Archive for the ‘Wordpress How To’ Category

Creating A New Link To Your AutoNetTV Webtools or Service Assistant Site

Friday, April 19th, 2013

One of the questions we receive frequently is 'Do you have a link we can use to connect our home site to our new Webtools/SA site?'

The answer is Yes, and here it is:

The following code samples will allow you to place a pre-created graphic button on any page on your site. You will need to know basic HTML in order to understand and place this code on your site.

Simply copy the code sample of your choice (below) to your favorite text editor and edit the three sections of the code marked with 'ALL_CAPS', and then insert into your page HTML.

There are three sections you need to edit:

  1. YOUR_DESTINATION_URL is the place you need to insert the URL of the page you want to open when someone clicks this button. Typically this is your Webtools or Service Assistant page, or Blog page.
  2. DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE is where you need to insert the title of your destination page. This is for SEO and link identification, so use your shop name or city name in this name. For example, a perfect name here would be 'Johnson's Auto Tips Blog Page for Maintown KY'.
  3. DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE is a second place where you need to insert the title of your destination page, just like the first one. One is used for alternate text in a browser, and the other is for the image tag. They can be the same, but don't have to be.

Code Samples

Sample AutoNetTV ButtonCode Sample 1:
The following code will allow you to insert a 50x29-pixel button on your site that looks like the example on the right. —>

<a href="YOUR_DESTINATION_URL" target="_blank" title="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE"><img src="http://autonettv.com/linklogos/auto-blog-50x29.png" alt="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE" align="left" style="margin: 8px;" /></a>

 

Sample AutoNetTV ButtonCode Sample 2:
The following code will allow you to insert a 100x58-pixel button on your site that looks like the example on the right. —>

<a href="YOUR_DESTINATION_URL" target="_blank" title="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE"><img src="http://autonettv.com/linklogos/auto-blog-100x58.png" alt="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE" align="left" style="margin: 8px;" /></a>

 

Sample AutoNetTV ButtonCode Sample 3:
The following code will allow you to insert a 120x70-pixel button on your site that looks like the example on the right. —>

<a href="YOUR_DESTINATION_URL" target="_blank" title="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE"><img src="http://autonettv.com/linklogos/auto-blog-120x70.png" alt="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE" align="left" style="margin: 8px;" /></a>

 

Sample AutoNetTV ButtonCode Sample 4:
The following code will allow you to insert a 179x104-pixel button on your site that looks like the example on the right. —>

<a href="YOUR_DESTINATION_URL" target="_blank" title="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE"><img src="http://autonettv.com/linklogos/auto-blog-179x104.png" alt="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE" align="left" style="margin: 8px;" /></a>

 

Code Sample 5 - Text Only:
The following code will allow you to insert a text-only link on your site. A text link (<—like that one) can be inserted anywhere on your site, including within a paragraph of text.

<a href="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE" title="DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE" target="_blank">DESTINATION_PAGE_TITLE_GOES_HERE</a>

 A Few Notes About This HTML

      1. You can change the alignment of your button by changing the work in quotes after 'align' in the code snippets. Typical alignment options include 'left', 'center' and 'right. The images on this page are aligned 'right'.
      2. You will want to make your edits to this code in a PLAIN TEXT editor. If you edit this code in Microsoft Word, you will get additional hidden code that will potentially break its function. Writing code in MS Word is bad practice, and will cause problems. Do not edit your code in Microsoft Word.
      3. Use of the AutoNetTV logo and trademark on your site is granted by AutoNetTV on condition of your subscription to the AutoNetTV service. AutoNetTV retains all rights and privileges to this logo, and reserves all rights to this trademark. AutoNetTV retains the right to require you to remove this logo from your site. ListPipe is not an authorizing agent of AutoNetTV; this information and link code is provided as a service to AutoNetTV, and does not represent any authority on the part of ListPipe to act in the name of AutoNetTV.
      4. back up your stuffFinally; this HTML code is provided as-is with no guarantee or even a half-intended wink of confidence. It worked for us, but we can't say it will work for you, or not break your site, or destroy the entire universe. Our advice: Back up your stuff before you go messing with it.

