I’ve had a few people suggest I teach online classes about WordPress. And I thought, hmm… I think that would be fun. But what kind of stuff should be in the class? Yes, I know what “basics” should be covered — but what do people really want to know? What would they hope to gain from taking the class? So, now I’m reaching out to you — if you’re someone who would like to learn about WordPress, that is. I want you to give me your opinion.

Are you interested in a class on WordPress?

What would you like to learn?

Do you have any specific questions you’d like to be answered in class?

Would you like to know why the sky is blue? // Sorry, that won’t be covered in this class.

Shoot me an email: kayla@bellafaithdesign.com, leave a comment below or fill out the contact form & let me know what you’d like to learn.

And if you are interested, sign-up for the newsletter below – to stay up to date on WordPress class details!

]]> http://www.bellafaithdesign.com/2012/02/so-you-want-to-learn-wordpress/feed/ 1 http://www.bellafaithdesign.com/2011/02/yes-you-can-import-your-blog-to-your-notes-on-facebook/ http://www.bellafaithdesign.com/2011/02/yes-you-can-import-your-blog-to-your-notes-on-facebook/#comments Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:08:21 +0000 Kayla http://www.bellafaithdesign.com/?p=1135

I have written a few tutorials on how to import your blog posts into Facebook, however, one of them {here} is outdated. The other two tutorials were on using the RSS Graffiti App to import your blog posts directly onto your wall and onto your page’s wall.

Personally, I prefer to use the RSS Graffiti App to pull in my blog posts, but it has been brought to my attention that some people still prefer posting their blog posts to their Notes. Those same people are trying to figure out if Facebook even allows this function anymore.

Yes, this function does still exist in Facebook – it’s just harder to find than before. If you’re wanting Facebook to automatically post your blog posts in your Notes section, this tutorial is for you. {Please note: This tutorial is for adding blog posts to your personal Notes section. Please see Ken’s comment below on the steps for importing your posts to your page’s notes.}

Start at your Facebook home page

Look in your left sidebar for "Notes", if you don't see it, click on "More".

Click on "Notes".

At the top of the middle column, you'll see "Write a Note" - click on it.

Look in the left sidebar for "My Notes" - click on it.

Look in the left sidebar again, you should see "Edit import settings" - click on it.

Now you will need to enter your blog URL/address or your feed address. I recommend using a feedburner address. Check the box next to the permission statement - read it first. And then click "Start Importing".

If everything goes well, you'll receive this preview message of the imported blog. If you get an "Import Failed" message, scroll down to see what you should do. Otherwise, if everything looks okay click "Confirm".

Congratulations, your blog posts have been imported to your "Notes". Your "Notes" should look similar to this photo.

Hopefully, your importing went as smoothly as outlined in this tutorial. However, if it didn’t go smoothly and you received this error instead:

There are a couple different options for you.

• Keep trying: It took me 3 days to do this tutorial because I received this “Import Failed” message for the first 2 days. Finally, on the third day (today), I received the “Notes” preview message.
• Check validation of feed & contact Facebook: Enter your feed address at http://www.feedvalidator.org/ or http://validator.w3.org/feed/ to make sure it’s a valid feed. If it is, tell Facebook you’re having trouble at their “My Notes Won’t Import” form.

I do know that there used to be a lag time with how long it would take for your blog posts to show up in your Facebook notes. Sometimes it would take hours, days, or even weeks. I read on Facebook’s FAQ page for importing/exporting notes that it can take up to a few hours to import new posts. If your import is taking longer, contact Facebook. After my previous issues with the Notes app, I chose to go with RSS Graffiti, and I’m very happy with that app. However, for those of you who prefer posting to “Notes”, now you know that it’s still possible & how to set it up.

Are you tired of the posting delay when you use Facebook’s Blog/RSS import function? Sometimes it can be days or even weeks before Facebook will import your blog posts. Sure, there is a way to manually update your Facebook notes, but don’t you have enough things to do?

Thankfully, there is a Facebook application that you can use to import your blog posts where you determine how often it checks your blog for new posts. It is RSS Graffiti. I already did a tutorial on how to use RSS Graffiti for your business or organization Facebook page, but today I’ll show you how to use it for your personal profile. It is similar to using RSS Graffiti for your pages, but has less steps.

[*This may even be a solution for those of you who are getting the "The blog/rss url you entered is not valid. Please verify and try again." error when using the built-in Facebook Blog/RSS import function.]

Let’s get started…

Go to: http://apps.facebook.com/rssgraffiti/ [you will need to be logged in to Facebook]

Click on "Click here to grant this permission"

Click "Allow"

Click "Click here to allow publishing"

Click "Allow"

Click "Add feed"

Add your feed address in "Feed URL", a title for your feed in "Feed Name" and click "Save" - there are other options if you scroll down, but these are the only ones you need. By default, it will check your blog every 30 minutes for new posts and each post will include the title, a photo and an excerpt.

That’s it for setting up RSS Graffiti. However, if you were previously using the built-in Blog/RSS import, you will need to disable it. Otherwise, whenever the Facebook importer does decide to finally import your blog posts, you will have double blog posts on your profile. Maybe you’re okay with that, but your FB friends may not be as happy about it. So here’s how you disable the built-in FB importer:

Go to your Facebook profile & in the middle under where you add your status updates, click on "Options"

Click on "Settings"

Click on the "x" next to "Blog/RSS", and Voila! it's gone!

Do you have a Facebook page for your business or organization where you would like to have your blog posts automatically posted/imported? Fortunately, there is a simple solution, a Facebook app called RSS Graffiti.

