Lauren Wayne

Why blogging is dead (and why it is not)

2016-06-09T14:30:00.001-07:00

I began blogging eight and a half years ago, and I feel like I no longer even recognize the landscape. Having spoken with many fellow bloggers, I know I'm not alone in feeling disconnected and like maybe blogging as we knew it has played out.

Here are the reasons why we (and perhaps you) feel that way, and at the end, the ways blogging is continuing on into the future — altered but still alive.

WHY OLD-SCHOOL BLOGGING IS DEAD

We used to blog for community — now we blog for search engines.

I remember when I got my first commenters on my blog and how thrilling it was. I joined blogging carnivals, posted others' blog buttons, and chatted with authors and readers on Twitter.

I came to know my audience from their commenting and sharing, and they were real people to me. I could put names to many of them.

The change isn't just the audience growing larger, it's that it's grown quieter. The community (mine, at least) has dissipated. Comments and shares have moved to social media and, often, behind my back (not in a bad way, just in a private way).

I check my analytics and see: People are still reading. But they're not necessarily interested in ME. No, I don't blame them (I'm not that narcissistic), but it's a sign that they're not dedicated followers of my blog but rather searchers who've stumbled on a single post of interest to them and then backed away once the information was secured. These readers aren't watching my children grow up or asking my opinion on things. My folksy, homey posts go virtually unseen. Instead, most visitors come to read a few evergreen fact posts: DIYs mostly. I'm not bitter, and I welcome any readers, but it's a sign of the change.

Commenting has moved to social media.

And specifically to Facebook, where it is now incredibly hard for a blogger to get posts seen without paying advertising money, and sometimes even with. I don't bother much anymore with posting links on Facebook, because the views are abysmal (1-10% of my followers, if I'm lucky). If it's something very important to me, I'll occasionally pay to promote it. I've mostly stopped sharing other people's fine links on Facebook, even though I used to love doing so, because no one will see them, and it just hurts my overall page metrics, making it even less likely within the Facebook algorithm that my posts will be seen in the future.

People definitely do a lot of their link reading on Facebook, so this seems counterintuitive. If so many people are reading shared links on Facebook, then surely sharing links on Facebook still works? But it doesn't for most links, only for a (relatively) few viral ones, usually from big-name news sources or very lucky bloggers. (I've had a post or two go viral on Facebook, and it's always been a surprise.) Unless a link gets a lot of traction immediately, Facebook buries it in the feed, so bloggers can no longer rely on their business pages to drum up traffic.

Mobile views have changed blog reading behavior.

People are more and more reading blogs on their phones or tablets, where logging in to comment is clumsy and usually too much trouble. It's easier to use the default apps (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) where you're already spending your time.

RSS feeds and feed readers are slipping into obscurity.

I blame Google Reader's demise for this, because I love to do so. Fewer people are subscribing to blogs, and so fewer people are reading them regularly. See above re: mobile usage. It's easier for people to check out the links friends and family curate for them on Facebook and Twitter than to seek out their own.

Bloggers change and grow, and their blogs become obsolete.

In my parenting cohort in particular, I've witnessed massive attrition as bloggers' kids grow past the baby and toddler years. There's so much to write about those years. Writing about older kids is tricky on multiple levels. For one, they might not want you writing about or posting pictures of them. For another, life becomes more varied the older your kids get. One family might be into soccer, another into gaming, another into camping. There's more unity to those early years of child development.

While bloggers could keep talking about topics that they're not currently experiencing, that's hard for those of us with a more personal bent to our blogging. Plus, it's hard to maintain enthusiasm to blog about topics you've moved past. Speaking of which:

Bloggers run out of things to say, and readers run out of reasons to read.

I know that a lot of my identity at Hobo Mama is bound up in being a breastfeeding advocate. Whenever I think I really should, then, write another breastfeeding post, I think, "And say what that I haven't said already?" I've gotten my messages out (out of my system, out into the public view), and I no longer feel that urgency to continue repeating myself.

Similarly, I think my first audience is experiencing their own children growing past the baby and toddler years, and they've read about everything they need to about that. I've heard similar refrains from bloggers on other topics, and readers of same: They've fulfilled that need and want to move on to other voids.

Monetizing has led to inauthenticity.

I've heard this complaint as well — that bloggers seeking sponsorship deals have injured blogging by interspersing so much selling with their writing. Since sidebar ads are fading as an option for earning money, more and more bloggers have been posting about products in thinly veiled sponsored-content posts. I'm not a snob about earning money as a blogger, but I can see how readers get turned off by seeing honest posts about, say, child-raising turn into a series of irrelevant links and untargeted sales pitches.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO KEEP BLOGGING ALIVE

So where's the hope? Certainly there are still bloggers out there, and new bloggers starting up every day. In what ways is blogging still viable, and how can we adapt and figure out ways to blog within the new system?

I'm assuming here that you're blogging for more than just fun, that you want to say something with your blog and/or make some money with it. Obviously, if blogging is a side hobby that you can take or leave, you have precisely that choice before you. For those sticking it out, here are my tips for the changing landscape:

Take advantage of the social media conversation.

You can't beat 'em, so join 'em. Get where your fans and readers live, and talk with them there. Some blogs still get a ton of comments, and blessings to them, but don't fret if your comments are silent. Find the conversation elsewhere.

Try microblogging on social media.

Post snippets and summaries of your content on longer-form social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Google+, and Pinterest. If that's as far as anyone goes, at least you're getting your content out there. A percentage, though, will click through your links to read the whole shebang.

Find or keep your passion.

If 90% of your readers come to your cat-care site for that one-off post you wrote about unclogging toilets, you have two choices: You can decide to be "professional" and write more toilet tutorials. Or you can keep writing what you want to, and let the people who want to find you do. It really is up to you.

Tool your topic to maintain its fit.

Along the same lines, if your blog isn't fitting you so well now, rebrand. You can tweak slightly and gradually, as with a parenting blogger including more and more recipes and cleaning tips. I've seen several parenting blogs transition into a homeschool focus, for instance. Or you can go for broke and start from scratch. Switch from writing about shoe trends to start that blog about auto repair. Be prepared to shed some readers and followers, but you'll make new ones in your new niche.

Monetize wisely.

By this I mean not just to beware of turning readers off with too much sponsored content — I mean reevaluate your whole monetizing strategy. Static sidebar ads are diminishing in popularity with the rise of savvier and mobile readership. While there are things you can do to get ads in people's vision still (ad-friendly responsive layouts, overlays, in-text partnership mentions, and so forth), I think it's even more important to cast a wider net. Consider the greater task of converting readers into customers if making money blogging is important to you. Consider supplemental sources of income, such as ebooks, print books, subscription services, consulting and coaching, podcasts, YouTube channels, product lines, and the like.

Accept the search engine elements.

Take advantage of sites like Pinterest showcasing your evergreen, popular content. Use searchable hashtags on Twitter and Instagram to find suitable followers for your topics. Keep SEO in mind when crafting your posts. Include nice images for sharing. In looking back at my earliest days blogging, I did nothing visual. No pictures, no formatting, nada. I just wrote. It was nice. But those days are over if you want people to share. That's how it is, so either write to be found, or write for yourself.

Make your choice.

On that note, you don't have to play the game. If blogging is becoming unfun for you because you feel like you can't write how and what you want, then maybe it's time to quit the game of it all and just write or share your thoughts and life for the sheer pleasure of it.

Let me know in the comments (surprise me!) what you think: Is blogging dead? Or has it just changed? Are you (still) blogging or thinking of starting?

28 blogging tasks you can do from your phone

2016-04-27T14:17:00.001-07:00

Do you spend more time near your smartphone than your computer? You can still get plenty of work done on your blog when you're on the go with these mobile-friendly tasks!

If you're anything like me — juggling paying work, parenting, home life, errands, fitness — you might find limited time to sit down at an actual desk to blog or work on your blog-related tasks. So here's a roundup of plenty of things you can do while you're on your smartphone or tablet.

A few of these links are affiliate links, but most are just free apps. I use what I recommend.

Draft a blogpost.
If you're a minimalist blogger (mostly plain text), you might be able to post from your smartphone using one of the blogging apps (WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr on Android & iOS), using email uploads (Blogger, WordPress.com, self-hosted WordPress), or navigating to the site on mobile.

For me, I find the apps and mobile experience inadequate for all the images and coding and customization I love to cram into my posts, so I prefer to finalize things on desktop. BUT, I can absolutely WRITE a blogpost draft while I'm out. I just prefer to do it in email. I use Gmail's Inbox app and like that it saves my drafts well. I just pop my own address into the to field, make the subject line my title, and then Swype away in the text field. I'm Swyping this right now, matter of fact. I'd like to experiment, once I figure out the best headset, with dictating blogposts while I walk, using Dragon Dictation, the native Google voice-recognition on my phone, or another speech-to-text capability. (Here's how one person does this via Evernote.)
Edit your drafts.
If you have a blogpost draft you want to edit, email it to yourself or upload it to Google Docs and use the Google Drive app (Android & iOS) to access it. It has a nice autosave feature, and it will sync with your desktop version of course.
Check and reply to email.
I find being on my phone actually makes this easier, because brevity feels right. Bam. Email done.
Read other blogs.
I use Feedly for my subscriptions now, and I've learned the mobile gesture shortcuts to make the process easy. Save for later articles you want to read in depth or share, or just do it now if you have the concentration time.

Share posts — your own or others.
Your phone will let you pin, tweet, post on Facebook. Go for it. I prefer Hootsuite to manage my (way too many) social media accounts, so I've paid for Pro. You might could get by with Free. I embrace the Autoschedule feature. That way, you can tweet up a storm at whatever random spare moment you have, but those tweets will filter out to your followers gradually at the best times.
Instagram your life.
Share the photos from your phone or better ones you uploaded to your phone or Google Photos earlier. With the new Instagram algorithm (love it or hate it), it shouldn't matter as much when or how often you post. Find new people to follow (you'll likely get some follows back) by searching the hashtags you love and use. Browse everyone else's pics and give some love.
Listen on Twitter.
I have specific streams saved in Hootsuite for this purpose: one natural parenting-related for @Hobo_Mama, one writing for @LaurenWaynecom, and one homeschooling for @PirateFamilyFun. I look for interesting things to retweet or reply to. If your Twitter list is manageable, you can browse live tweets. If it feels out of control, maybe you want to prepare some Twitter lists (easiest to do ahead of time) to group your following into handy categories. These can be either public or private. As long as the categorization is flattering, most tweeters appreciate being on a public list.
Reply to tweets.
Thank retweeters, answer questions.
Record a podcast.
I hear tell Katy does this.
Vlog and walk.
So healthy! So outdoorsy! Just don't run into anything.
Comment on blogposts.
Maybe. This can, admittedly, be kind of annoying from your phone, but it depends on the commenting system. You can also reply to comments on your own posts.
Pin on Pinterest.
I find the Pinterest app (Android and iOS) pretty much as easy to use as the desktop version. The long clicking takes some getting used to, but then it's simple enough. Pin, pin, pin. With the smart feed algorithm on Pinterest, it shouldn't matter as much if you're pinning in a hurry. As you're pinning things you love, take the time to follow boards and users that pop up as suggestions — you'll likely get some relevant followers back.

If you use Tailwind, there's an easy way to schedule pins on iOS. Scheduling on Android requires setting a secret email address, which is a little fiddlier, so I hope they come up with a better solution soon.

If you're pinning to group boards, I recommend the scheduler BoardBooster — you pin to a secret board that's on the same topic as the group boards. Then BoardBooster sends those secret pins out to the group boards on the prearranged schedule you've set (e.g., one pin per day), so you don't run afoul of group board rules. BoardBooster has a mobile site to set things up, but the beauty is you can use the scheduling features from the native Pinterest app, taking advantage of those secret boards.
Post to Facebook.
I like the Pages Manager and Facebook apps for business and personal posting, respectively. Which is good, because that's what there is. No, but seriously, they work well and make posting, scheduling posts, interacting with likes and comments, and even managing Facebook ads easy. Actually, there's now a Facebook ads manager app if you want to go there.
Research.
For a blogpost topic or a blogging topic. Save your finds in Evernote.
Watch videos.
If you're in a quiet space or have headphones, it can be a great way to zone into a blogging tutorial or other media to follow.
Catch up on podcasts.
Same.
Brainstorm new posts.
Fill in your editorial calendar with help from something like Google Calendar or Google Sheets.
Flip over Flipboard.
Read and share articles, and add your own on Android and iOS. (If you want to follow, apparently this is me? Who knew.)
Get your Google+ on.
Plus one some great posts, post your own, and join groups and add to circles from the app.
Link up on LinkedIn.
To be frank, I never use LinkedIn. But there is an app, so if that's your thing, link yourself in.
Snap to it on Snapchat.
What do bloggers do on Snapchat? Heck if I know, but there's an app for that.
Send out a newsletter.
Mailchimp, which is what I use, has a mobile-friendly site. Check to see if your newsletter service does. Even if you want to fine-tune it on your computer, you could get a solid draft saved.
Catch up on your reading.
If you want to review a book for your blog, see if you can get an e-version that will travel with you wherever you go and can be accessed whenever you have spare moments.
Interact with blogging groups on Facebook.
I'm a member of several blogging and writing groups on Facebook. Some are for mutual post sharing, so I use my phone to read, comment, and share other members' posts. Some groups are more varied or social in nature, so I interact on my phone. The Facebook app (or mobile site) makes this a simple and enjoyable way to stay connected with bloggy friends.
Check your analytics.
Google Analytics works ok on mobile. While you're checking out what's blowing up, go ahead and schedule a few shares of your most popular posts.
Check your AdSense or other revenue.
Here's the mobile address. It's fun to obsess!
Comment on YouTube videos.
The Creator Studio app (Android and iOS) has an easy interface that allows you to approve comments on your YouTube channel, reply, share your videos, schedule or publish a video, and check your earnings.
Network.
If you're the type of blogger who has interviews to do and video calls to make, you could do that in an office, or you could do it at the beach, if you see what I mean.

I hope this list gives you some ideas the next time you're out and about without your laptop but with your trusty tablet or smartphone. Leave your own ideas in the comments! You can get a multitude of tasks done in captured moments that will further your blog, make you feel productive, and allow you to focus on other tasks the next time you're desk-bound.

Optimizing your blog images for Pinterest: 9 tips {Updated!}

2016-03-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Since things have changed so much since the last time I wrote about this topic, I figured an update was in order for the way Pinterest works with blog images now.

Many bloggers report amazing traffic from Pinterest if you leverage the platform just right, garnering viral repins and multiple clicks through to a blog. Here are ways to fine-tune your blog images to be Pinterest-friendly.

Include an image in every post.
If you want to be pinned, this is a must. Technically, a pinner can skirt around this by uploading an image to use as a placeholder for your post, but how dedicated are your readers really? Even if you're a writer, a words person, not a graphics person (I get it — I do!), you need an image in your blogpost. And even if you're not on Pinterest yourself — even if you never set foot in the app or have an account — your blogposts could be gaining traction there as soon as someone pins them. So it's worth making your posts pinnable! The minimum size, by the way, is 100X200 pixels, which is teensy and not going to play well on Pinterest. Read on.
Use the standard Pinterest size for best results.
The largest pin size is 735 pixels wide, and the longest pin that can be read in mobile without clicking on an "expand pin" button is 1102 pixels long. So there's your optimal pin size: 735x1102. (You can round it to 1100 if that's easier to remember, and it doesn't actually need to be exact.) That's the width that will pop up when you click on a pin on desktop. You can technically make your pins infinity long, so if you have more to include (such as in an infographic or a step-by-step pictorial tutorial), then go for it. The whole length will be shown on desktop, but be aware that the whole length won't show automatically on mobile without an extra click.

Examples of how pins look on desktop & mobile:

Pins can show as super long on desktop.

Longer pins will be truncated on mobile.

Think vertical.
You've probably grokked by now from the optimal pin size that vertical images get noticed more on Pinterest. The scrolling experience favors longer pins. You can pin horizontal images, but as you're thinking of optimizing your posts for Pinterest, include vertical options for avid pinners.
Keep important text & images at the top.
Because the full length of a long pin might not be seen on mobile, make sure you keep your captivating visuals and text toward the top of the image.
Include text on your image.
I realize this can be sort of a pain for those of us who love our images clutter-free and/or don't think we have time to finesse an image each time we post. But popular pins tend to have text that easily identifies the core message of the post, so it's worth the effort to do it right.

The three easiest options I've found for designing pins, all free and all online:
- Canva — Free to use, with optional add-ons like stock photos and professional designs, typically $1 apiece. Has ideal sizes for all manner of social media posting as well as print and other design templates. A lot of really sharp options, from overlays to fancy fonts to shape cutouts and photo frames and more.
  Example from Canva:
  
  Link to post
- PicMonkey — Free to use, with additional pricing for Royale membership. Unfortunately, the ideal pin templates are locked within Royale. But, you can get around this by designing your own Pinterest image size: Click the little lock icon on the bottom of your collage to unlock proportions, and then type in 735 and 1102 in the width and length.
  
  You can create some really nice collages with your own images. Drag-and-drop editing is easy to get used to. Ads in the free version make it a little laggy, performance-wise.
  Example from PicMonkey:
  
  Link to post
- Pablo by Buffer — Free to use and includes a ton of free stock images for when you don't have a great image in mind for your post. I use this a lot for this blog (such as this very post!), because posts about blogging and writing don't always lend themselves to pinnable images. You can upload your own images as well, though just one (no collages). Pablo is by far the fastest of these three options — they boast that it will take you 30 seconds to make your social media image, and I agree it can be just that quick. Because of this, it's the simplest option: You use it to put readable text over an image, period. You get to choose from three sections of text, so you can include, for instance, a heading, subheading, and watermark (with logo) for your blog. There's not a ton of customization available, which makes it both limiting and comfortingly straightforward. I really love how you can fairly automatically reconfigure the same design for each of the different sizes — Pinterest, Facebook/Twitter, and Instagram — and then download each one to use in your post sharing.
  Example from Pablo:
  
  Link to post

Post your full-size image.

One thing I've noticed as I've ramped up my pinning is that even if your image is the optimal size, if you don't have it within your blogpost coding as that ideal size, Pinterest mobile won't read it as a large image. For instance, if you upload an image as medium size because that's all you need to display for your post, Pinterest will find only the medium option on your page when it goes to pin. So even if your original pinnable image is 735 pixels wide, Pinterest might see only 300 pixels. Here's how to fix that:

In Blogger, upload as "Original size."

In WordPress, upload as "Full Size."

You can double check in Blogger that the <img src=" shows a URL with /s1600/ within it. Then, in either Blogger or WordPress, change the display size in HTML mode to whatever width fits your blogpost, such as width="300". I also recommend removing the s on https if there is one — there are scattered reports that the secure version of an image is unpinnable for some users.

