WordPress Posts to E-Newsletter

MailChimp lets you send daily, weekly or monthly e-newsletters containing your blog posts. It is all done using their ‘RSS to Email’ function (Translation: Blog Posts to Email Newsletter).

Email Newsletters with MailChimp

Once you have setup your free MailChimp account and customised an email template with your logo etc, just create an rss campaign. Enter your website’s feed address (if you use WordPress you have one), decide whether you want to show entire posts or just summaries of each, then select how often you want your newsletter to send. Any fresh content/blog posts you’ve published since the last newsletter will slot into your branded template and send automatically every day, week or month. If there is no new content, the newsletter wont send.

How to Create an RSS to Email Campaign

Unless you want to change the frequency of your newsletter or layout at some stage, this is the one and only time you will need to do the steps below. Everything after your rss campaign is scheduled is automatic.

1. Get a free MailChimp account.
2. Design/customise an email template – Before you create your campaign, you’ll want to customise one of MailChimp’s email templates with your colours, logo, links to your website, images etc. This is all done on site and is easy to use.
3. Add a Subscriber List - Add any email subscribers you already have by importing the entire list or adding them one at a time.
4. Create a new RSS Campaign – Choose your saved template and subscriber list. Edit the content section of your template and insert an rss merge tag (you’ll see the link to this) to display either post excerpts or full posts. You can also insert your Twitter feed, Flickr photo feed and all sorts of other info and links.
5. Send Yourself a Test – You can also pay to have your campaign checked on a variety of email clients.
6. Schedule Your Campaign – Select the date you want the first one to send. Eg. Mine is monthly and sends on the 2nd of every month. [Read more]

Understanding Categories and Tags

You can use both categories and tags on your WordPress blog to group or describe the posts you write so it can be confusing to know which to use when. Both help your readers to find the information they are looking for. This post describes the differences plus different ways to use them on your WordPress website.

Screenshot showing categories and tags on the same blog post.

Categories

The categories on your blog are usually the main topics you write about or your different audiences. There should be a limited number and you should generally decide what they are going to be when you first setup your blog. They need to be displayed prominently in a categories widget on your sidebar, in a sitemap or as part of your website navigation as this is the primary way your readers will find posts of interest to them. You can see all my blog categories on my sitemap or on the sidebar of this and all my other blog posts. [Read more]

Write Blog Posts for Money

When discussing setting up a blog with a new client, I am often asked “why do I need a blog”. In most cases, the answer is traffic.

• Search engines list frequently updated website content (blog posts) higher than static webpages.
• Your blog content attracts people looking for information, establishes you as an expert in your area and leads to sales and enquiries.
• A good blog should drive people to your website/products
• And help you establish a database of customers you can send regular correspondence (blog posts) to.

But…what if you want to literally write blog posts for money??? There are several ways to do this…if your blog content is good enough!

1. You can offer customers a custom subscription which they pay for
2. Use the BOS (Blog On Steroids) Plugin to charge for your blog content
3. Add a donate button to your blog using the payPal Donate Plugin
4. Submit your content to an online Publishing service like Triond and earn royalties

Find out how below… [Read more]

Make it Easy to Print Your Posts or Webpages

Giving your website or blog visitors the ability to print your blog posts or webpages is a great way to add value to your product and improve your overall customer experience. It is also a fact that many people still prefer to read information from a printed page rather than a screen. Customers who print your website/blog content can take it home, read it further, follow your instructions, pass it on to others etc.

Read on for instructions on how to add print this page and email to a friend buttons on your website or blog. [Read more]

Add a Blog Feed to Existing Website

If you’ve got a website already and want to integrate a blog or rss feed into the existing layout and design, there is an easy way to do it. Just read my Feedburner article to tell you how.

It is a good idea to include a brief introduction at the top of your web page as well as a direct link to your blog’s homepage.

Websites Using Feedburner’s BuzzBoost to display their latest blog posts on their websites:

• http://www.pandagraphic.co.nz/print_promotions.htm
• http://www.puririhills.co.nz/red-wine.htm

Just read my Feedburner article to tell you how.

Google Ads on your Website or Blog

If you have or are planning an information-rich website or blog, one way to make some extra cash is to put Google ads on your site.

Google Adsense puts ads on website or blog pages you specify. When your visitors click on them, you get paid by Google. See my dynamic adsense ad on the left sidebar of this blog (link unit) or underneath this paragraph (ad unit). You decide on the size, colour and exact page location of your ads. Google searches the content on your site and decides which products to put in the ads. Ads are dynamic so change frequently.

