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Trisha on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Trisha — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:21:04 +0000

I installed and activated it just to see what it does, and it did make it's own config menu at the bottom of my left hand menu, called Social (below the Settings menu) When you expand the menu labeled Social, you have a "dashboard" of sorts which seems to be just a page explaining the plugin, then an "Options" menu, when you have some settings to play around with, then a "Bookmarks" menu, where you select which icons you want to appear... Look down your left hand menu below settings and see if you don't have one called Social

Dutchie on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Dutchie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:12:35 +0000

Thanks guys, I have looked everywhere on my dashboard, Trisha, but the configuration menu is nowhere to be found. I wish it was... What you said in your post, Bryan, was indeed way over my head. I am a techie (I'm a construction engineer...), but computer technology has unfortunately past me by... <sigh> I appreciate your help Bryan and will contact you via your website. At least I am glad I am not the only one that can't get this plugin to work... :) Maria

Angela on "When is it appropriate to call editors?"

Angela — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:41:03 +0000

I've been waiting to hear back from editors about a query letter I sent three weeks ago. What is the protocol on contacting editors? I don't want to seem pushy, but I don't want to miss out on an opportunity. Thanks...

Rebecca on "How do you quiet your inner critic?"

Rebecca — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:24:18 +0000

Agree with Trisha on finding people to read your work. Perhaps you could join a writing group. Your inner critic can drive you nuts. I sometimes spend too much time analyzing sentences. I'll research how to handle "who and that" and those types of issues. Before I know it, an hour or two passes by and I'm no where close to finishing my piece. I learned to "hush" by inner critic by thanking her for sharing. I'll proofread and edit my writing and then submit it. There's nothing you can do once you hit send.

Rebecca on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Rebecca — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:19:44 +0000

It does help if you're a techie. I downloaded that same plug-in and couldn't get it to work. I like to find WordPress templates that already have the icons built into them. Unfortunately, I never like the color schemes or layout of the templates. I'm considering moving my site to Weebly.com because I have my other website there, and I connected with a web designer who designs templates (reasonable price) exclusively for Weebly websites. Of course, I could always learn web design (I'm not sure when) and tweak the templates myself.

Bryan on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Bryan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 01:52:12 +0000

I'm not familiar with the plugin either; however, there is a good chance that in the 'installation instructions' that you might need to add some code to your blog (probably within the single.php right before the file is calling upon the comments.php, if you are using Wordpress). That is probably way to technical for you but if you need any help trying to install the plugin, just head on over to Tourfolio.com and use the contact me page. We can try to set up a method to get the social icons to work on your website. Like Trisha, I'm one of the techie ones when it comes to coding and have installed the social icons manually.

Trisha on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Trisha — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:08:44 +0000

Hi Maria Since I don't use it, I'm not sure where it puts it's configuration menu, but it does have one. Try expanding Plugins and see if it's under that menu.....plugins can put their config menus wherever they want to, so sometimes you have to poke around to find them.....it could be under Plugins, or under Settings, or way down at the bottom all by itself as a menu item..... When you find the config menu, there should be checkboxes so you can select if you want the icons added to just posts, just pages, or both, and which icons to display.

Dutchie on "Hey Everyone"

Dutchie — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:55:35 +0000

I hope it is okay if I post the address of my new website here. :) <a href="http://www.mariastaal.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.mariastaal.com/</a> Thanks, Maria

Dutchie on "Question about commenting on TWE"

Dutchie — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:47:44 +0000

Thanks Trisha, It worked! I now get a CommentLuv icon at the bottom of the comment form.

Dutchie on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Dutchie — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:38:16 +0000

Hey, I managed to download it automatically and activate it. It still doesn't seem to do anything, though. I thought maybe an extra 'choice' would appear on the left of my dashboard, but it hasn't. Also when I wrote a post there wasn't something at the bottom I could click/fill in to make the icons appear on my site. I can't really imagine I have to start fiddling with the code via edit. Anyway, I think I will have to muddle along with this for a little while longer... :) Maria

Trisha on "How do you quiet your inner critic?"

