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3/28/2010 |
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Form based interface
When you create a new post in the application, you'll see a form based interface like this: [Mouseover the image to enlarge]
 
Each line item has instructions and a copy/paste example to assist you if a specific format is required. The rich text editor allows you to add images, links and other formatting to your posts. [IE only] You can also create your posts in html-though javascript gets filtered out.
Fill in the form, click ok, and your post will automatically be published to the corresponding pages/indexes.
Perhaps one of the best things about Beta Blogger is you never have to wrestle with the page editor to get the look you want. If you need to edit something, simply open the application and make any changes you want. You're guaranteed a consistent, professional look everytime. That's all there is to it!
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3/25/2010 |
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Keep your visitors on your site
Integrated navigation doesn't interfere with your site's overall nav.
One link in your site navigation gives visitors access to your entire blog.
Consistent blog navigation on every page encourages browsing.
Posts organized by recent, month and category
Subjects are linked so one click takes a visitor directly to the post they're looking for.
Summary page lists all your posts by subject.
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3/23/2010 |
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User content zones
Within each Beta Blogger template are well defined user content areas in the left and right columns. These can be used for additional text, images or to give your affiliate ads a clean, professional presentation.
Even better, these zones are already configured so you can simply paste your ad code into the designated area!
Beta Blogger can pay for itself!
It's become almost standard practice for blogs to include an advertising component. According to web site worth evaluators, Office Live sites' potential ad earnings can range from $9 to $50 a month. The key is ad placement. Ads should be placed in well defined areas, be unobtrusive and not crowd out your content, and add visual interest and impact to your pages. In short, they should look like they're supposed to be where they are and not just tacked onto your layout as an after thought.
Beta Blogger can help you blend your ads seamlessly into your site. Don't miss out - put Beta Blogger to work for you-in no time it could pay for itself! Back to top |
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3/22/2010 |
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Already have a Live Spaces blog? No problem....
If you already have a Live Spaces blog on your site, you can easily integrate it into your Beta Blogger blog. You can either:
- copy/paste your posts into a Beta Blogger post
- set your blog up on the designated "Earlier Entries" page.
This page includes a Live Spaces blog module so all you have to is add the name of your blog and decide how many posts you want to appear on the page. The blog will be formatted the same as your new Beta Blogger blog and will look like it's a part of it!
See an example of how this works here
You can also use the Live Spaces blog on the Earlier Entries page to "warehouse" older posts after you reach the limit on allowable posts* that include the commenting feature. This allows you to keep writing new posts with the commenting feature AND retain search engine exposure for older posts.
*Go here for an explanation of the post limit.
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3/21/2010 |
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Use Beta Blogger to edit your site-without switching domains!!!
Here's another great use for Beta Blogger: If you have a partially redirected domain name, you know about the unresolved bug that doesn't allow you to edit your site without switching over to the secondary, free domain. As soon as you click the "design site" link, you see that annoying message:
"We're unable to complete your request
Windows Live ID is experiencing technical difficulties. Please try again later".
Well, a side benefit of using Beta Blogger is you can edit the Beta Blogger built parts of your site WITHOUT SWITCHING DOMAINS!
Let's say you want to publish a new blog article or any new content. Normally with a partially redirected domain, you'd have to switch domains in the domain manager, create the article then switch the domains back. This could have a negative effect on your search engine rankings. Over time, it could also mess up your whole site. This bug only seems to affect the page editor-so business applications are immune and anything you create or edit there will automatically update your site. If you don't have to go into the page editor, you don't have to switch domains.
Combine this with the capability of Beta Blogger to build a whole site and you've found a solution to the "partial redirect" problem!
Another great reason to consider Beta Blogger!
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3/20/2010 |
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Everything you need to build a professional looking, seo friendly blog on your Office Live site. We want to make sure Beta Blogger works for you so, in addition to the application, page templates, commenting element and supporting files, you also get 30 days of phone support and unlimited email support.
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3/18/2010 |
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We tested Beta Blogger by installing it on a couple of working sites. Here's what happened:
CASE 1: Our own "lab" site
In this test we wanted to show how a site with a left or top/left navigation would look with Beta Blogger. We use this site to noodle around with different OL features, so it was a perfect candidate to put Beta Blogger to the test.
