How can we improve our blog?

Bryan6483

452 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
I need an easier way to add photos to my blog..

I would like to try using the blog feature with my site. I need to post some pictures of my work but when I click on the insert photo icon it puts up a screen to prompt me for my pictures. It requires a photo url. My photos that I want to use are stored on my computer and do not have a url. I just want to take them right from my hard drive just like I do when I use my blogger.com blog but I don't see a way to do that. Can anybody help me out with this?

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2014-05-31T04:44:51+00:00

Mike F., Alum

184,478 Points

Bryan6483 and Mary3106, Since the blog requires a photo url, you need to upload the image to the server. This is easily done by importing the image to the file manager. This page shows how to add photos to the file manager for the blog.

2014-09-19T01:23:00+00:00

Mary3106

366 Points

I'm with Mary, you're missing the whole point. Sure with enough jumping through the hoops I can do all kinds of loading, but don't make me do it. This is a pain and time consuming. I have a business to run and I don't have the time or patience to mess around with such an archaic loading sequence. Make it a simple drag and drop and we'll all be happy!

2014-09-19T11:35:39+00:00

Drew N, Community Manager

262,450 Points

We agree with you as well. We are simply trying to give you the simplest way to do it now.

Thanks for the feedback.

2018-06-29T22:25:42+00:00

1,086 Points

How about adding visitor comments to a blog - just like this Homestead Help (or like Facebook) - Visitors would be able to give their views on the subject at hand - The only option I see is to use a Guest Book and Post each subject on a new page then add a Guestbook to each page - however NOT VERY PROFESSIONAL - eh

2018-06-29T23:46:07+00:00

Todd H, Social Media Specialist

20,534 Points

You might be able to get a comment section with HTML, I believe Facebook has something you can embed for your Sitebuilder Plus site. However, the newer editor WebsiteBuilder has a blog you can create that has a comment section underneath, and also has a Facebook Comments element you can add to your pages. It is one of the Social elements.

Pam7996

252 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Blog Help.

I have read through the other issues on blog development. My website will be stronger with a blog that is well integrated on my site (which I am paying for already through Homestead). As such, I am confounded that your answers consistently say that as customers we should either integrate a wordpress or blogger version instead of the one you have. Firstly, I cannot completely figure out how to bring either blog over effectively, and secondly I'd rather you gave yours a significant upgrade. I've been paying for a Homestead site for years, and am conflicted about staying here given the bulky nature of the interface after all this time, and this blog issue.

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4 people like this

2018-06-29T22:27:50+00:00

1,086 Points

I agree

Luther6300

372 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Sharing blog posts.

Is it possible to add links to the end of blog posts to make it easy for viewers to share the post to Facebook or LinkedIn?

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5 people like this

2014-05-29T18:21:35+00:00

Cassandra S

294 Points

This is the #1 blog issue I'd like to see changed. I hate having to post and then go back and manually add facebook and twitter links. It's a pain in the butt work-around that shouldn't even be necessary. A little modification to the blog features should allow it to automate this information.

2014-05-29T19:24:28+00:00

Mike F., Alum

184,478 Points

Thanks for your comments.

2016-03-07T01:48:22+00:00

Luther6300

372 Points

I like the one-stop-shop for blog issues. I looked today and my blog doesn't want to show up. When I preview the page in SiteBuilder it shows up (just with placeholder text) but loading the page straight from the internet doesn't work.

2016-03-07T12:14:02+00:00

Drew N, Community Manager

262,450 Points

It seems to be loading now. Let us know if you still have an issue.

2018-06-29T22:33:44+00:00

1,086 Points

Besides when you link your Blog to FB or Linkedin you and someone makes a comment it does help your SEO much because you only get the one hit (page count) when they come to your Blog all the hits to other sites do not count for you nor the time they spend on commenting - These are points that could help your SEO.

George0083

276 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Blog Comments: CAPTCHA too difficult..

The CAPTCHA entry feature for blog comments is much too tough to use. It often just keeps rejecting entries and many of my readers are just giving up. .

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tamara

498 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
How can customers post in my blog?.

I want clients to start their own topics and questions

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Ngan9397

262 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Add an option to allow videos within a homestead blog..

Is there a way to embed video within the blog? Would it work to upload the video to YouTube, and then use that html code in a blog entry?

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4 people like this

2014-09-17T01:49:52+00:00

Intuitive Ladies

478 Points

yes embed youtube html. If you have issues check the code and remove anything that looks like homestead.com in the code.

