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12/31/1999 |
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COPY OF ORIGINAL INTRO PAGE TEST9
This is
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What's your story?
Ours is simple. Beta Blogger built this Office Live site.
It tells it's own story
Explore our "blog" to learn how it can help you tell YOURS!
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Get a full featured blog LIKE THIS on your Office Live site!
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Flexible |
Full featured |
Foolproof |
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This site I S a Beta Blogger "blog"-telling its own story. Discover how it can help tell Y O U R S.
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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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2/7/2010 |
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THIS IS A BETA BLOGGER POST!
 Compare Beta Blogger to Live Spaces. See the differences. This is how a post looks in Beta Blogger-scroll down for the Live Spaces version. May the best blog win.
Who wins? |
Live |
Beta |
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Easy set up? |
Y |
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Y |
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Consistent look? |
Y |
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Integrated navigation? |
N |
Y |
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| Access to all posts? |
N |
Y |
Have to go offsite to see other Live posts |
| Onsite comments? |
N |
Y |
Have to go offsite to read/leave Live comments. |
| SEO friendly? |
N |
Y |
Only Live posts included on your site can be seen. |
| Customizable? |
Ltd |
Y |
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Y |
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Include audio/video? |
N |
Y |
Spaces video won't show on OL site. BB requires javascript. |
You decide!Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. Of course, to comment on the Live Spaces post you'll have to go to another website.... |
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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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1/20/2010 |
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Has your domain nearly expired and with it your owner access to your OL account? Many formerly free domains will expire over the next few months-and with them so will many custom email addresses. If you used a custom email address linked to your domain as your Live ID when you set up your account (ie me@mysite.com), AS EARLY AS 8 DAYS PRIOR TO EXPIRATION you will see a scary "your id is invalid" message when you attempt to log in and no indication of why. If you set up a secondary user, you will be able to log in to your account but won't have access to owner features.
You may have read in the community forum that you CAN'T change your Live ID and while normally that might be true, the news is if this has happened to you, it's easy to change your Live ID and restore complete access to your account.
Go to http://account.live.com. Enter your old id/password. You will be told your id is invalid and asked if you want to set a new id. Follow the prompts to set up the new id. After verifying your new id via an emailed link, you will now be able to log in to your account with owner privileges!
Any other email address linked to your domain (ie me@mysite.com), as Live ID's, will also need to be changed in the same way.
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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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3/29/2010 |
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5 step set up
Install the application and pages (1 .olp file)
Upload the css file appropriate to your site's configuration
Set up the month and category lists
Connect the modules to your lists in business applications
Blog!
After initial set up-you won't have to touch your blog pages in the the page editor again!
Complete set up instructions are included within the application. The basic package also includes 30 days of phone support and unlimited email support in case you get stuck.
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3/27/2010 |
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Structure
We guarantee Beta Blogger will blend in with the size, colors and look of your site. Page templates included cover virtually any variation of site width, navigation orientation and page layout. You can see a 780px/left nav site here
Header and navigation
The modular design only occupies the editable zones of your pages, so your header and navigation structure won't be affected.
Integrated blog navigation means you only have to add one page to your site's nav to open the blog and give your visitors access to every post.
If you're using a top and left nav configuration, you can opt whether to show the secondary left nav elements on your blog pages or use the space for ads or other content:
The lookBeta Blogger is delivered "style neutral"-in other words, the module backgrounds are transparent and fonts and hyperlinks will inherit your site's scheme. In the unlikely event there is a compatibility problem with your site, we'll fix it, no charge. And with a little css styling, you can easily transform the look of Beta Blogger, like THIS -same blog-totally different look!
Flexibility
Beta Blogger is "makeover-proof"! It's designed to effortlessly withstand any changes made to the color scheme, look or layout of your site. For example, if you decide to reconfigure your site from a 980px wide, top nav set up to 780px wide with left nav, you simply delete one file from your docs gallery and upload another one and your blog will be updated.
Additionally, each blog element is a separate module so you're free to move them wherever you want on a page. Just drag and drop to a new location-or delete ones you don't want to use. To illustrate this, here's an example of a site where we used one navigation element only and moved it to the left of the page.
Change happens, after all. But it won't affect your blog.
To experience the flexibility of Beta Blogger, visit our interactive gallery where you can see how the blog adapts to a variety of different site styles.
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3/19/2010 |
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 For bloggersBeta Blogger is designed to replicate a traditional blog using only the components available in a standard Office Live website. From a user experience point of view, it's just like a regular blog. The blogger enters posts and the nav links into a form, and the application automatically publishes the post and updates the indexes on the web pages.