We took various things we've written about Office Live in the past and entered them as blog posts. In this configuration, we left the secondary nav on for demo purposes. You have the option of turning it off and using that otherwise possibly wasted left nav space to seamlessly and unobtrusively display ads, images or other content. See the results HERE
CASE 2: Local Church site
For this test, we took the Pastor's occasional monthly message-"From the Pastor's desk"- and turned it into a blog. Rather than showing only the latest message and links to prior messages, Beta Blogger allowed us to include ALL the messages in a convenient and easily navigable format that is fully discoverable by search engines. The recent messages are in the blog but we also pasted earlier messages into a Live Spaces blog and included them on the "earlier entries" page.
In this example you can see how Beta Blogger inherits the font and link styling of the parent site. And I'm not sure how long the church will allow them to stay, but note also how the Google ads somewhat adapt to the content of the site. A sure sign Google is seeing what the site is about!
See the results HERE
Functional, flexible...
Hopefully, these examples demonstrate just how functional and flexible Beta Blogger can be. It can also be used to bring organization and consistency to ANY content on your site-not just a blog.
You can see examples of other uses here. We really look forward to seeing the creative and different ways we know OL site owners will use it to "tell their stories".
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3/18/2010 |
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This webbrewers.com site was built almost entirely using Beta Blogger. We thought it would be instructive and fun to build a site using ONLY Beta Blogger. For the subject site, the only add on was the header image. Everything else-from site navigation to page content-was created in Beta Blogger. We've detailed the steps we took below to give you a "real world" example of how it was done.
Preparation
Since our goal was a 100% Beta Blogger site, we decided to use 2 elements to build the pages: the blog category navigation as the main site navigation, with the default navigation turned off on every page; and blog posts to occupy the body of the pages. We continued as follows:
1/.Install solution:
We started by installing the .olp file as a "solution" in the subject Office Live site. This uploads the application, the pages and the supporting css and javascript files to their appropriate locations.
2/.Define categories:
Next, we opened business applications and clicked the category tab to define the core categories we wanted to use for the site. These can be added to or changed at a later point. For a blog, you would then normally configure the months you want to use, starting with the month of your first post. For the sake of simplicity and since this site wasn't a blog and we were using the categories for the main site navigation, we skipped that step.
3/.Activate pages:
Switching to the page editor, we opened the predefined pages we wanted to use-in this case just the ones for the categories we'd set up in the last step. For a blog, you would also want to configure the "Recent","Archive" and "Earlier Entries" pages and possibly a few of the "Monthly" pages. Since we were only using the category navigation, we deleted the other navigation modules and to activate the pages, we simply right clicked the modules, clicked "properties" and clicked "ok".
4/.Enter posts:
Within 10 minutes and with the required pages already built, we were ready to enter our first "post". So we went back to business applications, clicked the "Blog" tab and then "New" to create a new post. Following the line by line instructions we entered a post number, subject and link, author, date, post contents, and finally selected a month and category from the drop downs and clicked "ok".
The post and category information appeared exactly where it should on the appropriate page, with the comments box links underneath the post. If this were a blog, the "Recent" and "Archive" indices would have been updated too.
We then returned to business applications to create additional posts. Within a few hours the entire site was built! This is a very simple site for demo purposes-but how long would it have taken without Beta Blogger?
You can see the results on the live, working site here! - and keep in mind nothing you see on this site was entered via the page editor-we didn't even have to reopen the editor once the pages were set up. Everything was created in business applications using just...
Beta Blogger!
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3/3/2010 |
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Same site, same blog-totally different look!
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Use the arrows above to scroll through the different layouts.
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You'll see:
how Beta Blogger adapts to different OL site styles (some weirder than others!).
what you can expect from the Basic, Premium and Custom packages.
BASIC:Gallery #'s 1-3
The default Beta Blogger set against different page and site backgrounds.
PREMIUM:Gallery #'s 4-8
Give your blog personality by adding borders and background images to posts.
CUSTOM:Gallery #'s 9-11
Transform your whole site with a "makeover"! Custom site background, header, and navigation.
#9 "Office": shows how multiple background images can be used.
#10-11:illustrates a layout with top and left navigation.
To see more examples of what can be done with the Custom package and how Beta Blogger can be used for more than just a blog, see the ideas below:
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2/17/2010 |
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The custom footer module is truly one of the saviors of Office Live. It provides a way to add pure code to an OL page without the javascript/iframe shenanigans of the html module which often causes problems.
But it has some quirks which are worth understanding. One of them may be surfacing more recently as a result of sites reverting to a 4th level domain, after the recent spate of custom domain expirations. I ran into this quirk while installing an application on a site I manage.
