Andy Beard - Internet Business Systems Discussion - Latest Comments in How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Chris P. — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:40:54 -0000

Andy,

The solution for handling [code] [/code] tags within headlines is actually quite simple. Essentially, those tags are only there for display purposes on the site itself (in this case, on Copyblogger), and we really don't want them to affect the presentation in any other areas where headlines may be displayed.

Within the site itself, headlines appear on the [1] front page, on [2] individual post pages, at the bottom of individual post pages in the form of [3] inter-postal links, and in lists of [4] related posts that follow individual posts.

In cases [3] and [4] from the previous paragraph, all I had to do was add in some very simple CSS to suppress the [code] [/code] tags, which have been added in the title field of the post entry page (within WordPress).

I use the rule of specificity to target the headlines, and a CSS declaration to "turn off" the [code] [/code] tags, like so:

[code]ul#related_posts li br { display: none; }[/code]

The above declaration prevents all [code] [/code] tags from displaying, but only if they lie within the li elements of an unordered list whose ID is "related_posts".

As far as feed readers go, I don't have any direct control over the display of [code] [/code] tags there. Despite that, I suspect that popular readers like Google Reader and Bloglines suppress [code] [/code] tags within headlines. It would make sense to do so, simply because one of the major challenges these readers face is to present a unified interface that features content from a zillion different sites, each of which probably has a unique way of formatting and organizing content.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Chris P. — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:40:54 -0000

Andy,

I use the rule of specificity to target the headlines, and a CSS declaration to "turn off" the [code] [/code] tags, like so:

[code]ul#related_posts li br { display: none; }[/code]

The above declaration prevents all [code] [/code] tags from displaying, but only if they lie within the li elements of an unordered list whose ID is "related_posts".

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Brian Clark — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:18:44 -0000

Wish I could be of more help Andy, but all I can take credit for is bitching and moaning about things (like images in feeds and headline breaks) and Chris figures out a way to work me a solution. I'll ping him with this post and maybe he'll stop by and give a quick tutorial.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Brian Clark — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 12:18:44 -0000

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Justin Premick — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:28:33 -0000

I don't have an ETA to give as those improvements are among many that our development team is working on, but I'll be letting them know that the demand is definitely there :) The Feedburner reporting is something we're looking into as well.

There's not an API call to check that but what you can do (and what we do on our blog) is to integrate Google Analytics so that your source is tagged as "email" (your readers may also find Google's URL builder helpful).

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Justin Premick — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 09:28:33 -0000

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

lucia — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:34:09 -0000

You could modify the theme... but it was pretty easy to write a "Nifty Titles" plugin too. (I think so anyway.) Let me know what you think.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

lucia — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:34:09 -0000

You could modify the theme... but it was pretty easy to write a "Nifty Titles" plugin too. (I think so anyway.) Let me know what you think.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

AndyBeard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:01:30 -0000

Before I forget, Justin thats for giving some feedback "from the horses mouth" - I would really love to know if you have some kind of schedule... rephrase that an "ETA you are able to release" for the daily scheduling of feeds.

It makes a strategic decision for me a lot easier.

You didn't mention the possibility of reporting feed subscription numbers to Feedburner. They are getting part of the numbers probably anyway based upon open rate with included images, but it would be good to have the full data being fed. I think it only requires reporting to in headers each time to fetch a feed.

The feedburner data is important both for social proof and revenue.

As for tips, whilst some of my readers will no doubt appreciate that, many are very advanced.

As an example, is there a way I can check via some kind of an API call as to whether a visitor is an email subscriber, or do I just have to do it with cookies?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

AndyBeard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:01:30 -0000

It makes a strategic decision for me a lot easier.

The feedburner data is important both for social proof and revenue.

As for tips, whilst some of my readers will no doubt appreciate that, many are very advanced.

As an example, is there a way I can check via some kind of an API call as to whether a visitor is an email subscriber, or do I just have to do it with cookies?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

AndyBeard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:02:54 -0000

I suppose you would need a box with "display title" that is used in most places on the blog, but that method would get messy when people are using recent comment plugins and widgets.