Note that, to keep your site easy to load, you do not need to upload all your photos to maximum size, only the pinnable image(s). For instance, if you have one image you really want pinned, make that one original size and the rest can be resized during uploading to fit your blogpost dimensions as usual.

Optional: Post a hidden image as your top option.
This is a sneaky trick that requires HTML editing and might or might not be deprecated in the future, but I find it handy to force the image I want pinned (and/or to show up as the default social-media post). This step is necessary only if you have multiple images on a page and the top image is not the best one to pin. You can post your pinnable image at the top but hidden from view.

Why would you do this? When someone's pinning, the images typically show in the order they're in on the page. If you put your super-duper pinnable image at the end of a loooong recipe with a ton of images, a pinner might never get to the text-overlay image you'd prefer. Put it at the top, and pinners will see it first. Make it easy for them to share the best image!

To do so, post your image as usual, and add style="display:none" within the img code. So this would be an example img code:

<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyu2x_QgFZ8Y_raGNF0Hcs0X2U3nfCYVo1_opU0n0Gxe4TdcLz9TCYwFyJoEs7oIMr8JMU_thuEQS2JsQh55t0WSPrsBWt0YBQga7lhyphenhyphenxgPhKNta7rUpHS8dRfcLohZHOjC9yRs_DsApq4/s1600/Sew+a+Cozy+Throw+Blanket.jpg" width="300" style="display:none">

Note the s1600 for the full-size Blogger image, and the http instead of https. I included a width="300" even though it's not strictly necessary just in case the display:none fails somewhere and it does display. I want it to look as intentional as possible in a worst-case scenario.

Note: You could also use this hack to place multiple pinning images on your post without cluttering up the page. That will give pinners their choice of targeted pinnable images without making your post look like pin spam.
Use alt text to your advantage.
This has changed since the last (long-ago) time I wrote about Pinterest. It used to be possible to use your alt and title information within your image codes the way they were intended: Alternate (alt) text told what the image was, very literally, for the use of search engines and accessible readers (for instance, a text-to-speech engine "reading" the images for the blind), and title showed up when you hovered over an image. Pinterest used to snag title first, then alt, and then the post and blog title. Now it doesn't seem to bother with title, and it prefers alt, and it will default to post and blog title if there's nothing in alt. Anyway!

What this means for you is you have two options:
- Don't fill in your alt tags, but make sure the title of your post is optimized. Without alt tags in your images, Pinterest will grab your blog title and then your post title to fill in the description box, like so: "Lauren Wayne: Optimizing your blog images for Pinterest: 9 tips {Updated!}." Very simple and straightforward and a worthy option. In fact, I recommend removing any alt text that's irrelevant for pinning, just in case someone wants to pin an image. Some image uploaders will add alt text as a default, often duplicating the name of your image file. Go into HTML view and make sure you delete any alt text that's less than optimal.
 
 Example:
 
 <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YLb1vOYxmyL4etCaD6LTOG_UxYbzF9Suo_StCDWBSGPnm1zvdVQ2bI3LK2qHFULamZC1ygZJg77XYj6zgwB0qBAQNafVePOKG4uIeehyphenhyphenGfAJh64J96kKfQ-VIBCOHRGCE-eConYWyNhc/s400/KidzBop1.jpg" alt="kidz-bop-lyrics-image-1" />
 
 See that alt="kidz-bop-lyrics-image-1"? That would make a stupid Pinterest description. Just delete that line till it looks like so:
 
 <img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5YLb1vOYxmyL4etCaD6LTOG_UxYbzF9Suo_StCDWBSGPnm1zvdVQ2bI3LK2qHFULamZC1ygZJg77XYj6zgwB0qBAQNafVePOKG4uIeehyphenhyphenGfAJh64J96kKfQ-VIBCOHRGCE-eConYWyNhc/s400/KidzBop1.jpg" />
- Fill in your alt tags with awesomeness.
 As an extra step, use the alt text to make sure your pinnable image(s) have an optimized description built in. You can use extra keywords, a conversational tone, personal notes, or whatever you think will help your pin get repinned. This is especially helpful if your post title is more artsy than informative. Remember you don't have to just duplicate the text that's already on your pinnable image. For instance, you could write alt="Hilarious! You've got to read the changes Kidz Bop made to these popular lyrics to make them safe for kids. Post at HoboMama.com." You get the idea. (You know you want to read that post now — here you go.) Keep in mind that Pinterest desktop will show about 500 characters, but Pinterest mobile will show about 125, so make sure you keep your important info upfront.
Optional: Add a dedicated Pin It button to posts.
Head to Pinterest's developers page to make a prefilled pin code to encourage visitors to, you know, Pin It. Scroll down and see the options. First up are the color and design of the pin, and then the parts you fill in: URL of your blogpost, URL of your image, and description. Then just select and copy the code that shows up in the big box to the right and paste it into your post where you want your pin to show up. (That shorter pinit.js code should be in your template.) I recommend using the smaller version above or below the image you want pinned as a cue to do so, or the larger version as a standalone at the end of a post to encourage readers not to leave before they pin. Here's what those look like:

This is a little time-consuming to do, so you might want to prioritize your most pinnable posts. Visitors can still pin organically as they choose, but it encourages visitors to pin the image and description you'd prefer (and to pin at all).

Hope these tips help you as you build your blog's Pinterest presence! Leave your own advice in the comments. And don't forget to follow me on Pinterest (here's my blogging & writing board) and pin this post! Lauren Wayne

Download all your Tweets

2016-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

I came across this article on BlogHer explaining the easy way you can now download your entire Twitter archive. Even if you've been tweeting forever, it's nearly instantaneous and well worth the stroll back down memory lane.

For no good reason, I wrote this post back in 2013 and then never published it. I think I just wanted to add more cute Tweets to it, or maybe delete some. Who knows. I officially give up and am letting it loose into the world! I checked, and downloading your archive all still works the same, AND these Tweets below are hecka entertaining. So, enjoy, and let me know what your favorite old Tweets are if you do this! Newsflash: I have a new author Twitter handle I'd love to have you follow as well: @LaurenWaynecom

In the article, Diane asks what your first Tweet ever was. Mine were RTs — good links but a boring story for the purposes of this post. But my third Tweet made me chuckle:

is once again searching for overdue library items.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 6, 2009

Still true.

Here are some other gems over the years:

I'm taking votes. We're down to 5-10 diapers a week. Cancel the diaper service or is that foolhardy? (We have a small stash but no washer.)
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 29, 2009

We did it.

We just chased a strange cat out of our bedroom. And my son didn't even wake up!
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) June 3, 2009

I remember this! Bizarre.

Told employee at Tully's, urgently: "There's no toilet in the women's restroom!" Um, yeah, left out the "paper" part.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 21, 2009

Glad I've documented how socially awkward I am.

1st day w/Diva Cup. Read horror story of it popping out on someone during errands.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 29, 2009

So I went to ballet with it and did deep pliés. Gotta put it through its paces.

We are a pirate family. I look a little like an '80s Madonna, Sam like a gymnast, and Mikko like a Jedi, but together we pull it off.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) November 1, 2009

Pictorial proof of our pirate family tendencies:

(Did I mention I had blond hair then?)

(I did.)

Trying to sing lullaby to son. He starts singing along. Loudly. Then directing me to which verses he wants to sing. Sleepiness fail.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) November 21, 2009

Apparently I am not all that soothing.

VICTORY!!! http://bit.ly/6h6HHl #nanowrimo I am so on a writerly high right now! Off to celebrate my WIN!!!!
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 1, 2009

Woot!

Mikko scared of sunlight coming in thru crack in curtain. Stopped still, then asked for a hat. Told you we were vampires.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 7, 2009

Proof.

I think right before having a bunch of pictures taken is the best time to trim your bangs by yourself.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 19, 2009

An eternal truth.

Sam told me these bangs made me look 28, which I accepted happily.

I should point out that Sam thinks Mikko will not do well at all in ballet because he can't follow directions. Don't rain on my parade, Sam!
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) March 1, 2010

This turned out to be very, very true. At 5.5, he still can't follow directions or take a class.

2016 update: At 8.5, he is starting to be able to take classes. Ocasionally. If the teachers aren't too particular.

I feel both my mother and mother-in-law grossly overestimate the number of novelty socks we need.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 1, 2010

Because we all know what the proper amount is.

I told Mikko today, "You're a good kid. I like you." He said, "You're a good kid, too. I like you." Pause. "You're a BIG kid."
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) July 31, 2010

Ha ha!

Who wouldn't want to run errands with a pirate? http://twitpic.com/2mjyiu
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) September 9, 2010

Indeed.

Whoever designed juice boxes should be hanged, drawn, and quartered. It's like their sole function is to squirt juice everywhere.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) September 9, 2010

I got a lot of Tweets back giving me tips for handling juice boxes — like using those holder things or flipping up the flaps as little handles (which my OCD kid WILL NOT let me do). But shouldn't the boxes themselves work as the beverage dispensers they purport to be? Do I need a special attachment to drink from a glass without spilling on myself, or must I reconfigure every cup to be holdable? No. So juice boxes need to go back into the fiery hole from whence they crawled.

There's poutine at some Costcos?? I need a better Costco.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 17, 2010

Wait — is there?

Max & Ruby seem to have a grandma who lives elsewhere but no parents. Is anyone else concerned?
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 30, 2010

This is fun, because I got a lot of fanciful responses about where their parents might be. I also got grave responses telling me that the author chose not to include the parents because thematically it gives Max and Ruby more autonomy, yadda yadda, of course…. The favorite theory I was given was that Ruby killed her parents so that she could boss Max around without any interference, and her grandmother went crazy from the horror, and that's why she's so childlike and doesn't exert any control over Ruby or Max. That explains it perfectly!

I love when people request "No spam!" As if spammers have great respect for the rules of society.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 28, 2010

"Oh? Wait … you don't want my off-brand-viagra pitch? Huh. Well … ok, then. I'll take it elsewhere."

How is it when your child walks into the room and announces, "I don't have to go pee pees," you can be certain the exact opposite is true?
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) November 9, 2010

Better get a bucket.

Let's all bug @blogger for threaded comments & a reply function, shall we? Click the little checkmark: http://bit.ly/cZm0P7
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) November 21, 2010

Hey, it worked! I like to think I single-handedly changed the world here with just one Tweet.

If I have to lean in from the hatchback to buckle my child's car seat, your parking lot is MESSED UP, Admiral Safeway.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 4, 2010

The new trend of making parking lots too narrow for cars enrages me.

Yards not feet. YARDS not feet!! I just bought 3x as much fabric as I need. {head desk}
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 4, 2010

I still have it, too. Anyone want a blanket?

Me: Thanks for spending time with me today. Mikko: You miss me so much, Mama. Me: I would if I weren't with you. Mikko: I know, sweetie.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 4, 2010

Why don't you leave so I can miss you?

Mikko waited till I was on the phone to say loudly, "Mama, why you so pooty?"
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) December 13, 2010

Fair question.

We were joking w/Mikko, "That wasn't me; it was a ghost!" Now he walks around saying, "That wasn't me; it was a goat!"
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) February 14, 2011

Goats can get into a lot of trouble, too.

My son keeps berating us for not taking him to visit his imaginary friend. By airplane. Geez, the guilt!
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) February 14, 2011

I remember Silly Guy! We sort of lost touch with him. Guess we should have gone to visit after all.

I passed my GD test with flying colors! Woot! I didn't MEAN to celebrate by going to Krispy Kreme, but Mikko insisted. ;)
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) March 31, 2011

Heh heh heh.

Pray the Gods of Transferring Sleeping Children From the Car to the House smile on us.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) March 27, 2011

They actually did! Thank you for your prayers.

Fave spam comment of the day: "Your actual writing style is definitely quite neat." Thank you! That's because I type it.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) April 6, 2011

I love a compliment.

Mikko taps me insistently, first thing on his awakening. "Do you like brownies?" Yes. "To eat?" Yes. "I don't. I like lollipops." Ok.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) April 27, 2011

It's important to clear things up.

Yea! I got to meet one of my #childbirth idols: #midwife Ina May Gaskin! http://bit.ly/myouG3 #birth #midwifery
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 14, 2011

That was fun times!

Auspicious fortune cookie for 39 weeks: "Patience is your ally at the moment. Don't worry!"
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 17, 2011

I took it to heart.

Ctx 40 seconds long & 3 min apart. What does that mean? #twitterbirth
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 20, 2011

It means you're having a baby 8 hours later! Now I know.

Am I in my birth pool? No, on my way out to eat. But we're skipping the movie... #twitterbirth
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 20, 2011

Good call.

The lady at Round Table asked how far along. I think I startled her by answering, "In labor." #twitterbirth
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 20, 2011

That was a good salad bar.

Feel awkward calling MW in case way too early--but want her to know to rest & not go on a bender tonight... # twitterbirth
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 20, 2011

In hindsight, should not have felt awkward. The baby was here 4 hours later.

Think waves spaced out for a while. So I (and you) could rest. #twitterbirth
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 21, 2011

Had Sam type this one. I was wrong.

#twitterbirth update: I was going to post LABOR SUCKS, but instead…
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 21, 2011

…I'm just going to say we have a BABY! a BOY! And he's SO CUTE! Only 8/8 lbs (shrimp), 21 inches. Yea, #homebirth!!! #twitterbirth
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 21, 2011

Five days later:

Alrik's umbilical cord tag fell off. Does this void his warranty?
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) May 26, 2011

We totally had to keep him.

Our midwife told us to make sure our baby's soft spot doesn't close up prematurely. Should we jam a stick in there…?
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) June 15, 2011

Isn't messing with baby skulls best left to medical professionals?

Someone complimented Alrik on his "beady brown eyes." First of all, they're blue. Second, seriously? "Beady"?
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) September 24, 2011

I think some people are missing the part that considers the words flying out of their mouths.

Me, exasperated: "Mikko, are you listening?" M, pausing momentarily: "Yes, I hear you — and then you do more talking."
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 1, 2011

It's hard to keep track of it all.

Dear neighbors, If you wake up my baby with the stereo you just cranked to 11, I will come downstairs & give him to you to watch. Love, Me
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 31, 2011

These are the same neighbors who pound on their ceiling whenever my kids are running around too much during the day.

The state hasn't sent me the access number I need to log in to file my taxes! </uninteresting-rant>
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) January 30, 2012

Just look what you miss if you're not following me on Twitter! You can hear all about my tax-filing woes.

Nothing like starting a road trip by having to pull over and tape up something on your car.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) June 20, 2012

And yet we made it!

Hard to say if the guy who stopped our car at the California border to ask if we had fruit was a govt worker or just a hungry fruitarian.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) June 21, 2012

Once again, I got many responses assuring me that this was a paid employee and telling me all about California's fruit-import laws. Usually people with no sense of humor stick to Facebook.

"Speed checked by aircraft"? Maaaaveriiiiick!!!
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) June 21, 2012

I am the only one who thought this was funny. #topgunforever

Proof that I breastfed on a ferris wheel. fb.me/1vODeJvSz
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) August 1, 2012

They said it couldn't be done.

Mikko: "Please, don't make go upstairs to sleep."Me: "Why not?"M: "Because I'm noctuuurnal!"
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) September 1, 2012

It's true.

Me: "Mikko, could you please be a little quieter? The baby is trying to sleep."M: "No, thank you."
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) October 18, 2012

At least he's polite?

Got annoyed with Mikko for spilling water. Immediately afterward, spilled water. Oh, karma… ;)
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) January 26, 2013

He laughed so hard.

Mikko is now arguing with us that the Earth DOES stop spinning sometimes. Because otherwise you wouldn't see the moon.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) February 12, 2013

And people say homeschooling doesn't work!

What are your go-to remedies for a suspected UTI?
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) February 16, 2013

Twitter docs to the rescue! This actually worked.

Sam has just created paleo bacon chocolate chip cookies. He is a god.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) February 18, 2013

Yup. And I live with him.

I love hearing Alrik pipe up with words like "Pizza!" and "Cookie!" It's like my cat suddenly learned to talk…and is hungry.
— Lauren Wayne (@Hobo_Mama) February 25, 2013

Especially since it's more like "Pee-ssa!" and "Toot-kie!" It's tres adorable.

I have since added another baby to my life and a lot more fun Tweets to my timeline, so be sure to follow along (@Hobo_Mama & @LaurenWaynecom) and let me know where to follow you!

Follow @Hobo_Mama Follow @LaurenWaynecom
If you download your Tweets, I'd love to hear what your first or funniest Tweets were! Let me know in the comments.

How to increase your Facebook page fans and interaction

2014-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

In the past year, I increased my fan count on Hobo Mama by over 1,000 fans, from 3,500 to more than 4,900. (Don't bother looking at my Lauren Wayne page. I'm concentrating on one page at a time. Yeah, that's it.)

Here are my ideas for increasing your Facebook page fan count and interactions, for what that's worth (with all the Facebook changes making it harder for pages to get views, it might be worth less and less…). I'm indebted with gratitude to Jennifer of Hybrid Rasta Mama and Laura of Authentic Parenting, who have a gazillion followers each (ok, 11,000+) and mentored me, passing along most of the following tips.

Post at least daily. Some people post every hour, some once a day. When I am being hardcore at building my fan base, I post about 4 times a day, with at least 2 hours in between posts if possible, and keeping them all within daytime hours in U.S. timezones. (This depends on your audience, of course, so you can experiment and see what your FB insights tell you about when the most engagement happens on your page.)

Ask questions! Ask silly, goofy things, like "What did you have for lunch?" I kid you not. I thought this was so dumb, but I swear you'll get a million people responding. Ok, maybe I don't swear it since I'm exaggerating. But it's funny how the banal questions tend to get the biggest response.

Do roll calls: "Where do you live?" "How old are your kids?" "I'm looking for new pages to follow. If you have a Facebook page for your blog, tag your page in the comments!"

Ask advice. Even if you don't need it or intend to follow it. People love giving advice.

My 2013 stats trend

Post something pithy (or not) and TELL your followers to click "like" or "share." For instance, "Like this post if you love cheese!" Make it at least semi-tailored to your audience, but it doesn't have to be profound. The more you can get people interacting, the more your page's posts will show up in newsfeeds as worthy.

When posting links, you'll have to experiment with how you get the most views and click-throughs. For me, I find the best way is to use a URL-shortening site (I use bit.ly) and post the shortened link. THEN, click X on the photo preview. Seems counterintuitive to hide your pretty photo, but I get barely any views on links with previews. (This is all subject to change with Facebook's whims.)

Post a variety of types of updates — photos, videos, links with previews, links without previews, straight text updates, shares from other pages. Facebook will penalize you for doing the same thing over and over. So post a variety with your important thing (say, your shortened link to your own awesome article) in the middle of some less important filler.

In the same vein, post a variety of material: links from your blog, links from others' blogs, life updates, questions, jokes, photos of interest to your readers, etc.