 

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Posted in Fixes, ListPipe Info, New Features, Wordpress How To | No Comments »

WordPress Plugin: ListPipe Content Generator

Tuesday, March 20th, 2012

Download our WordPress Plugin.

We get a lot of questions regarding our WordPress plugin. Mostly 'Where can I get it?', but there are a few other questions I would like to address in this quick post. For the record, the WordPress plugin is officially called the ListPipe Content Generator.

First, it is important to know that we recommend you install the plugin BEFORE you create your account.

The reason we want you to have the plugin installed and activated before you start your account is because we will attempt to push your initial content as part of the account creation process. If you do not have the plugin installed, the push will fail and you will not receive your first article(s).

This is not necessarily a huge problem; you will begin to receive content from our service within a week of installing and activating the plugin, but if you can get it done before you create your account you will receive content within the first hour.

Where Can I Get It?

There are three ways you can get the WordPress Plugin:

  1. The easiest place to get the plugin is within your own WordPress installation. Simply go to the 'Plugins' section of your WordPress Dashboard (on the left, about in the middle) and click 'Add New'. Perform a search for 'ListPipe Content Generator' to find the plugin, and then Install and Activate the plugin. Easy. Note that this only works for sites that have automation turned on, which most do.
  2. You can always download the ListPipe Content Generator plugin directly from WordPress.org, where our plugin resides and is made available to all WordPress users. To download from WordPress, go to: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/listpipe/ . Once you have downloaded the plugin, copy it to your Plugins folder in your site files (typically in root/wp-content/plugins - you will need an FTP client to do this) and then login to your WordPress site and visit your Plugins section to Activate the plugin.
  3. The ListPipe Content Generator plugin is available in your Account Home Toolbox (Control Panel). The problem with getting it from here is that it requires you to have an account, and we recommend that you install the plugin before you create your account. The reason we put it in the Toolbox is so that you have ready access to it if you should ever need it in the future when revising your site or for updates.

When Should I Install The WordPress Plugin?

As already addressed; we recommend installing and activating the plugin BEFORE you start your account.

The reason for this is that at the end of the sign up process we will attempt to deliver your first article. If the plugin is not installed and activated, we will not be able to deliver your initial content.

If you miss your initial content (we call it 'Startup Content'), you have two choices: You can simply install and activate the plugin and wait for your next week's content to arrive (should be there in the next week), or you can create a Support Ticket and ask that we push your Startup Content again.

Make sure that you have installed and activated the ListPipe Content Generator plugin on your site before you ask us to re-push your Startup Content.

What Does The Plugin Do?

The ListPipe Content Generator receives content from our service in a secure 'handshake' that lasts only a couple seconds.

The plugin basically acts as a 'catcher', just like a catcher in baseball; It simply waits for a pitch, and only responds when it is called. It doesn't initiate any of it's own processes; it only responds when called. It simply waits for our server to contact it and receives the new content in a secure 'handshake'.

During the secure 'handshake', our server communicates with your plugin and confirms your identity using a very secure and private random 'key'. The key is only good for a couple of seconds, and expires as soon as the transaction is complete. Once your identity is confirmed, our server delivers the content to your site with the permission of the plugin, and then the 'handshake' is closed. The plugin then simply waits for another call from our service. The plugin cannot receive a call from any other service because it uses a proprietary private key to establish the handshake.

Do I Have To Configure The Plugin?

No, You do not have to configure the plugin. There are no passwords to enter, and no settings to adjust; we do everything from within your account settings on our server. The plugin simply listens for a call, and uses your own URL to help us make a positive identification.

How Do I Remove The Plugin

If you should end the service with us, simply delete the plugin from your Plugins folder (typically in root/wp-content/plugins - you will need an FTP client to do this). That's all. You can also delete the plugin from within your WordPress Dashboard by going to Plugins and deactivating and then deleting the ListPipe Content Generator plugin. There is nothing more to do than this; deleting the plugin fully removes it from your system.

