micro

TypePad How To: add RSS feed to your blog

It should be obvious, but we often forget. So here is how you add your TypePad RSS feed to your TypePad blog.

Login to admin.  Go to your blog. Choose the Settings tab. On the left, choose Feeds.

Optional: Connect to Feedburner. This is a good idea since you can then get stats on if anyone is reading your feed or not.  This is theoretically easy but due to ambigious terms and directions on how to find and put your blog feed on your blog it is never obvious.

If you create a Feedburner account and hook it up in the admin area above, bravo!

Now we want to display the RSS feed link on your blog so people can add it to their newsreaders or iGoogle or Yahoo home, etc.

Go to the Design tab this time. (along the top in admin of your blog).

Choose the Content link in the left menu of the Design admin area. This is where you add modules to your page columns.  At the top, in the right box, scroll down to find  "Post Feed". Choose it and then when it pops over on the left column, drag it where you want.

Want the helpful orange RSS icon? You can use my friend's by pasting this code in the HTML box:

<img src="http://www.carchick.ca/social_rss_button_orange_24.png" align="left" border="0" />

Nice free social icons compliments of  http://www.yootheme.com/icons/freebies#set1

Drag the module to be on top of your Post Feed module.

Now if you want that orange icon to link to your RSS feed, on your blog, hover over the Post Feed link and copy the link.  Then add it as a link around the image. It will look like this with "http://www.carchick.ca/atom.xml" replaced by your feed url.

 <a href="http://www.carchick.ca/atom.xml"><img src="http://www.carchick.ca/social_rss_button_orange_24.png" align="left" border="0" /></a>

 

 

Typepad tip: how to add custom content to side columns

It is so bloody hard to find anything useful in the Typepad help or forum, and I like Typepad. The most basic things that are surely asked many times are never easy to find.  

At least when you Google for help with a Typepad item and find tips from 2005, they are still relevant since the technology rarely changes.  And another thing, I really don't like blogs that hide the publish date, very inconsiderate since you can't tell what version the instructions are relevant to. This seems to be more of a WP style than Typepad. end of rant.

A friend wants to add some affiliate links to her sidebar. First we login to her account.

Go to the blog, under "blogs" and then go to the design tab.

(Tip: I have a test blog with a copy of the custom template applied to it, I do this on that test blog so as not to mess up the real blog until I have this figured out again.)

Once you are in the Design tab, on the left there are links to:

• Colors: (No, it is not that.)
• Layout: (Not that - don't want to change number of columns!)
• Content:  aha, here is the layout within each column and the list of modules that can be added. 
• In the top Category box with the drop-down list, leave the category of the content as the default "all" and then in the right side box, scroll through the list of Modules.
• She needs to paste in an affiliate link, so we choose "Embed your own HTML"
• In the pop-up window, paste your link, code, whatever you need. You do know html?
• The new module will put itself on the top left. You can drag it where you wish, within reason.
• Tip: the title, which is called a "label" only shows in admin. To give it a name you can remember, click on the pencil, edit the label , say okay. 
• If you want a title that shows on the blog, you have to create an additional HTML module above that one with the title as the HTML. Like <h3>This Module </h3>. 
• Always remember to click save at the bottom or you won't see your changes on the blog.

 

 

My blog has moved

I am consolidating this year, and using Typepad for their nice microblog, while using my blogspot blog for my tech reviews.

Come follow my web reviews here:

http://julievetter.blogspot.com/

For 100% tech-oriented tweets, follow my

http://twitter.com/techtweetsonly

Thank you for your interest in sharing tech with me.

How to link pages and categories to your microblog

Here is my microblog with the pages and categories links at the bottom of the left sidebar: http://julievetter.typepad.com/micro/...

Here is the code, just replace the page and category names with your own.

PAGE:  yourdomain.com/yourpagename.html

CATEGORY:  yourdomain.com/yourcategoryname

Assuming you know how to create a link in html and style it.

You must subscribe to Typepad Pro to be able to do this

Add your most recent microblog updates to your sidebar

Account Levels: This feature is available to all Pro plans.

You can add the most recent items from any blog or feed to your sidebar. Here's how to add your microblog's feed to your main blog's sidebar.

1. Go to Blogs > (Your Main Blog) > Design > Content. The content page displays.
2. With Module Category set to All, select the Module called RSS/Atom Feed.
3. Click Add this module. The Feed Module configuration pop-up displays.
4. Enter the URL for your microblog's feed. It'll be something like thishttp://yourname.typepad.com/microblog-folder/atom.xml
5. Then click OK.
6. Save Changes.
7. View Blog.

Chicka-pow! Your most recent microblog posts will now show up in your main blog's sidebar

You can also do this same process to show the most recent posts from your main blog on your microblog's sidebar.

A microblog is a fantastic way to supplement your longer posts on your main blog with a 'live notebook' of what's on your mind.