Time Flies

So needless to say, things haven't exactly gone as I planned with the blog. I've been busy dealing with some personal issues, as well as working on getting the business itself up and running. I won't go into long-winded explanations here - those who know me, know what I'm talking about.

That said, things are starting to get a little bit more back to "normal," whatever that is, so I'm going to try to start this up again. I've been using the built in blog function that came with my site's builder tool, and it's okay, but I'm looking for something with more options. I like how Blogger works, and I'm comfortable with it, so I'm going to continue using that for writing the blog itself. The only real problem I have now, is that I haven't found a satisfying way to embed the blog into my site so far.

I don't like the idea of linking to it instead of just having it in the actual site. The navigation tool from the sitebuilder doesn't allow you to connect to external pages, so I can't load it up from there. And most of the embed functions I've looked at so far don't work right either. If you load Blogger up in an iframe it looks weird, and if you just build a widget using the RSS, you don't get sharing links, and that feels like a bad idea too. What I really want is to display the posts from the blog, but also have the sharing links displayed so users who reach the blog from my site can share the posts directly without having to go to Blogger - expecting anyone to waste time with extra steps just isn't going to happen.

So for now, I guess I'll just focus on getting back to making content, while I continue to look for an embedding option I'm happy with. If anyone happens to know of a great way to display both posts and share links from a blog inside another site, let me know. Wordpress, Joomla, etc. aren't options here as I'm currently limited to custom HTML / java blocks that the sitebuilder allows. I can't alter the underlying structure of the page, or mess with the CSS. Fun challenge? Could be...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Identifying and Managing Stakeholders: Tools of the Trade

Image
This week in Tools of the Trade, we will be discussing project stakeholders - the key people in your company that will help you implement changes or fixes to your processes, programs, or business practices. If you're not sure how to identify the problems that require changes or fixes, be sure to check out our previous Tools of the Trade article, Process Mapping . What is a stakeholder? A stakeholder is, simply put, anyone at your company who has a role or a stake in the process you are working on improving or adding. They can be the employees who perform the actual work, employees who are affected by the work once it's done, employees who depend on the results of the work to do their own work, managers who are responsible for the department the work gets done in, and so forth. The stakeholders of your project will be your key allies in figuring out what is causing your problems, deciding how to fix it, and helping you get the job done. Why are stakeholders important?
Continue reading »

Make Better Decisions with Process Mapping: Tools of the Trade

Image
When I came up with the idea for Tools of the Trade, the very first thought that came into my head was Process Mapping. It's pretty much the first thing any business analyst or project manager whips out of their bag of tricks whenever they start a new project. It's ubiquitous in the industry, because it's so powerful and diverse. Despite this, it's not something that has really made its way outside of the project management toolbox. I think that's a real shame, because it's so useful. With a bit of work, it can easily be adapted to almost any industry or small business, and help them to identify problems, make better decisions, and track their progress. So for my first Tools of the Trade article, we're taking an in-depth look at Process Mapping. What is process mapping? On the surface, process mapping is exactly what it sounds like. It is a visual representation of all the steps in a process from start to finish. To create one, you map out all the st
Continue reading »

5 Tips to Improve Your Contact Page: Design in Detail

Image
Today, in the fourth installment of Design in Detail, we're talking about the Contact page of your website. While it's true that the Contact page is probably the most straightforward page on the site for most businesses, there are still some key pieces of information and best practices we should use to make sure we're getting the most out of the page, and that it's providing our customers with the tools and information they need to connect with us and conduct business. So, with that in mind, here are 5 tips to improve your website's Contact page: 1. Be Accessible You want people to get in touch with you. That's the whole point of the contact page. So be sure to include as many ways for them to reach you as possible. Some people are turned off by contact forms, since they don't know what happens with the info after they submit it. So include a phone number or email address as well. Also include your hours of operation - people shouldn't have to con
Continue reading »