You can straight-up beg for followers from your current fans. Tell them when you're really close to the next big round number ("I'm almost at 500 fans — please like my page and share with friends!"), and it will usually work!

Some people have great success with meme photographs — photos with pretty sayings on them. Keep them short and share-able. I don't have the magic meme touch, but that works well for those who do.

You'll get barely any views on your page when you "share" something from another blogger's page, though that doesn't mean it's a bad thing to do. You'll be boosting the views of the other page's post by sharing it. In a group like this, that can be a nice way to reciprocate — sharing, liking, and commenting on each other's FB posts to mutually boost views and keep each other in the newsfeeds.

In that spirit, I do recommend encouraging your bloggy friends to comment on, like, and share important posts. Don't do it constantly, of course, but if there's something you really need eyes on, it's appropriate to go to a group of like-minded bloggers (perhaps on Facebook!) and ask for support in persuading Facebook to show your post to more people (without paying them any money!).

For the most views, it's best to post straight onto your Facebook page rather than through third-party services like Hootsuite or similar. You can, however, take advantage of Facebook's scheduling feature (which has been updated and made even easier since I wrote that tutorial). You can also use Facebook's native apps for mobile devices, such as Facebook or Pages Manager. That way, you can schedule out multiple posts when you have the time and have them autopopulating your Facebook page while you're elsewhere.

Interact with your page yourself! Talk to your fans. Make it a conversation. Make them feel welcome and like your fans are part of your special FB team. It's a win-win situation, because they're more likely to stick around to see your posts and share them with others, and you'll have built your own little community online.

What are your best tips for increasing your Facebook fan count and post reach? Feel free to share a link to your FB page(s) in the comments!

Where to find free images for blog posts

2013-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

You know that punching up your blog articles with pictures lends a thousand-plus words to your text — but you also want to make sure the photographs and drawings you find are legally yours to use under copyright law and ethical guidelines. You generally can't just grab a photo off Google Image Search or someone else's blog without permission.

There are many stock sites that will allow you to purchase photos, but bloggers rarely want to spend cash for their frequent and frequently ill-paid postings.

So: Here are my top 10 resources for royalty-free, payment-free, copyright-legal, fair-use images for your blog posts.

1. Flickr Advanced Search

By far my favorite source for a variety of candids (and some professional shots) is Flickr. I've bookmarked the advanced search link in my browser's toolbar so I can go straight to it.

Most photos on Flickr are copyright-protected and not available for your use without permission. However, many users have uploaded pictures under Creative Commons licenses, and advanced search is the way to find those.

You input your keywords at the top, but make sure you scroll all the way down to select your CC search options at the bottom.

Check the box "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" for a general CC search. Do at least this every time you're looking for an image you can download and use on your blog.
Check "Find content to use commercially" if you plan to make money off the image. This can be sort of a gray area with blogs, since we might blog semi-professionally. I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on my blog, but I check off this box if I'm creating an advertisement, or a print or electronic material that I will be selling (such as for inclusion in an ebook). I don't check it if I'm only using a photo in a blog post, even though I do make money on my blog. This is a matter of some legal murkiness, so if you want to be absolutely certain, click this box as well.
Check "Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon" if you want to alter the image substantially (such as by making another artwork from it). I don't believe (again, not a lawyer) this means you can't crop or resize images or add text (as for Pinterest) but that some people don't want their images substantially altered without their permission — such as a mashup, or drawing mustaches on it, or whatever.
Read more about Creative Commons license types here.

To use a photo from Flickr, you've got two options: hotlink from Flickr, or download the photo and upload it into your blog from your computer or your image host. Since I despise that they've obscured all the functions under really unhelpful icons, I'll give you a couple screenshots to show you where these two options are.

Click the weird bucket-vomiting-an-arrow icon (that's supposed to be "sharing," by the by) to find the share code in html. Select your size, and copy and paste into HTML mode in your blog post. It will automatically link to the original image for you, but you'll still want to add a credit to your post. The text you can use is right there in the HTML: "Growing Grapes by cight, on Flickr." Easy-peasy.

Click some weird horizontal dots to have more control over a Flickr image by downloading it to your own computer and then uploading it from there to some sort of image pool under your own auspices. (Images on Flickr get deleted or moved, and then your hotlinks won't be so hot anymore.) You can also then edit the images, if allowed, by cropping, sharpening, adding text, etc.

2. PhotoPin

I've seen people use PhotoPin, and I don't really understand it, because it's just Flickr Creative Commons images put into a different site with a bunch of sponsored images up top. So…like…an extra step and some weirdness.

That said, I guess you might appreciate that they code out the photo credit for you so you just have to copy and paste.

3. Stock.xchng

A bucketful of puppies? Yes, please!

Stock.xchng is my go-to place for free stock photos. If I want high-energy, on-the-fly shots, I head to Flickr; if I want staged and professional(ish) shots, I head to stock.xchng. It's owned by Getty Images, a paid stock photo conglomerate, but all the images on www.sxc.hu (that's the odd website URL) are free.

There are a few caveats. First of all, you need to become a member (for free).

Secondly, quality varies a lot. Some will look like high-quality stock photos, but most are clearly from amateur photographers. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just something to keep in mind when choosing the vibe of your blog post. I don't like mine to look too slick, personally, so I'm fine with that.

Thirdly, you need to take note of the usage options when you try to download. The most common is no-strings-attached. There used to be a clue under Usage in the top right sidebar, but right now they're all just listed as Royalty Free.

At any rate, most of the photos are available for immediate download and use, with credit requested but not explicitly demanded.

Other images will trigger one of two things: a requirement that you first request permission, or a requirement for a specific credit back.

I'm willing to go through this bother if it's the perfect image and if I'm not in a time crunch for getting a photo onto my post. Only…I'm always in a time crunch. Getting an image is usually the last thing I do before publishing, so…I mostly just use the photos that are immediately available. I always give credit back in any case.

Stock.xchng's guidelines allow you to use images in digital and print formats as long as you don't endorse a product with an image that includes a person, use it as your logo, or sell and redistribute the image. You have to ask permission if you want to sell items with the image embedded.

A lot of times in the sidebar or on the profile of a photographer, there will be additional requests, such as crediting info or a request for a comment or email when a photo is used:

These are simple enough requests, so I try to when I remember. (I have to admit, sometimes with scheduling posts in advance, I don't always go back to email or leave a comment once the post is live.)

4. Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia's free image collection is an interesting one if you're looking for certain types of photos or videos — well, basically, if you're looking for images of the types of things that might be in Wikipedia! So, for instance: photos of specific animals, historical images, celebrity publicity stills, locations, buildings, artworks. I used it to find a picture of cat mummies, if you need a highly practical example.

Everything in Wikimedia Commons has been validated as free to use, with some restrictions. Some content is public domain, and others have been uploaded by users with the intent of being openly reused. There might be requirements to provide proper credit (the right idea in any case) or link to the license. Click on an image to view the licensing and attribution information at the bottom.

Sample copyright and attribution information from a Wikimedia Commons image

I use this information to link back to the Wikimedia page and credit the photographer and title of the work.

5. FreeDigitalPhotos.net

FreeDigitalPhotos.net is a site I see other bloggers use sometimes but haven't gotten into as much myself. That said, it looks like a decent resource for (small) stock images.

Photos are free if they are web resolution (72 dpi) and a small size (288x400 pixels for the sample I downloaded). They're not watermarked, but attribution is required.

If you use this free image, you must publish an acknowledgement to FreeDigitalPhotos.net and the image creator on the same page or screen where the image is used.

This is standard journalistic practice, anyway, so that seems more than reasonable.

If you desire a higher resolution or larger size, or if you don't want to provide a credit (as on an advertisement or in a video or some other use where a credit would be clunky), then you can pay stock photo prices to own the image at various sizes.

6. StockPhotosForFree.com

This is a site I just heard of while researching this article, so I can't vouch for it, but it looks like you can get high-quality stock photos…for free. Oo — like the name!

In just a couple minutes of browsing, I discovered a couple quibbles: You have to have a (free) account to download (ok, that's fine), and they really try to upsell you to their paid stock photo services. (That's something Stock.XCHNG does as well, but less overtly, in my opinion.)

If you can wade past the buy-buy-buy hype, it looks like the photos are free for any use, including commercial, and they look like expert stock photos.

7. Zemanta

Creative Commons activist Michelle Thorne.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Zemanta's one I've only started using recently. It's a plugin that works on Wordpress or Blogger sites (it will install itself into your blog platform's sidebar), or on browsers, to help you find both content links and images. It will automatically insert the credit as well.

I find it a bit clunky to use. For one thing, it works only in Compose/View mode, not Edit HTML. Since I use HTML mode 98% of the time, that's not super helpful for me. However, it's worth a shot for finding CC or public domain images. I've included a Zemanta-sourced image here so you can see what the default credits look like — one attached to the image, and a little Zemanta button at the bottom of the post. These can be altered or styled in the HTML, though — as mentioned — you'll be disabling Zemanta by moving into HTML mode.

You can search by keyword or look at the suggestions that autopopulate as you type your post. You can also use Zemanta to search your own content by setting your source preferences to include your blogs and link to your Flickr and Instagram accounts. Here's hoping they add Photobucket and Picasa/Google+, and then I'll be golden.

{affiliate link, ahoy:}

8. Dreamstime

Dreamstime has a lot of paid stock photos but also a free photos section. I haven't been through it thoroughly, but it has some really high-quality stock images. They require a photographer credit and a link back to Dreamstime. They provide samples and code on each photo to make things easier.

9. Other people's images

I said up front you can't just take someone's image from another site. That said, you can ask permission to use someone else's image — and you'll very often be granted it. Whenever I've asked to use someone's picture, I've been granted permission with a smile (and I've done the same back). Just be clear about your use of the image — if it's for a sensitive topic or commercial use, be honest about that when requesting.

10. Your own images

My favorite images to use for blog posts? My own! They're free, immediately available (well, once I find the download cord…), and I can draw mustaches on every single one if I so desire.

If you're a blogger, it's worth getting used to taking photographs. A lot of them. All the time. Of everything. You never know when one might come in handy!

You might also want to upgrade your equipment. Far be it from me to insist you go fancy with your camera, but…well, I love mine, so I'll share my affiliate links for the specific camera and lens we use: Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) (I believe this is the newer version: Canon EOS Rebel T3 12.2 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera and DIGIC 4 Imaging) with the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens, which we lurve. (It's closeup, but the atmosphere of it can't be beat.) These don't qualify as professional-grade, because Sam won't let me spend thousands of dollars on photography equipment {he's so dang reasonable}, but they're a really, really nice combo for about $640.

But, seriously, you can take good (and better and better) images with your point-and-shoot or your cellphone, too. Then do your best to keep your images sorted into helpful folders with keywords added, if possible. That way, if you just know you have the perfect photo of a bucketful of puppies somewhere, you'll be able to track it down.

Bonus sites!

Since publishing, I've received some other tips from readers.

Rachel points out that Wylio does the same thing where it gives you the coding for Creative Commons images it's pulled from Flickr. According to the pricing page, you can get 5 free pictures a month that way.

Avishai Bitton recommends Imonomy and Pixabay.

CREDITING IMAGES

If you're using someone else's image, the legal and ethical and downright-nice thing to do next is give credit!

At a minimum, list the photographer's (or photo-owner's) name with a link back to where you found it, such as this:
Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44068064@N04/5063884802/in/set-72157622552252143" target="_blank">Lauren Wayne</a>

Which ends up looking like this:
Photo Credit: Lauren Wayne

Another nice touch is to link each picture to its source as well (the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/44068064@N04/5063884802/in/set-72157622552252143"></a> part bracketed around your img code).

Example credit requests
on stock.xchng

I try to look for the preferred name of the photographer. On stock.xchng, the photographer will often have a requested attribution line listed in the profile (e.g., "Please credit all photos to Super Photography at this web address"). On Flickr, I look for the person's full name and use the Flickr profile name if that's not available or obscure, or both (so, in order of my own preferences, I'd use Lauren Wayne if given, then Lauren/HoboMama if only a first name is available, or HoboMama if only a profile name is).

You can add in other information as well that might be helpful for the reader or courteous to the creator, such as a blog or website name and link if someone gave you permission to use a photo (e.g., "Lauren from LaurenWayne.com"), the Creative Commons licensing information (CC Wiki has examples for proper use, e.g. "'My Awesome Photo,' © 2009 Greg Grossmeier, used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"), or the title of the photo or artwork (I particularly recommend this with art pieces).

PHOTO USE DOS AND DON'TS

First big DO: Do use photos in your blog posts! Not only does it make your post pop, but it's a necessity if you want your posts pinned on Pinterest. Note I didn't say "nice addition"; I said "necessity." As in, Pinterest won't let anyone pin your post without a photo to grab. Now, you might not be on Pinterest and don't care (who are you?!), but some of your readers (probably a lot of your readers) will be, so you want to let them get you some pinning juice if they're in the mood to share your work.¹

What if you take all the copyright and credit precautions and a photographer still asks you take down a photo that you found? Well: Do take it down if there's a request. Swap it out for a different one from someone else. It's not your photo, obviously, and it's best to err on the side of caution in copyright debates. Maybe the photographer isn't happy with how it was used (e.g., his nephew's face in your article on genital warts). Speaking personally, I've never had any complaints about my uses of other people's photographs in my blog posts, and I have heard from some photographers who were happy to see their photos in use. I know as a photographer (and CC-licensor) myself, I feel the same way: It's fun to see my artwork traveling the blogosphere!

If you have any doubts about the proper use of a photo, do contact the photographer. Most will be pleasant about granting you permission or asking for a particular credit.

I hope these resources and rules will give you plenty of material to use free and clear! Enjoy making your blog posts more colorful.

What are your favorite sources for photos to use in blog posts?

1 Now, there is some legal wrangling about what's fair to pin on Pinterest. For instance, is it fair that photos get pinned without the inherent credits? My take is that I do not put all the information a pinner would need into someone else's photograph, so that pinners have to click on the blog post for the full scoop, including the photo credit. Again, not a lawyer. Things might change in Pinterest-land, and you might need to include photo credits in pins at some point (not that you couldn't now). Sites can opt out of having images pinned, but that doesn't protect you as the pinner if you pin something that's copyrighted.^↩

Allow people to message you from Google Plus

2013-03-04T05:00:00.001-08:00

If you've connected your Google presence to your Google+ profile, as is now the default, there's no standard way for people outside your circles to contact you if they want to drop you a line. There's a feature on the old Blogger profiles to make your email address visible, but if you've upgraded to G+, that profile is history (or soon will be, as I imagine they'll be phased out shortly).

You can't post on someone's wall outside your circles or view their email address without that person making a settings change. You can't even easily tell whether someone comes from a blog or what blog that is unless the profile is set up to loudly display that information.

What's the big deal? Well, for me personally, I run into all sorts of problems when I'm trying to contact winners for my giveaways on Blogger. People comment from their Google accounts on Blogger blogs without necessarily considering the lack of email-ability they're leaving behind. I also can't email someone to follow up on a question or comment.

It's up to you to decide how reachable you want to be on G+ and increase your visibility if that's your goal. (Obviously, if you want to remain entirely private, then that's your call.)

Fortunately, there's an easy fix to make in your settings to allow messages and emails to be sent to you without revealing your email address. To me, this is a commonsense balance between privacy and reachability.

(Now, another irritation I have with Google+ is how small and hidden the links are for emailing people even if they've set up public messaging capabilities, but this tutorial will at least also show you where to look!)

Click any images to embiggen.

See that teensy-weensy line way down there on your right sidebar? For me, it says "Send Lauren an email." That's where, if you have the email function enabled, users can click on it to send you an email. This happens without revealing your email address, so I think it's a good call to enable (unless you're trying really hard to avoid being contacted by [certain] people).

Slightly more visible is the option to send someone a private message over Google+. That's the envelope icon at the top of the profile (when this function is enabled), the one the blue arrow is pointing to.

The red arrow is pointing to a drop-down menu that gives you the option to view your profile as the public or any specific person would be able to. That will give you feedback for just how much information you're sharing with whom.

Setting up email & messaging capability through Google+

All right, so: To enable either or both contacting options, you need to get into your profile. So click on "Edit profile" at the top.

As you can see:

You control your profile: click items to change them or to change who can see them.

Click on "Change contact settings."

It will pop up this box where you can choose messaging, an email link, neither, or both.

The top option (blue arrow) is that little envelope icon that will show at the top of your profile. The bottom option (red arrow) is the link that says "Send {Name} an email."

As you can see, you can choose whether that's visible to the Public (everyone) or some lesser level of visibility:

Extended circles
Public
Your circles
Only you
Custom

That way, you can really specify whether only certain people can contact you in one way or the other. Since G+ doesn't reveal my email address to any contacts, I felt comfortable setting both of mine to Public.

Remember, if you're not setting yours to public, then only people who are directly connected with you through your circles or extended circles (depending on what settings you chose) will be able to send you a message or email. If you're wanting emails to alert you of giveaway wins or to respond to your comments, then set either or both to public.

When you're done, make sure you click "Finished editing" at the top to save your changes.

Testing out contacting through G+

I used Sam's computer to try out sending myself an email through G+ (through the "Send Lauren an email" link). He's not on G+, so he's not friends with me, making it the same as having a stranger email.

This is the message that came to my inbox. "Test message from G+" is what I'd typed as the message text. Sam's Gmail address was at the top as the sender and reply-to address. At the bottom of the email, it reassured me:

This message was sent to you from your Google profile. The sender does not have your email address.

I was also able to check Sam's inbox to see that he had a copy of the message sent to him, still minus my email address.

I tried using the envelope icon to send a message through G+, but it kept giving me an error. I imagine that would come to my G+ "inbox" and show up as one of the updates in my +# list. Since I have important updates forwarding to my inbox, it's possible it would show up in my Gmail inbox as well.

See you (and perhaps message you!) on Google+

Oh, and? Feel free to circle me on Google Plus! I'm slightly more active on my Hobo Mama G+ page, so you can follow me there as well.

Are you a Google+ user? Do you allow people to contact you through your Google+ profile? Any other G+ tips or tricks to share?

9 tips for affiliate earning success & an invitation!

2013-02-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

One way I earn (a little bit of) money as a blogger is through affiliate sales, an aspect that's increased a lot in the past couple years as I've refined my affiliate techniques.

Affiliate marketing for bloggers is using text links, image ads, and posts that direct your readers to certain stores with whom you have an affiliate relationship. When a reader clicks your link and then buys something at the affiliate store, you as a blogger get a certain percentage back. Amazon Associates (see our bloggers' links here and link up if you haven't already!) is the most well-known program available to bloggers (and a profitable one), but there are many more besides. If you're not familiar with affiliate programs at all, check out this article at Acceleration Partners.