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Posted in ListPipe Info, New Features, Wordpress How To | 1 Comment »

Adding A Blog To Your Site With An iFrame

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

While not optimal for SEO, sometimes there is a case for adding a blog to a site through an iFrame. Here's a quick look at what it means to create an iFrame on your site, and how to do it:

An iFrame is literally a window-within-a-window on your site. On a page on your site we can create a window that shows the view of a completely different site. In this way you can include the contents from another site on a page of your own site. It is relatively easy to do and offers a solution to showing content on your site that is being hosted on another site.

Many of our ListPipe customers are using an iFrame to show the contents of their hosted blog on their HTML-based Home Page. As an example, take a look at Bay Hundred Automotive, who has created a 'Video' page on their Home site, and are showing their hosted blog through an iFrame. The result is that they can offer the videos to their customers on their own site without having to develop a more complex solution. Their Home site is not running PHP or another dynamic language site, so they were limited in their options for including the content and decided an iFrame would suit their needs.

Notice that they have a static page with a window embedded inside a 'frame'. Inside the frame you can navigate the site, watch videos and click links. An iFrame is the next best thing to having the content actually exist on your site.

The pros of an iFrame are that it is easy to implement, and universally available (independent of your code language). The cons include lower SEO and the drawbacks of having dual navigation. Sometimes the tradeoff makes sense.

Here's how to create an iFrame on your site to include your ListPipe blog:

  1. Create your account on ListPipe as a 'Hosted Blog' account. This will give you an independent blog site.
  2. Create a new page on your Home site for the blog (name it 'Blog' or 'News', etc.)
  3. On the new page, place this line of code: <iframe src="http://*****.com/" width="100%" height="600" style="border:0;"></iframe>
  4. Replace the five asterisks (*****) with the URL of your ListPipe Hosted Blog (replace '.com', too, if you need to)
  5. Save, and load. You should see your ListPipe blog appear within a window on your new page, just as it does on the Bay Hundred Automotive site in our example.

Good Luck!

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Posted in Corporate Blogger Tips, Wordpress How To | No Comments »

Creating Followers Via Email

Sunday, December 5th, 2010

A question we often get from our users is 'How to enable email subscriptions' to a blog.

Enabling email subscriptions means that your visitors can subscribe to your content and receive automated updates whenever you post new content. It's a great way to keep everyone informed, and acts like a regular newsletter from you.

There are three ways to set up subscriptions to your ListPipe blog account:

1. RSS is already built into your site. If you have visitors that are savvy to RSS, they can easily subscribe to your content by visiting your 'feed'. If your site is being hosted by ListPipe, then your feed will look like this: 'http://yoursubdomain.yourdomain.com/feed'. People who are savvy to RSS will already know this, but to get new users to subscribe to your RSS feed you can email them this link and invite them, or post an article inviting them to join.

2. Feedburner is a service provided by Google that is free, and includes a remarkable publishing service that allows you to accept, maintain and publish to subscribers automatically. Using Feedburner, you can invite people to subscribe to an email notification each time you post new content by giving you their email address. Feedburner takes care of the rest, and is very reliable and easy-to-use.

To set up Feedburner, you will need to do a few things. Here is a basic instruction list:

