Do you blog on Word Press?
I was told Word Press is a great blog site but I am finding it more complicated than I thought. I am trying to add a Twitter widget to the sidebar and I think I can only add a RSS feed.
Do you have a twitter widget on your Word Press blog and if you do how do you add it?
Thanks so much
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/twidget I like this one on widget box.
Do you have a twitter widget on your Word Press blog and if you do how do you add it?
Thanks so much
http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/twidget I like this one on widget box.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by minnemom on -
Are you using wordpress.com (free site) or a self-hosted site (paid) with a wordpress interface? It makes a difference as to some of the things you can do.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by mama anjelina on -
I have got widgetproblems on wordpress too..but otherwise it has more options than blogger:)
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Permalink Reply by Naoma Doriguzzi on -
Linda, I am use a wordpress blog and then paid for my domain through them...is that self-hosted? i am not liking wordpress at the moment...
minnemom said:Are you using wordpress.com (free site) or a self-hosted site (paid) with a wordpress interface? It makes a difference as to some of the things you can do.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by minnemom on
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It sounds like you have a wordpress.com blog, and have paid for your domain name through wordpress. If you had a self-hosted blog, you'd pay a monthly fee through a site like hostgator, godaddy, bluehost, etc. If you're on the free wordpress, you login through wordpress.com.
With wordpress.com you are limited in the widgets you can use. If it's javascript, it won't work, and a lot of the widgets out there are java-based. You can use the wordpress widgets, and put some things into your text box (buttons, badges, etc.) but a lot of 3rd-party widgets will not work.
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't, or someone else can jump in and try to explain better. (And tell if there's a widget that WILL work on wordpress.com.)
Linda
Naoma Doriguzzi said:Linda, I am use a wordpress blog and then paid for my domain through them...is that self-hosted? i am not liking wordpress at the moment...
minnemom said:Are you using wordpress.com (free site) or a self-hosted site (paid) with a wordpress interface? It makes a difference as to some of the things you can do.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by Erin on -
Holy Linda! You are so knowlegable about wordpress LOL all i know is that i switched from typepad to word press and i like it, i do have twitter on my blog and you can do a lot more with it. Also your reports are a little different!
minnemom said:It sounds like you have a wordpress.com blog, and have paid for your domain name through wordpress. If you had a self-hosted blog, you'd pay a monthly fee through a site like hostgator, godaddy, bluehost, etc. If you're on the free wordpress, you login through wordpress.com.
With wordpress.com you are limited in the widgets you can use. If it's javascript, it won't work, and a lot of the widgets out there are java-based. You can use the wordpress widgets, and put some things into your text box (buttons, badges, etc.) but a lot of 3rd-party widgets will not work.
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't, or someone else can jump in and try to explain better. (And tell if there's a widget that WILL work on wordpress.com.)
Linda
Naoma Doriguzzi said:Linda, I am use a wordpress blog and then paid for my domain through them...is that self-hosted? i am not liking wordpress at the moment...
minnemom said:Are you using wordpress.com (free site) or a self-hosted site (paid) with a wordpress interface? It makes a difference as to some of the things you can do.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by minnemom on
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If I'm knowledgable (and I'm not sure that I am), it's because I had the same frustrations myself, waded through the same not-so-helpful help screens, and learned a lot of lessons the hard way. I dabbled on blogspot for about 2 days before switching to wordpress.com, and was there for a year. In the past week, I've become knowledgeable (or at least muddled through) changing over from wordpress.com to a self-hosted wordpress blog and I've run into a ton more problems. A lot of people (both here and on twitter) were great in helping me get through the tough spots, so I'm glad to share what little information I can to help others out as well!
Linda
Erin said:Holy Linda! You are so knowlegable about wordpress LOL all i know is that i switched from typepad to word press and i like it, i do have twitter on my blog and you can do a lot more with it. Also your reports are a little different!
minnemom said:It sounds like you have a wordpress.com blog, and have paid for your domain name through wordpress. If you had a self-hosted blog, you'd pay a monthly fee through a site like hostgator, godaddy, bluehost, etc. If you're on the free wordpress, you login through wordpress.com.
With wordpress.com you are limited in the widgets you can use. If it's javascript, it won't work, and a lot of the widgets out there are java-based. You can use the wordpress widgets, and put some things into your text box (buttons, badges, etc.) but a lot of 3rd-party widgets will not work.
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't, or someone else can jump in and try to explain better. (And tell if there's a widget that WILL work on wordpress.com.)
