Fast and Easy Blogging with the Squarespace iPad App

I'm at the Minnesota Blogger Conference where tech columnist and iPad expert Julio Ojeda-Zapata is talking about the best iPad apps for blogging. While most of them are cumbersome at best, the Squarespace iPad app is quite good. In fact, this blog post is part of Julio's presentation, and most of the participants agree that Squarespace has the best iPad app across the industry. 

I don't use the Squarespace iPad app to publish most of my blog posts, but it's nice when you need to quickly and easily get new content out there. It's also great for those looking to do as much as possible on their iPads without involving a laptop. Squarespace makes it easy to publish your posts, or just draft them and save the heavy lifting of formatting for later.

If you're still not ready to start using the iPad app for blogging, at the very least, you can use it to look at your web stats at a glance or monitor and moderate your comments.

What do you think of the Squarespace iPad app?

Update: I wrote most of this live blog post while I was at the conference and published it that day. Since then I've updated it to take care of a few typos and to format it appropriately to adhere to the style guidelines of my blog. The goal at the time was to demonstrate the ease of near-real-time publishing with the help of the Squarespace iPad app. I've also added a few screenshots below to give you and idea of what it looks like.

(The Squarespace iPad app blogging interface is elegant and intuitive.)(You can also add images, schedule posts, and add tags/categories and excerpts.)

(If you're a user of textile or markdown, you'll love the Squarespace iPad app. It also has an HTML editing mode.)
(Squarespace also boasts and analytics dashboard in its iPad app, a feature that few other platforms offer.)(Squarespace allows you to jump between accounts with its iPad app's account management features.)(Squarespace's iPad app allows you to reply to comments, email commenters, and moderate comments.)(Does a comment look fishy? Take a look at it in detailed view and delete or report as spam as necessary.)

Take the Squarespace Community Survey. Win Gear.

For nearly two years now, I've been sharing what I know about the Squarespace web publishing platform and how to use it to market your business, your passion or even yourself. Today is no exception, but it comes with a twist. Today I need 2-5 minutes of your time to take the Squarespace Community Survey. And if you can spare an additional minute after that, you might even win some Squarespace gear.

What is the Squarespace Community Survey?

You may have seen one of my Squarespace tutorials, the designer directory, or even my Squarespace blogging guide if you've visited this site in the last two years. Each time I publish one of these resources, I learn more about the Squarespace community and its needs. I created the Squarespace Community Survey so I could learn even more about Squarespacers, and then share what I learn with you.

The Squarespace Community Survey will help capture the voice of the community and provide unique insights into who we are, our needs, and what motivates us to use the Squarespace platform for our web publishing projects. Please take 2-5 minutes and take the survey now. I appreciate it so very much, and look forward to sharing what I learn.

Take the Squarespace Community Survey

Make the Survey a Success. Win Squarespace Swag.

My goal is to reach 1,000 respondents for the survey, an aggressive goal. To do that, I'm going to need your help recruiting our fellow Squarespacers. After you take the survey, please share this blog post with as many Squarespacers as you know through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn. I'll be monitoring all the chatter to this URL and choose some lucky sharers randomly to win Squarespace gear.

What kind of gear, you say? How about a stylish Squarespace t-shirt? Or perhaps some Squarespace stickers (they look great on my iPad case!)? If you're really lucky, you can even win the coveted Squarespace-branded Moleskine notebook.

So please, take the Squarespace Community Survey, then tell another Squarespacer. I can't wait to share what I learn with you and the rest of the Squarespace community.

(Win stickers or a Moleskine notebook like Jason Barone did.)(You can win a Squarespace shirt like this.)

Volunteering Content for a Stronger Personal Brand

Volunteering your time to create content for a company or organization is a great way to get your work published and grow your personal brand. Writing a blog post, guide or event recap can yield new connections and increase your reputation within your industry. Here are four ideas to volunteer your way to a stronger personal brand. 

1. Volunteer to Blog for Your Company

Does your company have a blog? Chances are, your blog editor or community manager is always looking for content and would be happy to take your articles and publish them on the company blog. Volunteer your time to contribute your knowledge through content and enjoy the engagement it generates for both you and your company.

2. Volunteer Your Time at Conferences

Last year I volunteered my way into the first-ever Minnesota Blogger Conference by holding signage and making coffee at the event. This year I'm part of the planning team and excited to watch tickets go like hot cakes when registration starts this Wednesday (Watch @MNBlogCon for details). In that time I've made many new friends and connections, all in the name of a great event for the bloggers of Minnesota.

3. Volunteer to Cover Events

Local organizations often host events, but many fail to take advantage of the content value of these events. Volunteer to write a recap blog post for the organization and there's a good chance they'll say yes. (Bonus: Capture a video interview with the speaker on your iPad and include it on the recap post as exclusive blog-only material.)

4. Volunteer to Present at Events

Share your subject matter expertise by presenting at and blogging about events within the business community. You'll provide value to the community and build your personal brand by volunteering to speak at events like these.

