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Make a Flickr badge

www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from Boomsticks. Make your own badge here.

Create your own Flickr badge This is a great little addition for your blog... and once you've signed in to Flickr it takes four simple steps.

1.You chose a Flash badge
2.You chose to display your public photos.
3. Choose your colors
4.Get the code to copy and paste into your blog. It's not brain science but it sure looks good...

Get yours now

Hint: When you add this to your blog, do so as a typelis (make sure it's set as 'notes').

Hot or not?

Here's a fun one for a Tuesday morning... is your blog hot? Or maybe not.

HOT or NOT ('hotornot.com') asks for the general public's opinion of 'how your blog looks', on a scale of 1 to 10.

Rate_3

Sounds to me like a case of blog vanity. At this rate, the blogs themselves will start going under the knife - blog botox anyone?  At the very least, it may attract some new readers - anything's worth a try hey?

Give it a go here... but remember, the feedback may not be so pretty.

Using Categories Within Your Weblog

It has come to our attention that many of you do not take advantage of the 'assigning a category' function of the lastminuteliving blogs.  We are in the process of creating a page to display all blogs by categories - so if you want to increase traffic it definitely pays to assign each posting with a category.  It's even possible to create your own.

Here's how...

Categories can be used to organise your weblog posts for easier reference, archiving and display. Using categories is optional.

In order to display categories on your weblog, you must enable category archiving. Enable category archiving by Configuring Your Weblog Archives.

To assign a post to a category, see Basic Post Fields.

On your Weblogs tab, click the Edit ConfigurationEdit Configuration link for the weblog you want to edit categories on, then click the Categories link to open the setup page for Categories.

Default Categories

When you create a new weblog, a default set of categories is provided to get you started:

Books
Current Affairs
Film
Food and Drink
Games
Music
Religion
Science
Sports
Television
Travel
Web/Tech
Weblogs

To enable a default category, click the check-box next to the category name and click Save Changes.

To disable a default category, uncheck the box next to the category name and click Save Changes. Disabled categories do not appear in the Category drop-down menu on the Compose a New Post/Edit Post page.

Custom Categories

To add a new category to your weblog, simply type in the new category name in one of the blank fields for Custom Categories and click Save Changes. There is no limit to how many categories you can add.

If you want to change the name of a custom category, type the new name in the field of the category name you want to replace, and click Save Changes.

To remove a custom category, click Delete next to the category name.

The custom categories you have set will appear in the Category menu on the Edit Post page.

You can also add a custom category from the Category menu on the Edit Post page. From the menu, select Add a new Category. A pop-up will appear where you can type the name of the new category and click Add. The category will be saved, and your post will be assigned to the category.

Displaying Categories on Your Weblog

Basic Templates

Categories are displayed on a weblog as a list or cloud in the sidebar and in the post footer by setting it for display in the weblog content.

On your Weblogs tab, click the Edit DesignEdit Design shortcut for the weblog where you would like to add the list of categories, then click the Change Content Selections link to enter the content setup area for the currently selected template set.

Display a list of the categories in your weblog sidebar:

Show a listing of your category names (the ones that have posts assigned to them) by displaying the Category List option in your template set. Selecting this option will enable Category Archives for your blog.

Check the Category List box in the Your Sidebar Content section and click Save Changes. A list of your categories will now be displayed in your weblog sidebar.

Display a Category cloud in your weblog sidebar:

Show a listing of your category names (the ones that have posts assigned to them) by displaying the Category Cloud, where frequently used categories appear larger than less frequently used categories. Selecting this option will enable Category Archives for your blog.

Check the Category Cloud box in the Your Sidebar Content section and click Save Changes. A Category cloud will now be displayed in your weblog sidebar.

Category List (left) versus Category Cloud (right)
Category List (left) versus Category Cloud (right)

Please note that if there isn't a post assigned to a category, that category will not appear in the Categories list or cloud, since empty categories are not displayed.

Display the category name in the footer after each post:

Show the category or categories that a post is assigned to by selecting a post footer that displays the category name.

Check the box for the Weblog Post Footer option and use the drop-down menu to select a footer that has Category in it. Click Save Changes and each of your posts will now have the category or categories displayed after it (in the post footer) on your weblog.

Limit Posts by Category

By default, the main page of your weblog will list posts from all of your Categories. If you'd like to limit your main page to a specific Category or Categories, this can be done via Weblogs > Edit Configuration > Preferences. This setting allows you to choose specific categories to show on the main page instead. You can select one category or multiple categories from the drop-down menu.

Advanced Templates

Categories are displayed on a weblog using advanced templates with the Category Tags (advanced templates do not have a Content Selections link on the Design tab).

For more information, visit the Typepad Knowledge Base

Open Links in a New Window

Ever get annoyed about links taking users away from your blog... sometimes into oblivion - never to return?  The lovely gems at TypePad have come up with a simple answer - in the form of a widget.

tp-logo-app.gif

This widget will install an invisible snippet of JavaScript on your site that will scan the page for links that point outside of your domain, and force those links to open in a new browser window. Any links that point inside your domain -- archive links, category links, individual entry links, etc. -- will open in the current browser window.

