The obvious form to create would be a contact form to collect readers details but as you can add many different sections they can be used to collect lots of different sorts of information:

This is clearly adding functionality similar to Google Forms and Survey Monkey and although it is not as functional as these other forms (e.g. no multiple choice boxes) it is a nice start and could be an excellent solution for straight forward form especially as it is so easy to add in to a blog post.

The question related to how to get a similar grid for blogs which are hosted on WordPress.com like the ‘Training Blog’ you are reading. Although essentially the same software, as I host my own WordPress blog, I can add plugins like SocialGrid but on a WordPress.com hosted blog you can not install plugins. You only have the options of the widgets available. You can add your own code to a widget via the basic but very flexible ‘Text Widget’ although it will not allow javascript which many of the social sites use to create collections of badges. However it does allow you to write your own HTML code (the language of web pages) so I thought I would have a go at recreating my SocialGrid style badges in a HTML table for WordPress.com even using the same great social media icons which are freely available (feel free to leave them a donation).

I have a few WordPress.com sites but used this one I set up for some WordPress.com training courses put on by OutserveWeb the web training company I work for. The end result looked like this and I have put the code below if it helps anyone.

Change the links and the image urls of course and copy the code into the text widget and drag to your sidebar, images can be uploaded directly through the Media options in your WordPress.com blog. It should be relatively easy to change the grid from 2 x 4 or use other or different size icons.

HTML code:

<table> 
<tbody> 
<tr> 
<td><a href="http://twitter.com/outserveweb"> 
<img class="aligncenter size-full" title="twitter" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/twitter_32.png" alt="twitter" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
<td><a href="http://facebook.com/outserveweb">
<img class="aligncenter size-full" title="facebook" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/facebook_32.png" alt="" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
<td><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/outserve-limited">
<img class="aligncenter size-full" title="linkedin" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/linkedin_32.png" alt="linkedin icon" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
<td><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/outserveweb">
<img class="aligncenter size-full" title="Youtube icon" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/youtube_32.png" alt="Youtube" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
</tr> 
<tr> 
<td><a href="http://www.delicious.com/philoakley">
<img class="alignnone size-full" title="delicious" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/delicious_32.png" alt="delicious" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
<td><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/oakleyfamily">
<img class="alignnone size-full" title="flickr" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/flickr_32.png" alt="flickr" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
<td><a href="http://www.google.com/profiles/philip.oakley">
<img src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/google_32.png" alt="google icon" title="google icon" width="32" height="32" class="size-full" /></a></td> 
<td><a href="https://outtraining.wordpress.com">
<img class="alignnone size-full" title="friend" src="https://outtraining.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/rss_32.png" alt="rss icon" width="32" height="32" /></a></td> 
</tr> 
</tbody> 
</table>

BTW if you want to show code in your blog post as above on WordPress.com you will need to use the sourcecode tags otherwise it with be see as HTML and translated by the Web Browser

1. First find your WordPress Blog’s RSS feed If this is a WordPress hosted blog on WordPress.com then if your blog is example.wordpress.com then feed is usually example.wordpress.com/feed. You can always test this by putting your blog address followed by “/feed” in your browser’s address bar and you should see a list of your last posts
2. On you Facebook Page click edit page
3. From the list of applications go down no “Notes” and click Edit.
4. From left hand side again click “Edit import Settings”
5. Finally enter the RSS feed address we found at number 1 into the RSS box.

This should work for any RSS feed but unfortunately it will only work for as there is no option currently to add another RSS feed after the first.

Quick update. Recently Twitter launched their own ‘Tweet Button’ for blogs and other sites. These type of buttons  have been available for sometime from 3rd part providers such as Tweetmeme but this is the first time that Twitter has supplied their own.

Menu

The great news is that WordPress.com have implemented this into all of their hosted blogs so it can be added by a tick of a box. The tick box is located under the Appearance Menu on the Extras Option.

On the Extra’s options tick the last option to show the “Tweet Button”:

Now on the bottom of the each post you will see a small button like:

Tweet Button

Any user clicking this button will create an automatic tweet of the blog post title and a link back to your blog ready to post to Twitter as below:

Having this button should hopefully encourage users to tweet your blog posts and this can then generate more visits to your blog.

Images

image credit

A picture can be very effective in making a post more eye catching even if the image only has an indirect link to what the post is about. If you are short of good images they can be purchased relatively cheaply from Stockphoto sites like istockphoto or alternatively you can use the creative commons images from Flickrnormally without cost except attribution to the owner (best to check all licenses before using especially if you are using commercially)

Video

If you have video files then these can be uploaded and embedded in a post if you have paid for the video upgrade but far more popular is embedding a video which is being hosted on another site such as youtube.

The URL (web address) of the video can be entered directly into the upload Video>’From URL’ tab (Below)

Then the Video will display and can be viewed on your blog:

Audio

Audio can be embedded by adding the tag to a hosted  mp3 file  which would result in an embedded audio file which can be played on the site like this:

Polls

As well as embedding the above media you can also embed polldaddy polls. See this post.



Bold

Italics

Strike through

• Bulleted

1. Numbered

Blockquote – normally used for text quoted from a person or  website

Formatted Left

Centred

Formatted Right

Link to another site or page  e.g. bbc.co.uk

Break the link  – bbc.co.uk

Inserting more tag will complete the visible part of the post and offer a ‘more’ link

Spell check

Full Screen mode – enters into a full screen edit mode

Shows even more options:

WordPress has some of the best support for mobile applications including:

WordPress Application for iPhone:

WordPress Application for Blackberry:

WordPress Application for Android:

As you can see from the example posts on this blog I would recommend at least one image on each post.

Here I am showing how an embedded video can make a post more interesting. The video below is direct from wordpress.com and is about there iphone client which allows you to blog directly from the ever popular Apple Iphone. This blog was embedded by uding the supplied code of  wpvideo Bh7FJ4Qg between sqaure brackets (e.g [wpvid????])

Or if you prefer you can embed a video from Youtube, Google Video or Daily Motion using the upload Video icon or using the text format suggested below:

Embed Video

An example Youtube video about blogging:

Or if you prefer you could pay for the Video upgrade and upload your own videos. You can also upload you videos to Youtube (or any of the other supported sites) adn embed in the usual way.

It is recommended that Categories and Tags are used from the first post.

Categories

Categories are usually used to group posts together into related sections although they can be used however each blogger see’s fit and if preferred not at all. In this example categories will be setup for the main areas of interest (e.g. Training, Blogging, Social Media). Posts, if required, can be posted to multiple categories but it is often recommended that only one category is used:

Tags

Tags are usually used to add a more granular description to the post adding words that are related specifically to that post. so in the case of this post they could be wordpress, blogging and tutorial:

tags

Tags can make more sense over time as they seen over a group of posts a ‘tag cloud’ is often used in the sidebar as a representation of the blog in tag form. Tags are being used lots of areas to allow seay earching of photos, documents as well as blogs and micro blogs (e.g. Twitter).

Not only will tags and categories become part of the navigation and arhitecture of your blog but it will help people find your posts and blog in search engines like Google. Using cateogories and post titles in your web pages will also help you being found.