Today I'm going to offer you some of my go-to tips for affiliate marketing as well as recommend my top-earning affiliate programs to you to join.

Best tips for affiliate marketing success

1. An ad in the sidebar isn't going to cut it:
As soon as I started blogging in 2007, I put affiliate image ads in my sidebar. I'm able to track those through the various programs, and I'll give you the hard facts here: TWO of those ads have ever been clicked on and then followed by a sale. Plenty more have been clicked on; don't get me wrong. But very, very, very, very few of those clicks resulted in any money to me.

Takeaway: If you're trying to define ad space on your blog, feel free to put up some affiliate image ads. That way, potential advertisers can see where ads go, and your blog looks professional (as long as you're not overwhelming readers with ads all over the place). However, once you get paying ads from real live sponsors, do not allow those affiliate ads to take up prime ad real estate. Take 'em down. They're not earning you anything, trust me.

2. What does work is contextual text links:
Instead of hoping a hit-or-miss visitor will wander to your sidebar and feel the urge to shop, hit them where they already are: in your blog posts! For one thing, most everybody nowadays is reading blogs on phones or in RSS readers. Some of your faithful visitors will never even see your sidebar!

I make an effort to have at least one affiliate link in every post I publish. Does that sound like overkill? It's really not, and it's easy enough to do, even if all you do is stick with Amazon Associates, since they have nearly everything under the sun.

If you're blogging about your home renovation and saying you needed to run out and buy a hammer — link to a hammer! (Bonus points if it's the one you actually bought and recommend. Then you can say so, and readers appreciate authentic recommendations.) If you're discussing your baby's cloth diaper stash, link to a cloth diaper store or, even better, a specific brand you love.

Samples:

"I'm editing my novel now, and I've been very pleased with All-Star Writers Writing Software {made-up company with affiliate link}. The software has been easy to configure, although I've had a few issues getting my novel to import." {Give your honest opinion — both pros and cons — of any product you recommend to keep it authentic.}

"Today we're baking Slime-Drenched Goocakes. You'll need to gather your organic slime {link to your favorite brand} and preferably a raw, unsweetened goo {same deal here}."

The good news is, it doesn't matter what you link to if your reader is interested in buying from that store. Any purchase during the click window will net you affiliate earnings. (By "click window," often called "tracking gap," I mean that each store sets its own timeframe between click and time-of-purchase that an affiliate sale will be credited. For many of the smaller affiliates, the window is 30 days or more. Amazon's is a measly 24 hours, but you take what you can get!) So if you link to a book on Amazon, but your reader wants to buy undies within that 24-hour period, you'll still get the referral credit.

Takeaway: No matter what your post or blog topic, you can find something to link to within every post. Try not to make it unrelated shilling; instead, let it be woven into the topic at hand. Be persistent, and make a goal to link at least once per post, potentially lots more if posts are product-heavy.

3. Another definite do is to write specific blog posts:
This is a suggestion for those of you who seriously want to make some money, not just supplement your blogging in a more organic way. I started a review blog because I wanted to do giveaways and was at the time prohibited from having them on my main blog due to advertising terms with BlogHer. (They've since lifted those restrictions.) Since I had the site going, I went ahead and put up blog posts about my affiliate deals and coupons as they came along and I had the time and energy. (Everything takes time, after all, so I don't do this very consistently.)

I've found that posts that are just about shopping, coupons, and deals eventually show up in search engine results, and then people click on my links. It might be a post from a year ago (and the coupons might now be defunct), but someone will find the post, probably by searching for coupons for the store or for product reviews.

If you don't want to make an extra blog, you can certainly do similar posts within your current blog(s). For instance, in this here post (gasp!), I'm talking about affiliate programs, hoping to attract people who are interested in affiliate programs so that they'll click on my referral links to join those affiliate programs. (I'm so transparent!) At Hobo Mama, I like doing roundup posts of books my kids like or baby gear favorites — I write the posts because I'm genuinely interested in the topics and truly want to pass on the information. And then I include the affiliate links for the products, and those sorts of posts can get high visibility in search results. Two of my enduring popular posts at Hobo Mama are a stupid throwaway post I wrote about a maternity coat that amused me, and a post giving ideas for finding maternity clothes. Clearly those were stellar keywords, because people keep finding them!

Takeaway: Consider writing posts about specific products or stores that would be of interest to your readers, or taking it one step further and starting a blog just for that purpose. Anytime you write a product-heavy post, seek out affiliate links or programs that would be relevant.

4. Not all affiliate programs are created equal:
I belong to four big multi-affiliate programs:
These large affiliate programs encompass thousands of individual stores that you can then apply to to become an affiliate for them.

In addition, some products and stores have their own affiliate programs, either that they manage individually or through smaller affiliate programs like E-Junkie. (If you're trying to sell your own ebook or other product online, I'd recommend looking at them as an affordable affiliate option.)

Some individual affiliates I promote:
- Amazon Associates — obviously, this is an in-house program but a BIG in-house program!
- eBay Partner Network — for eBay and Half.com
- Kissed By the Moon — cloth diapering store
- Kelly's Closet — cloth diapering store
- A Mother's Boutique — maternity and nursing clothing and supplies
- Simple Blogging ebook — a wonderful blogging guide by Rachel Meeks of Small Notebook
- Truth in the Tinsel — Advent ebook and related downloadables — I've had good success at Christmastime with this
- Hybrid Rasta Mama's Coconut Oil for Your Skin and Cooking With Coconut Oil — ever-so-useful books that are perfectly tailored toward the crunchy crowd
I'm sure everyone's experience will be different, but here are my opinions on the above programs:

>> Amazon Associates is a must-have. They have so many products, including third-party sellers, and people are shopping there every day anyway. Amazon has international programs for Canada, UK, Germany, France, and Japan. Linking is straightforward with the Site Stripe, and readers are familiar with and tolerant of Amazon affiliate links. Payout is a reasonable $10 for gift card or direct deposit. Downsides of Amazon: They offer some of the lowest commissions of any affiliate program, and their click-through window is very short (i.e., visitors have to check out their cart within 24 hours of clicking one of your links for you to get credit). But what Amazon lacks in generosity it makes up for in quantity. Most of my affiliate sales are through Amazon, and those few cents per sale add up over time. Remember, Teresa of Spirit Grooves and I have a linky for Amazon (and other) affiliates — add your link, and support bloggers by clicking one of the links every time you're going to check out at Amazon.

>> ShareASale is one of my favorites. I find the interface usable. You can make custom links to specific products or pages easily. (There's much greater return linking to a specific product or category rather than to a homepage — even if the clicker doesn't buy that product after all!) The reports are readable. For whatever reason, a lot of the affiliate managers there (each store will have its own manager of the affiliates; it might be the owner for small companies, or a larger one might hire it out) are very engaging and helpful. I don't know if ShareASale recruits the best companies or managers or if it's just luck, but that's what I've found for my niche (parenting products). I'll often get emails from ShareASale-related companies that give me my affiliate links right in the body of the email — so, say they're writing to tell their affiliates there's a sale on. They might email us and say:

"We've got a 25% off sale. Here's your specific link to the sale page with your affiliate code embedded. Here's a banner with your code embedded. And here's a sample blog post to promote it."
It makes my life so much easier not to have to go to the affiliate site and try to search out all that information myself, and I suspect ShareASale's interface must be very usable for the companies on that side as well for them to be able to do that for their affiliates. I wish all affiliate programs were so easy to work with! Plus, a lot of popular brands work with ShareASale. For instance, I've gotten good sales and had good experiences with ModCloth indie fashion, BabyLegs leg warmers, Earth Mama Angel Baby natural care products, Waxing Poetic heirloom jewelry, Tea Collection children's clothing, Tiny Prints stationery (including Treat greeting cards and Shutterfly), momAgenda planners, and Amy Adele custom stationery, all ShareASale brands. There are tons more to choose from, too, so search their merchant lists for your keywords to get started. ShareASale does have a payout threshold of $50, which could take awhile for small bloggers to reach — however, earnings don't expire, so you can take your time getting up to the threshold, and payment is easy through direct deposit. Each store sets its own policies for what affiliates they accept, their click-through windows, and their commission percentages, but they're decent overall, and you can always pick and choose the ones that suit you.

>> Commission Junction is meh. For one thing, their payout is $50 even with direct deposit, and to add to the pain, they deactivate your account periodically if you don't get at least one commission every six months. You can reactivate, but you lose any commissions that were earned to that point. So, basically, I have never gotten paid by Commission Junction! ShareASale has the same payout threshold, and I've done just fine with them, but CJ keeps kicking my butt. I think it must be related to lower variety at CJ, less interactive affiliate managers, and a clumsier interface. To add insult to injury, I get nagging emails from CJ and related merchants whining about how I'm not selling anything for them — but they're not making it easy! I also get rejected more often by CJ merchants, probably because bigger names tend to go to CJ and they can afford to be picky about what bloggers they work with. I've earned commissions (but not been paid, you understand) for Smilebox e-greetings and Robeez baby shoes. If you know your blog is hopping and CJ has an affiliate business you've just got to have, go ahead and try it out. If you're small to medium in size, you might just give this one a miss and save the hassle and heartache.

>> LinkShare is in the middle. I find the interface unintuitive but usable. There are a few stores there I really like, and then not much else. A big plus is the minimum payment threshold of (wait for it) $1! However, I can find only a handful of stores there to work with, and many of the ones I used to work with have left the program, so I no longer receive any commissions on those links. I don't know if LinkShare is not good at holding onto businesses or what. In general, I also find the emails I get from the managers less helpful than the ShareASale ones, though there used to be one amazing affiliate manager for a couple of the programs there who's left. So it's not necessarily LinkShare — it likely depends on what specific stores you affiliate with, because I know it's possible for managers there to send out specific links and banner codes in an email. My biggest earnings there, since my other venues have left, are from Destination Maternity (a store that, even though I do shop there when pregnant, I have many ethical qualms with and have since stopped promoting — I'm not sure if I should even take down that link) and MyPublisher, the store we buy our own photo books through.

>> I really hate Google Affiliate Network. There, I said it. The interface is so obnoxious. You'd think a site like Google could simplify matters, wouldn't you? And you'd think intersecting it easily with Blogger would be a no-brainer, right? No chance. Blogger does have this new in-editor gadget that replaced the former Amazon Associates gadget (sigh — that thing was golden), but I can't ever find anything useful when I search for products from it. The emails are constant but useless, requiring you to go to the (terrible) site if you want to post. The upside is that huge (as well as moderate) companies use GAN: Target, Kohl's, Melissa & Doug, Diapers.com, and so on. But I've yet to get an affiliate sale through them, and as I understand it, payments are directed into your Google AdSense account, where the payout threshold is a steep $100. Quite honestly, I've been blogging for 5 and a half years and just got my first AdSense payout — woo! So, like, don't hold your breath.

>> eBay Partner Network is worth using. It's unique in that it allows you to link to used items and collections of items. The interface takes some getting used to, but it's quite functional, allowing you to target your links to individual listings (not a great idea, since they'll expire), individual sellers (for instance, yourself on eBay!), or, as I like to use it, search terms (e.g., "maternity clothes lot" in the Clothing, Shoes, & Accessories category). I like using links to eBay whenever I suggest looking for a product secondhand, especially as a way for readers to save money. eBay Partner Network also pays you not by purchases made through your links but from some sort of per-click calculation. I don't understand it; all I know is that I get regular micro amounts filtering into my bank account from them. According to the FAQ, the payout is supposed to be $25, but all of my payments have been under that amount (confusing, but I'll take it). Honestly, I don't use eBay links very often, but every little bit of income helps.

>> As for the little guys? I do recommend joining them. Often the payout thresholds are low or nonexistent (meaning, if you get a commission, they'll pay you the next time they pay out affiliates, whether that's quarterly or monthly or whatever; this is not always the case, so read the affiliate agreement before joining). You can find niche stores that suit your target audience (you'll notice I went with cloth diaper and maternity boutiques as well as relevant ebooks). Downsides to the little guys: They pretty much never have a professional affiliate manager, so you're usually on your own. I subscribe to the regular store emails that are available, or to the bloggers' feeds, and just keep track of sales and deals that way. Another drawback is it's rarely possible to link to specific products, making it hard to use links contextually. For instance, if I'm writing a post about wool diaper covers, I can't link to a specific cover at Kelly's Closet {<--homepage only} but can at Amazon {<--one of my favorite covers, by the way!}. A reader is much more likely to click on a link to a product than just to a store's homepage where she'd have to comb through the site to see what's available. I've even written these smaller stores about including that functionality and been turned down! I think smaller businesses don't understand the click-through value of targeted links. Unless I'm talking about cloth diapering stores, to continue my example, I will just link to a product on Amazon, then, rather than to a homepage of a boutique. I'll sometimes see bloggers put a general note on any posts, "I buy my cloth diapering supplies at Kissed By the Moon and hope you will buy yours through my affiliate link!" But I suspect they don't get much juice from those lines, especially from casual (not site-loyal) visitors. So, I find I do best with small companies when I do specific blog posts or sections within a post just about that store or product, instead of trying to do in-context links within a post on an unrelated topic. For instance, I'll post on my review site about coupons at Kelly's Closet (and earn all right with that), whereas if I'm writing a blog post on Hobo Mama proper about cloth diapering options, I'll mostly link to Amazon to target the links. I also got burned by ERGO when they closed their affiliate program when I was one sale away from the payout threshold, so that sort of thing can happen with small-time programs, which wouldn't be an issue with the conglomerate programs. As with Commission Junction's disappointments, sometimes you just have to swallow the frustration and think, "Easy come, easy go."

Takeaway: I highly recommend Amazon Associates and ShareASale, and I suggest eBay Partner Network if you're ever going to recommend used items (on eBay or Half.com). It's worth poking around LinkShare to see what stores they have that are relevant to your blog, and anytime you want to recommend a smaller store or product that you love, it's worth checking to see if there's an in-house affiliate program you can join. A tip is to look at blogs in your niche and see what affiliate banners and links they have up, because then you'll know what's available that's relevant to your readers. I don't recommend Commission Junction and Google Affiliate Network because of my blah experiences with them so far, but they might work out better for you.

5. Choose your affiliations to match your blog:
As primarily a natural parenting blogger (on HoboMama.com), obviously I've connected with stores that are parenting- and eco-centric. You can tailor your affiliate memberships to whatever stores make sense for your niche.

If you blog about pets, find pet boutiques. If you write about car engine repair, find auto parts stores online. Wedding planner? Link to stores selling invitations or travel agencies promoting honeymoon destinations.

If you blog about something less clearly marketable, consider your target audience and what their shopping interests might be. Use a site like Google Analytics to gather data on their average ages, marriage status, global location, and level of education, and then make your best guess as to what sorts of stores might interest them. For instance, if you blog about writing, a lot of your readers are probably interested in books and writing classes. If you share your fashion successes, you couldn't go wrong linking to your favorite shoe and clothing stores.

Don't join just any affiliate program under the sun. It's tempting, particularly at ShareASale, where the amount of choices is astronomical. All those affiliate emails will just clutter up your inbox and leave you fretting about which stores you're not promoting. It's better for your mental clarity to pick businesses you truly resonate with and can recommend freely; your readers will come to understand your loyalty for those businesses and will associate you with them.

Takeaway: Be choosy about what affiliate programs you join, and target them to your blog's niche.

6. Don't be shy about linking:
If you're just starting out with affiliate linking, you'll likely feel sheepish, and like you have to apologize to your readers that you're trying to make money. Do whatever feels valid to you, but remember some key truths: It's ok to make money. Even if you're a writer. Even if you're a woman (not saying you are, but even if!). Even if you're just a small-time blogger. I feel like all those groups of people have been told that it's ok to write as a hobby but that somehow monetizing is dirty. It ain't. It's perfectly reasonable to want some return on the investment of your writing.

So link early, and link often. You might even go back through old posts and add in links to products you've spoken about in the past. Just speak with your same authentic voice when you talk about products, keep your blog balanced, and keep the regular content coming, and your readers will keep on reading.

Takeaway: Affiliate linking is a clean and likable practice. Be confident about your decision to use affiliate links, and promote the products and brands you love.

7. Be open about affiliations:
Now, at the same time, you don't want your readers thinking you're trying to sneak affiliate links past them — and the FCC agrees. So have a blog-wide disclosure that's prominently linked to in your sidebar. Then, on posts that rely on affiliate links, link again to your disclosure at the end.

This isn't legal advice, because I don't know all the ins and outs of the FCC rules, but that's what I do to keep things aboveboard with my readers.

Takeaway: Have a blog page disclosing your affiliations, and let readers know that you're using affiliate links on your site or in specific blog posts.

8. Set up direct deposit:
I don't know if you're shy about storing financial information online, but if it's possible, go with the ACH deposits. The payout thresholds are almost always lower, and the convenience can't be beat.

I know for some non-U.S. bloggers and for some small affiliate programs, direct deposit isn't an option. But it's lovely when offered.

Takeaway: Go directly to the bank!

9. Yes, it's a numbers game:
When you first start out blogging and don't have very many visits, what money you make is going to be limited. As your blog grows and the search engines start pulling your affiliate-linked articles up to the top of the results, your affiliate earnings will grow, too. I can't tell you how long that will take, but be patient and keep linking away! The more links you have within your quality content, the more likely your affiliate earnings are to take off eventually. The best part is that your affiliate earnings on old posts make for passive income. Those links are always sitting in cyberspace, just waiting for someone to find them and be inspired to make a purchase. Some of my biggest affiliate orders have been through old posts that talked about sales that are long over — it doesn't matter as long as the link is still clickable!

Takeaway: Keep linking, and don't get discouraged by early low returns. Your investment will pay off in the long run.

An invitation to join me at Tea Collection

Above is a lovely affiliate banner from Tea Collection!
I have to credit Tea Collection with this blog post idea. Did I mention ShareASale managers tend to be awesome? The Tea Collection managers emailed their affiliates that they've instituted a new referral program for Tea affiliates and suggested we get the word out. That made me want to write this whole post!

I love Tea Collection — and my boys wear the charming clothes — for their quality and their appealing, modern style for boys, girls, babies, and women. When I write a post about them, I earn 8% of all sales that are generated from their affiliate links on my sites.

If you're a blogger whose audience consists of parents or women, you should definitely consider joining their affiliate program. They now pay affiliates $10 for inviting their friends to join the affiliate program, so once you're a Tea Collection affiliate, you may invite your friends to join just like I'm doing now and you'll earn $10 for every friend who joins. Click here to join the program.

Tea Collection has been a consistent high earner for my affiliate efforts. They send out regular, helpful email newsletters with tips, links, and blog post suggestions, making it easy and effective to get your affiliate links out there. They have banners that auto-update with the latest sales or highlighted products, which means you don't have to constantly be pulling and reinstalling your image codes. They have a fully searchable database of all their products so you can link to any one of them. Plus, they offer bonuses for promoting their sales and deals. They're truly one of my favorite affiliates to work with, so I highly recommend partnering with Tea Collection!

For my other recommendations, see my notes in the section about different affiliate programs.

A reminder: For the love of affiliate income, please enter your affiliate links in our linkies! We encourage all our bloggers to share their affiliate links with us (both Amazon and other affiliate links), and all readers to consider using those affiliate links when shopping to show a blogger some love.

What are your affiliate earning tips and tricks? What sort of success have you had with affiliate income?

Image credits: Svilen Milev (coins) & Jakub Krechowicz (laptop)

Disclosure: You'd better believe as many links as possible are affiliate links!
These are companies I've vetted both as a blogger and as a shopper.
Note that Tea Collection did not sponsor this post; they just inspired it.
See my full disclosure policy here.

Basic links for Amazon Associates to copy & paste

2013-02-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

From this:

to this:

Here are some very easy codes to use to make Amazon links from any Amazon item page. If you don't feel like signing into your Amazon Associates account to get the full link, these will work and track just as well.

Link to an item:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/ISBN/?tag=laurenwayne-20" target="_blank">LINK</a>

Replace all the items in bold magenta:

ISBN = Scroll down to the Product Details to grab the ISBN-10 for books or ASIN for any other product. As a shortcut, it's nearly always the first big string of numbers in the URL.

ISBN-10 for books: ASIN for anything else: As mentioned, it's usually the first or only number in the URL as well:

tag = replace laurenwayne with your Associates ID tag
LINK = Whatever text you want for your link, whether it's the product name or some keywords in your post.

If you're not pasting your code into the HTML tab in your blogging platform, then here's just the plain link to use:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/ISBN/?tag=laurenwayne-20

The official Amazon linkage is this tremendous string, by contrast:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1936608871/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=laurenwayne-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1936608871">Product Name</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=laurenwayne-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1936608871" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />

It's a lot harder to remember, right? It's fine if you're in the Associates interface anyway, but the short link will help you out if you're on Amazon proper and don't want to futz with Site Stripe or navigate into your account.

Link to an Amazon-hosted image:

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/ISBN/?tag=laurenwayne-20" target="_blank"><img src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/ISBN.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" alt="PRODUCT" title="POST" align="right" width="200" /></a>

Replace all the items in bold magenta:

ISBN = There are two here to replace. As before, scroll down to the Product Details to grab the ISBN-10 for books or ASIN for any other product. For a shortcut, it's nearly always the first big string of numbers in the URL. If that doesn't work to show an image, look for a different big number!
tag = replace laurenwayne with your Associates ID tag
PRODUCT = You don't need an alt tag, but it can help your images and therefore your posts be found in searches. I usually pop in the product name.
POST = You don't need a title tag, but I highly recommend using title tags on each image to make your posts more Pinterest-friendly. A good suggestion for the title field is Blog Name: Title of Post.

The parts in bright blue can be altered (or deleted or added to) to fit the style you're going for. You can change the alignment and the image size and add other tags or coding, as with any image code.

This is what the image will look like →

Nice, huh? And coding it ourselves rather than using what Amazon gives you through the Associates dashboard sneaks us access into the larger image sizes stored on Amazon's servers.

The images in Associates are small thumbnails, but this image can be quite large.

Like, this large:

Whereas the "large" image in the Associates interface is this unimpressive:

I've never even bothered with their "small" image. I'm assuming it's microscopic.

A caveat: Not every product image is stored on Amazon's servers. Some more obscure items will have missing images or inaccessible ones, in which case you can either try to access one through the Amazon Associates interface, or download a product image elsewhere to use.

There you are! Those are two of my favorite little coding tricks to make linking to Amazon products and images quick and clean — and therefore make raking in the ~~dough~~ pennies easier!

Earth-shattering reminder! Be sure to add YOUR Amazon Associates link to our linky to support bloggers.

And every time you're shopping at Amazon, make sure you choose someone's link to shop through — it can't be yours, so it's a sweet gift to send those cents onto someone else!

Do you have any Amazon Associates tricks and tips? Share in the comments!

3 easy ways to make your blog Pinterest-friendly

2013-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

The pinners are everywhere, and they want to pin your post!

Here are my top three ways to get pinned and repinned on Pinterest!

1. You need an image in your post!

Preferably big and pretty. Pinterest is visual, and the people who use it tend to like their boards to look nice. If your post has no image (or just a video), Pinterest will refuse to let it be pinned. So, seriously: You need at least one photo or illustration in your post!

2. Your images should have pin-friendly title tags.

Here's a sample image code:
<img src="http://images.hobomama.com/pinterest-screenshot.png" alt="Pinterest screenshot for tutorial" title="LaurenWayne.com: 3 easy ways to make your blog Pinterest-friendly">

When someone clicks a Pin It button, Pinterest autofills the description field with information from your image code, in this order:

Title tag

Alt tag

Image name

Wouldn't it be fabulous if they grabbed something more useful, like, say, your blog name plus the title of the post? But wishes, horses, beggars, etc. Let's work with what we've got. Update 2016: Pinterest grabs the alt tag first now, so switch the advice around. AND, if you put nothing in the tags now, Pinterest WILL grab your blog name + title.

The good news is, we can make it put in exactly the wording we want just by filling out the title tag. You can edit the HTML directly or use your blogging platform's image dashboard to add them there. You might have never used a title tag in your life, or you might use them differently, but I implore you to start making them Pinterest-friendly. The quality of the repins will go up, because people will immediately be able to read what's important about your article.

I like something simple, such as title="Blog Name: Title of Post" or the like. You can include keywords or other information as relevant, particularly if your title is not descriptive on its own. (For instance, instead of "Yum!" add something searchable, like, "Yum! Grain-free slow cooker beef stew at My Blog.")

3. Put a Pin It button on pin-worthy posts.

This is an extra step but worth it for any posts you know will be hot on Pinterest: tutorials, recipes, cures for cancer, funny cat pictures, and the like.

Navigate to http://pinterest.com/about/goodies/ and scroll to "Pin It Button for Web Sites." Fill in your post information there (URL of your post, URL of your preferred image, and your description (e.g., as I've suggested, something like "Blog Name: Title of Post"), and then copy the resulting code under "Add this link to your page, right where you want the button to appear" — then paste it into your post … right where you want your button to appear. I like to put one at the top and one at the bottom — encourage rampant pinning!

If it's the first time you've added a Pin It button, you'll need to go to your blog's template and add the small code in the bottom box just once, directly above the closing </BODY> tag. After that, it will work every time you add the bigger code to individual posts. For Blogger users, get to your template's HTML like so (it's doable; don't worry): Dashboard → Template in the left sidebar → Edit HTML. Self-hosted Wordpress users should be able to figure it out. (I fear that Wordpress.com-hosted users are out of luck since Wordpress doesn't like scripts. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know.) Then just do a find/search for "</BODY>" and paste the code directly above it.

(There is a way to code a sitewide Pinterest button for Blogger that appears on every post and autopopulates the post title and your blog name, but I don't know how to code it myself, and Pinterest doesn't supply it. Let's all join in a chant to Anktangle's partner Jaymz to clue us in and write a guest post. Click on any post there to see what I'm talking about. Wordpress users can find a plug-in for this jazz.)

These three easy steps will go a long way to making your followers want to pin you — and pinners want to follow you! Let me know your other Pinterest blogging tips in the comments.

Feel free to follow me on Pinterest: I'm hobomama! And if you're already pinning, join our Natural Parents Network group boards, Slice of Life, Naturally, and Healthy Eating and Living, by emailing your username to ShannonH {at} NaturalParentsNetwork {dot} com.

And, of course, PIN ME! →

What not to name your blog

2012-11-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

What you can name your blog is Lola. I totally approve.

In roaming around the parenting blogosphere, I've seen my share of ill-fitting blog names and usernames (such as on Twitter or forums) that don't grow with the blog or the blogger. This idea list is not meant to snicker at anyone who chose a name poorly, just to offer some guidance as you name — or rename — your blog. I will focus primarily on parenting blogs since that's my realm, but many of these suggestions can apply when choosing any blog or username.

Don't go current.

Yes, when you selected your Twitter handle Rebecca23, you were 23 — but guess what? You'll be 24 next year. And then even older the next! Shocking, I know. Try to pick names that will stand the test of time. More on this same theme in subsequent rules.

Don't name it after your children.

I can't tell you how many blogs I see named "My Two Angels" or usernames like "MommyofAiden." And then said mommy has another angel or two, or Aiden becomes a big brother, and now the header has the "two" crossed out and "four" written in on top, or "Plus Annabelle" is scrawled alongside Aiden. I know it's tempting to declare your passion for your offspring. But if you're not sure sure sure you're "done," don't slight your future kidlets for the current one(s). (This can also extend, sadly enough, to naming based on a present partner, or even a pet. I'd keep things focused on you, since you're the one aspect of your blog that will stay put.)

Don't name it after your locale unless that's significant — and permanent.

In many cases, this rule can and should be broken, such as if you're naming a regional blog that focuses on local issues. But if you're naming yourself "Philadelphia Stacy" when there's a good chance your partner will take a job in Phoenix next year, things might get fuzzy for your new readers.

Don't narrow your focus if you want to broaden later.

There are certain blogs in the parenting world that focus solely on breastfeeding or birth — and those ones make total sense to have names that reflect just that. But if your blog is wider in scope (or you think it might be), remember that breastfeeding and birth (or babyhood or toddlerhood or first-time parenthood, etc.) take up only so much of your parenting career — and therefore might not be the focus if you're still blogging years down the road (and you hope you will be, right?).

Protect your own privacy.

Decide how much you want to share with the internet — and avoid putting anything too identifying into your username or blog name. This will vary from person to person according to comfort levels, but I'd steer clear of naming blogs with details about your address, your birthdate, possibly your children's names (see above, anyway), or the like. I can think of examples of usernames more so than blog names where this rule is violated, but I'd just advise you to be mindful as you set your boundaries.

Keep it simple.

Ideally, you want your blog name and your domain name to be the same (e.g., Hobo Mama and www.HoboMama.com), so check on that before you name your blog. Buying a domain isn't expensive and is well worth your annual investment even if you want Blogger or Wordpress.com to host your site. (We buy ours at MyDomain.com, but there are plenty of sites to use.) You want people to understand the words when you speak them verbally rather than have to explain (e.g., "It's Fr8t-train-ramblings, only with a number 8 for the eigh part and hyphens between all the words"). Try not to make your domain too long, or people will have trouble remembering it. You also, if at all possible, want to choose a name where you can snap up the .com version of the domain — when people can't remember what the ending is to your URL, they default to .com, and you want visitors landing on your site!

Check for duplicates.

Make sure you look at all the social media sites as well as the more obvious places:

domain (is the .com available?)
blogging platforms (I suggest snapping it up at least at Blogger and Wordpress so no one else can take it; you could add Tumblr to that list as well)
Gmail (so you can have a blogging email address — you can always have the email forwarded if you want your inbox centralized)
Facebook page
Twitter handle
Pinterest username
General Google search to see if anyone's already using that name, if even informally

Am I missing any? Do your homework so you can brand yourself across the board — by far the easiest and most memorable way!

Keep it interesting.

I have a hard time remembering names that sound alike (e.g., the three sites in your Reader named "Mommy Blog," "Just Another Mom Blog" and "Blogging Mommy" — I seriously am trying to make up random names; my apologies if these exist). Try to use something memorable, funny, or unique in your name — people will be more likely to remember it and distinguish you from the other blogs out there.

Keep it clean.

This one might partially be personal preference, but I'd refrain from naming your blog anything too overtly vulgar or offensive, for fear of turning away readers. That should be obvious … but, then, I'm referencing hoboes, aren't I?

On that note:

What about your blog names, hotshot?

Just for fun, let's critique my blog names, shall we? LaurenWayne.com — ok, that one's easy, and I think will stand the test of time. It's not very descriptive, which is where my subhead comes in: "A behind-the-scenes look at blogging and writing." I want the domain in my name for when I'm a famous (!) published (!) author.

Hobo Mama — I swear I made up this name while reading John Hodgman's first book with its 700 hobo names, so let's blame him, shall we? I didn't follow my own advice about checking for duplicates, so there's another blog called Hobo Mama and a Twitter user with the handle. However, I got the domain name, so that's something. I think the word "hobo" is funny. It suggests a laid-back, make-do vibe, and that's me, y'all. I do worry it's offensive to hoboes and have gotten a couple disgruntled emails, but … ah, well. I don't want to change it now. It also has "mama" in it, and I am that — and will be for the rest of my life. It's possible I'll someday be blogging about something other than parenting, at which point it might not be the best name. But I think it's vague enough to work regardless. Plus, I get amused when people address me as Hobo Mama instead of Lauren, like it's a title.

How to change your name

If you're discouraged with the blog name you've already chosen, don't despair! Plenty of bloggers do rename their blogs — it might muddle things up for you for awhile as you direct people to the new site, but you can power through it and people will adapt. I suggest an auto-redirect of your domain and a prominent announcement on your main page or sidebar for a time. You might even include the information in your header temporarily (e.g., "Hobo Mama, [in small print:] formerly Boxcar Joan").

Facebook doesn't take kindly to changing your page URL, unfortunately, so it's best to create an entirely separate page and beg your readers to flock over. Have your last post on the old page be a prominent message to follow you at the new one.

Twitter will let you change your username, but you might want to retain your old username as well, to catch stray mentions and prevent anyone else from taking it over. You can follow the tutorial here to make the process painless. Again, let the top Tweet on your old username tell your followers to trek over to your new one.

Do you love or hate your blog name(s)? Anything you'd change about them now if you could or would? Any other tips for our would-be namers?

Photo Credit: eraser place holders by hownowdesign, on Flickr

How to schedule a post in Blogger {updated}

2012-08-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dionna of Code Name: Mama and I are writing a few blogging tutorials of particular use for our Carnival of Natural Parenting participants. This one will help in scheduling your article to post on Carnival day!

This is an updated version for the new Blogger interface. If you're still using the old Blogger interface, visit this post instead.

Here's a little tutorial on how to schedule a post in Blogger (Blogspot) for a specific time and day.

This is useful if you want a post to go live at a certain time but will not be available to hit the publish button yourself (such as if you want your Carnival post to go live just after midnight but you'll be asleep by then).

It can also help your blog maintain a businesslike image if you schedule all or certain important posts to go live at a predictable time each day or week (such as a giveaway linky that readers can count on to show up at 9:00 a.m. each Thursday, for example).

(Note to my Carnival friends: You do not have to schedule your post; it's just a how-to in case you want to for your own convenience.)

1. Click on "Schedule" under "Post settings" in the right sidebar.

You can click on any of these pictures to see them bigger.

The "Automatic" default is to set the date whenever you click "Publish." However, you can choose to set your date and time instead.

Before you schedule, make sure your post is exactly the way you want it to go live. Use the "Preview" function that's at the top in between "Save" and "Close."

2. Select "Set date and time" to drop down the scheduling options.

3. Select your preferred date in the calendar.

4. Select your preferred time in the time box.

Once you click in the time box, it will drop down a list of all the half-hours in a day. You can select a time or simply type in your time, and you can customize the time to the minute.

(Note: The time zone is whatever your settings are set at. You can change the time zone at Dashboard --> Settings --> Language and formatting --> Time Zone.)

5. Finalize and publish.

Click "Done" after you've chosen your date and time.

Then, when your post is ready, click "Publish" up at the top. Now your post is scheduled! It will go live at the time you scheduled.

6. Confirm that your post is scheduled.

Once you click "Done," you should see the date and time permanently under "Schedule" in the right sidebar, up until the post goes live.

Under the Posts menu, there will be a highlighted confirmation telling you your post is scheduled and will be published at the date you specified. Check that it's correct.

If you need to make changes, you can edit your post. However, make sure to click "Publish" again if you want to reschedule. If you click "Revert to draft," it will unschedule your post and save it as a draft instead.

Warnings about scheduling your post:

Be careful that your post is completely ready before pushing "Publish" to schedule. Use the Preview function to make sure everything will look the way you want it to when it goes live if you won't be around to check and make changes.
If you want to edit your post in any way before the scheduled date, you must click "Publish" again when you're done to reschedule the publishing. If you change your mind and don't want it to publish automatically, however, you can click "Revert to draft" instead. That will switch it to the usual draft form.

Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or updates on scheduling your post in Blogger!

How to find (or change) your permalink in Blogger {updated}

2012-08-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Dionna of Code Name: Mama and I are writing a few blogging tutorials of particular use for our Carnival of Natural Parenting participants. This one will help in determining your post URL in advance!

This is an updated post for the new Blogger interface. If you're still using the old Blogger interface, go to this post instead.

Here's a little tutorial on how to determine your post's permalink in Blogger (Blogspot) before you've published a post. This is useful if you want to figure out ahead of time what your URL will be once you've published. You can also choose your own custom permalink if you wish.

Find your predetermined URL

Blogger has finally made this easy for us — yea! Here's how you find your permalink in the new interface:

Click any picture to embiggen.

In any post, go to your Post Settings in the right sidebar. (If it's not already expanded, which is the default, click to expand it.)

Click on Permalink.

You'll see that Automatic URL is the default selection. If you're happy with that, simply copy and paste the URL that appears there to give to anyone who needs your permalink ahead of time (such as in a blog carnival).

Note: If you're planning a post for the future, the month (or year, if applicable) will change to whenever it's published. Therefore, if you're scheduling a post that will take place in a future month, be sure to fill in the correct month (and year) when copying/pasting the URL. You can schedule your post first before copying/pasting to make sure the permalink will be correct.

And that's all — you're done! You don't need to read on unless you want to.

Create a custom URL

If you want to be fancier and craft your own URL, you can now do so!

This can be very beneficial for SEO. (Just saying that phrase made me feel like a spammer.) You can include the keywords that search engines would look for, or make the URL memorable to you, or even include a funny joke within it. (I won't judge.)

Follow the same steps above, obviously, but instead choose Custom URL. You will be presented with a blank text box to type in your preferred URL. Click Done when, you know, done.

RULES FOR CUSTOM PERMALINKS

A few tips to avoid errors:

First of all, the only part you're customizing is what's past the date in the URL. The first section of the URL "http://www.yourblog.com/year/month/" is set by the home address of your blog and when you're publishing. As with the Automated URL, keep in mind that if you're planning a post for the future, the month (or year, if applicable) will change to whenever it's published. Therefore, if you're scheduling a carnival post that will take place in a future month, be sure to fill in the correct date when copying/pasting the URL.
You don't have to type the ".html" at the end of the URL. That will be filled in automatically for you as well.
You can't type words with spaces between them. You have to fill in the spaces with a valid character. I suggest the standard for URLs: hyphens.
You'll need to remove other extraneous punctuation as well, such as apostrophes or commas.
You can use upper case letters now, if you're dying to for some reason.
There is no stated character limit (whereas the automated version cuts off at 39 characters), but be aware that in Google search results, very long URLs will be truncated anyway. Keep your URL to a reasonable length — fewer than 70 characters maximum is a good goal to have the whole URL show up in search results.
Whereas the automated URL will remove articles (a, an, the), you can include any words in your custom URL. However, keep in mind that empty words like those don't do anything for SEO and can just make your permalink unwieldy.

