TypePad Hacks

Fresh new design for TypePad Hacks and more!

The new design I've been working on this week just went live, and I'm way, way happy about it! What's changed? Quite a bit:

1. The TypePad a la Carte Code Store is now it's own blog, which means you can search it by category. This should make it a lot easier to use. I updated the list of hacks too, so that each has a description of what it does as well as a list of what's required from clients in terms of files, etc. Please take a look and leave a comment if you have any suggestions for improving it. I'll be adding a bunch of new hacks to the store soon, as well as some package deals.
2. The view shopping cart button is now in the menu at far right (unless you're using IE, in which case it's above the menu. If you are using IE, may I suggest a better browser such as Firefox, Flock or Camino?)
3. I also updated the page for ordering custom hacks (actually, I created one. It used to go straight to the contact form.) The new page explains everything you need to know about hiring us for Custom templates or CSS, personalized blog consulting and training. The new order form is much improved as well, saving time by making sure we have all the info we need to prepare an accurate bid.
4. Finally, a new and prettier banner and a new logo. I took the official TypePad logo and changed the lilly pad into a paint palette… and changed the tag line from "building a better platform through user powered design" to "The art of fine code."
5. Swapped the three column right template to a two column right, with a wider sidebar.
6. Updated the widgets etc. and made new graphics for most of the sidebar items.
7. Color changes throughout the templates.

I'm probably forgetting a few of the new features or changes, but those are the big ones.

I'd love to hear what you think of the new design… Please do leave a comment and let me know what else you would like to see, or see change, or what you like about the new design.

TypePad Post Dating Oddity

This isn't one of those great hacks posts where you learn something you have to go out and try right away.  It's sort of TypePad minutiae - little, miscellaneous stuff. 

A client called and asked why he couldn't pick a date and time to have his post published.  I didn't know the answer, I'm afraid to admit.  So I logged on to my account and tested.  It worked just fine with a blog created on my own account.

But then I flipped over to the TypePad Hacks blog link within my account.  I am listed as a guest author here.   Sure enough, there is no "Publish On" option in the Posting Status dropdown.

I thought, "Maybe only the publisher of the blog can modify the post date and time?"  It's plausible.  Maybe you don't want your authors to have the ability to modify post dates and times for fear of having them keep their posts more current and more visible than they might ordinarily be.

But that's not the case.  It's either an awkward TypePad design flaw or is done intentionally for a reason I can't figure out, but if you publish your post as a draft, you'll then have the option to control the publishing date and time by using the clock icon and the date/time link next to it.

This only seems to happen when you are a posting on a blog that you have not created on your TypePad account.

Like I said, it's TypePad minutiae.

Duplicate Content and Your TypePad Domain

There are many webmasters and bloggers who are vigilant about reducing or eliminating duplicate content on their blogs and web sites. Everyone seems concerned about assigning a post to multiple categories, their non-wwww domain name being seen as a duplicate of the www version, and so on. 

In fact, the impetus behind this post comes from a comment on a my previous post about fixing up somesone's "mistake" of using their TypePad subdomain instead of their own domain for their blog.

People are so vigilant that they might think I'm trying to be controversial (or that I'm just stupid) when I say to just chill out over the subject.  Before my inbox gets flamed with mail, let me explain where I'm coming from.

Google is the king of search because they focus better on the authority of sites and relevancy of content with regard to specific search terms.  Some might disagree with this statement, but go do the same search on multiple search engines and compare results.  In my opinion, Google wins the relevancy contest consistently.

Take this point and apply it to a site that springs up overnight with hundreds of pages of content that is nearly identical to existing content on other sites.  That new site generally is not going to rank well.  As I've mentioned in yet another previous post about making money with blogs, I tried going down this path a long while back, and it just doesn't work.  Overtly spammy sites reliant on duplicated content generally don't rank well or at all in Google.