Tedia3946

846 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Is there a way to allow visitors to share my content?.

Is there a way to allow visitors to share my content? I received a complaint that a visitor was trying to share my blog post from a mobile device and couldn't. I don't see anything I can add to my site to enable someone to email a link to someone - all buttons seem to only be directed to a specific email I set, and will not allow me to allow a visitor to send a link or content to their designee... Is there a way to enable sharing?

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2 people like this

Gail6062

172 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Multiple Blogs.

Can I create more than one blog using the blog feature on my homestead website? We work in several industries and I'd like to have industry-focused blogs for each sector.

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Drew N, Community Manager

262,524 Points

If you have other ideas, please add them here.

Thanks

Drew

Comment

John1845

300 Points

I think it is completely unthinkable that we can not post videos to our blogs. Why in the world would a blog be available to us that does not have the ability to imbed a video? It makes no sense. Also being able to share more easily with social media needs to be addressed, in my strong opinion. The only reason why I am still using homestead is because I inherited it, and our company has been using it for so long. However when I start comparing it to other services, it is in many ways substandard service we are all receiving. Homestead is sending a message that they are not willing to keep up with the times, and eventually it is going to bite them because they will not be making new users, and faithful users are being forced to change service providers to stay current. I advocate that videos should be made available and social media tools should be made available.

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1 person likes this

2014-09-17T01:46:41+00:00

Intuitive Ladies

478 Points

For most things on my homestead site I use a 3rd party service, one of them is AddThis.com you can set up and style all of your social media buttons and place them on your pages via HTML as I have on the top & bottom of my homepage at AcrossTheRealms.com. Another similar site I found was ShareThis.com. Lastly I upgraded to blogger, mapped a sub-domain blog.acrosstherealms.com and made it so that if you click on blog you are re-directed to our blogger blog were I again added my social media buttons. We get 2000+ visits a day though blogger + you have several widget options i.e photo, video and your post titles are automatically arranged for you so, in my option its worth the added effort. You can however embed a video on your homestead blog with the youtube embed code pasted into your HTML when you create your blog post in site edit (there are other forums about this).

2014-09-17T16:24:00+00:00

John1845

300 Points

Thank you for this great info. I will put it to good use.

Mike F., Alum

184,478 Points

John1845, You can add a video to your blog by uploading the video file into your file manager, publishing the file and then add the following code in the blog post.

Visit the following page for detailed steps: Can I add an HTML5 video to my site?

<video autoplay controls preload="auto" width="428" height="240" name="myvideo" id="myvideo">
<source src="yourvideo.mp4" type="video/mp4" />
<source src="yourvideo.m4v" type="video/mp4" />
<source src="yourvideo.ogv" type="video/ogg" />
<source src="yourvideo.webm" type="video/webm" />
*Your web browser does not support HTML5 video*
</video><br>

Unfortunately this seems to work on all browsers except IE. This script utilizes the newer HTML5 which seems to be supported by all the major browsers and our SiteBuilder Plus software but not Internet Explorer.

(Edited)

Comment

2014-09-17T16:30:43+00:00

John1845

300 Points

Thank you so much for your response. I am excited to try this out I have been wanting to post videos to my blog for some time now. Thank you, thank you!

2014-09-17T16:49:58+00:00

Mike F., Alum

184,478 Points

You're welcome. On a similar subject, here are steps if you wish to use the HTML5 method for audio clips as well: Can I play an audio file using HTML5 in SiteBuilder?

Mike

Sarah5434

648 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Why is the homestead.com blog infinitely better than what is available to us payi....

I would really appreciate a more modern blog interface, both for me and for my site visitors. The small business blog that homestead.com uses looks awesome - why are we not able as customers to have that same functionality?

It would be great to have:
tags/categories
archive
other typical blog features that are lacking at the moment.

Thanks!

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1 person likes this

2015-01-05T15:58:16+00:00

Drew N, Community Manager

262,450 Points

We are currently upgrading many back end systems to provide a more modern platform from which we should be able to make some needed enhancements to your web services.

2015-01-05T16:14:08+00:00

Sarah5434

648 Points

Any ETA? Also, one I forgot the other day, allowing people to subscribe to the blog.

2015-07-21T02:30:49+00:00

Bryon7394

912 Points

Typical homestead, 6 months later, and not one single improvement.

