Tag: blogging tips

How to Use Pingbacks

PINGA Pingback is not merely the sound of elastic being twanged on Cathy Speight’s catapult as she aims her ammunition at Chris James. It is, in fact, a type of comment that’s created whenever you link to another WordPress.com post (provided the blog the post appears on has pingbacks enabled). The best way to think about pingbacks is as remote comments:

  • Person 1 posts something on his blog.
  • Person 2 posts on her own blog, linking to Person A’s post. This automatically sends a pingback to Person A when both have pingback enabled blogs.
  • Person 1’s blog receives the pingback, then automatically goes to Person 2’s post to confirm that the pingback did, in fact, originate there.

How can I activate Pingbacks?
You can find the settings for pingbacks on your WordPress site.  From your Dashboard, go to Settings > Discussion. At the top you’ll see the Default articles settings section, as shown below: Continue reading “How to Use Pingbacks”

How to Schedule a Blog Post

A few months ago, a friend of mine cranked out about six blog posts in one night. I asked her why she didn’t schedule them to publish once a week for six weeks. She replied, “I didn’t know you could do that.” Well, m’dear, it’s very easy. Here’s how.

If you’re using a WordPress blog – it doesn’t matter if you’re using .com or .org, it’s the same. Over in the upper right-hand corner of your admin screen, you should see this:

schedule post 1Notice “Publish immediately” is the default. (I’ve expertly highlighted that in yellow for you.) Click on edit and your screen will shift down, making room for the month, day, year, and time to be entered by you. Continue reading “How to Schedule a Blog Post”

How Do You Want That Signed?

logo_paypal_106x29Personal appearances are great for selling autographed copies of your print books. But if your tour budget is similar to mine, it can be more practical to offer signed books a different way. Say, through your blog.

I have a Blogger blog – that is, one whose URL ends in blogspot.com – and on it, I have a page called, “Buy My Books Here!” I built the page using my own cover images and PayPal “Buy Now” buttons. You can do the same thing with a WordPress blog or site – setting up the PayPal button is the same, regardless. You’ll need a PayPal business account, but that’s easy to set up, and very similar to setting up a personal account. At the top left of the PayPal home screen, click “Business,” and they’ll walk you through it.

Once you’re logged into your business PayPal account, you’re ready to set up your button. Click the “Merchant Services” tab and then click on “Make payment buttons for your website.” Continue reading “How Do You Want That Signed?”

Tutorial: How to Embed a Link in WordPress

Some folks have asked me how to make words into a link on a WordPress blog – you know, so when you click on the words, you go to a web page? This may sound silly to some of you, but it’s not intuitive to everyone. So here is a step-by-step tutorial for those who want to be in the know. The logic is the same for MS Word and for Blogger (blogspot) blogs, although the little buttons are a little different. (I’ve included a screen capture for Blogger at the bottom of this article.)

I’m going to use our own Mr. Dick Waters’ recent post on Createspace as an example.

Dick wanted to refer to Lynne Cantwell’s post about Createspace in the body of his post. So, when he sent it in to me, he sent me his text along with the link to her article. I added the title of her article in between the reference and the link. Since it’s a title, I italicized it. It’s still highlighted in blue. See the screen below. Continue reading “Tutorial: How to Embed a Link in WordPress”