Trisha — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:39:07 +0000

That's a tough question to answer Billie Jean! There's a definite line of demarcation - one one side is unfounded self-criticism stemming from low self-esteem, on the other side is intuition driving you to improve. Without knowing what your inner critic is telling you, it's hard for anyone else to judge whether or not you should be listening to it. My best suggestion is to solicit feedback from people you trust - close friends and loved ones....ask them to read your work and tell them you really want honesty from them, constructive criticism and suggestions....you're not looking for editing here (tell them it's okay to note, but not focus on spelling or grammar) what you want is to find out if they enjoy reading what you write. If most people see to like your writing, then don't let your inner voice dissuade you from continuing with it.....remember that EVERY writer strives to improve their craft, and even great writers sometimes wonder if what they're writing is good or if it's crap.....

Trisha on "Question about commenting on TWE"

Trisha — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:22:26 +0000

It's not a stupid question at all! It's a plugin called CommentLuv..... Like the other plugins, you should be able to install it automatically in WP by going to Plugins > Add New, then search for it, and when you see it in the search results list (should be at the top) click on the link at the far right that says "Install".... If the automatic install doesn't work then you can download it from here: <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/commentluv/">http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/commentluv/</a> Good luck with your site launch!

Trisha on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Trisha — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:19:35 +0000

Hi Maria I'm pretty sure that WinRAR is a program that unzips files that are zipped up - so the 40 day trial period should be fine for unzipping this particular file - it's unlikely that you'd need it again after that.... But you might try the automatic installation first before you do that - most of the time the automatic installation feature in WP works great - there are only a few rare occasions when I've had it not work, and had to install plugins manually by downloading them and then uploading them to my /wp-content/plugins folder using <a href="http://FTP....." rel="nofollow">FTP.....</a> To install a plugin automatically, all you do is go to Plugins, then click on "Add New" and search for the plugin that you want - in this case if you search for social bookmarks, this plugin should come up #1 in the search results, then way over on the right is a link that says "Install".....if you click on that then WP will install the plugin for you, but you still have to Activate it. Let me know if this works for you!

Dutchie on "Question about commenting on TWE"

Dutchie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:25:13 +0000

Hi, This might be a totally stupid question, but how do you guys get the 'so-and-so's last blogpost:.....' at the bottom of your comments on TWE? My site will be launched tomorrow and obviously I want to let people know about my latests posts when I comment. :) Thanks, Maria

Dutchie on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Dutchie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:11:01 +0000

Hey Trisha, I tried to download the plugin, but I got the message that I needed to purchase a licence for WinRAR and that what I was downloading was on a 40-day trial period. Do you know what WinRAR is? Should I purchase a licence? Maria

Trisha on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Trisha — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:08:19 +0000

Hi Maria The one I hear the best reviews of is this one: <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-bookmarks/">http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/social-bookmarks/</a> I don't use it because I added the icons manually to my theme (I'm a bit of a geek), but I know a lot of people use it and really like it. You can use the built-in function in WP to add Plugins when you go to Plugins > Add New and search for the plugin you want - in this case, search for social bookmarking and it should come up first in the list, or very high up....then just click on the link on the right that says "Install"....

Dutchie on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Dutchie — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:51:31 +0000

I never thought of putting icons at the bottom of my posts, but it sounds like an important thing to do. What's the WP plugin you use for that? My WP theme 'Suffusion' actually included a widget for putting social icons in the sidebar. Very handy. Maria

BillieJean on "How do you quiet your inner critic?"

BillieJean — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:26:43 +0000

Lately, my inner critic has been vocal. Does anyone have any tips to quiet your inner critic? Mind is driving me nuts! Thanks!

Rebecca on "How to avoid content scraping?"

Rebecca — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:54:24 +0000

This seems to be a hot topic this week. I read an article about content scraping on a freelance writing site. The person who wrote the article seems to believe that you can "squash" it, but you could spend time trying to do that. Like Trisha said, you can contact the person and ask them to remove your post, but they probably have private registration. I guess the positive side is that someone goes to your blog and then finds your post somewhere else, it gives you "double" exposure. They can always contact you and ask if you are the originator of the article. Content scraping could work to your benefit. That sounds strange, but anything's possible!

Trisha on "How to avoid content scraping?"