554 Points

Hi, well I am working on making my own blog menu on separate page but getting urls wrong here is the page working on http://www.christiangentilemag.net/Menu.html got one main catergories then sub catergories I am working on be easier for my readers find once fixed which will keep them coming back people love easy access will have other holidays in there but first must fix links before moving on

Comment

2015-04-27T00:34:27+00:00

554 Points

be nice have something like that with drop down menu select catorgires you want then shpws it along with sub catorgaries cause getting the right url pain in the but but did fix them add more later

2015-05-01T03:36:00+00:00

554 Points

I know I don't want people adding new blog posts on mine all for the rest

2015-05-01T15:37:39+00:00

William S

18,878 Points

Sounds good. We will add your recommendation to the existing blog improvement request we have with our developers. We really appreciate the feedback and ideas.

2015-05-01T19:18:29+00:00

554 Points

no problem viewers love easy access to things and easy find I find the blog very hard to find thing which could impact ratting of your users websites which not good for us or ya'll

Elisa9404

224 Points

While we are on the topic of upgrading the blog platform, it would be great if there was a way to enter the blog post, and then schedule the post to publish on a specified date and time. I typically write blog posts in bunches, and it would be awesome to schedule the posts as soon as I am finished writing them, rather than letting them sit as a draft until the day I want to post. Thanks,

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Elisa9404

224 Points

Do you have a weekly or monthly newsletter that you send to clients that announce what's new and how it might help us? This would cut down on a lot of searching for answers for many folks. For example the video in the blog request (an easier option than the work-around provided) is over a year old...thoughts on such an idea? Is there one already? Thank you!

Comment

2015-07-21T18:23:58+00:00

William S

18,878 Points

Hello,

I do apologize for the long wait, but at the time we do not have an ETA when any changes would be implemented. We will notify the community with an update when we hear about new features being added.

Kimara0309

162 Points

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Menus of blog topics.

This would be good if someone is on your site for one blog then they see the title of another that is of interest.

Comment

3 years ago

Robert Meagher

2,310 Points

Hello Drew and Homestead BLOG improvement team. I have been watching this discussion closely and want to thank you for your responsiveness to all customer suggestions. It has been some time since we had an update in regard to if and when Homestead will be offering an update/upgrade to its current BLOG feature. Can you provide us with an update? Can Homestead customers look forward to an updated BLOG feature in this calendar year?...or can we look forward to have something new in 2016?

Comment

1 person likes this

3 years ago

Jennifer3538

1,832 Points

How do I respond to my customer's comments on my blog? Currently I'm just posting my own comment (frustrating with the ridiculously difficult captcha) with their name. Is there a better way to respond?

Comment

2016-01-26T19:48:18+00:00

Todd H, Social Media Specialist

20,534 Points

There is not a way to reply directly to the person who left a comment on your blog unfortunately.

2 years ago

Kathy2323

502 Points

I created another idea topic called 'Blog Enhancement Timeline' and consolidated the requests originally listed here as well as from other postings. This is the consolidated list that I have at this time.

1. Provide the ability to post Blog directly to social media. It's counterproductive to have to go to the social media site and post a link back to the Blog.

2.Provide the ability for customers to subscribe to the blog so they get notified when a new post is created

3.Provide the ability to manage Blog comments. Examples include notification and acceptance or not, prior to a comment being publicly posted, as well as a request for name/email. Ability to respond to customer's comments rather than just posting another comment. on my blog?

4.Simplify the process of adding an image or video. Create a more user friendly experience.

5.Create a mobile friendly interface for posting new blogs

6. Provide the ability to schedule posts to publish on a specified date and time.

7. Provide the ability to have 2 or more different blogs on a single site

8. Provide the ability to be able to create a new topic on a blog rather than simply comment on topics I create.

9. Simplify the CAPTCHA(challenge phrase). Can it be made easier or be toggled off?

Comment

4 people like this

2017-05-01T14:18:38+00:00

Brian4612, Champion

32,244 Points

Gets my vote Kathy, but would comment on a couple of things. 2) not started my blog yet but I seem to remember a subscribe option in there and 9) Captcha is a painful process, even the latest version with photographs BUT in view of the amount of spammers out there searching for emails, I would like some form of challenge phrase.

2017-06-26T19:18:09+00:00

Christine9434

686 Points

Thank you for this. I am especially waiting on #3. What is the current development status/timeline of these requests? Some of the features had already been available in the old builder.

2 years ago