ActiveRain Tutorials: May 2009

It is time again for a new ActiveBlog Theme!  It is titled Blue Days and with this addition, there are now 21 themes available to customize your blog.  So take a moment to check out the new theme. If you want to see how this theme looks & feels, visit my outside blog, http://activejeremy.com.  There you can see how the links work, your picture loads & also all those fun Widgets! Below is a screenshot.  Click on the picture to see the live version.

The next theme that we will be rolling out is going to be HUGE! So make sure you check back here regularly to not miss it!

Remember, changing your theme is a simple deal. All you have to do is head over to your outside blog after clicking on the link from the left hand side of your 'my home' page. Once on your outside blog, click the 'theme' link up at the top of the page and select the theme you want to use.

If you don't have a custom ActiveBlog on your own domain yet, Brad Andersohn takes you through the step by step of how to get it set up. If you have recently signed up for the Rainmaker upgrade, your ActiveBlog is included in your upgrade so make sure to get it set up.

For information on how to sign up for your own Outside Blog, click on the picture below.

To see other new themes visit:

New Theme Thursday - New Theme for your ActiveBlog! Our Business Casual Theme

New Theme Thursday - New Theme for your ActiveBlog! Our Easy Going Theme

As we head into week three of this series on Widgets to enhance your Outside Blog, I decided this week I was going to dig into a widget that is a little more complex to set up, but the rewards are even greater.  Remember the famous line from Spider Man by Uncle Ben? With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.  

This week we are going to discuss the FeedBurner Widget. What is FeedBurner? Feedburner does a plethora of things, but the feature we are going to talk today allows visitors to your blog that enjoy your posts to subscribe to your blog and have the blog show up directly in their inbox each time you write a new post. 

Now, while I said this is a little more complex to set up, let me assure you that you do not need a Phd. in computer programming to set this up.  First, you need to go to Feedburner and sign up. 

After you have signed up for Feedburner you will then need to do is burn a new feed.  Or, set up a link that you want people to be able to subscribe to.  You will see a box that will look similar to this:

Enter the web address you wish to burn and click next.  You will then be sent here:

In this box, you will title your your feed and the Address. The title you place is is what will show up as the subject line on every email that shows up in someones inbox, so be careful how you title your burn.  After you title your feed and click next a few more times, your feed will be complete.  There are a few options you can use to customize your feed even more, but I would suggest not tampering with the default settings unless you really know what you are doing.

Now that we have created the feed, it is time to publish.  To publish, you will click on the Publicize tab as seen below.

When you go to the publicize tab a box containing you will then need to click on the email subscriptions on the left side and Activate the Service

The final step on the feedburner site is to copy the Subscription Form Code.  This is the code needed to create the widget on your Outside Blog.  Make sure when you copy that you copy all of the code or the widget will give you an error message.

The final step in this process is to add the widget FeedBurner (email) to your outside blog.  As always, log into your blog, click on the manage my widgets button and add FeedBurner (email) widget.  You will then paste in the code in the box and click update. 

Congratulations!  You have just added the FeedBurner Email Widget to your Blog!

So what are you waiting for?  Go add this Widget today! if you have not set up your Outside Blog yet, go do it now!  If you are not sure how to set up an ActiveBlog, as usual, Brad has written a tutorial here.

To keep up on all the newest and latest tutorials on ActiveRain you may want to Subscribe to ActiveRain Tutorials by Email.

Finally, the return of New Theme Thursday!  This week we are rolling out a new theme titled: Easy Going. This clean looking theme features a slick background and rounded corners which I personally enjoy!  Here is a screenshot of my Outside Blog:

We will be introducing new themes on Thursdays so make sure to check back for the new stuff. Remember, changing your theme is a simple deal. All you have to do is head over to your outside blog after clicking on the link from the left hand side of your 'my home' page. Once on your outside blog, click the 'theme' link up at the top of the page and select the theme you want to use.

If you don't have a custom ActiveBlog on your own domain yet, Brad Andersohn takes you through the step by step of how to get it set up. For those of you who have recently signed up for the Rainmaker upgrade, your ActiveBlog is included in your upgrade so make sure to get it set up.

Sign up for your ActiveBlog today by clicking on the image below.

To see other new themes visit:

Business Casual

Another Wednesday has come upon us which means it is time for the weekly installment of Widget Wednesday.  If you missed last week, we covered the Local Posts Widget.  We talked about how it categorized your posts and also helped to build your SEO.  This week we are going to discuss the Search Widget. 

What is the Search Widget? The search widget is probably one of the more powerful widgets available for an outside blog and also one of the most easiest to grasp.  As many of you may recall, I wrote a few weeks back, how the ActiveRain Search Button could save you thousands.  Well, the search widget may not save you thousands, but it can easily help you make thousands!  

So how does it work?  The search widget is a Google Powered search engine that allows viewers of your blog to search for the keyword terms they are interested in.  It will display the results to them as if they were doing a regular google search.  The big difference is that it will only show results from your domain!  How cool is that!?!  So, for example, if someone stumbles upon my blog, http://myrtlebeachhomesblog.com and they are interested in purchasing a home in a community called, The Farm at Carolina Forest, the search brings up only posts that have been published by my blog.

If you remember me mentioning how the Local Posts Widget adds layers to your Outside Blog by categorizing and giving each post a unique domain to help increase SEO.  Well as you add that widget and some others you can easily create some great searches for people.  My search above brought back 241 results!

So what are you waiting for?  Go add this Widget today! if you have not set up your Outside Blog yet, go do it now!  If you are not sure how to set up an ActiveBlog, as usual, Brad has written a tutorial here.