The Blog Studio

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Expression Engine is a flexible, feature filled web publishing tool that we love using here at The Blog Studio. If you’re not familiar with this content management system, take a peek at their website and check out how feature rich this system really is.

For all you new users download our getting started guide here --> Basic Guide to Expression Engine. This guide covers a few of the essential basics to help get you started & comfortable with the control panel.

We will update the guide as feedback pours in - so please feel free to leave you questions or comments.

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Back in October we posted a WordPress tutorial for version 2.6.2.  Mike created another guide for Version 2.7 since it looks quite different.

Link to the guide: TBS-Wordpress_Walkthrough-2.7-V1_.pdf - it covers all the essentials for someone who is unfamiliar with WordPress 2.7.

Some of the great new features of WordPress version 2.7 are:

• Stick Post to Front Page - you can select this option and the post will stay to the top of the front page.
• Quick Edit - this function allows you to quickly edit any context excluding the body of the post without having to load the page
• Quick Press - allows you to post right from the dashboard if you only need access to the title, body, tags & upload function.
• Mass Editing - you can now edit categories, tags, status etc… of multi posts at the same time.
• Screen Options - allows you to choose what items you want visible on the pages of the control panel. You can strip an entire post page to only show the title and body.
• Pagination of Comments is built in to the theme
• Dashboard - you can reply to comments & are reminded of drafts directly from the dashboard
• Comments - you can reply to comments from the Comment admin area
• Threaded Comments - makes discussions easier to follow

We will update the guide as feedback pours in - so please feel free to leave your questions or comments.

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Ok people, what’s the etiquette for editing a post?

Let’s say you post something to a site. A couple of days later you re-read it, and cringe at some particularly clumsy turn of phrase. What do you do?  For the sake of argument, let’s assume you’re not changing the value or meaning of your post. You’re just making it read better. Do you:

A. Just go in and fix the section.
B. Leave it be if it’s an hour or so since hitting publish.
C. Edit the post, but include a note.
D. Somethin’ else.

I’m leaning towards A myself, but I’m sufficiently unsure as to write this post!

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Bloggers: I am your target market. I am the person you want to have reading your content. But guess what? I’m overwhelmed. The web is incredibly noisy and filled with eye candy.

To get me to read your posts, they must follow these rules:

• Use excellent typography and be easy to read.


• If you use images, make them large and sprinkle them throughout the text.


• Use video whenever possible. It’s nearly impossible for me not to click the play button.


• Make regular use of headings.


• Use bold and italic to make it easy to pick out key words as I skim. I skim a body of text before I decide to read it. Give me a reason to double back and read your words.


• Use lists


• Be as brief as possible.

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Over on my personal blog, I’m posting a series looking into the redesign and re-thinking of that site. It’s an interesting process. To date, I’ve just posted some shots of my notes. For anyone interested in what goes on a redesign though, it will give you some pretty deep insight as the series continues.

Here are a couple of shots:

If you want to check out the series, here’s part 1 and part 2. I’ll update this post, so feel free to bookmark this!