Blog Post Ideas

How do you find new topics to blog about? Here’s an idea: check your Sent Mail folder. Most of us say something smart or insightful via email at least once a week, right? Something that the rest of the world might benefit from reading? Take a few minutes each week to scan your Sent Mail folder and look for that gem. If you’ve emailed the same thing to more than two people, that’s a sign it might make a great blog post!

Check out the Tips and Tricks category for more tips on how to be a better blogger.

Posting, Commenting, and more improvements

It's that time again - we've just done another upgrade for your TypePad blog. We're working out a couple of bugs that have come up with this release right now, but in the meantime, let's talk about what's new.

One of my favorites is the collaboration we're doing with the TypePad Team in Japan: we added two new actions (Publish/Unpublish) to your list of Posts and Pages. Now you'll have the ability to batch publish or unpublish posts or pages right from the administrative screen.

We're also doing a ton of hard work on the inside of the application and making it easier to use. We're in the first phase of testing this with a small group of Alpha users to see what they like about using a more intuitive TypePad.

We worked on over 100 bug fixes and feature requests, which is a great milestone. Big thanks to everyone here who worked so hard on this release! Here's just a few:

• Working with Six Apart Media team to help them understand how to better target the ads that will help make you more money
• Fixed an issue with RSS feeds that had incorrect breaks
• Improving new registration flow to make it easier for people to select a blog address.
• We’re making progress (in the background) on some of the remaining posting issues and testing in a separate, non-customer facing code branch.
• We’ve improved our ticketing system so we can fix issues for you faster.
• Fixing more commenting issues, both for TypePad and our beta of TypePad Connect.
• Fixed a TypeList caching issue.
• Fixed the internal search in TypePad and TypeLists.
• Fixed issues with guest authors and About pages
• Fixed an issue where multiple trackbacks were being marked as spam

Thanks for all of your feedback to our support team, here on Everything TypePad, and in our Get Satisfaction forums. Your suggestions are what makes TypePad continue to be great.

Everything TypePad Blog

These past few weeks, we've been doing things a little differently around here on the Everything TypePad blog. We had a lot of feedback about how we communicate here from you, our community, and we wanted to make this the best place to find out about, well, EVERYTHING TypePad. We're talking more about how we're doing releases to improve TypePad, updating you with tips and tricks, and talking about cool stuff going on in social media.

How are we doing so far? Got some feedback, a question, something you want to see us talk more about? Let us know in the comments.

Get A Cool Shirt, Save the World

Tonight (that's Wednesday) Proctor and Gamble's digital hack night is doing something really cool - Loads of Hope.

Check out our blogs.com post about how four teams lead by some of our influential TypePad bloggers like Peter Kim and David Armano are competing to see who can raise the most money. All profits going towards disaster relief organizations, especially Feeding America. Chasnote is also there tonight and says the atmosphere "is like a reality TV show: A contest among groups of digital marketing experts, Apprentice-style...It's amazing how competitive this group gets when you put them on teams!" The Twitter hashtag is #pgdigital if you want to take a peek inside the madness - it's already cracked the top 10.

Want to participate? Read more now!

Increase Blog Traffic with Obvious Post Titles

There's all sorts of search engine voodoo to bring traffic to your blog and beginning blogger can get overwhelmed quickly.

Here's a quick tip that will boost your search engine juice instantly:

Always Be Obvious

Or to put it a bit bluntly:

Stop Being Clever

The one thing every study of online habits shows is that nobody has any time. I don't have the time to comprehend that your post titled with a reference to Dante's Inferno is really about how to toilet train a cat. If your post is the top five things you wished you knew before you made buttercream frosting then don't use a post title that is more about your cleverness as a writer than about what I'm about to read.

If I see your post title in a Google search or a Twitter tweet I should be completely unsurprised when I click through to read it. I should know exactly what I'm getting myself into. Your post titles should jump out at the right people: 'Yes! That thing you searched for, that topic you're interested in, that idea in your head that you are researching? I'm writing about it right here in language that you will understand!'

The more words and phrases you use in your post titles (and categories, blog title, etc) that people might actually type into a search engine, the better off you'll be.

How a Blog Can Help Your Job Search

Today's feature is a little different - we asked a TypePad blogger and About.com job search expert Alison Doyle to write us a guest post about how you can use a blog to help your job search. We'll be writing up extras about how to use TypePad for your job search, building a resume, and more. Thanks for posting, Alison! Want to write a guest post? Just let us know in the comments.

Are you looking for a new job or are you in career-building mode?  A blog is an ideal way to showcase your skills and accomplishments to prospective employers and a terrific opportunity to build your credibility as an expert in your field.

Why Blog?
A blog can help you find a new job in several different ways.   You can use your blog to provide insight on your expertise and use it to let the world know that you are seeking a new opportunity.

In addition, it’s very typical for hiring managers and recruiters to Google prospective applicants for employment.  Your blog will most likely rank highly (Google Alison Doyle and you’ll see my blog ranks #2) and it’s got exactly the type of information that I would want a prospective employer to see right off the bat.

Getting Started
If you already have a personal blog that you’re happy with, don’t mess with it. Start a new career-focused blog. That way, you can keep your personal life separate from your professional life, which is always an issue online.  There is, of course, such a thing as too much information and you don’t want to share that information with prospective employers.  You can use your career blog for job search purposes and your personal blog for family and friends.