Linda
Naoma Doriguzzi said:Linda, I am use a wordpress blog and then paid for my domain through them...is that self-hosted? i am not liking wordpress at the moment...
minnemom said:Are you using wordpress.com (free site) or a self-hosted site (paid) with a wordpress interface? It makes a difference as to some of the things you can do.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by liana lehua on -
I know this isn't what you're looking for but you can just grab a Text widget and put this element in it:
<a target="blank" href="http://twitter.com/yourtwitternamehere" title="Twitter">linklabel</a>
This only creates a link to your Twitter account. Or, as you mentioned, you can add a RSS of your Tweets.
If you want to get into modifying your Wordpress blog, I would recommend, as others have, to pay for a self-hosted blog. Let me know if I can help further.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Naoma Doriguzzi on
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I had no idea that was what I getting myself into. How hard is it to switch to a self hosted one? Would you recommend it? Or should I just deal with it for now? this info has been very helpful!
minnemom said:It sounds like you have a wordpress.com blog, and have paid for your domain name through wordpress. If you had a self-hosted blog, you'd pay a monthly fee through a site like hostgator, godaddy, bluehost, etc. If you're on the free wordpress, you login through wordpress.com.
With wordpress.com you are limited in the widgets you can use. If it's javascript, it won't work, and a lot of the widgets out there are java-based. You can use the wordpress widgets, and put some things into your text box (buttons, badges, etc.) but a lot of 3rd-party widgets will not work.
I hope this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't, or someone else can jump in and try to explain better. (And tell if there's a widget that WILL work on wordpress.com.)
Linda
Naoma Doriguzzi said:Linda, I am use a wordpress blog and then paid for my domain through them...is that self-hosted? i am not liking wordpress at the moment...
minnemom said:Are you using wordpress.com (free site) or a self-hosted site (paid) with a wordpress interface? It makes a difference as to some of the things you can do.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by Kelly on -
To use a widget you first have to have to be using a widget-enabled theme and then you have to be able to upload it to your server that is hosting your Wordpress site, if you are using WordPress's free services, you can not do this...
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Permalink Reply by minnemom on
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I think the decision to stay with the free site or self-hosted blog depends on your goals for your site.
If you're happy with the layouts at wordpress.com, and if doing without java widgets, ads, etc. is no more than an inconvenience, the free site should do well for you.
If you think you want to have ads on your site, or really want to have more flexibility of layout, widgets, etc., then you might switch to a self-hosted blog.
If you think you might want a self-hosted blog in the future but can afford it now, it's probably easier to switch earlier rather than later. It gets trickier once people have linked to your old site, or are accustomed to typing your old link url.
For me, it was a money issue. Early on, I couldn't justify the hosting costs because I didn't have enough readers, and I didn't know what the future of my blog would be. As time went on, I increased my readers and my blog grew, so I kind of outgrew the free site at the same time that I wanted to start generating (hopefully) some revenue, at least enough to cover my hosting costs.
I hope this makes sense.
Linda
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Permalink Reply by Jen M on -
I'd add to what Linda said, that at first you may want to stick with the free wordpress - if that's what you have already - while you get your feet wet and learn the ins-and-outs of blogging there. Later, if need be, you can upgrade to a self-hosted wordpress blog. It does give you more options, but it's more complicated for someone new to blogging on a wordpress platform. :)
If you upgrade, you might want to choose a month that is traditionally slower for page views (i.e. a warmer month) because the process of switching over may cost you some time. When we upgraded, we saw a brief downturn in PVs that quickly rebounded - and then some - once the upgrade was complete. Good luck! And have fun; that's what it's all about.
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Permalink Reply by 9to5to9 on -
Late to the game here -- been battling self-hosted WordPress for a few weeks, though most of my problems have been self-inflicted! And I'm definitely in that downturn on PVs state Jen M's talking about.
The widget that works for me on my self-hosted WP is called Twitter for Wordpress. Admittedly, it's kind of ugly, though there are some customization options I haven't had time to mess with because they involved editing CSS. I'm still feeling my way through that and am tired of blowing up things, so I'll tackle it later.
Twitter for Wordpress does have one huge advantage, though: It works for me, and my template (Arthemia Pro) is a little bit grumpy.
And I'd agree with Jen M about staying on free wordpress while getting a feel for blogging. It took me about a year to work up the nerve switch over. I'm glad I bit the bullet and did, though.
The thing you have going for you, though, Naomi: You already own your domain name (I didn't until June) so your traffic blips won't be as steep as mine were when I switched to Wordpress.
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