Install the free widget here.

Technorati

If the blogosphere is crushing you under a relentless tidal wave of words, Technorati can help. Tell them what your favorite blogs are, and they'll keep track of them all so you can check them in one place.

» Create your Favorites now!

Blog email subscriptions

Ever feel like you spend all your time begging people to read your blog?  Want to let them know without the hassle?  Not everyone is RSS savvy - but most people know how to check a simple email right?

Thanks to the helpful lovelies at TypePad, is it now possible to turn your lastminuteliving.com blog into an email newsletter! These free services from FeedBlitz push email updates to your readers. You get:

  • Subscription sign up form. Feedblitzlogo
  • Daily email summaries when you post.
  • Subscriber verification, unsubscription, confirmation and export.
  • Automatic bounce handling.
  • Full FeedBurner integration.
  • Support for podcasts and enclosures.
  • OPML import and export.
  • Content truncation to force readers back to your site.

To see what it looks like, check out the following radio show's blog:
The Big Smoke

Premium upgrades are also available, visit the TypePad widget page for more information.

While you're at it, why not subscribe to this blog's email updates - you'll never miss out on handy hints again.

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TypePad widgets

You can't say TypePad doesn't look after their bloggers.  They have added to their extensive list of widgets and lastminuteliving.com bloggers have direct access to them. It's as simple as registering, logging in with your TypePad log in and hey presto - your blog looks snazzy.

TypePad Widgets are a new way to add features to your blog. TypePad have partnered with dozens of companies to bring you great new features such as job searching, game playing, weather tracking, and photo sharing. Adding a widget to your TypePad blog is as easy as 1, 2, 3:

  1. Browse the gallery and choose a widget
  2. Configure it at the widget provider's site
  3. Post it to your blog!

There are many to choose from... you can increase traffic, add a weather meter, music, SkypeCasts, style alerts, commerce builders, searches and even blog tattoos.

Browse the new widget gallery and take your pick.

Don't have a lastminuteliving.com blog? Get one now.

The Blog Barrel

Bb_adAnother way to drive traffic to your blog is to use BlogBarrel.com

The Blog Barrel is a networking system that facilitates traffic sharing between blog users. It is designed to help boost the visibility of newer blogs, but still provides substantial exposure for the more popular blogs.

lastminuteliving.com bloggers can insert Blog Barrel as a widget - it's simple and will help to gain exposure to new readers.

Head to the TypePad widget page to insert BlogBarrel directly into your blog.  Or, you can head to the BlogBarrel homepage.

Set up QuickPost bookmarklet

How to use QuickPost using your lastminuteliving.com/Typepad blog

The QuickPost bookmarklet allows you to post to TypePad without going through the TypePad main interface. After installing the bookmarklet, you can post from anywhere on the web.

On your Weblogs tab, click the Set up QuickPost bookmarklet link in the blue box in the top right corner of the content area to enter the QuickPost setup:

1. Select the fields to display on your QuickPost
Choose the items you would like to display on your QuickPost entry form by checking the boxes for the appropriate fields.

The fields you can choose from are: TrackBack items, Category, Allow Comments, and Allow Pings. You can later re-create your bookmarklet if you would like to change the post fields.

QuickPost Default Fields

By default, a QuickPost window will always have: a pull-down menu for the weblog to post to, a pull-down menu to select the Post Status (Draft or Publish) of the new post, a text entry box for the Title of the post, and a text entry box for the post body.

Plus and Pro members can also add the fields for Text Formatting, Post Continuation (extended post), Excerpt and Keywords. See the Advanced Post Fields section for more information about these items.

2. Press “Create”
Press the button and the page will refresh with the link to create your TypePad QuickPost bookmarklet.

3 Drag the QuickPost link to your browser
To install the bookmarklet, drag the link to your browser’s menu or Favorites toolbar. The bookmarklet is now ready to use for posting to TypePad.

Windows Right-Click Menu
Alternatively, if you are running Internet Explorer on Windows, you can install a TypePad QuickPost option into the Windows right-click menu:

  • Click on the “Add TypePad QuickPost to Windows right-click menu” link. When prompted, save the file quickpost.reg to your desktop.
  • Once the file has been saved to your desktop, right-click on the file and select “Merge” from the menu. Then quit and restart your web browser to add the link to the right-click menu. Now you can access TypePad QuickPost with your IE right-click menu.

Courtesy of the TypePad Knowledge Base.  For more information on how to get the most out of your blog, visit the Knowledge Base. In the meantime, we'll bring you snippets of our favourite tips.

If you have a particular request for information, please leave a comment and we'll get to it as soon as we can.

Count your visitors

Increasing traffic is one thing, creating good content is another... just how much traffic does your blog get?

There's a quick, easy and free way to monitor the number of visitors you get (or don't get).

Site Meter is a free, fast, and easy way to add a web counter to your web page. Not only does it display the number of visitors to your web site, it also keeps statistics on the number of visits each hour and each day.

Site Meter

Get Your Own Site Meter
There's no program to download; nothing to install. Site Meter also has a  variety of web counter styles from which to choose.

Sign up for a free Site Meter.

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