Ninja Knowledge©

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Where the Good Stuff Is....

Hi everyone!

I miss you guys so much these days, and I hate that I've been away so long. I promise I'm not trying to abandon you all forever, it's just that I've been super busy with Handmade News!

If you haven't checked it out, please head over that way and give it a look!

I'm the editor of the business tips department, and you can find a ridiculous amount of great information there!

I'm blessed to have an amazing group of columnists, and they are working their fingers off producing more helpful articles than you can imagine! Just this week we're running articles on Internet Radio Ads, Business World Manners, Elevator Speeches, Staying Sane with Filing, the Five P's of Marketing and SO many more!

Please stop by and check out all the wonderful things we're doing over there!

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

♥

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

How to Add a Scrolling Feedback Marquee

On my other blog, I have a scrolling marquee at the top that I use to show off my feedback from my studios. A few people have asked me about how to do this, so I'm going to share the code here. But first, you need to decide what you want to use your marquee for. You can type anything you'd like in it, but it helps to have that text ready before you try to paste the code. It's not a hard thing to create, but it's a little time consuming, so just be warned! (If you're going to use your feedback/kudos like I did, it helps a lot to copy and paste each one into one new list before you begin. Just use Word or any sort of notepad software. It doesn't need to be fancy right now. This will save you a ton of headaches later!)

Once you know what you want your marquee to say, just follow these steps:

1. On your blogger dashboard, click "layout"

2. On the top of the layout, click "Add new gadget" and choose the "HTML/JavaScript" option.

3. Paste the following code into the box:
<marquee behavior="scroll" direction="up" onmouseover="this.stop()" width="900" onmouseout="this.start()" scrollamount="1" height="50">text goes here</marquee>

4. Replace the yellow words with your text you've already pre-prepared.

5. Right now, what you'll have if you save this is a whole bunch of sentences that are strung together with no breaks in between. If what you posted is not a paragraph, but rather a list of statements that need breaks, you're going to have to add a bit more code. (If you do not need these breaks, skip to step 7.)

6. To add line breaks to your marquee, copy and paste this after every sentence:

7. To italicize any words in your text, copy and paste this code around the text needing formatting:

(like this: these words need to be in italics)

8. To make words bold, paste this code around the words:

(like this: these words need to be in bold)

9. (Right now, because I used the code from my own blog, the font is in white. If you like the white font, skip this step.) To change the color of the font in your marquee, find the part of the code that looks like this:

Go here, and find the code that relates to the color you want your text to be. Replace the yellow letters above with that code.

10. Once you've made all the changes you need to make, hit save. Be sure you drag and drop the new gadget below your header, or you may not be able to see it! (You can also hit save along the way and preview your marquee. You are always able to go back and edit the code to get it just how you want it.)

There are lots of other cool things you can do with your marquee, but for now, we've covered the basics. If you want yours to do something I didn't cover, please let me know and I'll see if I can show you how!

♥

*A few notes about this particular marquee: It's only written to fit across the width of your page. You can put it anywhere, but it will take up the whole width of the page, so it's best on the top or bottom of your page. Also, it has a "stop on mouse" function. This means that when you hover over it, it will stop scrolling. If you don't like this, let me know and I can tell you how to change it!*

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

How to Add a Pop-Up Caption in Blogger

As many of us have discovered, Blogger has no easy way to add a caption to your photos. For someone like me, who can be pretty long winded, it irritates me that I have to add even more to an already long post just to explain what a short caption could do so much more efficiently. I also think captions give a more polished look and feel to a blog, so I've been spending a lot of time trying to find a good way to make this happen.

I haven't found that way yet, but I did find a method that makes me happy in the interim. Instead of placing the caption below or beside the picture, you can easily place a caption "within" the picture. To see this in action, hover over the picture here:

If you'd like to do this to your own pictures, just choose a picture on your computer and follow along!

1. Upload the picture to your blogger post by clicking the add image icon () and then use the "Add an image from your computer" option to insert the pic.

2. Once you have your image uploaded, and making sure you're in the "Edit HTML" tab of your post, you should see a lot of code similar to this:
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rYUxmku_JcI/Sf_h2Lo2YxI/ AAAAAAAAAgQ/BuwWqR9BzEY/s1600-h/13059_product_571284295_thumb_large.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rYUxmku_JcI/Sf_h2Lo2YxI/ AAAAAAAAAgQ/BuwWqR9BzEY/s200/ 13059_product_571284295_thumb_large.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5332228804783268626" /></a>

3. You need to paste the yellow code into the right spot in the above mentioned code, so it looks like this:

4. Change all the words in italics to what you actually want the caption to say, and hit "Preview". As long as you've copied all the code correctly, you should be able to hover over the picture and see your caption pop up. (If you don't see it, or if your picture doesn't show up correctly, check to make sure you didn't accidentally delete any quotation marks or slashes from the code.)

♥

Monday, April 27, 2009

HALP!!!!

This ninja needs ideas from you guys!

I'm running low on my "things you guys have asked" list... anyone have any suggestions for future topics?

Please?

:cute face:

♥

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Using Facebook to Promote Your Studio - Part 2

Last week I discussed the basics of using Facebook to promote your studio. If you haven't checked that post out, you may want to make sure you've read it before you continue with this one. Today I'm going to show you how to make a Facebook page to promote your studio, but first, let's discuss exactly what this page is and what it's for.

A Facebook page is essentially a "fan page" that any registered user can set up. I'm sure you've seen updates on timelines that say "Mr. So-and-so became a fan of *insert doodad here*" All that means is that someone, somewhere created a fan page, and Mr. So-and-so found it and decided it was cool. The good part about these pages is that you can use them solely for promotion, because you've already found an interested audience (who voluntarily signed up to listen!). Additionally, unlike your personal page, your fan page can be viewed and "liked" by any member of Facebook. It's a great way to reach lots of people you wouldn't otherwise have contact with, because the "liking" often starts off a chain reaction! (If you've never seen a Facebook page, click here and you can see the one I created while writing this tutorial!)

So, if you're ready to create one of these awesome pages, log in to your Facebook account and follow along!

1. Click this link. (It will help to right click and open it in a new tab/window) You should see this:

2. Under category, choose "Brand, Product, or Organization" and then "Online Store"

3. Enter the name of your studio in this box:

4. Check the box that asks for authorization, and then type your full name in the signature box. ("Full name" means the exact name your Facebook account is under.)

5. Hit "Create Page". You should now see this:

6. Add information to your page like your avatar, product pictures, sales information, and website address. Once you start adding things, you will see this notice show up at the top of the page:

Be sure you click the "Publish this page" link so it's viewable to the world!

7. You've now created your Facebook page! Be sure (once you're done editing everything) that you invite all your friends to your page. To do this, hit the "Suggest to Friends" link under the main picture and follow along.(Remember to add yourself as a fan, too!)

♥

*As always, please let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics here! And please leave a link to your new page in the comments so I can become a fan!*