SMUG Social Media University Global

Blogging 107: Typepad Pros and Cons

Chancellor’s Note: This post was written by Associate Professor Jan Husdal, the newest addition to the SMUG Faculty. Please join me in thanking him for this contribution, and also check out his excellent Typepad vs. WordPress blog.

For someone setting out to become a blogger, choosing the right platform is important. Once chosen, it is very difficult to reverse to a different platform. Not because it is not possible (since in most cases it is possible to fully export and import posts between blogging platform), but because every platform works differently and you get used to doing your blogging in a certain way. Apart from that, different blogging platforms cater to different audiences, so it is important to choose the platform that suits your needs.

Comparing “the big three”

In brief, although many may disagree here, my division is this:

Blogger
If all you care about is a quick set-up and a free platform for making money
WordPress
If you want a free platform with a lot of functionality and if you are in it for the blogging, not for the money
Typepad
If you want a platform that is easy to use and that can be customized for business

So, what are the disadvantages and advantages of choosing TypePad for blogging?

TypePad – Pros

An interface that is easy to use and understand. The TypePad user interface is intuitively set up an easy to use. I had no problems finding out where which function was.

The ability to add scripts. This allows you add or embed practically any desirable widget you want, since most widgets are scripted. This means that TypePad can easily be integrated with other services.

The ability to have AdSense or other scripted ads. Since most ad content is scripted, with TypePad you can build a so-called make-money-blog or an affiliate website, e.g. for amazon.com

The ability to customize your blog theme. This is possible from The Plus level and up. For more information, see this post: How to build a TypePad theme from scratch.

A wide selection of themes. TypePad has some 200+ themes to choose from and they keep adding new themes all the time.

Unlimited number of Photo albums. TypePad is the only blogging platform that has integrated photo albums. Not the best I’ve seen, but it beats Flickr or other services.

TypePad – Cons

TypePad costs money. Their Basic account starts at $4.95/mo and although that may not seem like much, you can get a lot more functionality for free in WordPress or Blogger. The Plus level, which is the minimum I recommend for TypePad, comes at $8.95/mo. The Pro account at $14.95/mo gives you full control over your themes CSS and HTML templates, but as the name suggests, it is better left to the “pros”.

Very few integrated widgets. Although the upside to TypePad is that you can install any widget you like, the downside is that you need to hunt for it yourself. Many of these widgets come in free ad-based and paid ad-free versions. That adds even more costs to your Typepad blog. On a side note, in my opinion any blogging platform should come with an integrated search form, contact form and default Error 404 page. Only WordPress does that.

Limited number of blogs in one account. If you want to create more than one blog, you need to Plus account. If you want more than three, then you need the Pro account.

Conclusion

TypePad is a blogging platform that is easy and straightforward to use, and it has a vast selection of themes to choose from. It is fully customizable and also allows commercial content, which means that you can make money with your blog. But, TypePad comes at a cost, and there are free systems, like WordPress, that offer more functionality for free.

Here is a post I’ve written that hightlights some of the major differences between TypePad and WordPress: wordpress.com – not for serious bloggers? Many of the WordPress “pros” in the post are at the same time TypePad “cons,” adding to the above.

Obama, Biden and a Call for a SMUG Associate Professor

It turns out that mainstream media still got the scoop on Sen. Obama’s choice for VP, despite the campaign promise to break the news to supporters first via SMS and e-mail. Here’s the AP story:

Obama’s decision leaked to the media several hours before his aides planned to send a text message announcing the running mate, negating a promise that people who turned over their phone numbers would be the first to know who Obama had chosen. The campaign scrambled to send the text message after the leak, sending phones buzzing at the inconvenient time of just after 3 a.m. on the East coast.

I guess if you’re a strong enough supporter to give your cell phone number to a political campaign, you’ll probably forgive both the broken promise and the 2 a.m. CDT message disrupting your sleep.

I hardly ever get into politics on this blog, but I was a political science major and worked for 14 years in politics and government. It’s hard for me to fathom that an announcement like this — the most important one of the campaign — would be leaked accidentally to the media after the campaign had made such a big deal about texting the choice to supporters first.

Disclosure: My political background is on the other side of the aisle, and I’ll be voting for the “Wrinkly, White-Haired Guy.” And I’m thinking our Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty, will be his running mate.

I have been interested, though, in how Sen. Obama’s campaign has used social media, but I haven’t wanted to give my e-mail address or cell phone number to the campaign to experience it directly. You can’t even get into his Web site without providing your e-mail.

So this is a call for someone to join the SMUG faculty as Associate Professor and do an analysis of the Obama campaign’s use of social media. I’m sure that among our 150+ SMUGgles we have several who received that early-morning SMS. If you’ve experienced the on-line Obama campaign first-hand and would like to write a post about what strategies and tactics you think have been most effective, you can become an Associate Professor in the SMUG Department of Political Science.