There's No Such Thing as Too Much Great Content

I've never seen a website with too much quality content on it. Frankly, I'm not sure such a thing exists. If you take your time to write a quality article, no organization in their right mind will turn down the opportunity to publish free, excellent content. Find a publication that interests you, volunteer your time and see what happens.

Where have you volunteered your time by creating content?

How to Add the StumbleUpon Button to Squarespace

Helen and Graham have a Squarespace website, Obsessionistas, which features stories about collectors and their collections, ranging from insects in amber to airline sick bags. Helen wants to give their readers an easy way to share their posts on StumbleUpon by adding the badge/button to their blog posts.

StumbleUpon's 15 million users love sharing this type of website content, so it's no wonder why Helen wants to add the button to her site. To lend her a hand, today we'll take a look at how to add the StumbleUpon button to a Squarespace website.

What's StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon is a social content discovery website. Simply press a button and you're presented with an interesting page on the web. You can like and dislike the pages you see, giving StumbleUpon more information on your preferences. As you do so, StumbleUpon gets better about showing you pages you'll like as you stumble along.

StumbleUpon introduces you to excellent new sources of information on the web as well as delightfully random content like what you'll find on Obsessionistas. With over a million visits a day, StumbleUpon is connecting web surfers everywhere with quality content like a man who collects pencil sharpeners.

Adding the StumbleUpon Badge to Squarespace

Adding the StumbleUpon badge/button to your Squarespace blog is easy and follows the same basic process as most other tutorials on Squarespace social buttons.

To start off, head over to the StumbleUpon badges creation page. Select the graphic you wish to display at the top or bottom of each blog post.

Select the graphic you wish you display on your blog template header/footer.

Next, type "%PERMALINK%" in the optional field made for blog entry permalinks. This is case-sensitive and can even fail if you copy/paste. By far, this is the step people most have trouble with. Make sure you've typed in the permalink exactly as it shows below.

Notice how the code changes as you add go through each step.Next, take the code provided by StumbleUpon and bring it on over to your Squarespace blog.

Navigate to your blog (Journal) main page and enter the Structure Editing mode.

Click the configure this page link to configure your blog.

Scroll down to the Post Display Configuration section and select an unused HTML Snippet (you may also add to an existing one) from the collection of Squarespace blog template elements.

Paste the StumbleUpon badge code into your Squarespace HTML snippet and click Hide & Save.

Finally, arrange your HTML snippet within the structure of your blog/journal configuration page and save your changes.

You should now see a StumbleUpon badge on each of your blog posts. Posts will display a count of stumbles on each blog post. Blog posts without stumbles will display "Submit" next to the StumbleUpon badge.

The whole process takes under five minutes and can be a great way to increase your blog's exposure to new visitors. Take some time to add the StumbleUpon button to your Squarespace website and start seeing new visitors as a result. 

(P.S. I wrote this tutorial because Helen asked via a comment in a previous post. If you have a tutorial you'd like me to write, just ask in the comments. Good luck Helen!)

Performing Squarespace 301 Redirects for SEO Success

We've all had to change the structure of our websites from time to time. Our domain name changes, we add/remove things from the blog URL structure (e.g., the month/day) and we move around pages per the new plan. But if search engine traffic is important to you, you'll want to know about an important SEO tool used when content moves on your Squarespace site. You'll want to know about the 301 redirect.

What is a 301 Redirect?

If you've ever moved houses, you may have went through the effort to fill out a Change of Address form with the United States Postal Service. The post office had an updated record of where you lived and was therefore able to send your mail to your new address instead of your old one. The Change of Address form is like a 301 redirect.

When you move content around on your website, your content is changing addresses on the web. A 301 redirect provides a map from your old URLs to your new ones. When someone tries to visit a web page that has been 301 redirected, they are automatically taken to the new page.

Why Should I 301 Redirect for SEO?

When people link to your web pages, you're building SEO equity for that page and your website as a whole. The more links you have to your site, the more likely you are to rank for key search phrases. 301 redirects are the only way to retain SEO equity when URLs change on your website. If you think someone may have linked to a page you plan on moving, perform a 301 redirect.

Performing a 301 Redirect in Squarespace

Squarespace makes it pretty easy to create a 301 redirect. In fact, they automatically redirect your old content to your new Squarespace site if you use their blog importer. And for those redirects that you'd like to create manually, they provide an easy 301 redirect utility. Let's take a look.

To use the Squarespace 301 redirect tool, select the URL Shortcuts link from the Website Management menu.

Enter your old URL into the shortcut URL field and the new URL into the existing URL field. Select 301 Redirect from as the navigation method and then select Update information. 

That's all there is to it. When someone tries to visit your old URL, they will be automatically redirected to your new URL. And the SEO equity you've built to your old page will pass through to your new page as well.

The scenarios for 301 redirects are endless. Moving web pages, changing publish dates of blog posts with dates in the URLs, changing blog URL structure to no longer contain dates at all... these are all great times to use a 301 redirect in Squarespace.

What questions do you have about 301 redirects? Be sure to leave your thoughts and questions on 301 redirects in Squarespace in the comments section below.