Trisha — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:22:49 +0000

Hi Ralph How funny that you'd ask that today! Rebecca and I were just talking about that at lunch yesterday, and another forum member is dealing with this problem too. Sadly there is very little that you can do. If you find your content on another site, your first line of defense is to contact the site owner and ask them to remove it BUT most of the time I've found that it's difficult, if not impossible, to get contact information in order to make the request. If you've thoroughly scoured their website and just can't find any way to contact them, try <a href="http://allwhois.com/">http://allwhois.com/</a> - look up the domain name to see if you can get a contact email address for the domain owner. But don't be surprised if they've used Private Registration - if they are deliberately making it impossible to contact them, they may have taken that step also. If that's the case, your last choice is to complain to their web hosting company, and ask that they take down the site. Understand that they may not be legally bound to do so. You can also report them to Google and other search engines, no guarantees that they'll do anything, but it's another tactic to try. Aside from that there isn't much you can do, unless you're made of money and can afford to hire a lawyer to pursue it for you...... I've found a lot of my content all over the web, in places I haven't authorized to use it..... I contact site owners when I can, and the rest I don't worry about. You can choose to spend all your time policing and worrying, and being upset, or you can keep moving forward.

Trisha on "How do you create a customized Twitter page?"

Trisha — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:15:21 +0000

Those are both good sites to start with, and great for people that don't have the tools, or skills, or interest in making a truly custom background. I think the MOST important thing, whether you use Photoshop or some other program to create one yourself, or you use one of the many sites that offer free/cheap backgrounds, is how you personalize it. There is some very good advice at this page: <a href="http://www.twitip.com/custom-twitter-backgrounds/">http://www.twitip.com/custom-twitter-backgrounds/</a> And more advice and resources here: <a href="http://mashable.com/2009/05/23/twitter-backgrounds/">http://mashable.com/2009/05/23/twitter-backgrounds/</a> Good luck!

RalphZ on "How to avoid content scraping?"

RalphZ — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:33:08 +0000

I've been hearing about content scraping. How can I avoid this? I know being on the internet is my choice, but I don't agree with "lifting" content and placing on a website without permission. Is it even worth it to contact the administrator or find out who to contact? Help...

Rebecca on "How do you create a customized Twitter page?"

Rebecca — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:18:41 +0000

You can use Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro to create a custom made Twitter page. The dimension will vary because they'll be based on your computer screen. You can always visit the many websites for Twitter backgrounds such as <a href="http://www.twitbacks.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.twitbacks.com/</a> or <a href="http://www.twitter-images.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.twitter-images.com/</a> to create a customized Twitter background. Good luck!

Trisha on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Trisha — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:11:04 +0000

Hi Sarah Are you referring to the social networking icons you might have (and many blog do) in the sidebar so that people can follow you on Twitter or connect with you on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc. - or are you referring to the social bookmarking icons that many blogs have at the end of their posts to share those posts via other sites? Either way, Bryan is right - there are a few Wordpress plugins that will make either task very easy for you - so that others can follow/connect with you, or share your posts. As to your question about how important are they, in my opinion they are very important, because they make it easy for others to help you grow your audience. For example, often I want to recommend a blog post I've read to other people whom I think may also like the post. If the author has some icons at the bottom of the post that make it easy for me to post it to Twitter or Facebook, then I do. If they don't provide those icons, then most of the time I don't share it - it's rare that I have the time to take the extra steps necessary to share it manually. Occasionally I do, and on even more rare occasions when I do, I will sometimes email the post author to suggest that they add the icons to make it easier. But that's extremely rare. The bottom line is that if you make it easy for your readers to share your posts, then many of them will.

Martha56 on "How do you create a customized Twitter page?"

Martha56 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:31:44 +0000

Many people have unique Twitter backgrounds. How easy is it to create your own? I'm using one of the backgrounds that Twitter provides, but I'd like something with more style. Thanks.

Rebecca on "Creeped out by spiders"

Rebecca — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:59:12 +0000

Trisha, I'm glad you understand the "techie" side. This was helpful information about the "robots."

