Category Archives: Setting Up & Using Widgets

Adding Email Subscription to your blog

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Email subscription is a ‘must have’ widget on blogs.

Why?  Because visiting blog to check for new content is time consuming.

Most people read the latest posts from their favorite blogs by subscribing using RSS or email subscription.

Email is extremely important for:

  1. Readers who prefer to receive latest posts using email subscription
  2. Private blogs — these don’t have RSS feed because only logged in users or logged in registered users are allowed to view the content

Email options

There are three main options for adding email subscription to your blog:

  1. Feedburner email subscription – all blog users except private blogs
  2. Email Subscription Widget – Edublogs supporters only
  3. Subscribe2 email subscription- Edublogs Campus only

Feedburner email subscriptionImage of Feedburner email

Feedburner is one of the most common free services used by both bloggers and podcasters to manage their RSS feeds.

It’s popular because it provides bloggers with the ability to easily analyze their subscribers in terms of:

  1. how many subscribe by RSS
  2. which feed readers they use
  3. how many subscribe by email.

Your email subscribers are sent an email of your full post that day after it is posted.

Setting up a Feedburner email subscription is as simple as:

Email Subscription Widget

The email subscription widget is the fastest and easiest way of adding email subscription to your blog.  It sends an email immediately when the post is published.

Readers click on the link in the email which takes them to the post on your blog.

Just go to Appearance > Widgets and drag the email subscription widget into the desired sidebar.

Subscribe2 Email Subscription

Subscribe2 is the most sophisticated email option with lots of management choices for both readers and the blog owner.

Email notifications can be either:

  1. Latest posts
  2. Daily or weekly digest of posts
  3. Plain Text – Excerpt; Plain Text – Full Post or HTML – Full Post

Bloggers can monitor their email subscriber; easily adding and removing subscribers inside their blog dashboard.

Subscribe 2 also provides the ability to send out emails to all confirmed subscribers; for those occasions when you want to send an email but not write a post.

Setting up a Subscribe email subscription is as simple as:

Image of managing subscribers

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The Edublogger’s Student Competition!

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The 2009 Student Blogging Challenge is now nearly half way through and the students have been working REALLY hard on the weekly challenges!  Currently 52 class blogs and 150 individual students blogs from 13 different countries are participating.

To celebrate the success of the challenge while also creating an opportunity to collect examples of student work we’re giving away twelve Edublogs supporter 12 month subscriptions which you can use on your own blog or give away to a reader.

Just write a post based on any of the topics themes listed below:

  1. Your own choice of topic but must include embedded media, created by the student or class, such as a SlideShare, video, comic strip, podcast, quiz, poll.  Here’s the chance to demonstrate how creative you can be!
  2. Your story of how blogging has helped you connect to a global audience and what this connection has meant to you.  e.g. the friends you have made, what you have learnt about other cultures, how you are able to share your passions with others, how you are able to use blogging to share your views on topics
  3. What difference has blogging made to your life at school and home e.g. how has it changed how you learn, the challenges of blogging and how teachers might make the process easier

Any class or student blogger can enter, including bloggers not currently participating in the 2009 Student Blogging Challenge, but you must:

  1. Leave a comment on this post letting me know you have entered, with a link to your post plus your Grade/year level.
  2. Explain in your post which topic you are writing about and link back to this post so that we receive a pingback advising us that you have written the post (read this to understand What’s A Pingback? And How To Write Links).

For example you might copy the following into the bottom of your post and just change the topic enclosed in the qutoation marks:

This post has been written on “my story of how blogging has connected me to a global audience” as part of The Edublogger’s Student Competition!

The four best post for each topic will win and you can submit posts for as many topics you like.  And off course all winners will get a badge they can add to their blogs :)

Remember we’re looking for the best — so here is your chance to demonstrate your blogging and creative skills!  You have until April 30 to enter.

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Adding ClustrMaps to Your Blog Sidebar Using A Text Widget

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Image of a ClustrmapsClustrMaps is a popular widget for class and student blogs because it reminds students that they are part of a global audience and demonstrates how connected we all are.

Students love seeing the red dots grow as their readers, from around the World, visit their blog.

Please Note:

On free Edublogs blogs you need to follow the instructions below for adding ClustrMaps to your sidebar using a text widget!

Creating Your ClustrMaps

  1. Go to ClustrMaps.
  2. Enter your blog URL (e.g. your blog URL should look similar like this http://theedublogger.com/) and email address then click on Make My Map.Image of signing up for ClustrMaps
  3. Copy the HTML code for Option A. Image of the embed code

Adding The ClustrMap To Your Blog Sidebar

  1. Go to Appearance > Widgets in your Dashboard Image of widgets menu
  2. Click on the desired Sidebar to expand (so you can add the widgets) NOTE: In new blogs sidebars in your dashboard are empty and adding widgets automatically removes the default Edublogs widgets Image of widget sidebars
  3. To add a text widget, drag it from the Available Widgets areas on the left into the Sidebar area on the right Image of adding a text widget
  4. Drop the widget when you see a dashed line appear – this indicates the widget is in place Image of adding text widget to sidebar
  5. The widget will automatically open — just add the HTML code from Clustrmaps, click Save and then Close.  If you have trouble with the text widget or it doesn’t open — try changing your theme just in case there is an issue with it.Image of adding clustrmaps code to text widget
  6. You should now see your ClustrMaps in your blog sidebar and the dots will start appearing after 24 hours.

