This is the place to look for help in configuring, using, getting the most out of your Linknet blogging products.
PLEASE NOTE: The Wordpress information is based on the user interface use in version ->2.6
After Jan 1, 2009 all our new blogs will be using v2.7 or higher. Version 2.7 included many changes to the user interface, so the instructions included in these posts will not reflect these changes until we get around to updating them.
The consolation is that v2.7 is easier to use and more intuitive, so you should be able to figure it out more easily.
In order to do anything in Wordpress that involves adding or changing something that shows up in the browser, you first have to log in to your own “SiteAdmin” area.
The link that takes you into the “SiteAdmin” area is normally somewhere in the right sidebar, usually near the bottom.
You will have to log in using your login ID and Password - the one given to you when your blog was initially set up.
Once you’ve logged in to Wordpress, click on the “Write” tab along the the top. This will take you to the “Write Post” screen where you can create an original post.
There are basically 4 parts to each post…
1. Post Body - Most people will enter their post with the “Visual” tab clicked on. However, if you know a bit of html code - such as how to create a hyperlink using html - you might want to click on the HTML tab over on the right side of the form and do it that way.
Either way, it is often best to create your post in a Notepad or Google Docs document beforehand. That way you’ll have a clear text version of it that you can use in different places later.
However, you definitely should not copy from a MS Word or Adobe Acrobat document right into Wordpress. Doing that will almost always bring in odd characters and formatting instructions - things such as curly quote marks, hyphens, copyright and registered symbols that tend to create problems in Wordpress. If you want to bring material in from a MS Word or an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) doc, then copy it first into Notepad or Google Docs, clean up the oddball characters, and then copy it into Wordpress.
Of course you can always create your post right in Wordpress (like I am doing right now), but if you are bringing in text from an external source, clean it up as described above, then just copy it from the original document and paste it into the form.
When you want to add a link (or more properly, a “hyperlink”) to a post you should remember that a link has two parts:
The anchor text - these are the actual words that the link is applied to. For example, if you want to create a link to an article about “barcode scanners”, it will usually be found in a string of text like this:
The words “barcode scanners” are called the anchor text because these are the words you want to apply the link to.
The target URL - this is the web address you want your readers to be taken to when they click on the linked anchor text. In the above example, if the words “barcode scanners” are linked to the address - http://www.waspbarcode.com, then this is is the target URL.
While in “Visual” mode, to apply a target URL to a specific anchor text within your post do the following:
It is quite easy to add images - photographs or graphics - to Wordpress posts, but it is important to keep a few things in mind. First, add images that are properly sized before being embedded in your blog posts. For example, if you want to embed an image you just recently shot with your digital camera, don’t just bring it in at 800 x 600 pixels, or whatever was its original size. That is too large for the typical blog column width.
Rather, downsize it to a more manageable 400 x 300, or some other similar size. Here is a sample of an image that is 400 x 300 pixels:
You might even think this is too large. If so, downsize it using image manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop. Or use one of the many online image resizing sites such as resizr.com or picresize.com - many of these sites will also let you crop your image too. And some will help you make adjustments to brightness and contrast, and sometimes even to the color balance of the image.
The general answer to this question is: “As often as possible.” An active blog will keep readers coming back - especially if what you write is interesting to your readers. If you only write once a month, there will be very little incentive for regular readers to come back and check your content.
On the other hand, if you write new material every couple of days, and you encourage an active dialogue with your readers, then they will come back more often and you will gain a loyal following of regular readers.
At one end of the spectrum, some bloggers like to write detailed and fairly complicated articles. In that case it is unrealistic to think you can create new posts every day. You will find it is just not possible.
What should you write about in your blog? Again, there is no simple answer to this question.
Some people advocate you try to dream up “link bait” - short provocative articles that are likely to get links from other bloggers or article writers. This is easier said than done. If your objective is to get noticed by other bloggers, or to get Diggs from readers, then you might do well to study the kind of posts that are likely to get this kind of reaction. I wrote a blog post about this a while ago called “Making Social Sites Like Digg Work For You.”
Being a bit of a contrarian and a closet academic/elitist I find this idea of appealing to the sensational difficult to do and generally phoney. It’s not me… which brings me to a major point: try to be yourself. Express your opinion - but please, try to be a bit more original than going for self-indulgent “rants”.
Here are two of the easiest ways to create a content-rich blog post.
Method 1: Reprint an article written by someone else - There are different types of “content” on the web. Most articles, blog posts, reports, etc. are written by someone and are not available for reprinting. The author does not want his or her stuff just copied and reprinted.
But then there are articles written specifically for the purposes of being reprinted. You will find these in “article directories” like EzineArticles.com and many others. Authors created these articles for the sole purpose of getting them reprinted by others. This gives them free publicity because each of these articles contains the author information and a link or two pointing to websites being promoted by the author.
Embedding a video in a blog post is probably the easiest way to create an effective post. It can be a video of your own, or a video produced by someone else.
If it is a video of your own, the easiest way to get it into a blog post is to first upload it to Youtube or one of the other video-sharing sites.
Once it is uploaded to Youtube and has been published, get the embed code and just copy it into your blog post (use html mode when copying code). Here’s an example of a video embedded from Youtube.
If you want a link pointing to a different website, just add a line or two of text and embed the link in the text. I want to link this video to my own site about effective blogging.
The current version of AgentMapIt.com requires that agent profile images be 150 pixels wide x 175 pixels high. Here is a short video showing how you can use PicResize.com to quickly and easily resize your profile photo for use in AgentMapIt.com.
AgentMapIt.com is a program used by Real Estate Agents looking for referrals from other agents from across North America. If you are a Real Estate Agent, by getting listed in AgentMapIt.com you become the “go to” agent for your location.