What Google tries to do is figure out the one best source for a given piece of content and do their best to make sure the site producing the original content gets their props for doing so in the form of increased "page rank" and SERP performance.  It is my belief that Google's focus on duplicate content relies on inter-domain content duplication much more than intra-domain duplication.

When you create a post in your TypePad blog, you're going to get duplicate content pretty much no matter what you do.  The post will appear on the main index page as well as the permalink page and category page(s), not to mention the RSS and ATOM feeds.

If your site is on the up-and-up and you're not relying on any black hat SEO hacks, don't worry about it.  Google and the other search engines will figure it all out, and the single best source for your content will find it's way into the SERPs.  Now that doesn't mean you should start associating posts with 5 different categories.  Pick one category if you can, or two if you feel that readers would derive benefit from the multiple category post. 

It also doesn't hurt to link to your own content in your posts where appropriate, as I've done here.  This will help the search engines find a path back to your original content if and when your posts are syndicated to other sites.

Now, let's address the inter-domain issues of duplicate content.

First, I believe non-www domain vs. www subdomain content falls in line with the previous points - Google and the other search engines will figure out the best source.  If all  your internal links point to the www subdomain, you can be pretty sure that those pages will be determined to be the original, best source of content.  If you use Google Webmaster Tools, you can also explicitly tell Google which one is preferred.  But by setting up your domain correctly to begin with, you can eliminate any doubt about possible duplicate content with a 301 redirect from the non-www to the www subdomain.  Unfortunately, if you register your domain with with Yahoo or Network Solutions, this 301 redirect capability is non-existent.  GoDaddy, on the other hand, does provide this functionality.

For those who have used their TypePad subdomain and want to switch to their own domain name, I think I outlined the best solution for making the transition as quickly and painlessly as possible without generating inter-domain duplicate content.  Note: I did not mention it in that previous post, but your TypePad domain's URLs can also be removed from the Yahoo index using Yahoo!'s Site Explorer.  Honestly, I haven't looked into MSN (or Live, or whatever they're calling it now).  I simply focus on Google because they are by far the dominant search engine today.

The one piece of functionality that is missing from the exercise of moving from your TypePad domain to your own domain is the ability to create 301 redirects from one to the other.  If TypePad could offer this one simple feature, it would make everyone's experience with their system so much better.

You're Not Stuck with Your TypePad Domain

From the "What is the Biggest Mistake You've Made as a Blogger"...

I own my domain, but it wasn’t showing up in Technorati, so I switched back to a Typepad subdomain. Really stupid, and now I’m stuck with it for fear of losing traffic.

Dude...  Fear not.  Your TypePad links will still work.  Nothing changes to the underlying URL structure.

Compare:

http://www.typepadhacks.org/2008/04/scents-and-cent.html

and

http://johntunger.typepad.com/typepadhacks/2008/04/scents-and-cent.html

And here's one other tidbit.  You can create a robots.txt file on the TypePad domain, do a URL removal request from Google for the TypePad pages, create another robots.txt with a link to your personal domain's sitemap xml content, and be re-indexed correctly by Google within a couple of days.

It's true.  This is exactly what I did for our client, White Trash Mom.  She was worried, just like you were.  But the people at Google are smart, and they figured out what we were doing pretty quickly.

Now go back and map your domain in TypePad and get crackin' on your blog.  There are so many reasons why you want to do this beyond the obvious one.

Scents and Cents - Making Money With Your Blog

I can't tell you how many people think they are going to make money from blogging.  Everyone who starts a blog thinks they'll just write a few posts a day (or week!), and the readers and money from Google AdSense will start flowing in.

About two weeks into their blogging career, they find out that:

1. It takes A LOT more time than you think it will
2. It's hard to get people to find and read your blog
3. It's even harder to generate ad revenue through advertising clicks

I've worked on a bunch of blogs for myself and others. In the blogosphere as a whole, there are only a few that make any appreciable amount of money strictly through advertising.