BENEFITS OF CUSTOM PERMALINKS

Just to touch a bit more on why you would want a custom URL, take the examples from this very post. My title is "How to find (or change) your permalink in Blogger {updated}."

My automatic URL would therefore be this:
http://www.laurenwayne.com/2012/08/how-to-find-or-change-your-permalink-in.html

I've crafted my own custom URL to be this instead:
http://www.laurenwayne.com/2012/08/how-to-set-permalink-in-blogger.html

I've kept the important words and ideas of my title, condensed it, and made sure the essential keywords show up. In contrast, the automated URL leaves off "Blogger," which is an essential differentiation of this tutorial from one for another blogging platform.

As another possible example, let's say I wanted a catchy title with an informative subtitle, such as "Boo, she squeaked: My encounters with a ghost hamster." The automated URL would favor the first part of the URL, cutting off the essential bit (ghost hamster). For a custom URL, you could take away the flowery bits and concentrate on the stuff the search engines will pick up: "encounters-with-ghost-hamster." That's SEO gold right there.

(I can't wait to see what search terms will bring people to this post.)

There are a million ways custom URLs can work for you.

THAT'S IT

If you have your custom URL set up correctly, when you click Done and go back to editing your post, you will see the Permalink displayed permanently over in the righthand sidebar. If there's no Permalink visible there, it is using the Automated URL.

Let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or updates on permalink usage in Blogger!

How to schedule a post on your Facebook page

2012-08-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

You can now schedule posts on your Facebook fan page (for a blog or company) or your personal Facebook page right in the native interface — no external application needed. This is helpful for several reasons:

Posts that are natively entered into Facebook get more pageviews in the new Facebook news feed sorting. In contrast, if you have an RSS feed automated through Networked Blogs, for instance, chances are few people will see that post.
Building traffic on your Facebook page requires frequent posting of links, status updates, photos, and questions — but it can be nearly impossible to do this consistently all day, every day. Plus, it helps to spread out your updates evenly throughout the day. Scheduling allows you to put in scheduling work when you have the time (whether that's daily or weekly or however it works for you), and then have links and updates unfold throughout the day.
Unlike with external applications, Facebook's scheduling feature functions just like a normal status update: You can tag other pages, enter links, select thumbnails, etc. The only downside is so far you can't schedule a "share."
The scheduling feature could be a little less odd, but overall, it's easy to operate. Read on for how!

Thanks to Momma Jorje for this tip! She's the scheduling queen.

Click any image to embiggen.

First you have to set a starting date for your page, if you haven't already. From your Admin Panel at the top of your Facebook page, click Edit Page and then in the dropdown menu, select Update Info.

(You can see I do a lot with this Facebook page.)

Under Basic Information, add a Start Date and Start Type. Save your changes.

Now you're ready to schedule!
Enter the information, link, picture, etc., you want to schedule. Have it look exactly as you want it to post. In the lower lefthand corner, click the clock icon.

Now begin adding the date information. This is where it's a little weird, but just enter each element one at a time, as Facebook requests it, starting with the year, then progressing through the month, date, hour, and minute (to the 10s).

Once you're done, click Schedule!

The page will refresh, and the post will be scheduled. If you want to see or delete scheduled posts, go back to your Admin Panel, click Edit Page and then in the dropdown menu, select Activity Log.

Publish your blog on Kindle

2012-03-12T07:00:00.001-07:00

Want to offer your blog subscription for sale on Amazon? It's easy and free.

Why put your blog on the Kindle?

Some people read blogs on Kindle or other wireless ebook devices. For a subscription fee of 99 cents (U.S.), these readers can have your blog automatically downloaded to their devices every time you update with a new post.

You split the fee with Amazon. And by "split," I mean they get 70% and you get 30%. Hey, it's something, right?

This program is currently open only to those with a bank account in the United States and United Kingdom.

How do you publish your blog on Kindle?

Glad you asked. (You're so helpful that way.) Simply go to Amazon's Kindle Publishing sign-up page and follow the instructions there.

If you don't have a Kindle Publishing account, you'll need to create one.

This is not the same login as any other of your Amazon accounts (whether for buying or selling). I don't know why that is, but so it goes. So create a new account.

You'll need to give your IRS and bank account info for all the sweet moolah you'll be raking in. Again, this is open right now only to U.S. and UK bank account holders.
Click on "Add Blog."
Click images to embiggen.

Witness the fabulous numbers of Kindle subscribers I have!
Don't be jealous.
The next page will bring you through setting up your blog for Kindle publishing. It's just a single page to fill out. You'll need the following information:
- Your blog's RSS feed
- Your blog's title & description to show on Amazon's page for you
- A screenshot of your blog. To take one, open your blog to a pretty post and resize your browser window as large as possible to show as much of your blog as you can. I also turn off toolbars to get as much screen real estate as possible.
  - On a Mac, press Command-Shift-4. The cursor will become a little target thing. You can draw a nice rectangle around as much of your blog as is showing on your screen. When you release, a screenshot will have been captured and be placed on your desktop as a png file.
  - On a PC, follow these instructions from Amazon.
- Your masthead/banner as an image file. Go to your blog, and on a PC right-click on your banner image at the top or on a Mac hit control-click, and then on either choose Save File As… and save the image to your computer somewhere you can find it.
- Other blog information, such as language, categories, and posting frequency.
- Your blog keywords. Consider what terms might help a reader find your blog in an Amazon search.

Here I am filling in my info for LaurenWayne.com. Click images to embiggen.

Once you're satisfied with your entries, click Generate Blog Preview.

Make sure everything looks the way you want it to.
Then Publish Blog to Kindle!

It can take a little while for your blog to go live on Kindle. Just keep obsessively checking back. That's what I do.
If you ever need to edit your information or upload a new screenshot, simply log in to the main page and click your blog's title in the list under Your Blogs.

Added!

I'm trying to add reviews of blogs I love that are on Kindle. If yours is up there, please add it to my Kindle linky.

And I would love it dearly if you would 5-star review Hobo Mama or Lauren Wayne (once it's live) on Amazon if you like them!

Is your blog published on Kindle? Has anyone subscribed to it there?

FeedBurner feed too big? How to fix it

2011-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

My recent FeedBurner woe:

Click any image to embiggen.

The past few days, I noticed signs that my RSS feed for Hobo Mama wasn't updating, though it took me awhile to believe it.

I caught glimpses first in CommentLuv entries when I commented on other sites. It kept pulling up my "Gratitude Challenge" post from Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, even though I subsequently posted on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I didn't really think much of it the first few times, or the first couple days — I just used Ping-o-Matic to give my feed a little boost and figured it would fix itself.

But after it had been a week, I noticed the delay wasn't just in CommentLuv. It was in the sidebar widgets on my other sites; it was in Google Reader; and — most obviously, now that I looked for it — the delay was on my feed's page itself.

I went to FeedBurner, through which I burn all my feeds, for the answer. I clicked right through to the humorously named "Troubleshootize" tab, hoping the humor didn't mean they wouldn't take this plight seriously.

Not having the RSS feed update, after all, is death to a blog. Readers who rely on feed readers, email subscriptions, and apps on handheld devices to notify them of new posts will assume that silence means there's no new content. My pageviews and comments would fall off the map, because no one would be seeing the posts I was writing. Indeed, my FeedBurner stats for the past few days were dismal.

Here's what Troubleshootize suggested:

The trouble: Your FeedBurner feed isn't up-to-date with your Original Feed.
The fix: Try pinging FeedBurner using our Ping page. This action tells FeedBurner to go check your feed for updates immediately.

So I tried pinging FeedBurner directly, waited a bit, and checked my feed again. No updates.

Next idea:

The trouble: Invalid characters or XML markup in content items, often introduced by composing your posts in Microsoft Word or embedding JavaScript code in a post.
The fix: Check your feeds for validity problems: Original Feed Validity, FeedBurner Feed Validity. See if any errors are reported, Then, check out this help topic for removing unwanted characters from your posts if mysterious characters seem to be to blame.

Nope, both verifications came back as valid.

This one seemed promising:

The trouble: Your Original Feed is too doggone big! FeedBurner does not process feeds that are larger than 512K. Remember, your feed is an update on your content — not an archive for it — and you should use your publishing tools' controls to make sure your feed doesn't grow like kudzu possessed.
The fix: Follow this help topic to control feed file size with Blogger; other publishing tools have similar controls.

But I couldn't figure out if my feed was too large. The help page suggested going to web-sniffer.net to "look at the report it returns; there should be a value in kilobytes for the size of your feed in an 'uncompressed' format." Well, I looked, and I didn't see any such thing. I had a really hard time locating any other (working) calculators online that would confirm whether my feed was too large or not — and I couldn't even figure out what made it too large. How was I in control of its size? Why wasn't FeedBurner?

I also checked The FeedBurner Status Blog and the help group, but there wasn't anything more helpful than what was in the troubleshooting documentation.

So I moved on to the bottom:

The text:

The Nuclear Option: "Resyncing" your feed
As a last resort with a regular feed or a podcast, you can resync your feed. You should only resync if your feed is more than 1 hour out-of-date and pinging FeedBurner does not update it or your podcast files are not being turned into enclosures by our SmartCast service.

"More than 1 hour"? Mine was a week out-of-date!

After a search to see if anyone reported this "nuclear" approach as destructive, I hesitantly pushed the resync button, then waited.

Nothing. Still not updating, even with a nuclear attack.

All that was left was to return to the "too big" idea.

From the help page:

FeedBurner will not process an original feed from your blog if it is greater than 512K in size. (This limitation only applies to the actual size of the feed file itself and does not include any images or media files you may have linked to or embedded in your posts.) To get a feed larger than 512K back down to size on Blogger, you need to add a parameter to the address for your original feed's URL — the one that FeedBurner checks for updates in order to keep your FeedBurner feed current — that tells Blogger to shorten it to a specific number of posts.

Well … OK. I was in fact on Blogger, so maybe that was it.

Here are the steps to shrink your feed size, as per the help file:

In FeedBurner, click "Edit Feed Details…" below your feed's title. It's up at the top of your particular feed's page, above the tabs.

In the Original Feed Address field, change the URL there to the following format: http://myblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=3
(So mine was http://hobomama.blogspot…)

Click Save Feed Details. Wait for FeedBurner to reburn the feed and update.

What confused/concerned me at this point were these notations:

(Note that max-results sets the number of posts you want to have appear in your FeedBurner feed. Any integer value between 1 and 500 is permitted.)

And later:

Bloggers: Do you write lengthy posts and come up against FeedBurner's 512K limit to total feed size? You will want to set max-results to a small number in order to keep the feed file size under control. You may need to experiment with the max-results setting to get the ideal feed size. How to tell the filesize of your feed? Enter its address into www.web-sniffer.net and look at the report it returns; there should be a value in kilobytes for the size of your feed in an "uncompressed" format.

Oh-kaaay. I tried 500 first, then 400, 300, 200 100, then 50, 40, 30 … and then gave up and went with 3. You can experiment as you want, but nothing but 3 worked for me.

What bothered me about this was there was no indication of what the number meant. Were they saying they would look for a maximum of three new posts at a time (every half-hour, as I understand their usual pinging process)? Or did it mean it would slice the archives in my feed to a measly three posts back?

The error I got until I got to 3 was the same every time, telling me my feed size was "larger than 576K," no matter if I had 500 or 10 as the limiting number. Only 3 brought it below this, according to the error message. How did my posts from Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday push it over the edge to such an extreme? It just didn't make sense.

Then there was this:

podcasters: Don't ever want an episode to drop off of your feed? Set this value to 500. (What happens on episode 501? Pandemonium!)

I'm guessing this is some sort of joke, but I don't find weirdness particularly helpful in a help article. I don't even have podcasts, but it's cryptic statements like this that made me wonder if the purpose of the number was to trim my archives to 3 (or whatever number) posts.

Well, here's the good news: Set to 3, my feed refreshed and updated. I almost immediately received an email (I subscribe to my own feed both by email and in a reader, to keep tabs on it for just this reason!) with the last three posts it hadn't mailed out before. Google Reader showed all the recent posts, and I checked the archives to see what the toll had been. My RSS feed in Reader stretched back to September 2009 before I changed the code, and afterwards, it stretched back to … September 2009. (Hobo Mama began in September 2007, by the by.) So, no worries. I just wish the help topic had indicated that!

Besides the shoddy attitude in help, other things that irritated me:

FeedBurner's link (web-sniffer) to determine my feed's size did diddly squat for the purpose.
I received no emailed notice from FeedBurner that there was a problem with my feed. It was up to me to recognize that it wasn't updating, and it took a week for that to sink in. A week with who knows what percentage of my readership bailing!
Even more egregious, there was no indication when I logged into FeedBurner, on my dashboard, or on my feed's page, that there was anything wrong! Until I started typing a new "?max-results=X" code and playing around with what number to put in place of the X, FeedBurner gave me no error message to tell me (a) that there was anything wrong with my feed and (b) what it was! That screen capture at the top of this post is what finally appeared, and here's what it said: "Your feed filesize is larger than 576K. You need to reduce its size in order for FeedBurner to process it. Tips for controlling feed file size with Blogger can be found in Tech Tips on FeedBurner Forums, our support site." Note, no links to the appropriate tips, just a shove to go find them yourself.
As I mentioned before, I also think it's bizarre that feed size isn't something FeedBurner controls for you. Instead of chiding you, "Remember, your feed is an update on your content — not an archive for it — and you should use your publishing tools' controls to make sure your feed doesn't grow like kudzu possessed," why doesn't FeedBurner just make sure that feeds follow its size limitations by imposing them from the start? They handle most of the other inner workings of feed-dom. Why leave this one to the novices?

My advice to you?

Don't let this keep you from using FeedBurner, because it has awesome functionality. But do subscribe to your own feeds and check in on them regularly to be sure they're working and that they look the way you want them to.
If your feed isn't updating, try pinging first.
If that doesn't work, head to resyncing under Troubleshootize, with no fear.
If you're on Blogger and there's still no joy after — oh, I don't know, maybe give it an hour — then Edit Feed Details as in the above steps. You might as well go straight for "max-results=3," though you're free to play around with other numbers if you think you'll get lucky.

So that's my experience with shrinking feed file size and getting a feed to update again. Here's hoping it never gets mysteriously bloated again!

Has this ever happened to you? Is it because I'm too wordy? Is it kind of cool that my wordiness broke FeedBurner? No? Why not? Discuss.

How to take a blogging break … but keep your blog going

2011-11-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

Today I would like to welcome Dionna from Code Name: Mama, who has written a guest post about taking a rest from your blog while keeping up your readership.

Lauren's note: When I was expecting Alrik, I was brainstorming ways to continue my blog for the sake of my readers and my advertisers while taking a highly valued babymoon. Now Dionna's in the same boat! For you it might be a vacation or family trip or just some needed time to disconnect from the screen. These are Dionna's ideas for stepping away from the blog but keeping up a basic amount of posting.

New babies, vacations, outside obligations, blogging burn-out. All bloggers need a break sometimes — it can even be healthy to plan a regular break into your annual blogging schedule. If you're worried about losing readers and subscribers during your absence, here are some tips that might help ease your mind.

1. Republish your own guest posts.

Have you had guest posts published at other sites? Run those! Unless you made a deal to the contrary, you still retain the copyright. Just be sure to check the other site's guest post policy to make sure you're within its exclusivity terms.¹ Include a note that it's been republished from a post previously seen on the host blog, with the appropriate link.

2. Repost old posts.

Readership changes from month to month, year to year. If you've been blogging awhile, surely there are old posts you can rerun. If you republish posts from when you were a beginning blogger with less of a following, you may be pleasantly surprised by the increased response to old posts. Include a note again mentioning that it's been republished (and possibly edited) for any hardcore archive delvers among your readers.

3. Book guest posters who will promote their own posts.

If you're going to be AWOL from your blog, you'll likely also be taking a hiatus from social media. Call on guest posters you trust to promote their own posts on their blog, Twitter, and Facebook and to respond to commenters. Don't hesitate to tell them that part of the deal is they need to interact, since you'll be taking a break.

4. Skip regularly scheduled posts.

Do you have a habitual post you put up every week (Wordless Wednesday, recipes on Friday, Sunday Surf)? Skip it, and don't feel guilty AT ALL.

5. Schedule some quick shots.

Try to schedule a few posts ahead, but don't make them be ambitious. There's something to be said for short, 1-2 paragraph posts — think of them as the blogging equivalent to a witty or insightful status update.

6. Warn your readers.

Let your readers know in advance you will be taking a break. Turn it into a post asking for guest posters! Your readers will understand, and they will welcome you back when you return.

Dionna is a lawyer turned work-at-home mama of an amazing son and an incredible new daughter. You can normally find Dionna over at Code Name: Mama where she shares information, resources, and her thoughts on natural parenting, consensual living, eclectic learning, and compassionate advocacy.

Photo courtesy sylvie szafranski on flickr (cc)

1 For example, here is the guest post "exclusivity" policy for Natural Parents Network: "While contributors to Natural Parents Network maintain the copyright to all their work, we ask that you not post your submission anywhere else (including your own blog) whether paid or unpaid, for 90 days after publication on Natural Parents Network. This exclusivity adds value for our readers without our asking you to give us copyright on your work. Similarly, we will wait 90 days to republish any previously published article."^↩

Meta description + meta keyword for Blogger templates

2011-10-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

Jorje had a good blogging question today. I thought I'd post the answer for anyone else looking to improve SEO (search engine optimization).

For those on Blogger, … they posted this this morning:

Please recheck your XML template, and fill meta description + meta keyword with your blog description and keyword, it's very important to promote your blog :)

Jorje wanted to know where to find the meta tags.

Head to your template!

(Click on any image to see it larger.)

Go to Design --> Edit HTML.

Before working on your template, Download Full Template to save a backup. That way, you can revert to your previous version if something goes horribly wrong.

You make your changes in the big text box, and click Save Template when you're done.

Here's where to go if you're in the new Blogger interface:

Go to Template --> Edit HTML.

You will now get a warning that you should do no such thing:

Again, back up your template before proceeding.

Then you'll be in the same sort of window:

Now that you know where to go, here's what you do once you get there.

Here's where I move to the tutorial I found on BloggerTricks:

"Adding meta tags to blogger(blogspot) blogs,websites-SEO"

You can tell it's an SEO-focused site from that weird title…

You can pop on over to read the whole article, but I'll sum up the main points here, using another site of theirs, plus another one I found, that helped me.