Behind the scenes, Beta Blogger uses the business applications area as a database for the posts and different "views" of that database format the modules on the web pages. Embedded javascript and css code handle some of the functionality and the appearance of the blog, so you don't have to.
The only non OL component is the commenting feature which is hosted separately by us and automatically added to your posts. Comments moderation is accomplished by using a unique id that you control, allowing you to delete any undesirable comments.
So the only things a user has to do is install the application, connect the published lists on the included pages to the "database" (by clicking ok a few times!) and enter the posts. Unless you want to change the appearance of the blog, you don't have to know ANY code to operate a fully functioning, great looking blog.
For visitorsThe integrated navigation ensures your visitors have easy access to any of your posts from anywhere within the blog. They can find, read and comment on your posts on a number of different pages, arranged by default as follows:
recent posts = last 5 posts
archive = all posts with summary linked to each post
12 monthly pages
10 category pages
Beta Blogger's structure can also be customized if you have special needs. For example, you may have a category with a lot of posts and you want to provide streamlined, FAQ style navigation for that category page-as we did on this site here. Please CONTACT US with your requirements.
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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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3/25/2010 |
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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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3/3/2010 |
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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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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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3/24/2010 |
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Interactivity
 Allowing visitors to leave comments is a great way to encourage participation in your site. Sites that allow comments see an increase in traffic and return visits.
Beta Blogger includes a moderated comments feature that opens right below the post and won't redirect visitors to another site like Live Spaces does. Your visitors can conveniently leave a comment and read what others have said.
Managing comments left on your site
It's great that visitors can leave comments on your site-but how do you know when they have? Opening every comments box to check would be quite a chore. That's why we provide an RSS feed for every comments box. Simply copy the RSS link and add it as a subscription to your favorite RSS reader.
When you check the reader, you can easily see if you have any new comments.
If you want to delete any unwanted comments, we provide you with a unique Google id/password that lets you log in as an administrator. Right click the admin link-log in once and you can quickly remove any comment left on any comments box on your site. As a convenience, by default the comments feature also filters out any profanity. Feel free to leave a comment to see how it works!
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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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3/21/2010 |
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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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12/30/1999 |
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We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
More
Log Files
As with most other websites, we collect and use the data contained in log files. The information in the log files include your IP (internet protocol) address, your ISP (internet service provider, such as AOL or Shaw Cable), the browser you used to visit our site (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox), the time you visited our site and which pages you visited throughout our site.
Cookies and Web Beacons
We do use cookies to store information, such as your personal preferences when you visit our site. This could include only showing you a popup once in your visit, or the ability to login to some of our features, such as forums.
We also use third party advertisements on webbrewers.com to support our site. Some of these advertisers may use technology such as cookies and web beacons when they advertise on our site, which will also send these advertisers (such as Google through the Google AdSense program) information including your IP address, your ISP , the browser you used to visit our site, and in some cases, whether you have Flash installed. This is generally used for geotargeting purposes (showing New York real estate ads to someone in New York, for example) or showing certain ads based on specific sites visited (such as showing cooking ads to someone who frequents cooking sites).
DoubleClick DART cookies
We also may use DART cookies for ad serving through Google’s DoubleClick, which places a cookie on your computer when you are browsing the web and visit a site using DoubleClick advertising (including some Google AdSense advertisements). This cookie is used to serve ads specific to you and your interests (”interest based targeting”). The ads served will be targeted based on your previous browsing history (For example, if you have been viewing sites about visiting Las Vegas, you may see Las Vegas hotel advertisements when viewing a non-related site, such as on a site about hockey). DART uses “non personally identifiable information”. It does NOT track personal information about you, such as your name, email address, physical address, telephone number, social security numbers, bank account numbers or credit card numbers. You can opt-out of this ad serving on all sites using this advertising by visiting http://www.doubleclick.com/privacy/dart_adserving.aspx
You can choose to disable or selectively turn off our cookies or third-party cookies in your browser settings, or by managing preferences in programs such as Norton Internet Security. However, this can affect how you are able to interact with our site as well as other websites. This could include the inability to login to services or programs, such as logging into forums or accounts.
Deleting cookies does not mean you are permanently opted out of any advertising program. Unless you have settings that disallow cookies, the next time you visit a site running the advertisements, a new cookie will be added.
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 Ignored those emails about your OL domain expiring or didn't see them? Worried that your web site is also gone? Don't worry about the site. Domains expire but web site accounts don't. It's alive and well and living under a free "placeholder" domain name. And if you want to reunite it with your expired domain, here's what you do:
- If you have access to your account, check under domain manager/learn how to save your info for the DOMAIN REGISTRATION KEY. (Only the OWNER-original account id has access).
- If your log in id was deleted with your domain, learn how to change your id.