For some reason, the custom footers on page templates installed fine but couldn't be edited. The arcane error message referenced an "unexpected = when a ; was expected on line 1 position 410". No idea what that meant, so did a quick search on the OL community, and came up with this thread by SamsBook (aka OL Sam). He had the same problem and discovered it was due to an ampersand in his site footer element which was throwing an error in the custom footer. I knew there were originally no ampersands in the footer links on the site I was working on, but when I checked the links there, I noticed one of them had been replaced by a long OL url which sure enough included an ampersand. Evidently, when we allowed this particular site's custom domain to expire, OL automatically replaced the links which of course no longer referenced pages on the site. Sam didn't make that connection perhaps because his situation was different, but just like him, as soon as we removed the OL supplied link, the footers all worked again as they should. So the moral of the story is-if your domain expires, and you see an error that references an unexpected character, take a look at the links in your footer area. Thanks to Sam, another MS mystery solved! |
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12/31/1999 |
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Beta Blogger
Beta Blogger is a custom blogging application designed for Office Live websites. It uses the standard components of a free Office Live account to create an seo friendly, professional looking blog that anyone can install and use-no expertise or coding skills required.
Easy install-entire app bundled in one .olp file, installs as a solution in seconds.
Quick set up-you can be blogging in about 15 minutes.
Pre defined pages-won't affect your site's header or navigation.
Simple to use-familiar form based interface with line by line instructions.
Compatible with any standard OL site.
Modular design will blend in with your existing site-or use it to create an entire site.
Enter text, images or html and Beta Blogger will give you a consistent format everytime.
Includes capacity for 60 posts with user moderated comments
Integrates existing Live Spaces blog for unlimited "earlier" posts
SEO friendly-search engines will see your entire blog on your site
User content zones allow you to add affiliate ads or your own content.
Customizable-1 css file controls blog styling
Genesis of Beta Blogger
Beta Blogger started out as a simple project to create a personal blog using components available in any Office Live account. Business applications provides a form to enter posts and the ability to publish data on web pages in a variety of ways. so the first challenge was to structure business applications modules to represent blog posts and navigation elements.
During that process, we realized that with the addition of a commenting feature and some custom javascript, we could create a more full featured blogging application. All we had to do was join a lot of dots....a lot of dots!
Our first effort looked like this CLICK TO ENLARGE!:
Much dot-joining later. we ironed out the many issues we came across and eventually got it to work as it does on this site.
Along the way, we discovered Beta Blogger can do more than just add a good looking blog to your site. Think of it as a tool that can be used to publish any content entered in the business applications area on a web page. You can install multiple instances of the application on your site and use them all for different purposes. We used a 2nd installation of the application on this site for our demonstrations of the Beta Blogger "online store", the "gallery" and the "try it yourself" page. There are many other ways Beta Blogger can be used to enhance the appeal of YOUR site.
Get Beta Blogger now and maximize the potential of ALL that Office Live has to offer!
This site
This site is a practical, working example of the functionality of Beta Blogger. We felt the best way to show off the application (and to thoroughly test it) was to actually use it to build a site. We customized certain aspects of the site but basically everything you see here was entered into the application via Beta Blogger's blog post form.
The site was up and running in Jan of 2010 and was supposed to be finished in Feb. But the experience of building an entire site with Beta Blogger made us realize how powerful a tool it is. Every time we thought we were done, we discovered another way it could be used. Or came up with a better way to highlight it's many capabilities.
And so began a protracted process of adding the design pages, the store and gallery pages, the try it yourself demo, the Live Spaces blog comparison and integration.
The site will no doubt continue to evolve. But one thing won't change:using Beta Blogger makes it's evolution a whole lot easier!
If you see anything wrong with the site, have any problems using it or any suggestions to improve it-please drop us a line!
Webbrewers:professional design - user control
Our premise
Small business owners want a professional looking website that they can maintain themselves.
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Our promise
We deliver designs and apps with a designer look that are easy for users to update and maintain.
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We've been building sites on the Office Live platform since the beta days of 2006. We believe most OL site owners want 2 things:
to add content themselves without hiring a web designer to make every change
to create a site that LOOKS like they hired a web designer.
Beta Blogger is one outcome of that belief. It gives site owners complete control over content, while ensuring the content has a clean, professional, consistent presentation. We're working on other ways to help OL users get more out of their sites. We'd love to hear from you if you have any questions or are in need of a service that can deliver a professional looking web site that leaves YOU in control of the content.
Visit our interactive gallery to see a variety of different site designs we've developed.
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