If anyone else wants to write a post about Sen. McCain and the RNC’s use of social media, or any of the other campaigns’ activities (such as Ralph Nader’s or Cynthia McKinney’s), those would be welcome, too.

Ground Rules: This will not be a discussion of the merits of candidates or their policy positions. There is no lack of sites where those debates are already taking place, both on the right and the left. The SMUG discussion will about how the campaigns and their supporters are using social media tools.

Apply for a Associate Professor position via e-mail at the address listed in the “Contact the Chancellor” sidebar item.

If you just want to share your brief impressions of the campaigns’ use of social media, you can put those in the comments below. Same ground rules apply.

Blogging 204: WordPress.com Social Sharing

Long-time SMUGgles will note something new at the bottom of each new post (and I will be adding these retroactively as I am able.) It looks like this:

This social sharing toolbar lets readers quickly and easily share interesting posts quickly and easily with specific friends or with the wider Web, through Facebook, Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Blinklist, Ma.gnolia.com, Technorati, Furl and Newsvine.

So if you see something you want to share, like the 10 Steps to Your Own FREE Podcast post (which is featured in the screencast below) or this podcast on Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), it’s easy to spread the word.

And it’s easy for you as a blogger to add these buttons to make your content easy to share. The screencast below takes you through the process of adding the buttons a post and also using the buttons to share.

But before we do that, I want to take a moment to thank Jan from the Typepad vs. WordPress blog (who will soon debut as a SMUG visiting professor) for sharing how to add this functionality. Because WordPress.com doesn’t allow import of Flash-based widgets, I had thought it was impossible to have these social sharing buttons on my posts. Another friend, Monty, calls WordPress.com “Digg-proof” and I think that’s why.

But no more. I saw these buttons on Jan’s blog (which is on WordPress.com) and asked how it was done. Jan sent the link to where I could download the GetSocial program, along with a tutorial.

But I thought a show-and-tell screencast would be simpler, so here it is:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCnVpj6XCYs]

Blogging 401: LifeSource Blog on Organ Donation, Transplant

As Chancellor of Social Media University, Global I enjoy getting to do Extension Classes, on-site presentations with organizations interested in getting involved in social media.

I did one of these in May with LifeSource, the organ procurement organization for the upper midwest.

Even more than doing the presentations, though, it’s especially gratifying to see organizations move forward with their social media projects.

That’s why I was so delighted to get a note from Becky Ousley, saying that LifeSource was launching The Source, its blog for news and conversations about donation and transplantation.

Today’s post announces the LifeSource activities associated with the Minnesota State Fair, and its booth where people can register as donors. They’re planning lots of updates from the “Great Minnesota Get Together” as people stop by to share their stories.

In addition to having hosted the extension class, Becky and her blog co-author Susan are long-time SMUGgles, participating in the on-line learning opportunities available through SMUG.

Our goal with SMUG is to have people who have participated here launch their own blogs, particularly for business or organizational use. As they do, we’ll profile them here in the Capstone Projects section, the 400-level Blogging courses. And this will give others a chance to see what their fellow SMUGgles are doing.

Please join me in visiting the LifeSource blog and congratulating Becky and Susan on pulling together everything they’ve learned into a first-class blog for a great cause.

And if you’ve started a blog or are planning to do so, please let us know so we can profile you, too.

That’s My Boy!

Actually, that’s not my boy. He’s Inkswamp‘s. But my youngest son, John (pictured below) did something this week that made me look for a photo in Flickr representing a boy looking up to and emulating his dad.

John Aase, as long-time SMUG students know, has a blog. He’s 9. On Monday, he told me, “Daddy, I’m going to write a page on my blog.” “A page?” I asked him. “Don’t you mean a post?” “No Daddy, I’m going to write a page.”

John had previously written this page about the bird’s nest on our porch. His posts and pages tend to be much more concise than mine.

I have to say his latest page just completely melts my heart. Not the subject matter, but the thought that he wants to follow in Dad’s didactic footsteps.

I know most SMUGgles won’t be familiar with Pokemon, but John is quite an expert. So if you wouldn’t mind going to his P.G.A. page and leaving a question to prime his pump, you would be providing great encouragement to a blogger who’s just getting started.

Maybe some of the younger SMUGgles who have gone through a childhood Pokemon stage would know better questions to ask. For others, you could ask simple questions like:

How many different kinds of Pokemon are there?
Which ones are the most powerful?
What’s your favorite one?
How do you play Pokemon?

You get the picture.

Beside setting John off on a writing spree, which would be good for his learning about computers and blogging, he would really get a kick out of seeing his daily page views spike.

So if you wouldn’t mind taking a minute to encourage John, I would greatly appreciate it.

Social Media University, Global (SMUG)