1. First go to Free Online Meta Tags Generator Tool.

Fill in your information there (title, description, your blog's keywords, etc.) and receive the code you'll need. Here's how it looks when I filled it in for Hobo Mama:

The code in the bottom box is what you copy and paste.

2. Add the above code to your template.

Do a find/search for this code string in your template:
<b:include data="blog" name="all-head-content">

Paste the meta tags code you generated just after that line in your template.

3. Save your template.

Reference the above "Edit HTML" screenshots to see where.

4. Analyze your meta tags.

Use this free online analyzer tool:
Free Metatags Analyzer

Simply fill in your site's URL in the box and ask for the analysis.

It will flag errors, tell you whether you have too many or too few keywords, give a percentage of relevancy of your keywords to your page's content, and offer a few other tips on improving your SEO (making search engines happy).

If you need to make any changes to your meta tags after the analysis, you can just find them in your template and make them from there, or erase and start over from step 1.

Further discussion: Have you ever meta tag you didn't like?

How to create footnotes in Blogger

2011-08-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

By popular demand …

Even though there's no built-in way to create footnotes in Blogger, it's easy enough to code linked footnotes into a post in HTML view. Here's how I do it.

What it looks like for readers

This is my post text with a linked footnote at the end.¹

When readers click on the footnote number, it jumps them down to the footnote. Clicking an arrow after the footnote conveniently jumps them back up to where they left off.

Footnotes are a great solution for tangential or additional text, such as caveats, resource citations, or pointless jokes. (I especially prefer the latter.) Readers can choose whether to continue reading the main text, or be delightfully distracted down to your bonus offerings, and then back up again when they're ready to resume.

The HTML code for you

You must enter this code in "Edit HTML" view in Blogger. (I have a tutorial explaining the difference between Edit HTML and Compose if you're not familiar with the two.)

WARNING: NEVER switch back to Compose view once you've inserted the footnote code in Edit HTML!

Code to put in the text where you want the footnote's number to appear:

<a href="#1" name="top1">1</a>

All right, which is easier for you? I pasted it above so you can see it easily, but here's the same code in a grab box for easier copying/pasting. Take your pick!

Code to place at the bottom of your post:

<hr width="80%">


<a name="1">1 </a>FOOTNOTE<a href="#top1">↩</a>

Obviously, replace "FOOTNOTE" with the actual footnote!

Explanation of the codes

These footnotes work through a simplistic process of "name" URLs that reference each other. You tag each part of the footnote with a name. The footnote number in the text is named "top1," and the footnote number at the bottom of the post is named "1."

Then the paired URLs send readers back and forth between these "names" through the href codes. Telling the URL to go to href="#1" sends it to the post's URL but with #1 appended. That # sign tells the code to look for a name that matches what's after the #, and it finds it in our footnote named "1."

Multiple footnotes

If you want multiple footnotes, you simply need to paste the following parts of the codes again, substituting the numbers you need for the word "NUMBER."

Code to put in the text where you want another footnote's number to appear:

<a href="#NUMBER" name="topNUMBER">NUMBER</a>

That's three replacements at the top, if you're counting.

Code to place at the bottom of your post for multiple footnotes:

You want to add in this line after your first footnote line as many times as you need it.

<a name="NUMBER">NUMBER </a>FOOTNOTE<a href="#topNUMBER">↩</a>

Again, replace the three instances of "NUMBER" with the number you're on.

Here's a grab code for 5 footnotes:

Styling your footnotes

Obviously, you can feel free to alter these codes cosmetically to suit your blog. This is just what I came up with. The basic structure is the "name" links, and the rest is decoration.

I used a "sup" command to make the footnote numbers superscript in the text, added an "hr" line at the bottom to separate the footnotes from the post's text, made the footnote font "x-small" in size, and used a little superscripted ↩ symbol for returning to the text location. Any of those elements could be changed as you wish. For instance, you could have your footnotes appear in a different font face or color, or change how you separate off your footnote area. If you want to copy mine as is, I don't mind, though I'd love any shout-outs to this post you'd care to give!

Tips

I keep these codes handy in a text file on my desktop, so I can easily copy and paste them into a post when I need a footnote.

The biggest warning I can offer is NEVER switch back to Compose view once you've inserted the footnote code in Edit HTML. Sorry to semi-shout, but this will mess your code up, yo.

Here's, again, the tutorial on using Edit HTML vs. Compose. If you're comfortable crafting a post solely in Edit HTML view, then just do that, and you're golden. If you prefer Compose or like to switch between the two, you'll need to add your footnotes at the very end in HTML view, and then hit publish. If you need to get back into that same post to edit, you'll need to do so in HTML view again. Blogger has a usually helpful little thing where it "remembers" what view you used last time — if it was Compose, you might need to start (or edit) a new (different or throwaway) post in Edit HTML, and then open the one with the footnotes.

Also, these footnotes won't work on the main page of your blog, only on the specific post pages, unless you alter the URLs to have the post page URLs within the code (i.e., not just href="#1" but href="http://www.laurenwayne.com/2010/10/how-to-make-blog-button-grab-box.html#1" or whatever your specific URL is). This is because the generic href="#1" is looking for the "name" tags on the current page only. I figure most people are used to clicking over into a blog post for footnotes — I have to when I'm reading posts in a reader, for instance.

Occasionally, even if you're diligent about opening posts only in Edit HTML, Blogger will "helpfully" fill in a placeholder URL in front of your # commands when you reopen a post to edit it. In that case, either delete the nonsense URL Blogger has inserted, or replace it with the post's URL if you know it. That will keep the footnotes intact in the future.

Thoughts? Questions? What fanciness do you use for footnotes in Blogger?

1 This is my sample footnote. You can click the little arrow at the end of this footnote to get back to where you were.^↩

How to add "Read More" jump tags in Blogger

2011-02-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

My new favorite thing in Blogger? Adding "read more" tags to posts. I'd seen this feature on WordPress and other blogs before but hadn't realized it was a Blogger feature, too. I think it's been here for donkey's years, but I was slow to catch on to the benefits!

Here's a little tutorial that will explain "read more" links and let you know why and how you should add them!

What's a "read more" tag?

First things first! If you have no idea what I'm talking about, take a look at my Hobo Mama homepage (for I have not performed the same editing wonders on this site yet!).

(Click on images to see them larger.)

The "read more" link is at the bottom of the post that's been truncated. When you click on it, it links to the original article URL plus the #more tag at the end — in this case, this link: http://www.hobomama.com/2011/02/fat-and-pregnant-heartbeat-video.html#more. So if you're reading from a page and choose to "read more," you will get popped into the article at the point where you left off. On the other hand, if you click on the URL as a whole from another source (in a blog reader or from a Tweet, for instance), you'll see that the "more" tag is undetectable when the post is expanded (try it here: http://www.hobomama.com/2011/02/fat-and-pregnant-heartbeat-video.html). Then it simply shows you the post as a whole, and the "more" coding is invisible.

Other examples of a "read more" link at work can be seen in non-Blogger applications such as our WordPress-based Natural Parents Network homepage, which has a sort of magazine/excerpt vibe to it. You get a digest version of all the current posts and can click on the "Read More…" links if you're interested to, well, read more.

Why do I want "read more" tags?

Scanning and searching is easier

The biggest reason is to make pages that encompass a lot of posts less cumbersome for readers to scroll through and find what they want. This is true for your home page as well as any category/label search pages.

For instance, I've recently gone back and added in "more" tags on all my posts tagged with Elimination Communication on Hobo Mama. If you look at the category page for elimination communication now —

http://www.hobomama.com/search/label/elimination%20communication
— you can easily scroll through 19 partial posts on the subject and decide whether each article is really what you're looking for. (I'm guilty of popping labels onto posts that are only distantly related in some convoluted way in my mind….)

By contrast, I went to a label where I hadn't yet added jump tags, and only six posts loaded, in their entirety. That makes it a lot harder for readers looking for a particular article to comb through your category tags, particularly if you have a lot of articles shuffled into a particular category. They have to keep clicking on "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page, again and again and again, in the hopes of finding the one article they're looking for.

I was going to show you the difference between the two ("read more" tags vs. no "read more" tags), but I plan to change all mine over as I have time. The best method I can think of, if you don't have "read more" tags yourself and you're on Blogger, is to load your own homepage or a category page and see how clunky it is to wade through it all.

More information, less space

The other benefit, and it's related, is that you can show highlights from more articles on a single page. For instance, I used to have to keep my Hobo Mama homepage at a maximum of four posts (under Settings --> Formatting --> "Show at most X posts on the main page"). My posts tend to be long and have a lot of images, so it took too long to load more than that and sometimes the multiple javascripts would interfere with certain browsers.

With the "read more" jump tags, however, I can keep each individual post down to a manageable excerpt size and therefore safely and conveniently show more total posts on a page at once, making it more likely that a visitor will see something enticing.

How do I get me some of that sweet "read more" action?

So you're convinced! Now, how to add in those "read more" tags to your own posts? Fortunately, it's easy!

(Click on images to see them larger.)

It's easiest to do in "Compose" mode¹, because there's a little icon right there to press! As you can see in the top row of this screenshot, the icon looks like a page that's been ripped in half, symbolizing that a portion of the post is before the jump and a portion after.

Once you click the icon, this gray-with-black-dotted line pops into your post to show you where the jump will fall. You can delete it or copy and paste it elsewhere if you change your mind.

Alternatively, if you're in Edit HTML mode¹ (I tend to write in HTML view, so I think that's why I didn't notice the "read more" icon for so long!), you can type in the HTML code for a jump yourself:



Just copy and paste that HTML coding tidbit wherever you want your jump link to appear.

To make things easier on me, I actually created a draft post with just that code in it that I saved with a date in the future so it's always at the top of my drafts list. Then, whenever I need the "read more" code, I can just open the draft and copy and paste. Another option I just thought of is to add it to your Post Template box, which makes things even easier in the long run as you're composing new posts in Edit HTML view. Simply go to Settings --> Formatting --> Post Template, paste it in and save your settings. I pasted in   so it wouldn't be at the very top. Then the coding will show up in every new post — just make sure to move it where you want to before you publish a post!

Jump around!

A couple final notes:

I've heard that some older or nonstandard Blogger templates don't work automatically with the "read more" tags, so you might have to update or tweak your template in that case. My Hobo Mama template was automatically outfitted with the functionality and worked with no further fiddling on my part, but this template is not working. However, I want to upgrade my template here, anyway, so I'll deal with that later. If you're also having problems, let me know and I'll try to help you out!

Since you can't conveniently add custom excerpts yet for articles in Blogger the way you can in WordPress (see this link as an example of a string of posts in WordPress that mostly have handcrafted excerpts along with selected featured images), you might want to hone your skills at writing opening paragraphs that can function as an overarching preview for the article to come. I know I'm guilty of rambling on for awhile at the beginning of my posts (it's fun!) before getting to the point. But if you know that your before-the-jump paragraphs are all readers will see to choose whether or not to click and read further, you might find yourself making sure those opening paragraphs are concise and tempting enough to lure readers in further. Along the same lines, you might want any opening images to be pertinent, since whatever is up at the top is what will show. (Of course, you choose where the jump goes, so you can ultimately arrange it however you'd like!)

Rest assured, too, that anyone clicking on a URL from another source (such as Twitter or Facebook) or following your feed in a reader or email subscription will see the full post. These "read more" tags don't affect anyone clicking on a regular post link, only people browsing your home site or a category search page. To my point of view, those are exactly the times you want readers exposed to a wide variety of articles, so that's perfect for my needs.

If you want to make sure that the "read more" tag doesn't put extra spaces and line breaks into your post, simply don't add them in! You can smush the "read more" coding right up against any other words or html, without any extra spaces or line breaks around it, and the break will happen there as planned.

Enjoy your "read more" tags — your readers will!

1 If you need a simple mini-course on the difference between Compose and Edit HTML view in Blogger, see my tutorial "How to edit HTML in Blogger."^↩

Google Reader shared items: Your public feed for reading recommendations

2011-01-25T19:07:00.000-08:00

Do you want an easy way to share blog posts and online articles with your friends and readers?

Google Reader has a way to share items and create a public feed with all your reading recommendations.

I first heard about this idea from Paige of Baby Dust Diaries, in a footnote on her Sunday Surf. (If she has an awesome, longer tutorial somewhere I'm missing, she or someone can let me know!)

In this how-to, I'll pass on what I learned from Paige and teach you how to set up your own Shared Items feed in Google Reader, add to it easily from Google Reader, and publish the feed to your blog.

In a future how-to, I'll talk about some further Google Reader goodies, including a way to add items to your shared feed from outside Reader, and even if you're not subscribed to a feed for an article you want to reference. I'll also talk about how to show off a public feed on your blog or other site.

Absolute basics

You need to have a Google Reader account and be subscribed to your favorite blogs. I'm going to skip ahead at this point and assume you've got that part figured out, but if you need help, let me know and I can do a separate tutorial!

Add to your shared items

(Click on any image to see it larger.)

Whenever you open an article in Google Reader and scroll to the end, you'll see these options. The two relevant ones are "Share" and "Share with note."

To add an article to your shared items, simply click on either share option.

"Share" will add it automatically to your shared items. The little feed icon will turn orange.

"Share with note" lets you add a comment to your item. A box pops up like so:

You type in your comment and click "Post Item."

(Notice you could also add a note but uncheck "Add to shared items," if you wanted a private note to yourself.)

"Your shared items" in Reader

(Remember, click on any image to see it larger.)

To see the items you've shared, go to "Your stuff" in the left sidebar. If there's a plus-sign (+) next to "Your stuff," click on it to show the drop-down menu. Select "Shared Items." If you want to see only the items you've left notes on, click on "Notes."

You can see an article I shared and the note I wrote to go along with it in the blue box ("I want to live in a treehouse!").

(In case you're wondering, I blurred out my feeds because I give them weird names ;) and, yes, I have more than 1,000 unread items, which means I've broken the Google counters.)

How to unshare an item

If you want to take back your share, look at the bottom of the post where the orange icon is. The word will now say "Unshare," so just click it again to remove it from your shared items.

If you wrote a note, click "Delete" next to the little trash can instead (the icon that used to be a pencil and paper).

(Look at the picture above to see both the "Unshare" and "Delete" icons.)

Make your shared items public!

So now you've shared them, but who's seeing them? We have to go mess with the settings to make sure it's all the people you want!

The link for Sharing Settings is http://www.google.com/reader/view/#friends-manager-page. It's linked on various pages, such as toward the top of "Shared items" and "People you follow."

You can also navigate there (it's a little hard to find, but in case they change that link!) by going this route:

Click "Settings" in the top right header, and wait for the drop-down menu. Select "Reader settings."

(Remember, click on any image to see it larger.)

Click the tab that reads "Folders and Tags." There you can see the message next to "Your shared items," "Shared items can be configured on the sharing settings page," and "sharing settings" is linked. Ta-da!

The top option lets you choose whether your shared items are "Protected" (you choose which groups can view them, based on your Google Contacts) or "Public" (open to anyone online). You can also see whose recommendations you're following, and who's following yours, and you can search for new public shared item feeds to track.

Set your style

Now that you have a public feed, you also get to style your Shared Items page, on the same "Shared settings" page. There are four (rather limited) options, so choose whichever one makes you happiest.

You can also choose a custom URL (such as http://www.google.com/reader/shared/hobomama), which makes it easier to tell friends about your new public feed.

We'll talk more about emailing the link below, and we'll get into adding a clip to your blog in a future installment, but feel free to play around!

Your public feed

Now when you click either on "Preview your shared items page in a new window" or paste or type that new URL into a window, you will see what your public sees.

Reader pulls information from your Google profile (such as your name and links to other public accounts), so make sure your Google profile is displaying information the way you want it.

Share your shared items!

Now you can hand out the URL of your public feed (e.g., http://www.google.com/reader/shared/hobomama) to let people know to follow along or subscribe.

People can also follow you in Google Reader by entering your name under "Find more people" on the "Sharing settings" page. They'll then click on "People you follow" in the left sidebar to see your shared items mingled with the items of other public feeds.

In "Sharing settings," there are two opportunities to email a link to your shared feed to your friends. They don't even need a Google account (just internet access) to view your shared items feed. If they do have a Google account, you could recommend that they follow you in Reader.

Have fun and start sharing!

And stay tuned for advanced Google Reader goodies!

Incidentally, feel free to follow my shared items public feed! I share articles about parenting, blogging, and writing, along with other fun tidbits, such as about treehouse living. You can also follow me in Google Reader by entering "Lauren Wayne" under "Find more people" on the "Sharing settings" page and finding my cute little face.

Choosing who can comment in Blogger: Allowing the option of name and URL

2011-01-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

Dionna of Code Name: Mama and I are writing a few blogging tutorials of particular use for our Carnival of Natural Parenting participants. This topic is loosely related to the carnival, because certain options allow for easier commenting on Blogger blogs.

Do you want to adjust your comment settings in Blogger to determine which readers can comment?

Choosing what permissions to grant commenters (from requiring registration to allowing anonymous commenters) can affect how easy it is for people to comment — and, therefore, how likely readers will be to convert to commenters. Specifically, you might receive more comments if you allow commenters to type in their own name and URL or comment anonymously, because it can be appealing for certain commenters.

Everything has its pros and cons, of course, which we'll cover in a bit. For now, here's where you find the options, what they mean, and what they look like in action.

The four commenting permission options in Blogger

Blogger has four permissions options for its commenting system. Go to your Dashboard, then choose the Settings tab, then Comments. (There's a main tab labeled "Comments," as well, but we want the sub-tab under Settings.)

Look for "Who Can Comment?"

Here are the options. Start from the bottom up to go from most restrictive to least:

"Only members of this blog" — Commenters have to be contributors or administrators of the blog and must be logged in to Blogger to comment.
"Users with Google Accounts" — This is the default for Blogger. Anyone commenting must have a Google account and sign in to Google.
"Registered Users - Includes OpenID" — This opens up commenting to people who don't have a Google/Blogger account but still requires that they identify themselves in some way by logging in with an outside account. This expands the accounts commenters can sign in, in addition to Google, with LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, and AIM. Commenters choose their preferred account, enter their URL or username, and then OpenID takes them to a separate page to authorize with their password.
"Anyone - Includes Anonymous Users" — This is the most open of all the commenting options, and is the only one that allows for Name and URL entry. It also is the only one that allows anonymous commenters.

Once you decide which option you prefer, select the little circle next to your choice. Then scroll to the end of the page and make sure to click Save Settings.

Here's what they look like in action, both from the perspective of the commenter, and what a comment looks like live when it's published. Then we'll talk a little bit more about why you might choose each of the four options.

