404 Error Page

First, you need to create your 404 error page. Click on the Blogs tab, then the name of the blog. Click on Posts tab, then Pages. Click on New Page to create your 404 error page. 

PRO TIP: We recommend you keep the title simple, like "404 Error" or "Sorry, wrong page". You can also edit the post URL to reflect the type of page it is. Click on Edit next to Permalink and update the URL. Keep it short by changing it to "404-error" or "404-error-page",

After you have the perfect 404 page published, click on the Settings tab, then Custom 404. Select the page title from the drop-down menu and click on Save Changes.  

If you no longer want a page to show as the error page, you can remove it. From the Custom 404 tab, select Remove Custom 404, then click on Save Changes.  

Now that you know how to create a 404 error page, let's go over what should go in your error message. We have complied a list of best practices to help you get started. 

Best Practices

 

Branding

When writing an error message or creating an image for your 404 page, keep in mind your brand's look and feel. Write in the same tone you write your blog posts and keep the images similar to ones you have on your blog. 

 

Clear Message

You want to make sure readers can clearly see they arrived at an error page but are on the correct website. Create a short message letting your readers know the URL they went to is not correct. Too much information can be distracting.

 

Entertaining Message

Your 404 page is a great place to use a little humor to engage readers. Add a funny or unique image to show the funnier side of your brand and rally your readers to keep searching your website. There is a thin line when using humor; make sure to not pack in to many jokes.  

 

Call To Action

Now that your reader is on the page, let them know what you want them to do. They can search your site for specific content or contact you with information on where they see the broken URL.

 

Search Your Site

When readers come to an error page, a search bar will encourage readers to stay on your site and find the information they need. You can add a Google Programmable Search Engine on your error page that will search just your website for posts and pages. It's easy to add the code from Google by using the Source Code button (looks like < >) on the Compose page. Keep in mind that you won't see the search box on the Compose page, you will need to preview or publish the page to see the search box. 

 

Contact Information

It's a good idea to know where readers are seeing this broken link. Have an easy way for readers to contact you and provide information on where they came from. Ask the reader to include all the information you believe you will need to investigate and correct the broken link. If you are being linked back to from another blogger, reach out to them with the correct link.

Now, you have everything you need to create a 404 page that will help keep your reader and direct them to the correct information. After you create your 404 page, share it with us. We would love to see what you create.

How To Build Stronger Titles For Improved Retention, Better Results

After pouring your heart out into a blog post, coming up with a post title to reflect what you've written about can be a challenge.  First impressions are so important; you have milliseconds to grab someone's attention and keep it for a bit. 

When a reader shares a post to social media, browses your blog's newsletter, or searches your blog for a specific topic, the headline is what they see first. Don't skimp on coming up with an effective title.

Now, there's help! Check out Headline Analyzer from CoSchedule.

Enter your title and click the "Analyze Now" button.  You will see a pop-up asking for your name, email, and website but we promise it's free.

We'll use this article as an example. Originally, the title of this post was going to be "Grab Your Readers With A Captivating Post Title." How did it work out? Not so well.

We can do better than that.  This headline type is classified as "Generic" with not enough action involved to make readers want to share this headline with others. You want to trigger an emotional response and curiosity which makes the person to want to click your headline to read more. Using effective keywords can help rank your post in search results. 

At the same time, don't overshare and make your title too long as that is not effective for SEO purposes either. Remember, milliseconds!  Headlines 55 characters, or 6 words, long tend to earn the highest number of click-throughs but there is a little room for leeway. 

Consider the types of words you're including in your title. Common words take up 20-30% of a headline while Uncommon take up 10-20% and Emotional 10-15%. There should be at least one Power word in your headline. 

Following the recommendations, and some trial and error, the headline changed to "How To Build Stronger Titles For Improved Retention, Better Results".  How did this work out?

Better! We now have a clear intention with a "How To" headline where the reader will gain a better understanding of what they'll read from the title alone. We don't have "uncommon" words in the title due to length but some examples of uncommon words include "more, actually, right, awesome, actually."

What have you found is most effective in creating a strong post title?

To learn more about your SEO options in your Typepad account, click here.

Create A Word Cloud For Your Blog

Word Clouds take all the words from a text source (like a blog post) and create a cloud of all the words used. They're a great way to showcase a post's main themes by highlighting the words used. The more a word is used the bigger it is in the cloud. 

Wordcloud.com is a great tool to help you create the perfect word cloud image for your post or sidebar! Let us show you how easy it is to create a word cloud. 

First, you need to add your words. If you have the post published, you can use Open URL. In the pop up paste in the URL to your blog post and the words will generate from your text. To add your text, either click on File or Wizard. 

Quick Tip: When you use the Open URL option, the URL must be published and can't be password protected.

Wordcloud.com offers a few different ways to edit the image before you download it. 

Size

Select the best size for where you plan to put the image. They have pre-selected sizes or you can create a custom size to fit your needs. 

Wordlist

View your list of words and how many times they are used in a document. Delete words you don’t want to use and change the color of the words by adding a color hex value. 

Gap Size

This is the spacing between the words. The words can be close together or far apart. 

Direction Of Words

This allows you to pick a directions for the words. They can go horizontal, vertical, diagonal, and more. 

Invert

When you select a shape, the words can be that shape or have the words show up around that shape

Shapes

Pick what shape you want the words to take. Pick from their many different shapes or upload one of your own. 