- If the DRK is not there, contact support and they will give it to you
- Go to http://www.melbourneit.com.au/
- Create an account there and use the DRK to gain access to management of your domain.
- Follow the instructions to pay for the renewal ($35 pa) or transfer it to another host.
- If you're renewing it, you can then complete the redirection process back to the OL servers.
Your domain based email accounts will be gone, but at least you can get your domain back and create new ones. |
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3/26/2010 |
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Till now, the only way to add a blog to an OL site was to iframe a 3rd party blog or use Live Spaces. The iframe solution can look okay but NONE of the content is exposed to search engines.
Compare the source code of this iframed Blogger blog on an OL page with the source of the page you're reading and you'll see what I mean. Source code is what the search engines see.
Live Spaces blogs are great-but only allow one page of content and redirect the visitor away from your site to see more of your blog or leave a comment. Not good if you're trying to maximize the search benefit of your blog.
Expose yourself!
With Beta Blogger, ALL your blog content is visible to the se's. Visitors can find, read and comment on all your posts without ever leaving your site. Not only that, but if you currently use a Live Spaces blog, YOU CAN INCORPORATE IT INTO YOUR BETA BLOGGER BLOG! Simply add your Live blog id to the module on the provided "Earlier entries" page and you can include as many of your Live blog posts as you'd like.
So not only is your current and past content "exposed", but your site also gets the search engine credit for every page view and every link clicked.
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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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1/8/2010 |
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One application-many uses.....Beta Blogger can be used for much more than just a blog on your site. If you've taken a look around this site, you've seen a live example of the application being used to build an entire site, a process which would have been much more arduous and time consuming without Beta Blogger's built in ability to organize content and present it in a consistent way. If you've had any experience creating an Office Live site, you know it's not that easy to position tables, images and text and get a polished, professional look. And having done it once, updating your site and keeping it fresh which is a critical component in attracting visitors, can be a chore. Beta Blogger will make all of that easier for you-no matter what the content. You can install multiple instances of Beta Blogger on one site-use one for a blog, one for an online store, one to showcase your artistic work-the possibilities are endless. So here are a few thoughts and examples on other ways in which Beta Blogger can be put to work to help you with your site:
ecommerce:create a professional looking store
- use the category feature to create product categories
- add each product to a category as a separate "blog" post
- you can even add Paypal buttons within the post with a little javascript
- instead of blog navigation, your product category nav will automatically appear on your pages
- include special deals in the user content side columns
- number of products is only limited by the 50mB storage capacity.
SEE A DEMO ONLINE STORE HERE!
Photographer/artist:create an online gallery of your work
- use the categories to organize your work into "collections"
- post individual pieces or groups of images in a "blog" format
- add interest by varying the presentation with slideshows and different image enlargement techniques
- encourage interaction with the commenting feature
SEE A DEMO GALLERY HERE!
Musician/performers: create a showcase for your talents
- create categories for upcoming gigs, bios, photos etc
- post relevant info in blog posts within those categories.
- use one category as a blog about your self or group to encourage interactivity.
Schools/not for profits:create a resource center for your organization
- organize categories by subject and give teachers/staff access to update homework projects etc themselves
- highlight events/fundraisers/achievements in "blog" posts
- include announcements in the user content side columns
- engage your audience by posting images to celebrate sporting/academic achievements
Think outside the blog! Fundamentally, a blog is just a way of organizing website content. Think of Beta Blogger as a content management system for your site. You can create multiple applications with one copy of Beta Blogger (on one site)-and use each one for a different purpose. (Our "Try It Yourself" demo is actually running off a separate installation of Beta Blogger on this site.) As the demos illustrate, pretty much any content can divided up into chunks like blog posts. Beta Blogger can render it into an effective, organized and professional looking presentation on YOUR site. Don't let Office Live's page editor restrict your imagination-Beta Blogger can help you build the site you want! Back to top |
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1/4/2010 |
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Office Live Small Business has a number of limitations which even Beta Blogger can't overcome. Here are some of the things Beta Blogger CAN'T do:
Beta Blogger can't:
CHANGE THE 50MB STORAGE CAPACITY of business applications, so if you want to blog 50 times a week or use a lot of other applications, Beta Blogger is probably not going to work for you.
At $4.95 a month for 1gB, extra storage isn't cheap.......
SUPPORT ENDLESS BLOGGING WITH COMMENTS. The 50mB storage limit necessitates a 60 post cap on the number of posts with comments that can be supported and a "revolving" set up-where newer posts replace older posts. This assures that your 60 most recent posts will always show and older posts will still be visible on the "earlier entries" page. This page looks like part of the blog but doesn't use up any of the storage capacity. If you want a fuller explanation of how this works, GO HERE>>>> So if you feel you need an onsite commenting feature on more than your 60 most recent posts, Beta Blogger is probably not for you.