What the commenting options look like

Here is what each option looks like, first from the commenter's perspective on the comment form, and then live once published. (Your comment form might look different, depending on which form option you chose, but the permissions options will be the same.) In these examples with the comment form, I've selected option #4 up above, allowing all users, including name/URL and anonymous. If you've selected a more limited option, you simply won't see the extra options on the comment form, and Blogger will give a special message if only Google accounts are permitted to let commenters know that anonymous comments are not allowed.

The first option is to use a Blogger/Google account. (This is the only option you'll see for #1 and #2 in the permissions options above, and this option will remain visible for #3 and #4.) Commenters can sign in on the comment form; if they're already signed in, their Google profile name will already show up in place of the username/password sign-in section and they can opt to sign out if desired.

Live, the comment will show the display name they chose for their Google/Blogger profile, as well as any avatar they uploaded, and it will link to the profile. The profile can then direct a reader to the commenter's blog and other information. Here's what it looks like in action:

I was hovering my mouse over the link, so the linked profile is shown in the bar along the bottom.

As mentioned before, OpenID allows commenters to sign in with LiveJournal, WordPress, TypePad, or AIM. (This corresponds to permissions option #3 as well as #4 from above.)

Here's what an OpenID comment looks like online:

You can see the OpenID icon next to the person's name, and that their registered website is linked up.

This is the Name/URL option. Entering a URL is optional. Therefore, a person can comment, for all intents and purposes, anonymously using this option by entering a name (or pseudonym) in the Name field but no URL below. (This you will see only with permissions option #4 above.)

This is what name and URL look like published. The name for the commenter shows whatever the commenter has entered in the Name field, there's no avatar associated, and the linked site is whatever was entered into the URL field. Again, commenters can choose not to enter a URL, in which case the name would show up without any link, similar to Anonymous below.

This is the completely Anonymous option. No information is taken from the commenter at all. (This also you will see only with permissions option #4.)

This is what an anonymous comment looks like. As you can see, there's no linking at all, and it's fully anonymous. Name/URL comments without a URL will look the same, with whatever name was entered into the Name field in place of "Anonymous."

Pros and cons of the four options

You have to consider your own comment policy when choosing your permissions options. How open or restricted do you want your blog to be to commenters?

I'll go through each of the four options and describe why you might choose each.

"Only members of this blog" — This would be useful, as far as I can see, only on a private or semi-private group blog — for instance, if you started a blog so that a group could share ideas with each other, or if your family had a blog where each member could post pictures and updates but you weren't inviting public exposure. You will obviously limit the comments you receive, because no uninvited outsiders can comment at all. This can be useful if you want to keep discussion limited to team members.
"Users with Google Accounts" — This is a good option if you want to have a safeguard up for who can comment. It's likely to keep the laziest spammers and trolls away, because it requires signing into an established Google account. However, it doesn't guarantee that you as the blogger will know where commenters are coming from; Google profiles can be marked as hidden. For commenters who have their own sites, it doesn't give as much instant gratification in terms of linking to their blogs, because it's a two-step process: Click on profile link, then click on the website from the profile (if linked there). Google profiles aren't that customizable, either. A plus for commenters is that many, many people have Google accounts now, so it's likely they'll already be signed in to one, making commenting straightforward. It will, however, exclude anyone who doesn't have a Google account and doesn't want to create one, or who doesn't want the Google account publicized, even with a hidden profile.
"Registered Users - Includes OpenID" — OpenID allows bloggers from other platforms to log in as authorized users and leave a comment. This will give some traceability to comments, which again reduces the likelihood of spam or troll comments. A downside for commenters is that OpenID isn't as readily understood as the other commenting options. Because it goes to an extra page for logging in, there can be fear (sometimes justifiable) that a comment draft will be lost before the log-in process is completed (or if it cannot be completed, due to a mistyped password or the like). It also doesn't allow for personalized avatars next to the commenter's name, just the default OpenID icon.
"Anyone - Includes Anonymous Users" — This, the most open of all the commenting options, will greatly please bloggers who wish to have a clear link to their own website, and will also relieve genuine commenters who don't have a handy account to log into to comment. However, it also opens you up to the most troll and spam comments, due to the ease of the anonymous functions. See below for some further thoughts on this. Some blogs might be conducive to supporting anonymous commenters, such as if you regularly write about sensitive subjects and wish for there to be frank conversation, if you want numbers of commenters over quality of discussion, or if you want ease of quick and repeated commenting, such as for a giveaway site. (Again, setting your comment policy will help you determine your own goals.) You will probably attract the most commenters with this option, because it allows for the easiest commenting and the most possibilities for commenters to choose from.

Here's my opining on the four options. I used to allow #3, the Registered Users option with OpenID. However, I eventually switched to #4, for the purpose of allowing Name/URL comments. However, I dislike that I can't turn off anonymous comments separately. I feel like there should be an option before #4 that allows a WordPress-like comment option (name and email address required, with URL as an optional field), but no anonymous users. Sure, trolls and the like could still enter a fake or unused email address and a pseudonym (or "anonymous"), but at least they'd be traceable to some extent, and the accountability would, I think, cut down on the nasties.

I'd also like to be able to track and manage IP addresses from commenters, so that I can block repeat offenders, whitelist the good guys, and identify problem commenters from the back end.

(As we're making our wish lists, take a second to vote on Blogger ideas you like best, and let's cross our fingers they're implemented soon!)

If you are in the same boat of wanting to open your blog to the most commenters you can but would rather avoid spam and trolls, there are a few actions you can take, in rough order from most difficult to easiest:

Switch to WordPress or an alternate blogging platform. This isn't a sarcastic joke; I know people who have switched for the comments alone. For me personally, it's not worth it. I'm comfortable with Blogger — to the extent that I switched this blog from WordPress. But switching to WordPress would indeed give you WordPress-like commenting features!
Install an alternative commenting system. The two I know of for Blogger are Disqus and IntenseDebate. I went back and forth on the idea of one or the other, and even tried them out on a test blog, but they both had their drawbacks as well. Also, you'll want to be fairly confident with fooling around with your template's html and other settings if you want to install outside comments (which means you're probably not reading my tutorials, see?). For now, I'm sitting tight and waiting for Blogger to improve…
Heighten your moderation of comments in Blogger. The good news is, Blogger has finally implemented a spam filter, so many spam comments are indeed caught in that net now (not all, but the most obvious and offensive ones generally are). You can add to your defenses by going to Dashboard --> Settings --> Comments again and scroll down to the sections marked "Comment moderation" and "Show word verification for comments?" I'll go through these options more thoroughly in a future post, but for now, just know that you can choose whether comments post automatically, or whether you get to review them ahead of time (either in email or in your main Comments tab). Know, too, that you can at any time delete a comment that doesn't square with your policy, and you can mark spam comments as such to improve the filtering over time. For word verification, you can choose whether commenters must type in a random "word" to comment, as seen in the comment form screenshots above. This greatly cuts down on the amount of automated robo-spam. You can also turn off comments entirely on certain posts, such as after a determined number of days or if you're receiving more spam than usual on particular posts. There are pros and cons to all these comment moderation choices, so I'll discuss that in more detail later. Basically, the fewer restrictions you have, the easier it is for people to comment, and the more freely they are likely to comment. This includes genuine readers with insightful things to say — and spammers selling you their latest pills, as well as mean anonymous types swooping in to flame you and scurry. It depends, again, on how open you wish to be, what environment you want to cultivate on your blog, and how hands-on you want to be about your comment moderating.

So, those are the current options Blogger has for allowing types of comments. Here's hoping for even more options in the future!

What commenting options have you enabled on your blog, whether on Blogger or another platform? What commenting options make you most likely to comment?

Setting up thumbnail linkies & choosing the right dimensions

2011-01-12T04:42:00.000-08:00

In honor of Wordless Wednesday, I bring you an entirely not-wordless post on crafting user-friendly thumbnail linkies — those link-ups that allow users to attach a small linked image and title on your blog, brought to us in this incarnation by Linky Tools (formerly McLinky). It's perfect for Wordless Wednesday, giveaways, recipe and craft roundups, and any other image-heavy blog hopping or blog carnivals.

There are other purveyors of thumbnail linkies, but I'm talking exclusively about Linky Tools in this tutorial.

I would specifically like to draw your attention to the length of the input box. For the user, this is the title of the thumbnail they enter.

First, an overview:

(Click on images to view them larger.)

To create a thumbnail linky, simply go to your dashboard (you have to have created a free account beforehand), head to the right to "Create a new linky," and select "Thumbnail" from the drop-down menu before hitting "Go."

This is the default thumbnail linky page.

From the top down, here's what's on the page.

First, you enter a List Title. This is for your eyes only, just to keep track of the linkies in your dashboard. I date mine and note what the linky was for (e.g., Wordless Wednesday 110112).
The Length of User Title Entry is the fairly awkward terminology to describe how long the text box is the linker-upper will see. It's the title to the thumbnail that the user types in, and you determine how many characters they're allowed. The default is a puny 20 characters, so this is what you'll almost certainly want to change.
Size of Thumbnails (or, as it inexplicably but somewhat humorously reads, ThuThumbnails) is how big the images will be on your page. The default is the smallest, 40 pixels.
Start and Stop Date/Time (not in picture). This lets you set the duration. Ending the linky after a reasonable entry time helps cut down on spam links coming in later on. I keep Wordless Wednesday linkies open till Saturday, to give people a few days to straggle in. Giveaway linkies set to open on a certain day might stay open till the next week's linky goes live. The start date defaults to the current time you draft the linky. If you want to pre-date it or post-date it, you can do so. For instance, if I'm drafting a Wordless Wednesday post on a Tuesday, I typically set the start date to Wednesday at midnight, just to be matchy.

Choose the right sizes:

Here's where you can choose the size of the thumbnails and adjust the length of the user-entered title.

To skip down to the thumbnail sizes, Brent Riggs has helpfully provided blue-green squares demonstrating each size, noted below the squares as pixels (length and width), from 40 to 200.

I've found that most useful thumbnail linkies are between 80px and 160px. I use 120px. Very link-intensive pages often choose 40px. It somewhat depends on how many thumbnails you expect to receive, because the smaller ones will load faster, while the bigger ones will be more aesthetically pleasing.

Whichever size you choose, make sure you change the Length of User Title Entry.

Change it out from the default of 20 characters to a character length appropriate to the thumbnail size.

You can see Brent's help text:

"For thumbnail linky's, the width of the area that HOLDS the title is the same width as the thumbnail image size you choose below. So, you should choose an title entry size that is relevant to the thumbnail image size."

Then there is a suggested list of appropriately matching thumbnail sizes and character lengths. I recommend paying attention to the suggestions, because they generally work.

For instance, I use 50 characters to match my preferred thumbnail size of 120 pixels.

The problem with setting too few characters? Users won't have enough room to enter the title of their post, particularly for a giveaway linky, which usually demands a blog name, giveaway item, and end date. Twenty characters is nowhere near enough for most people to jam in that amount of info, so something in that case has to be left out. There might have to be a balance made in favor of larger thumbnails to allow users sufficient space to enter the characters they need (more characters for giveaways, fewer for Wordless Wednesday and other more casual link-ups).

The problem with setting too many characters? Some users will max out the character length, but then if the thumbnail is too small (or the blog's template calls for a font that is wider than average), some of the lines of text will be chopped off and lost. Since it's impossible for a user to self-edit an entry, there's no convenient solution for the user once that happens. There's only leaving it as is, double posting with a new and smaller title, or emailing the blog owner for help in the editing.

(Click to see images actual size.)

120 pixels with 50 character limit titles (from my blog) — the images are clear, and the titles fit in whole. However, this size might be too bulky for blogs with many links.

These above are 80 pixels in size with a balanced title length. (Again, click to see the image actual size.) Every title fits, although they're a little squishy vertically, which is presumably due to an interaction with the blog's template fonts and can't easily be altered (without altering the template, which seems like overkill for such a small problem).

40 pixel size above (the smallest) with a character limit that's a little too big for the image width. Click on the image to view it actual size. You can see that the bottom right title for Natural Parents Network cuts off at the bottom. Even though it wasn't over the character limit, using that many characters exceeded the allowable display size. The 40 pixel size is petite, which makes images harder to see, but is useful for blogs that anticipate a lot of links and need a faster loading time.

So be sure to choose your image size and character length thoughtfully.

Grab the code:

Once you've chosen all your options, you can then save and create your linky. It will deposit you back onto the Dashboard, where you can get your code.

(Note that you can also Manage Links by deleting any that are objectionable and Edit List at the lefthand side to quickly change your options, such as thumbnail size, character limit, and duration.)

Once you click "Get Code," a box will pop up. One final warning: If your system is anything like mine, it will pop it up so that half the box (the relevant half for me, as it turns out) is hidden up past the top of my screen. I have to scroll up to see the full box, but that's what's needed.

Blogger, self-hosted WordPress blogs, and other blogs that allow Javascript should use the top code. (That's most people, in other words.)

Blogs hosted for free at WordPress need to use the bottom code. WordPress-hosted blogs don't allow Javascript, so Linky Tools hosts the linky in a separate window off-site. This is for blogs ending in .wordpress.com. If that's you, go with the second option.

If that's not you, go with the first.

And that's all. Paste it into your blog post. (See here for how to paste HTML into Blogger and here for how to paste HTML into WordPress.)

Once you publish your post (assuming you didn't set your start date to the future), your cute little thumbnail linky will be live and ready to accept that first eager linker.

Enjoy!

Uploading a new blog button without changing the button code

2010-10-10T13:56:00.000-07:00

UPDATE 2017: Due to Photobucket's banning on third-party hosting, this will no longer work on Photobucket unless you pay for the highest-tier account (which you shouldn't bother). This will still work if you use a dedicated image hosting service — I chose Amazon S3 for now. You can use the same tips below, which I've updated to show my new image URLs.

If you have a blog button or badge (a little square logo advertising your site) hosted on Photobucket, you might have been in the tricky position of wanting to change the button without making everyone who has your button already change the button code on their blog.

There is a relatively simple(ish) way to make it a bit harder on your end but easy-peasy and seamless to everyone else. The next time their pages load, your new button will appear, with no effort on their part. Much easier than sending out pleas to change the code, yes?

The trick is to upload your new button to your web hosting site using the same file name, which will therefore give it the same URL as the old button.

Note: This trick will not, as far as I know, work if you've uploaded your image to Blogger or Flickr, and I don't know if it works on WordPress-hosted images. Which frankly is a good enough reason to advise you to use ~~Photobucket~~[your own hosting service] for important images, so you have more control. If you host your own images on a server, then the following tips can still apply — but you probably already knew how to do this.

How to keep a direct link in Photobucket[your own hosting service]

For instance, here is the HoboMama.com blog button:

Here is the direct link for that image:
http://images.hobomama.com/hobo-mama-button-200x200.jpg

The piece of information after the last slash is the name of the image file, so hobo-mama-button-200x200.jpg

If you wanted to upload a new picture but keep the same direct link URL, here's what to do, in this order (very important):

Create the new image in your photo-editing software and save it with the same name as the original (e.g., hobo-mama-button-200x200.jpg).
Go to ~~Photobucket~~[your own hosting service] and find the image you want to replace. Click "delete" on the old image, acknowledging that you will be breaking all the links that are looking for this image (but only temporarily!). Make sure you have a backup of the image on your computer in case you want it in the future. (Optional: You can always re-upload it to ~~Photobucket~~[your own hosting service] with a different file name [for instance, rename it hobo-mama-button-200x200-archive.jpg before uploading] if you want it archived online.)
Upload your new image to ~~Photobucket~~[your own hosting service], in the same folder as the old one. The new direct link will be the same as the old one (http://images.hobomama.com/hobo-mama-button-200x200.jpg), as long as you were careful to name your file the same as the old file.

It's important to delete the old image before uploading the new image. Otherwise, ~~Photobucket~~[your own hosting service] will rename the new file slightly to differentiate between the two and the direct link will be different.

And, again, if you have different folders within ~~Photobucket~~[your own hosting service], make sure to upload to the same folder, since that becomes part of the URL as well (Elements/ in my example).

This trick comes in handy for regular blog buttons, but also for advertisements and giveaways. Say you wanted to advertise on someone else's blogs, such as for your Etsy shop. You might make your ad seasonal but do all the changes on your end. So, you could create an ad with summer products, and then easily switch it out to winter products later in the year. As long as you kept the file name the same (e.g., hobo-mama-ad.jpg) and deleted the old ad image, you wouldn't have to have your advertisement hosts change their code at all to be current.

Or, for a special giveaway event, such as some review blogs do — a baby shower bash or a holiday-themed event — you could name your button for that something like hobo-mama-reviews-giveaway-event.jpg and then just keep updating the image but under the same name each time. That way, your event button on people's blogs would never be out of date!

Hope that helps, and that all your bloggy fans will appreciate the new image that magically appears on their screens!

How to make a blog button grab box

2010-10-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

If you have a blog button or badge now (a little square logo advertising your site), do you want to know how to make a little box so people can grab the code? Like so:

It's actually really easy. All you need to do is figure out the code for the button, and then place it within this placeholder code:

<form><textarea rows="5" cols="20" readonly="readonly"> INSERT BLOG BUTTON CODE HERE </textarea></form>

You can alter the size of the grab box by experimenting with different numbers for rows and cols (columns). The "readonly" command is optional, but it prevents people from accidentally deleting or editing the code in the box as they're copying and pasting.

Tomorrow I'll give you a tip on updating your image without making your fans change their button code. And if you missed yesterday's post on creating the code, check it out here.

Lauren Wayne

Why blogging is dead (and why it is not)

WHY OLD-SCHOOL BLOGGING IS DEAD

We used to blog for community — now we blog for search engines.

Commenting has moved to social media.

Mobile views have changed blog reading behavior.

RSS feeds and feed readers are slipping into obscurity.

Bloggers change and grow, and their blogs become obsolete.

Bloggers run out of things to say, and readers run out of reasons to read.

Monetizing has led to inauthenticity.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO KEEP BLOGGING ALIVE

Take advantage of the social media conversation.

Try microblogging on social media.

Find or keep your passion.

Tool your topic to maintain its fit.

Monetize wisely.

Accept the search engine elements.

Make your choice.

28 blogging tasks you can do from your phone

Draft a blogpost.

Edit your drafts.

Check and reply to email.

Read other blogs.

Share posts — your own or others.

Instagram your life.

Listen on Twitter.

Reply to tweets.

Record a podcast.

Vlog and walk.

Comment on blogposts.

Pin on Pinterest.

Post to Facebook.

Research.

Watch videos.

Catch up on podcasts.

Brainstorm new posts.

Flip over Flipboard.

Get your Google+ on.

Link up on LinkedIn.

Snap to it on Snapchat.

Send out a newsletter.

Catch up on your reading.

Interact with blogging groups on Facebook.

Check your analytics.

Check your AdSense or other revenue.

Comment on YouTube videos.

Network.