Themes/Colors

Here you can select the colors for your words. Themes provide pre-selected color schemes to choose from. With Colors, you can customize the colors you want on your word cloud. 

Font

Customize the font for your word cloud. Pick a font that fits your blog style and brand. 

Now that you have the perfect word cloud for your blog, you can export it and save to your computer. From the File button, click on Save As Image. In the pop up you can give the image a name and select the file type. With the image saved to your computer, you can add it to your blog post or insert it on your sidebar. 

Here is one we created from a recent Typepad post. 

Show off your word cloud by sharing your blog post or blog in the comments. We would love to see how creative you can be! 

Accepting Payments On Your Blog With PayPal

While there are many ways to accept payments on your blog, PayPal has been around for a long time and is a trusted service that allows customers to pay with cards, PayPal Exclusives, and local payment methods. It continues to be the leader in accepting online payments for many businesses (including Typepad!) If you are ready to sell your product through your blog, try PayPal as your payment option.

In your PayPal account Dashboard, there is a section titled "Quick Links" - click "Show More" for more options, select "Accept Payments."

You have a few options on how you can accept payment on your blog - whether it's selling an exclusive download, recurring payments to access exclusive content, or a button to accept donations.

In this case, we will use PayPal Checkout. With PayPal Checkout, you can get paid online and enable buyers to pay the way they want to pay. Click the blue button "Choose a way to integrate." From simple to completely custom, no matter which integration you choose, PayPal Checkout will intelligently present the most relevant payment types to your customers. Let's do the "Quick Setup" option which can be set up in minutes by copying prebuilt code and pasting it next to the products or services you want to sell on your website - click "Start Setup."

In the Setup page you can customize the appearance of your item, then click "Copy Code" on the bottom of the page.  You can now paste the code on to your blog. 

In this example, a separate page was created to sell a photo print.  In the Compose Page, I switched to the HTML editor tab and pasted the code from PayPal - do NOT switch to the Rich Text editor.  To preview your PayPal Check, click the Preview button.  Add any additional text or images to the page and publish. 

Are you currently accepting payments on your blog? Share your link in the comments so we can see what you're selling! 

Support A Cause With Your Blog - GoFundMe And Kickstarter

If there is a charity or fundraiser you feel really passionate about, are you using your blog to share this with your readers?  Many websites offer an "embed" option to share information from their site to yours.  GoFundMe and Kickstarter include an Embed option to share their fundraisers to other places besides social media accounts. 

NOTE: Because you are dealing with a third-party script, it is recommended that you complete your blog draft first and then proceed to insert your script last, just as you're ready to schedule or publish your post.

Locate the "Share" button on the GoFundMe or Kickstarter page and select "Embed", this will direct you to a pop-up window where you can customize the appearance of your makeshift fundraising widget.

Embed Code from GoFundMe

Embed Code from Kickstarter

The code is generated for you, all you need to do is copy and paste it into your blog post. It's very easy to embed HTML code into your post using the HTML editor tab on the Compose Page. In your draft, switch to the HTML tab.

We do not recommend switching back to the Rich Text editor as this type of editor does not read javascript and you will not see the fundraising widget appear on the Compose page but it will appear if you click the Preview button. Just make sure you copy and paste the embed code entirely with all its closing tags to ensure it will display properly.

 

Quick Tip: Change The Color Of Your Navigation Links In Magazine

Our new Magazine Layout showcases your blog posts using a featured card layout. You can further customize this theme by changing the color of the navigation bar links to match your branding. Let us show you how. 

The Magazine layout is available to our Beta Team members. Join our Beta Team and have access to all the new features and provide feedback. To access the Custom CSS you need to have the Unlimited plan or higher.  

To add Custom CSS, click on the Blogs tab, then the name of the blog. Click on the Design tab, then Custom CSS.

Copy the CSS code below and paste it onto the page. 

.nav-item a, .nav-item a:visited {
   color: #DD77D2;
}

Next, update the color: to include the hex color value you want for your navigation links. Once you are done, click on Save Changes. 

Example of colors:

Black
.nav-item a, .nav-item a:visited {
   color: #000000;
}

Blue
.nav-item a, .nav-item a:visited {
   color: #002fa7;
}

Red
.nav-item a, .nav-item a:visited {
   color: #ff4105;
}

You can customize other parts of the Magazine. We have a great post to help you customize your blog title.

What other parts of the Magazine Layout do you want to customize? Let us know in the comments and you may see a post about it!

Quick Tip: Move Date Above Blog Post Title

Today we're here to bring you a quick CSS trick in customizing your blog's design.  In order to take advantage of the Custom CSS feature, you need to have an Unlimited plan or higher.  

By default, the post date appears under the blog post title: 

Some bloggers prefer the date to appear above the post title.  This can be achieved by inserting the following CSS code at Design > Custom CSS: 

.post { position: relative; }
.date-header.font-dateheader {
position: absolute;
top: 0;
}
.individual-post h5.date-header, .post h5.date-header {
margin: -19px 0 10px;
margin-bottom: 10px;
}

After saving your changes, the date will appear on top

You may need to adjust the measurement for the bottom spacing (in this example, it is set to -19px). 

What ways do you use Custom CSS to customize your blog's appearance? Let us know in the comments!