There are a lot of options when using RSS Graffiti, but I’ll walk you through the basic set-up.

First, go to: http://www.facebook.com/RSS.Graffiti [you will need to be signed in to Facebook to follow the rest of the instructions]

[caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Click on "Add to my Page""]

A pop up window will appear, click "Add to Page" next to the page where you want to use the application.

If you have other pages, the pop up stays open & the page you added the application to disappears from the list. You can add the application to however many pages you want. When you are finished, click "Close".

Next, you need to go where you edit your pages. If you're unsure of how to get there, click on "Home" in the very top navigation to go to your Facebook home page. In the left sidebar under your picture, you'll see "Ads and Pages" click on it. If you have more than one page, you will have to select the page you are adding RSS Graffiti to, otherwise it will take you directly to the settings for your FB page.

This is what the edit/settings option looks like for your FB page. Scroll down until you find RSS Graffiti under the Applications section.

When you find RSS Graffiti, select "Edit".

You will be taken to a page that looks like this, select "Click here to authorize and continue"

Then, click "Click here to allow publishing"

Another pop up, choose "Allow"

Now that the permissions are set, it's time to add your feed address. Click on "Add feed"

Enter your feed address in the "Feed URL" & a title for your feed in "Feed Name" - The default settings will post your blog posts with title, excerpt & photo AND it will check your blog every 30 minutes for new posts. You can scroll down to edit these settings, like to change how often the app checks your blog for new blog posts, however the default settings are perfect for the average user. Once you have added the feed address, feed name and are happy with the settings, click "Save"

That’s it! Now, sit back, relax & let RSS Graffiti will do all the work for you!

What is a sticky post?

Essentially, it is a blog post that you stick to the top of your blog.

A blog is normally ordered by date, from the most recent blog post {at the top/beginning} to the oldest blog post {at the bottom/end}. A sticky post will be featured at the top of the blog {with the rest of your blog posts chronologically ordered below it}.

It is possible to have more than one sticky post at a time. If you have more than one sticky post, all sticky posts will be ordered by date {from most recent to oldest}, followed by the rest of your blog posts {in their normal dated order}.

Is it difficult to make a post sticky?

The good news for you WordPress users is that WP has built-in sticky-ness powers {you no longer need a plugin or custom code to get this feature)!

Before you follow the four simple steps I will show you in a moment, please make sure you have the most recent version of WordPress. At the time of this writing, the most recent version of WP is 2.9.2. You will know you have an outdated version if you have a message like this at the top of your WP dashboard:

The message reads "WordPress 2.9.2 is available! Please update now." (Click on this image to see a larger version.)

*For security reasons, you should always upgrade whenever there is a new version of WordPress. It is important you back-up your database before upgrading. If you need help with this, please contact me.

Here’s how to make a post sticky:

In the Publish area, click on "Edit" (in the Visibility line).

1. Check the box that says "Stick this post to the front page". 2. Click "OK". 3. Click on "Update Post".

That’s it! Your sticky post should now be displayed at the top of your blog. Any questions?

Note: For those of you with CSS skills, you can modify the look of the sticky posts by adding styles for .sticky {the class WordPress adds to sticky posts}.

I have wanted to add tutorials to my blog for some time now, and today I’m going to do just that. [Please bear with me, it is my first public tutorial.]

I’ve had a lot of requests lately for importing blog posts to Facebook pages and profiles. Today, I’m going to show you how to import your blog posts to your facebook notes.

On your profile page, click on "Options".

When you click on "Options", it is replaced by "Settings". Now click on "Settings".

Then click on "Blog/RSS".

Type in your rss feed address & click on "Import".

That's it! Now your blog posts will be imported to your Facebook Notes.

Facebook will automatically check your RSS feed & import new posts when they are published. It is important to note that sometimes there is a delay {sometimes even a few days} with Facebook actually checking and pulling in the content. If you notice this, you can just wait for Facebook to do it’s thing, or you can manually update the notes. Here’s how:

First, make sure you are on your profile page & follow the steps above to click on “Options” → “Settings” → “Blog/RSS” and then:

Click on "Update Now".

Before I wrap up this tutorial, there is one more thing I want to share with you. By default, when you set up to import blog posts to your Facebook Notes, it will automatically publish new posts to your wall {so they’ll show up in your friends’ news feeds}. However, since there can be a delay from when you publish your blog posts {on your blog} to when they appear in your FB {Facebook} Notes, I prefer to use RSS Grafitti to publish blog posts to FB pages and walls.

RSS Grafitti is an awesome FB application that you can easily set up to check your blog every 30 minutes. It will check your blog every 30 minutes {or whatever time range you select}, and publish your new blog posts to your wall or FB page.

Now, if you’re like me and choose to set up RSS Grafitti, each blog post will post twice to your wall {whenever FB gets around to updating your imported Notes}. If you don’t like the duplicate wall content, you can set FB Notes to not publish to your wall. Here’s how:

Click on "Account" and then "Application Settings".

Look for Notes in your list of applications. Click on the "Edit Settings" for Notes.

Click on the "Additional Permissions" tab. Click on the checkbox that is checked for "Publish Content to My Wall" (so make sure it is unchecked as pictured). Then click "Okay".

So there it is, my first official tutorial. Since I’m planning on adding more tutorials on various topics, I’d greatly appreciate your honest feedback. Afterall, I do want these to be helpful. Also, let me know if you prefer written tutorials {like this one} or video tutorials {with text/audio/both?}.

If, after reading this tutorial, you’d just rather donate to my coffee fund & have me set up your Blog→FB importing, you can contact me here. Thanks!