I think it would be easier to just modify a theme, and use a custom field if it is set, otherwise use the_title.

The RSS feeds would still use the_title by default.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

AndyBeard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 16:02:54 -0000

I suppose you would need a box with "display title" that is used in most places on the blog, but that method would get messy when people are using recent comment plugins and widgets.

I think it would be easier to just modify a theme, and use a custom field if it is set, otherwise use the_title.

The RSS feeds would still use the_title by default.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

lucia — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:53:56 -0000

It might be possible to write a plugin to do some specific title formatting. (There is a hook for the_title()).

What precisely do you want to do? Insert a break only when the post appears at the blog, but otherwise, keep it out?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

lucia — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:53:56 -0000

It might be possible to write a plugin to do some specific title formatting. (There is a hook for the_title()).

What precisely do you want to do? Insert a break only when the post appears at the blog, but otherwise, keep it out?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

AndyBeard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:28:57 -0000

Bobby I actually saw the original post you linked to about a week ago. Quite humorous. It was all tongue in cheek though.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

AndyBeard — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 12:28:57 -0000

Bobby I actually saw the original post you linked to about a week ago. Quite humorous. It was all tongue in cheek though.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Lord Matt — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:21:13 -0000

(in this comment I have used () instead of html pointies as I was not sure what your comment system would do to it).

Your best bet(s) for the headline is to create a custom plugin.

In Nucleus I would create a string such as $br$ that would contextually change to a real br or simply be removed. I would probably create a "skinvar" so that I can use the new tag to out put the br version but everywhere else show no br.

In wordpress I believe the theme engine is direct php so you could create a function wp_br_header();

There is a second very cool option that would work with the wp_br_header() suggestion - assume that when you type the ":" in a title you are doing a multi level title and use str_replace to swap ":" for ":(br /)" which would only happen where your template requested the specially formatted headline but would be "normal" in all other places.

In other news you might be well advised to move some of the under post disclaimer into the side bar. The reason is that it is a long scroll to comment and a skip to comments #link would cause the text to be skipped. I know I have developed an ad blindness to everything between the post and the comment box other than the Don't Be An Idiot badge.

However with all these things it could just be me...

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Lord Matt — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 05:21:13 -0000

(in this comment I have used () instead of html pointies as I was not sure what your comment system would do to it).

Your best bet(s) for the headline is to create a custom plugin.

In wordpress I believe the theme engine is direct php so you could create a function wp_br_header();

However with all these things it could just be me...

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Bobby Revell — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:18:58 -0000

What do you think Andy? Is it a crock?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Bobby Revell — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:18:58 -0000

What do you think Andy? Is it a crock?

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Bobby Revell — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:15:11 -0000

I hate to leave an off subject comment but Google Announces The End of PageRank and introduces a new Digg like system to replace it. Itâ€™s yesterdayâ€™s news, Read all about it here:
http://revellian.com/2007/0...

I think it is a bad idea!
Don't forget who told you!!!!!

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Bobby Revell — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 02:15:11 -0000

I think it is a bad idea!
Don't forget who told you!!!!!

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Derami — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:05:39 -0000

My goals:

1) Add more in-between short posts - right now there are too many heavy-duty long posts that take time to research, write and edit.

2) Move to two right sidebars that are both geared toward typical ad sizes, instead of one right and one left that are both unusually sized.

These are as much to-do goals for myself as things I'd suggest to newere bloggers ... think ahead of time about what kind of ads you'd add and where, and how you'll maintain a healthy post frequency :)

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Derami — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:05:39 -0000

My goals:

1) Add more in-between short posts - right now there are too many heavy-duty long posts that take time to research, write and edit.

2) Move to two right sidebars that are both geared toward typical ad sizes, instead of one right and one left that are both unusually sized.

Re: How Would You Improve Your Blog Or Blogging?

Dane Morgan — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:36:33 -0000

With WordPress, if the reader will register, then yes. You can put you loop into two separate files one template that is served when the reader is not logged in and another when the user is logged in.

Just use an oldest first sort for non logged in users and let long time readers skip right to the new stuff automatically.