Blog Options
Bloggers have had success with different types of employment-related blogs. Before you start blogging consider what you want to focus your blog on. Do you want to write about your job search? Or, do you want your blog to supplement your resume and focus on the skills and expertise you have to offer? Both options work well.
Rachel Levy, for example, is in the midst of a job search.  Her blog is directly focused on her job search.  The title and sub-title are:

Rachel Levy: Job Search & Social Networking
How I’m using social networking tools like Twitter in my search for a marketing job in Boston

Rachel uses her blog to talk about her job search, to discuss what it’s like being unemployed, and to share her expertise in public relations, marketing, and social media. Her blog also includes a portfolio of her work and information on how to contact her. 

Philip Morgan is a technology communicator. His blog philipmorgan.net is full of posts that show his expertise in the field including tips for technical trainers and effective software certification. His blog includes a link to his resume and detailed information about his background.

Blogging Job Search Tips
The goal when you’re using your blog as a job search tool is to spread the word – to get your name, your credentials, and your expertise on the Internet in as many places as possible. The more visibility you have, the better.

• Start simple. Choose a professional style template and go from there. You don’t need to know anything technical to get started.  It’s a quick and easy process.
• Use your name.  If possible get your name or a variation of it for your blog (here’s mine: alisondoyle.typepad.com). It’s a good opportunity to reinforce your online presence.
• Share your profiles.  Add links to your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, etc. from your blog (in TypePad, click on Control, Profile, Your Other Account).
• Feed your blog. Set up feed from your blog to your Facebook page and to Twitter so your connections can see what you’re blogging about.
• Include links. Include links to your blog on your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your VisualCV, and your other professional networking profiles.
• Update your blog.  A stale, out-of-date blog isn’t going to do anything for you. Update your blog, even if it’s a short post, at least a few times a week.
• Be nice. Do not say anything nasty about your previous or current employer.  It not only can get you in trouble, it can jeopardize your chances of getting a new job. Nobody wants to hire someone who might do the same to their company someday.
• Have fun.  Even though your blog, in this case, is work related, there’s no need to be boring.  Be creative, share your perspective, and share your personal stories.  Your blog should be readable, engaging, and personable.

Alison Doyle’s Bio
Alison Doyle is a job search expert with many years of experience in human resources, career development, and job searching, with a focus on online job searching and job search technology. She has covered job searching for About.com since 1998. Alison is also the author of her personal blog (alisondoyle.typepad.com) with advice and commentary on the world of work.

Alison is the author of Internet Your Way to a New Job: How to Really Find a Job Online (2008) and the About.com Guide to Job Searching (2006).

Alison’s Blogs:
Alison Doyle Blog: alisondoyle.typepad.com
About.com Job Search Blog: jobsearch.about.com

Add Cool New Functionality to Your Blog

Some of the our favorite third-party applications are giving us the royal treatment this week- Ping.fm, Apture, and Userfly.

Apture's a slick Firefox extension that helps you to add and integrate all kinds of media into your blog. Andy and I are working on another video to show you just how cool you can get with it, but give it a whirl. It'll add a button on your compose window to help you along. (It works with Movable Type too.)

Ping.fm makes updating your social network-ed friends very easy, and Userfly makes your web usability testing both free and easy.

Thanks to all the awesome developers out there who keep building cool tools to use on your blog. Have a favorite widget or browser plugin you want to share?

Removing Your Banner's Margin

In our pilot class on building a site with TypePad, I made my own online tea shop as an example of taking your business online with just a few clicks. I created a custom banner and uploaded it to my blog.

How wide should a banner be?

To get my banner width, I added the width of my columns together. You can check your column widths by going to Design > Content > Theme and look under your General Settings.

So I add my columns together (400px + 200px) and tell my designer I need a banner that is 600px wide. Note: 'px' equals 'pixels'.

I upload my banner (Design > Content > Banner) and reload my blog and my banner appears!

But there's this gross indent.

TypePad indents banners 15 pixels down and 15 pixels to the right. This leaves the background color (the green) showing around the banner while chopping off 15 pixels off the right-side. I don't want that for this blog. Let's get rid of it.

Cadbury's Chocolate Goes Fairtrade with TypePad

This morning, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk in the UK made a landmark decision to gain the Fair Trade Certificate by the end of the summer. This was a massive decision for a company serving a nation of chocoholics, who consume over 300 million bars of chocolate a year(!), and to use their addiction as a force for good. This move will triple the sales of cocoa under fair trade terms for cocoa farmers in Ghana, notes the CSRWire, a corporate social responsibility website.

They chose TypePad to announce the news, driving a multimedia campaign with their blog.  The site was built on TypePad Business Class, and was designed by the agency in a matter of days. Welcome to TypePad, Hyper and Cadbury's: we think your new blog is awesome.

How to Design Your Blog Before You Even Write Your First Post

Some bloggers like to set up their blog design before they've written any content. But if you don't have any published posts you won't know how your fonts will look. What can you use in place of 'real' text? Should you just write the word 'text' over and over again.

Back in the 1970s, graphic designers and printers solved this problem. They used a stream of Latin text beginning with the phrase 'Lorem ipsum...' in place of any actual written. This sample text acts shows the effects of font choices and typesetting and mimics the visual feel of English on the page. It also helps the design process because you aren't focusing so much on the content - but more on the presentation.

And still today, designers use the Lorem Ipsum text when choosing fonts, colors and sizing for text.

When I'm working on a blog template I'll usually go to the Lorem Ipsum generator at and grab a few paragraphs of text and drop them into a post and save it. Here's how to use it: