R TEAM

Add Contact Info on your Typepad Blog

Somethings with the Typepad platform are just not as easy as they should be. One of those things is having your contact info front and center. For those of us in the real estate industry, I think it's a must! Even though most readers will most likely email us--some will want to pick up the phone and call.

On Mortgage Porter, I added a blurb under my photo ("the head" is what my husband calls the photo), the "About Rhonda Porter" link and the "email me".   It looks like this (the phone number looks funny because of Skype):

How did I create this? 

1. Click on the green tab "TypeLists".   (This is also where you can create list of links and other tricky typepad stuff). 
2. Click "Create New Typelist".
3. Select "Note" in the drop down.
4. Select the title of your Note.  This is what will show up as a title on the blog.  On my mortgage blog, the title is "DO YOU NEED A MORTGAGE?"  I thought that was pretty direct. 
5. Leave the "Label" section blank.
6. Under "Notes" enter what verbage you would like for people to contact you.  I have "Rhonda Porter, CMPS and Licensed Loan Originator 510-LO-32047, helps Washington families with their mortgage needs.  Contact her at 206-718-9488or rhonda (at) rhondaporter (dot) com.
7. On the blue tabs, select "Publish".  If you have more than one blog, you can select which blogs you want this note to appear.

Ta da!  Now you can rearrange the note where ever you would like it to appear on your blog.  I like my contact info right under my big head. 

Great Way to Improve Your Typepad "About" Page

I don't know how to write html computer codes...one day, in my spare time, perhaps I'll take a class.   It looks like you might need to know how to be a computer wiz if you don't want to use the Typepad format for their "About" page.   There's nothing terribly wrong with it...it's just a little inflexible as far as where photos and links go.

Your "About" page is important because it's...well...about YOU.  Here is the place to provide your background information and to explain or compel your readers to work with you.   It also should have all your contact info as well.   

I recently made an "ah-ha" discovery when it dawned on me that I can simply use a plain ol' Typepad "page" (not a post, although that could work too) in lieu of their "About Page".   I simply created a new page and titled it "About Rhonda" including photos and my background info as I want it to be.   

My about page BEFORE (you can click this link to see "my old about" however, I may not keep it live for long):

My About Page AFTER (how it is currently):

To "turn off" your old about page, you'll need to do the following:

1. Go to Design
2. Click Content Selection
3. Unselect "About Me"
4. Republish website.

After creating and saving your new (flexible) About Me page, you will need to do the following:

1. Create new Page
2. Save and publish new About Me page
3. Copy the URL for the new page
4. Go to Typelists (green tabs)
5. Select Create a New Typelist
6. Select Links (for the type of typelist)
7. Enter your About Me typelist as:  <!--AboutME-->
8. Paste your About Me URL into the URL section
9. Enter your title as "About [Your Name]" or what ever you want to call it.
10. Select the blogs you want to publish it that you have with Typepad.
11. Rearrange your content to where you would like your About Me link to be.  I like having mine right under my big head on my blog.

I have noticed that my About Me page is being viewed more often than my old "about" page.  It really was just called "About" and was in a fine font.  The new "About Rhonda Porter" is much easier to find.

Hoorah!

Determining How Your Visitors Found You

With a Typepad blog, it's pretty easy.   The screen below is from my mortgage blog and shows from this morning what websites people were last at before landing at Mortgage Porter (or if they directly typed my URLs: www.mortgageporter.com or www.rhondaporter.com.

1. Click on the blue "manage" tab.
2. Click "stats" (then the screen shot above will appear).
3. "Referring Address" shows you where your visitor came from.   
4. Click on the the "referring addresses" and you will learn the actual search term used to find your blog AND where your site ranked on the search page (like Google).   If it's not a search engine (like Google, Yahoo, etc.) and it's an actual website, you can click that to see how where the visitor came from and where the link your blog is on that site (is it on a blog-roll, did someone write a nice article about you with a link embedded, etc.).

Here's what I see when I click on the top Google referred visitor from 7:26 am:

 

It's useful information to know how someone arrived at your blog and what people are searching for.   You can see trends or what's currently going on (Fremont Solstice Parade, for example).  And how your article is ranked on Google.   My post happens to be the first one based on the visitors search phrase "2nd mortgage and bankruptcy".    Google is actually picking up a couple of various articles I've written at Mortgage Porter, one on bankruptcy and one on occupancy (second home).   This is why the more diversified your content, the better your odds are that you'll have better position in search engines and, most important, that your readers will find what they're looking for: YOU!