  • Start by creating a Google account. (You may already have one; if so, move on to the next step...)
  • Start up a free Feedburner account. This will take just a few minutes and is pretty easy to do.
  • In Feedburner, go to the Publicize tab and enable Email Subscriptions.
  • Copy the block of code for your Subscription Link from the bottom of the Feedburner window and paste it to a page on your blog.
  • Alternatively, you can also paste the Subscription Link to a new widget in your blog. This will allow the Subscription Link to appear in your sidebar navigation and will show it on every page, no matter where on your site your readers happen to be. To do this, log into your blog and click on the Appearance tab on the left. Under Appearance, click on Widgets. Drag the Text widget to the top right under 'Sidebar 1'. Open the widget and paste your Subscription Link Code into the box. Add a title such as 'Subscribe to my blog', and click Save at the bottom of the widget form. Your new link will now appear at the top of your sidebar navigation!
  • NOTE: When you use a widget, you change the default sidebar navigation to the widgets template. This means that your other links will seem to have disappeared when you check your site. To restore your original sidebar navigation, Add the Pages, Categories, Archives and Meta widgets under your new Subscribe widget. You can also add the RSS widget to give users a clickable access to your RSS feed. Play with the Text widget to add personal notes or other functions to your sidebar.

If you get back to your site and can't find the link to get back to your login window (because your sidebar navigation has disappeared), go to your home page and add '/wp-login.php' to the end of your URL to log back in and add the appropriate widgets (Tip: add the 'Meta' widget to get your login link back on the navigation).

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Posted in Wordpress How To | 1 Comment »

How To Add A Post To Your Blog

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

For those of you anxious to get some content into your site, here’s look at how to Add a Post.

The first thing you'll need to do is login. I’ve already covered the login process in a previous video, so I’ll assume you are starting from your WordPress Dashboard.

Once you are in your WordPress Dashboard, there are a couple of ways to start a new post. At the top is a handy button that says ‘New Post’. Clicking this will open a new post window and you are ready to begin adding your content. Note that this button is contextual, so depending on where you are in the WordPress Control Panel, this button may say something different. You can always get to ‘New Post’ by clicking on the arrow and finding ‘New Post’ in the dropdown menu.

You can also start a new post by clicking ‘Posts’ on the left navigation and then clicking ‘Add New’ in the sub menu that appears below the ‘Posts’ heading.

I am now in the ‘Add New Post’ window and am ready to add my content. I’ll keep it simple on this time through and show you some advanced features later on.

The first thing I’ll do is add the title of my post here in the box at the top. I am calling this post ‘Latest Post On Top’.

Next, I’ll add the body of my post in the text box just below the title. You can type your post in here from scratch, or simply copy and paste from your favorite word processor.

Note that you can open what WordPress calls ‘The Kitchen Sink’ by clicking this button in the tool bar that has all the little squares on it. The Kitchen Sink includes import tools for pasting plain text or from Microsoft Word. The import tools are important to use, especially when pasting from Microsoft Word because they will interpret a lot of hidden code that is included in your text and thereby avoiding a formatting nightmare.

I’m going to import from a text file, so I’ll use the text import button to show you how it works; I’ll click the button in the toolbar that has the clipboard and the ‘t’ on it, paste my text into the resulting window, and then click ‘Insert’. This is the safest way to import text into your post.

For the most part, we are finished. However there are two other things you should do with every post, so I’ll show those to you now as part of this lesson.

On the right you have two sections of the Post window; one called Categories, and the other called Post Tags.

Categories are important to assign because they will help you keep your site organized, and can be helpful to your readers as they navigate your content. I recommend assigning a Category to every post. Simply select from one of your preset Categories, or add a new Category here at the bottom of the Category box.

The other thing you should do for every post is add Post Tags. Post Tags are another way to organize your content, and are a helpful tool for your readers as well as an important way to let the search engines know what your key topics are for each post. Simply type a few keywords from your post into this box, separating them with a comma, and then select ‘Add’.

At any point in this process I can save my work as a draft by clicking the ‘Save Draft’ button here at the top of the form. When I ‘Save Draft’, I am saving my work into the Control Panel. After I ‘Save Draft’, I can walk away from my computer or even log out of my WordPress Control Panel and my draft will be saved and ready for me when I come back to work on it.

Content doesn’t go live to your blog until you select the ‘Publish’ button, here on the right. Once I select ‘Publish’, my post will be saved and will appear on my blog for everyone to see.

There are some advanced features to learn after this, but this is the basics of how to publish a new post to your WordPress blog.

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Posted in Wordpress How To | No Comments »