Tom Collins, co-founder of BlogPaws, gave a workshop on blogging via the TypePad platform at the BlogPaws 2010 West pet blogging and social media conference in Denver on September 9-11, 2010.

1. Denver, CO • September 9-11, 2010 Tom’s Tips & Tricks Tom Collins, Co-Founder of BlogPaws My “other job”: VP Production at

2. Making it work for you: what do you want help with? • Choosing or customizing a design? • RSS, CSS, SEO, your favorite letters? • Creating or displaying content? • Connecting to your social sites? Let’s make a list …

3. Tom’s Top 10 TypePad Design Tips Learn a little HTML – it’s an essential “digital literacy” skill Learn a little CSS – ditto … and here’s a place where copying ain’t plagiarism, it’s research! Your TypePad blog’s CSS style sheet is at: http://www.yourdomain.com/styles.css Create a “Test” blog in your TypePad account (your design playground) Find a Theme you like in the TypePad Design section (to use or “imitate”) http://blogpaws.typepad.com/demo/ Copy and Save style sheets from other blogs with design features you like (view page source “.css” file) Do try “Theme Builder” – Avoid Advanced Templates Create and upload your own custom header image Find your favorite image sources • MS Office – editable clip art!! • Wikipedia Commons • Creative Commons • government created images Learn to manipulate digital images (your own, stock photos, clip art, …)MS Office tools; Photoshop Elements; http://www.online-image-editor.com/ Use custom color codes to personalize your design http://easycalculation.com/color-coder.php (HTML hex code to RGB converter)

4. Tom’s Top 10 TypePad “Built-ins” Domain Mapping (more than “pointing”) Feedburner RSS connection “Publicize” checkbox – search engine and blog directory pinging Google sitemap checkbox Google Analytics connection Amazon.com “reading list” (automatic cover thumbnails; affiliate commissions) Twitter, Facebook, “other accounts” connection TweetThis, Reblog, etc. – in post footer WYSIWIG Post & Page editor – (front page setting; featured post setting) Drag & Drop Content arrangement tool Custom CSS editor

5. Tom’s Top 10 TypePad-friendly “Add-ons” Twitter Search Widget Wufoo.com form builder YouTube videos (learn to re-size them; Hint: use ALGEBRA - cross-multiply, then divide) Ex. YouTube player size: 640W by 505H (pixels), but your blog post column is only 570 pixels wide –640570 505 H a) 570 x 505 = 288,420 and 640 x H = 640H, so 288,420 = 640H b) To find out the H for your post, divide both sides by 640 c) 640H ÷ 640 = H and 288,420 ÷640 = 450.56, so H = 450.56, or 451 FirstGiving.com and ChipIn.com (fundraising widgets) Hipcast.com audio and video streaming host Facebook Social Plugin app Eventbrite(how you registered for BlogPaws) uStream.tv Feedburner’s RSS tools FDA Pet Health & Safety widgethttp://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/ResourcesforYou/ucm192894.htm = 570 451

7. CSS “Cheat sheet” sources

9. Denver, CO • September 9-11, 2010 Tom’s Q & A Tips & Tricks Tom Collins, Co-Founder of BlogPaws My “other job”: VP Production at Contact: tom@blogpaws.com or collins@wmeblogs.com