To get Adsense, you first need a Google account. Go to www.google.com/adsense

How to create an Adsense ad

1. Login to your Google Adsense account
2. Go to Adsense Setup tab
3. Select Adsense for Content
4. Select Ad unit or link unit
5. Choose ad size (all are in pixels, square ads are great for sidebars while horizontal ads are perfect for blog posts)
6. Choose colours, border etc which suit your blog
7. Give your ad a name
8. Click Continue, then Submit and Get Code, then copy the code

How to put your Adsense ad on a WordPress Blog

1. Download the Adsense Manager Plugin
2. Upload to your blog and activate the plugin
3. Under admin, go to Manage/ads
4. Create new ad and give it a name
5. Under product, select direct code ad
6. Paste the code you copied from Google
7. Save the ad.

You now have 2 choices. You can put the ad in your blog sidebar or inside different posts.

To put the ad in your sidebar, go to Presentation/Widgets, you will see a new widget with your ads name, simply drag it into your sidebar and you’re done.

To put the ad into a post, go to the code view when writing a post and you will see a drop down adsense box with the names of your ads. Click in the content where you would like your ad to appear, then select the right ad from the box.

To put your ad on a website, follow steps 1-8, then paste the code directly into your website where you would like the ad to appear. You will need access to the html code on your site

In both cases, you need to log out of your site to see the ads properly and it sometimes takes a few minutes for the ad to appear when you first set it up. If you need help setting up adsense ads on your website or blog, please visit my Blog Help Shop or send me an email.

Multiple Photos in a Post with PicasaWeb

If your blog posts include lots of photos, you’re probably getting frustrated uploading them one by one and still not being able to create a uniform look on your post.

The PicasaWeb plugin allows you to upload as many photos as you like all at once, you type a caption for each one on one screen, then just paste one line of code into your post. Photos appear uniform (you choose the exact size you want) with a caption below each one. When you upload your photos, you create a new album so each post is linking to a particular album. See http://www.southcityauctions.co.nz/catalogue/ as an example of what your post will look like.
[Read more]

Create An Online Community – MyBlogLog

The internet today is all about communities of people interested in the same things talking to one another, sharing ideas and opinions, discussing options. One of the best ways to bring traffic to your blog and become an expert in your niche area is to build your own online blog community (and join others). Find out who is reading your blog and talk to them.

Creating Your Own Community

One way to do this is to create your own community at MyBlogLog. You get a free Yahoo ID, decide on a name for your community, a purpose, enter info about yourself, a photo or icon to represent yourself and download special widgets and buttons which you can display on your blog to encourage people to join. Buttons are similar to the one above and the widget (which you can see in my sidebar shows the members of your community or people who have been visiting your blog and even their faces or choosen icons). People who join your community can post messages which eventually turn into a conversation.

Joining a Community

You can join my blog community by clicking on the button above and following the prompts or go directly to MyBlogLog and click on communities to see what else is out there. Once you join, your face appears on the communities page and on the member box on their blog. The best thing is about this is that other members or visitors to the community can click on your face or on a message you have left and be taken to your blog or website.

I look forward to seeing you. – Jo

More information on MyBlogLog

Plugin Guide – Step 2 – Upload

Upload Plugins to Your Blog
Once you have connected to your ftp site, you need to double-click the main blog folder, usually called “wordpress” or “blog”, then “wp_content” folder, then “plugins” folder. This is where you put the unzipped files you downloaded to your computer. Remember when you unzip them, they are usually extracted inside another folder so you need to make sure you are uploading the actual folder containing the plugin files.

Activate Your Plugins
In the admin/dashboard of your blog, go to Plugins, find the one you have uploaded and click on Activate. This usually activates one of the following:

1. A new widget appears under Presentation/Widgets. You can drag this onto your sidebar, double-click to customise, then save changes.
2. A new panel appears under Options which allows you to customise and manage the new plugin.
3. A new button or set of fields appears above or below every post allowing you to add new functionality to each new post you write.

The two most important plugins next…

Plugin Guide – Step 1 – FTP

Once you have a hosted WordPress blog, you can upload your own plugins to add all kinds of exciting widgets and special features to your website.

Plugins can be downloaded to your computer from the WordPress Plugin Directory at the click of a button. But…to be able to then upload the plugins to your blog, you need an ftp (File Transfer) program on your computer. This allows you to transfer files from your computer to your blog.

Get an FTP Program
The ftp program I use is Globalscape Cute FTP which you can download from the Globalscape website for $39.99. This program is easy to use. Download it to your computer and setup an icon on your desktop. Once you have opened the program, you need to create a “New Ftp Site”, enter your Hostname, Username and Password, then click Connect. These FTP details are provided by the company who hosts your blog.

How to activate and customise your plugins next…

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