For the rest of us that don't have 10,000 or 100,000 readers a day, blogs can be monetized by adding another dimension to a business that could or does stand on its own in and of itself. John's art business is a good example. He can run his art business stand alone. Word of mouth and good interpersonal networking can lay a foundation. But when John utilizes a blog and gives people another avenue to learn about John T Unger Studio, he opens up his business to a world wide audience and a world of potential customers.

Another way to monetize a blog is through affiliate marketing. This is a tougher row to hoe. Again, many people think they can start a blog that is nothing more than a site with affiliate ads, particularly if the sponsoring programs offer data feeds. The first thought that comes to your mind is something like this - "Hey! I can make my own online store with the data I'm provided. They give me product images, descriptive product copy, and links to purchase. All I have to do is write a little program to get all that data into TypePad..."

Let me save you some time and effort. It won't work. Maybe sometime in another post, I'll tell you why it won't work, but for now, just trust me. It won't work.

So if that method doesn't work, how do you make affiliate programs work for your blog?

The key to making any blog generate affiliate marketing revenue is to create what internet marketing guru, Bryan Eisenberg, calls a "scent trail" for visitors to your blog. Not sure what I'm talking about? 

Let's say you wanted to write a blog about Chicago architecture.  You learn about all the different nuances of the famous architects who built the city and influenced architects around the globe. You go out and take photos of the famous buildings, you come up with unique viewpoints and commentary, and you blog away! 

Over time, you build up your blog audience, and by looking through your blog's stats in TypePad, you find you're getting a couple hundred visitors a day. And since you are such a big fan of Mies van der Rohe and have written extensively on the architect, you find that many of them are are looking for information about  his work. 

You now have a "scent trail", and you now have an opportunity to sell books about Mies van der Rohe. By conveniently placing an Amazon.com affiliate ad for Mies books and books about other Chicago architectes in your sidebar, you're giving your readers the next scent to follow on their path to finding a book about this subject matter.  You then write a review about one or more of the books your Amazon ads point to, and you're on your way to monetizing your blog as well as being viewed as an authority on your subject matter.

The key is to create scent trails with good and original content, then provide an easy-to-find and use path for visitors to purchase the related goods or services.

Welcome Dave Weiss to TypePad Hacks

A while back I posted to the blog that I was looking for a smart, savvy coder to help with me out on client work. I was just about to give up and turn down a bunch of work from really great people when I got an email from Dave and he jumped in to save the day.

Dave's awesome. Thanks to Dave, sometimes I now get to sleep and maybe I won't even die of blogging as recently reported in the New York Times. I've also had more time to actually write for the blog now that Dave's on board.

Dave will be in charge of most Hacks For Hire going forward and may also be contributing to the blog as he recently did with the post Three Mistakes Even TypePad Pros Make. The man knows his code and gets things done, but he's also a pleasure to work with and clients have loved him. That's what I'm talking about when I say I want it all. Dave's got it and I think you're going to really like him.

Here's a little bio that I've also added to the About menu:

Who am I? I have been a marketing and technology professional for nearly 15 years. With degrees in both Advertising and Computer Science from Northern Illinois University, I find it easy to wear both hats, which I think is a bit unusual. 

I've done a bit of everything in my professional career.  Directly out of college, I worked for two global technology consulting firms as a database designer, computer programmer, and project manager, but eventually jettisoned the "rat race" for a more entrepreneurial lifestyle. Currently, I work as a marketing professional with a focus on ecommerce systems, search engine optimization, blogs, direct email marketing, and internet video production.  I am a proud resident of the great city of Chicago, where I reside with my wife, Risa, and two young children, Hannah and Steven, as well as our cat, Gorbachev. 

Other sites I work on:
WrigleyvilleSports.com a Chicago retailer of officially licensed merchandise for the Chicago Cubs
WeRockChicago.com my wife, Risa's Chicago real estate video and real estate sales blog

Recent TypePad Hacks clients I've worked with: I've assisted with design implementation, search engine optimization and consulting for the following blogs:

blog.littlecarbonfeet.com
whitetrashmom.com
thebrandelastic.com
purecontemporary.blogs.com

Doing some maintenance, design, cleanup on the blog this weekend

I'm working on the site this weekend… apologies to RSS subscribers for any extra, repeat or apparently self-promotional posts. Just seemed like time to rewrite some of the pages about me, the blog and so on. It's been a few years since I did the originals.

And welcome to any new readers who might find the about pages of interest ;-)

About TypePad Hacks

This blog has been around long enough for its focus to shift a few times… The core mission of making TypePad rock hasn't really changed, but the methods have shifted a bit. The original manifesto can be found here, but it seemed like time for an update.

Stage One: Consumer Advocacy, Guerrilla Criticism

I founded typepadhacks.org in 2006 to suggest features and changes I felt would significantly improve the TypePad platform. The initial focus of the site was:

• User Design: Collecting useful hacks for extending the capabilities of TypePad blogs.
• User Forum: Providing a forum for issues, news and user concerns about SixApart products and service.
• User Power: Organizing users into a unified voice to lobby SixApart for the features, fixes and changes to TypePad most important to us.

As it turned out, Michael Sippey (then GM at TypePad) got in touch almost immediately to let me know that a lot of what I had suggested was useful to the development team and that they would be implementing many of my suggestions. The general response from the company is exemplified by the following quote from the TypePad Featured Blog article about TypePad Hacks:

You might think that Six Apart, as a company, would be embarrassed by Unger's focus on explaining tricks to extend TypePad's functionality, or chagrined that he polls his readers about what features we should implement next, but the truth is: We're thrilled. Not only is TypePad Hacks a tremendous benefit to all TypePad customers, especially those who want to ask unique questions or try to "push the envelope," but it's also incredibly useful for us to look over Unger's shoulder and absorb the feedback his readers are giving. And we can assure you, we are most certainly looking. Finally, we think it's an amazing testament to blogging and to TypePad that Unger thought the best solution for his effort was to start a blog and to use TypePad. We couldn't agree more. While no formal relationship exists between TypePad Hacks and TypePad, we have talked with Unger and consider him a wonderful asset to the community.

That was awesome, and they've been rolling out great new features, improvements and fixes at a breakneck pace ever since. I put a lot of effort into those first posts to make sure that the tone was uniformly positive and I think that has paid off so many ways… I've almost never had a negative comment directed at TypePad since the blog began (though plenty of constructive criticism) and often the readers will answer each other's questions in the comments. There's a community here that I truly value, and I think that by providing a space for that here, both TypePad and the user base have gotten a chance to interact and learn from each other. A great deal of growth and understanding came out of that.

Stage two: Developing new Hacks and Writing Tutorials

But, I'm impatient (massively ADHD, actually) and so I started writing hacks for some of the features that could be added without having to change the back-end application code. It turned out I was pretty good at it. It turned out that I have a special knack for looking at what things are and what they do, not what they're supposed to be or intended to do… In other words, every time I see a new snip of code, my brain immediately starts thinking about what else it could be used for beyond the intended purpose. This is the perfect mindset for finding new ways to use things, and for finding solutions to difficult problems. Coming up with hacks and writing tutorials was the second stage of TypePad Hacks, although it followed pretty quickly on the heels of the activism stage. I also did a ton of free tech support for other bloggers during this period… I still like to help out when I can, but unless it's a quick answer, I often don't get to it as soon as I would like. In some cases, if it's a very long answer, I'll suggest that the person hire us.

Stage three: Hacks for Hire

It turns out that not everyone wants to do their own hacks… Some are too busy, some are uncomfortable messing with templates, some just would rather job it out. About a year into writing the blog, I started getting a lot of inquiries about whether I was for hire. I kept saying "no, actually, I already have a full time gig as an artist and this site is my recreational outlet." I was kid of proud of being maybe the only guy out there who did art for a day job and tech support as a hobby. And the art still pays better, believe it or not.

Finally someone came up with a really interesting project that caught my imagination and I said okay. And in the process I realized the following: Hacks for hire is a service in the same way as free tutorials are a service… it's a way to help people out, which I like to do. The reason I charge for it isn't that I need the money but because that's how I schedule. There are only so many hours in the day and I need about 48 of them to accomplish what I want to do. So, yes, I do blog work for people and I charge for it to justify taking time away from the other things I also want to do… like writing my blogs ;-).

As the business side grows, I've taken on some help with coding and will also be seeking guest authors for posts. There will still be new tutorials and reviews as often as possible. I prefer to post less frequently in order to research deeply, test hacks thoroughly and polish the tutorials to maximum clarity and simplicity… so the posts here will never be overwhelmingly frequent.

About John T Unger

Who am I? If you're looking for a world class expert on TypePad, ask just about anyone and they'll send you to me. I make my primary living as an artist and designer, but because blogging is what made that possible, I've spent years honing my chops at making TypePad jump through hoops to give me (or you) exactly what we need.

Why TypePad? Well, there are two answers to this: 1. although there are lots of great blog platforms out there, I think TypePad offers the best combination of ease-of-use with raw power… the design wizard and posting tools make it really easy to get started, but the custom coding options make it possible to do almost anything once you get under the hood. 2. When I get into something, well, I get into it. Once I started hacking at the templates, I was hooked on pushing the limits as far beyond where they seemed to be as I could. It's fun for me.

Credentials: I'm a member of the TypePad Customer Advisory Board and have written several guest posts for Six Apart's Everything TypePad blog. TypePad Hacks was selected as a TypePad Featured Blog on June 7, 2006. I'm pals with a lot of the people at Six Apart who work on TypePad because they're great people and we enjoy each other's work. I've got lots of happy clients and there are lots of very kind posts about me on other blogs where you can get a feel for what people think of the work I've done. You can also check out the comments below posts to see what people have to say about the tutorials or tech support I've provided. I pretty much taught myself everything I know… I try to pass along as much of it as I can, in a format that I hope will be easy for both newbies and seasoned pros to follow.

As a result of the work I've done with TypePad, I've also been asked for feedback by companies like AdaptiveBlue, AddThis, Authorati, Cocomment, FeedBurner, Wondermill and others (most of it on a fairly informal basis) and I've done consulting for companies including PayPal and Etsy. For the most part, my goal in consulting has been to get better software and services and to enjoy speaking with some of the smartest people on the planet (or the web, anyway).

If you're curious about me as a person, the best way to get a sense of who I am is probably to look at what I've done with my time. You can do that by visiting the following blogs and websites. Oh, and if you wanna read the older, less formal about page you can still check it out here.

My Other Sites:
John T. Unger on Twitter: Twitter is probably the most personal outlet for me on the web right now. It's a much less edited feed from my brain, so if you want the raw goods, start there. A direct message or reply on Twitter is much more likely to get my attention quickly than an email will these days.

John T. Unger Studio: This is my personal blog. Posts about art, design and creativity, studio news, business and marketing strategies, etc. Some of everything.

ArtBuzz: Art for Sale: A blog where I post all the work that is currently available for purchase or commission. Artbuzz began as an experiment in using blogs to build online storefronts. Artbuzz only updates when I have new work for sale.

Commission Portfolio: Want to see more of my work? This is where I keep photos and descriptions of most of my major projects. There's a lot to see. I've been busy.

I Got No Zen: I spent about 15 years working as a poet and writer before I switched to art and design. Most of the work from that period is archived here. I'm still updating as time permits.

Net Neutrality video from savethe internet.com

If you have a blog, you need an internet to get there. I've posed before about Net Neutrality, but if you haven't felt the call yet, check the video below. It explains the basic concepts in a fun way.