CREATE UNLIMITED MONTHLY PAGES. Without dynamic page creation capability, you're limited to 12 monthly pages. If you start rewriting posts after the first year, the current month will contain a mix of current and prior year posts. This is a simple trade off - we didn't feel having a comprehensive monthly index was worth the added complexity, unwieldiness and the loss of storage space for your blog entries that unlimited monthly pages would cause.
BE INSTALLED ON A NON US OL ACCOUNT - YET....though if you are interested we can probably accommodate you within a few weeks.
FLAWS IN COMMENTING SYSTEM: We can't fix 2 problems in the commenting system. When you open a comments box under a post:
1/. the browser jumps to the top of the page and you have to scroll back down to the comments box.
2/. the back button is disabled..
Both are a result of the script we use to resize the iframes the comments boxes open in. The undesirable alternative would be to have the boxes open all the time which could lead to very long pages.
Conclusion
Even with the above shortcomings, we still feel Beta Blogger is the best (perhaps only) option if you want a nice looking, seo friendly blog on your site.
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3/20/2010 |
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It cost us many late nights, some gray hair, many beers. a lot of coffee, and more abuse from our family than we care to recall. Except for the beer part, we'd've gladly paid $19.99 to avoid all that if we could have. You can.
Beta Blogger packages
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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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3/15/2010 |
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 "The Bucky Look" is the look a dog gives you when it sees something it doesn't quite understand - a tilt of the head, the wide eyes, the outstretched ears. It was named after a friend's dog (aka Bucky) who didn't understand that much, so even mentioning his name would elicit The Bucky Look. I guess I don't understand that much either because I find myself all too often with a Bucky Look on my face.
So this will be a series of posts about things I come across that bring out The Bucky Look in me.
Here's a quick one to illustrate what I mean:
Oooh. let me pay more.....I have a credit card with a well known and very large bank which offers "points" for every dollar charged on the card. In their rewards catalog you can purchase an Apple iPod for some 31000 points. If however you opt for a check, the points are worth 1% or $310. The same Apple iPod is available at a well known and very large store for $168.
Hmmm, should I buy one through the bank's reward catalog or get a check, kick in $26 and BUY 2 at the store?
[INSERT BUCKY LOOK HERE]
To me, this little tale indicates one or all of the following:
The bank thinks we're all stupid
The bank is stupid
The bank is trying to cheat us
Charging for nothing is so engrained in the bank's culture that it just can't help it
Oh wait. I got it! Their iPod price includes a $142 "convenience" fee (that's 85% for the mathematically minded). Of course.
Take your pick.
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2/26/2010 |
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 Search 101It seems to be conventional wisdom these days that blogs are good for websites because of the site relevant, rich content they add. Search engines LOVE content.
And with Google processing an estimated 200 million search requests a day (that's over 2300 a second!), it obviously makes sense to try and make your site as appealing as possible to the search engines and all the potential traffic they provide.
Saturate your site!So how does a blog help you do that? The truth is there's no way for an OL site owner to predict what keywords a searcher is going to use. And chances are your competition is using the same meta tags as you-besides which for years Google has said they don't pay much attention to meta tags. So it's really a crap shoot-a numbers game. One proven way to increase the odds in your favor is to saturate your site with content relevant to the site's purpose. That's where blogs come in.
 Let's say for example, you sell widgets on your site and you are a widget expert. You publish blog posts about your experience with widgets, the history of widgets, how to use a widget etc.You'll increase the chances of a search engine's algorithms computing that your site is more relevant to the person searching for "widgets, history, experience, how to". than a competitor that is lacking in this type of content-because returning relevance is the name of the game in search. You probably won't shoot up to the first page overnight-but overtime, it's been proven that search engines reward relevance above all else.
Expose yourself!
Of course none of that does you much good if the search engines can't see ALL the content of your blog. And that's where Beta Blogger comes in. Unlike a Live Spaces blog or embedding a 3rd party blog, Beta Blogger ensures everything you write is exposed to the search engines as plain text- EVERYTHING. Take a look at the source code of this page (view/page source) and you'll see what I mean.
The friendly, fresh and fun factorsAn additional benefit of adding a blog is that you can build confidence in your site by communicating your expertise in it's subject. A useful and informational site is more user friendly and engaging-and more likely to attract repeat visitors. And let's not forget the "fresh factor". By periodically adding blog posts to your site, your content is automatically freshened up- something both visitors and search engines appreciate. And last but not least-the "fun factor". You may find you enjoy expressing yourself about a subject you're expert in and getting some interaction from visitors to your site.
So "bring out your inner blog"-see what it can do for your site!
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