Image of clustrmaps in sidebar

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you need to grab new HTML embed code for your ClustrMaps just log into your ClustrMaps Admin area using your blog URL and password (sent in the original signup email from ClustrMaps).

Remember if you are an Edublogs supporters or Edublogs campus users you use the ClustrMaps Widget to add it your blog sidebar.

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Embedding A Flickr SlideShow In Your Blog Sidebar

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Have you speculated if it is possible to embed a Flickr Slideshow in a sidebar rather than in a post? Well Betsy asked because she wants to add one to her Merit School of Music blog.

Your options

The size of most embed code can be adjusted by pasting it into a simple text editor like Notepad and changing its width and height.  Really handy to know when you need to make an object smaller to fit the size of your post or sidebar.

However for a Flickr SlideShow there is a simpler option!  FlickrSliDR or Flickr slideshow! These “third party’ website lets you use the flickr URL address of the user, photo set or group and tags or any user/group to customise a Flickr slideshow to the dimensions you desire.

Adding a Slideshow to your blog sidebar

Both FlickrSliDR and Flickr slideshow create exactly the same SlideShow; which of the two websites you use is your choice.  Width of blog sidebars is dependent on your blog theme; however in most cases 180 px wide x 180 px high will work fine.

Image of creating a slideshow

Once you have grabbed the embed code from FlickrSliDR or Flickr slideshow go into your blog dashboard and add it to your sidebar using a text widget (Click on Design > Widgets).

Image of adding to sidebar using a text widget

Examples of Sidebar Slideshows

Below is an example of the size of a Flickrslideshow you would add to a blog sidebar.  I’ve used the fdsflickrtoy tag from images4education.  If you want to learn more about adding images to your in-class and online activities raise student interest I recommend you join images4education (you will be able to catch up with the weekly tasks).

Created with flickr slideshow.

Check out Ms. Kreul’s class blog to see a cool tour of their class created using FlickRSLiDR widget embedded in their side bar.

FINAL THOUGHTS

To learn more about using Flickr check out:

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Introducing The New Plugins on Edublogs!

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Those that follow me on twitter will know that I’ve haven’t been well this week so James has been nice enough to help out by writing this post so all I have to do is add screenshots and extra tips.

It’s Christmas at Edublogs and, in the spirit of the season, Edublogs Supporters will find themselves with a few extra treats wrapped up under the tree.Image of plugin

Specifically there are four new plugins which may well prove popular, just head over to your ‘Plugins’ menu to check them out.

Threaded Comments

First up there’s Threaded Comments, a plugin that does exactly what it says – adds threaded comments to your blog. Why not jump over here and have a play with them, not bad huh!

Below is a screenshot from a threaded comment on yesterday’s post. Threaded comments means you can reply to specific comments = cool!

I’ve switched on threaded comments on The Edublogger so feel free to test them out.

Image of threaded comment

Twitter ToolsImage of twitter tool

Then, there’s the return of Twitter Tools – an immensely powerful Twitter integration plugin that allows you to tweet from your blog and blog from your tweet! If you’re a Twitter fan, it’s got the lot.

Your twitter tool options are:

  1. Send a tweet to your twitter network whenever you write a blog post
  2. Create a blog post from a tweet
  3. Displays your tweets on your blog and post tweets from your blog

However I wouldn’t recommend having both a) Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog? and b) Create a blog post from each of your tweets? set to Yes. If you choose this combination it grabs each tweet and creates separate blog post for each tweet then send a tweet to your twitter network to tell them you’ve created a blog post. I managed to spam my twitter network with 20 instantaneous tweets and was sent to the twitter penalty box.

Image of tweet from blog post

I suggest you stick to “Enable option to create a tweet when you post in your blog?” as shown in the screenshot below. You can edit your Twitter Tool options using Settings > Twitter Tools.

Image of Twitter Tool

To display tweets on your blog and be able to send tweets from your blog you’ll need to add the Twitter widget to your sidebar (Design > Widgets). If you want to add the Twitters widget you will first need to activate your Widget Pack plugin.

If you look at my left sidebar you will see these widgets how these widgets work.

Image of Twitter widgets

Greet Box

And, in case you happen to also be a Digg/Google/Netvibes/Delicious/StumbleUpon/etc. etc. etc. fan – the new plugin ‘Greet Box’ will allow you to display specific (and rather spiffy) messages to visitors to your site coming from those sources… for example, you could invite a new visitor to subscribe to your RSS feed… or a Digg visitor to Digg your site.

What happens is when a person clicks on a link to one of your posts from any of the services listed they will see a greet box displayed.

Image of the greet box

You can alter the messages in the Greet boxes and choose whether they are displayed above or below your posts by going to Settings > Greet Box.

Snow

Oh, and of course, it being the season for it, there’s also Snow… yep, you want a gentle fall of the seasonal white stuff on your blog, then turn this on and your Xmas wish will be granted!

Check out Local District 4 Instructional Technology News blog to see what snow falling down through your blog header looks like!

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