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3/30/2010 |
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Beta Blogger was built in an Office Live account so it's not dependent on any 3rd party applications. As long as Microsoft supports OLSB/Business Applications, once installed, it can't be changed or "upgraded" by anyone but you. YOU'RE IN CONTROL! Take our tour to find out more...............
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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.
"Post posting"
Editing your published posts is a snap. Rather than wrestling with the page editor to change your content, simply open the app and make your changes in the post form. All your entries are shown in "preview" by default, so it's easy to locate the target post by scrolling through them.
[Mouseover the image to enlarge]
Say you want to add an image: scroll to the post, open it for editing, click the image icon and enter the url of the image. Click ok to save.
Perhaps the best thing about Beta Blogger is you don't have to deal with the page editor! The built in, predefined page layouts and structure guarantee 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
No matter how good your blog posts are-you won't maximize their benefit to your site unless your visitors can easily find them and browse to other posts they may be interested in. Beta Blogger's integrated navigation ensures anything in your blog can be found with at most a couple of clicks. For visitors seeking new content, links to your 10 most recent posts are prominently shown at the top of every blog page. Visitors can also discover every post written at a certain time in the archive menu or every post in a given topic in the category menu. Finally, a summary page displays a list of all your posts linked directly to the post.
Navigation highlights
- 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.
More page views, more repeat visitors
It's generally accepted that a blog can draw more visitors to your site-Beta Blogger's integrated navigation can help keep them there longer and coming back more often.
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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.
Even a low traffic site can easily earn back the cost of Beta Blogger in a short period of time. As a real life example, this site earned back the $20 cost of the Beta Blogger Basic package in 3 months. And that was with an average of just 19 unique users and 15 new visitors a day.
Ad placement
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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Update! Live Spaces and Word Press conversion
Live Spaces now offers the option to convert your blog to a Word Press format. This seems a little pointless since you could already get a free WP blog, with or without Live Spaces. But it obviously spells the end of Live Spaces blogs. The effect of this on Beta Blogger is simple: if you convert your blog to WP, your LS feed will no longer work on an OL site or within Beta Blogger. If you don't convert nothing will change until the forced conversion in March 2011. By that time, perhaps MS will have come up with a way to embed a WP blog on an OL site....but I wouldn't count on it. Either way, for now-we can truthfully and with even more emphasis say: Beta Blogger is the ONLY way to add a real blog to your OL site!
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. Each time, all the links on your site are updated to reflect the "new" domain. This could have a negative effect on your search engine rankings. Over time, it could also mess up your whole site. This bug only affects the site designer/page editor because all those editing web pages, including the galleries are under your web site's domain. Business applications are under a different domain and so are immune. 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. This would be especially beneficial for sites that have for example an events area which requires frequent updates. Rather than constantly having to switch domains, you could build the "static" parts of the site as normal and use Beta Blogger for the events part. Problem solved! Or, since it's possible to build an entire site with Beta Blogger, you could sidestep the domain switching issue entirely, say "goodbye" to the page editor and use Beta Blogger to update your whole site! Another great reason to consider Beta Blogger!
Get more out of YOUR Office Live!If you have any questions, or would like a quote for web design or custom applications for your web site, please CONTACT US! Top |
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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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3/20/2010 |
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Generate the Office 365 / Live compatible code needed to get your site verified in 2 steps with our easy to use generator. You can also include the code for a favicon-like this >>  too!
1/ Copy the search engine "key"
Log into your search engine account
Select "meta tag" as the verification method
You'll get a piece of code like this:
<meta name="google-site-verification" content="xxxxxxxx" />
Copy the xxxxxxx part only. This is your unique verification key.
2/ Generate your code
You can do one search engine or all 3 at once
Check "Yes" if you want favicon code included.
Submit and copy the output code from the box
Paste the output on a new line in the "keywords" box under the SEO tab for your home page ("page properties").
When done, go back to the search engine site and click "get verified".
Favicon
A favicon is the little image you see to the left of the address bar, tab titles and in bookmarks/history. The code to add one can easily be included in our verification code.
If you want one, create a 16x16px image. Save it as "favicon.ico".
Upload it to your DOCUMENTS GALLERY (NOT the image gallery!)
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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, here we can enter a post number, subject and link, author, date, post contents, and finally a month and category from the drop downs. To demo the flexibility of Beta Blogger we left the author/date options blank so they wouldn't show up on the pages. You can also uncheck these lines in the module to eliminate the space they would occupy.
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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| Click the links to transform this page. |
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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2/27/2010 |
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 Here are some links to sites you may find useful in your Office Live adventure!
Other useful places:
Get more out of YOUR Office Live!
If you have any questions, or would like a quote for web design or custom applications for your web site, please
CONTACT US!
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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!
Get more out of YOUR Office Live!
If you have any questions, or would like a quote for web design or custom applications for your web site, please
CONTACT US!
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1/20/2010 |
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Unlike most online services, forgetting the id used to create an OL account can be a significant problem. Only the owner id has full access to the account and MS doesn't allow it to be changed. If you didn't make a note of your id, and now need to recover it, the usual answer offered by support is to contact them and they'll do a verification with the secret question etc and give you the id. That really isn't necessary if you follow these far simpler tips:
- If you didn't change it, the owner id you need would be the address in the contact module.
- To see it, right click the module and open properties.
- Or use the contact form to send yourself an email. The address it goes to would be your owner id.
OR: - Open up business applications from the "more" menu
- Open any application
- Scroll to the right and you'll see the "SHARING" tool pane with the owner listed
- Right click the owner link and copy it or click it (which will open an email message).
- Paste it or look at the email and there's your owner id
Obviously, this solution requires being able to access the account with a user id. If you never set one up and have no account access or cannot remember your password, you'll still have to contact support.
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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 default capacity for 60 posts with user moderated comments
- Total post capacity only limited by business applications storage quota.
- Visitors can read/leave comments right on your site-you can delete.
- 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 photo/art 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.
Our services
- Web site design from scratch
- Web site makeovers
- Custom applications based on contact manager/business applications
- SEO/affiliate advertising analysis
- Free consultations to gauge your web site issues
We brew-you DO!
To find out how we can help you, fill out our site design survey or contact us.
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