Sabina on "Creeped out by spiders"

Sabina — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:09:56 +0000

Thanks, Trisha. I'm glad you gave me the heads up on stolen content. I read about something - copyscape or something like that - that I'm sure you know about, which you can utilize in some way to try to prevent copying, or at least locate it easily when it occurs. I suppose I'll go that route and hope it's effective. Now, back to watch the spiders seeping in the crevices of my blog...

Trisha on "Creeped out by spiders"

Trisha — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:04:01 +0000

Hi Sabina I'm heaving a huge sigh of frustration for you right now, because you've run into one of the worst parts of the internet.....and sadly there is not much you can do about it. I say not much, because while you can try things, in the end there isn't much to truly stop them. You're right that bad bots simply ignore the robots.txt file. And you can try messing with your .htaccess file (very carefully!) to deny access from IP addresses, but the bots may or may not leave you alone - when they get denied from too many sites they simply switch IP addresses, and THAT assumes that they even stick with the same ones - often they switch around their IP addresses so much that they can be hard to track down and deny them. AND that's not even the only way to have your content stolen, there is also your RSS feed, which site scrapers take advantage of. And yes, many, many bloggers have had their content stolen and posted elsewhere. The only thing you can do (when you find it) is to complain to the ISP of the offending site and hope that they will deal with the site owner. On VERY rare occasions you can contact a site owner - usually they don't give any clues how to contact them and use private domain registration, but sometimes they are just really stupid people who don't realize that what they're doing is wrong. When you can reach them and ask them to remove the stolen content, they will generally comply. But this is a very rare occurrence. While I don't advocate giving up and not dealing with it at all, I do encourage you to not let it disturb you too much.

Sabina on "Creeped out by spiders"

Sabina — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:26:02 +0000

Hi everyone! I just launched my first blog, <a href="http://www.solofemaletraveler.com." rel="nofollow">www.solofemaletraveler.com.</a> I love it, but it is innundated by spiders (bots). There are lots of "good" spiders like google and yahoo but there's also a massive tangle of bad spiders whom I've googled to discover they're known e-mail harvesters and content thieves. I've created a robots.txt page and run it through a filter which tells me I have it set up correctly, but still the bad spiders return because there is apparently no way to stop them, you can only ask them to please go away with the robots.txt page. And then, of course, because they're bad spiders they don't. So my questions are: Is anyone else bothered by the cacophony of bad bots on your site? Do you have any advice for making them more effectively go away than the robots.txt page or by paying someone to write code to try to keep them away? Also, do you know of anyone who has actually found that they have had content stolen from their blog and posted elsewhere? Thanks a lot, Sabina

Bryan on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

Bryan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:24:34 +0000

If you are using Wordpress, there are a few plugins out there that you can install. Once you install them, the only thing you need to do is add a bit of code and you are good to go!

SarahQT on "How easy is it to place social icons your website?"

SarahQT — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:33:20 +0000

I don't want to overcrowd the site, but social icons are becoming the norm. How important are they? How easy is it to place them on your website? Thanks.

Rebecca on "Vlogging and being camera shy."

Rebecca — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:52:39 +0000

Great advice Trisha! I agree, be yourself and don't think about it.

Trisha on "Vlogging and being camera shy."

Trisha — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:00:39 +0000

Are you as shy when it's just your family or friends watching? Try imagining that you're just creating a video clip to share only with those closest to you, and it may help you to relax. But remember, creating video may not be for everyone, I don't personally think it's critical for any blog. Sure for some people being able to see a video of a destination before they go there is nice, or even important, but for those people it's not about the "host" it's about the place, so you really don't even have to be on camera if you're really uncomfortable with it. Try creating a few clips that you're just narrating off-camera.

Trisha on "Exporting blog posts to facebook"

Trisha — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:56:06 +0000

Gary you bring up a great point - the interaction with others' postings.... Social networking is all about being social - it works best when you make the effort to really interact with the others you've connected with - take an interest in what they post and comment when you can....that's another reason why I post to Facebook manually and I do all my tweets manually as well.

Angela on "Vlogging and being camera shy."

Angela — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:48:42 +0000

I'm a bit camera shy so I don't do a heck of a lot of vlogging. Any advice on how to overcome being shy on camera. I'm no actress, but I'd like to be presentable