Keeping With The Times

living, learning, and keeping with the times

Five Things Friday | April 28

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Welcome to Five Things Friday where I share what I’m reading, watching, eating, making, or just plain loving at the moment.

Ah, the weeks do fly by don’t they? I was hoping to post to my blog more this week but it didn’t happen. Instead I binged on soap operas, sat down at the lake watching the world come alive, and went to bed early most nights. It must have been just what I needed, as this morning I’m feeling more energized and organized than I have in weeks.

I made a sweet little succulent wreath before we left Arizona. I had a couple pots with lots of little plants and it was “off with their heads” so I could play. I have to tell you that it was a LOT of fun! Never would I have chopped up my succulents unless I knew I was going to have to leave them behind and that they would die anyway. Liberating!Five Things Friday, Succulent Wreath, Barb Brookbank, Keeping With the TimesIt’s been a cold, snowy April in Alberta this year and I was hoping to pick a few more pussy willows for a wreath. However, for some reason I was drawn to the ones that were already popping …Five Things Friday, Pussywillow , Barb Brookbank, Keeping With the TimesApparently we’ve had more snow this April than we’ve had in 80 years! Don’t quote me, but I heard it on the news so it must be true ;)

And then there were the geese …

Geese Landing on Lake from Barb Brookbank on Vimeo.

OK, so let’s get on with it shall we?

Five Things Friday | April 28

What I’m Watching

The Young and the Restless (sorry ;)

What I’m Listening To

I’ve been listening to a few podcasts by Sara Tasker at Me & Orla. I really enjoyed her interview with Xanthe Berkeley about The Power of Personal Projects. Quite inspiring really.

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OK, thank you for acknowledging my intelligence 79 Melodie and I’m happy you think I should be more neatly appreciated ;)

What I Discovered

I discovered that I need to take more control of my blog! Since I had someone update my theme about a year ago, I literally let go of the reins and became very afraid to tweak anything. For an entire year my WordPress Gallery did not work and I figured it was because of the new theme.

Hmmm … turns out all I had to do was go and reinstall the plugin. Talk about an “aha” moment … and a bit of a “what a dummy head smack moment” as well.

You can see how a gallery works, and how it can benefit your blog, at the end of this post.

My Gratitude Journal

  • SO grateful to be home sweet home
  • Our lake levels are up this year due to all the snow we’ve had
  • Becoming the boss of my blog once again
  • It’s time to get back to playing at my lovely potting benches
  • Bits of green poking up here and there (mostly daylilies)
  • I do believe the sun is poking out even as I type this
  • The Phantom of the Opera is coming to Edmonton! I’ve only seen it four times already … but, you can never see the Phantom too many times :)

So that’s it for Five Things Friday Folks! Have a lovely weekend.

If you liked this post, you might also like these:

SEO Friendly Blog Post Part I

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Welcome to Part I of my series on how to write an SEO friendly blog post. Why would you care about SEO? It may not be a top priority for you, but it can’t hurt to try writing with it in mind.

I’m using WordPress but you could apply this with any blogging platform. Just Google it (insert smiley face) and you will find all the advice you need. I’m simply sharing my experience.

Friendly-Blog-Post

I recently employed the help of a “tech guy” to assist me in keeping WordPress and the Genesis framework updated, as well as all plugins, widgets and gadgets … he’s also helping me navigate the confusing landscape of Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. I tell you, some of the questions I asked … he must have had more than a few chuckles … I know I did (at myself)…

If this sounds dry, well maybe it is. But the reason I blog is to “keep with the times” as well as “learn something new, try something different“.

When my blog was updated and I went to write my first post, I was surprised to see a checklist that was interactive. At first my SEO was bad but as I wrote and re-wrote, eventually it gave me a good rating. I didn’t go for the best because there was one item that I didn’t feel suited my style. Good is good enough for me and I want to remain authentic.

WordPress SEO Friendly Checklist

Choose a focus keyword for your post and then keep writing until you get a “yes” for all these points.

Your focus keyword was found in:

  • Article Heading: Yes
  • Page title: Yes
  • Page URL: Yes
  • Content: Yes
  • Meta description: Yes

… so that concludes Part I of my series. For professional advice, check out this article from Yoast.

So, can you tell what my focus keyword is? This is the first post for me that scored 100%. Join me next time where I’ll divulge my “test” results, complete with a screenshot!

I really hope this has piqued your interest and that I’ll see you for Part II!

Sorry … comments are OFF due to SPAM! arghhhh!

 

How to Create a Project Gallery Part III

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How-to-Create-a-Project-Gallery-in-WordPress-Part-III

If you’re new to this series, I’d suggest that you check out Part I, and Part II, before continuing on.

Create a Page

  • From the Dashboard, choose Pages > Add New, and give it a name. I’m calling mine PIES.
  • Click Publish. Don’t worry, it won’t automatically appear on your blog.

Create a Gallery

  • Open your blog in another tab on your browser. Navigate to a post that you want to link to the Gallery, and copy the URL.
  • Go back to the Page and click Add Media, then click on the Media Library tab. Find the image that goes with that post. You can search for an image and it’s especially easy if you gave that image a descriptive name when you saved it. I searched for “pear” and this is what popped up.
  • Click on the image you want to use as a thumbnail to select it.

WordPress Gallery Tutorial

  • In the Attachment Details, paste the URL in the Gallery Link URL box.
  • Choose New Window for the Gallery Link Target. You always want to open links in a new window – always!
  • IMPORTANT: Because this is the first link, you have to click Create Gallery on the LEFT Side of the screen, and then once you have all the information filled in, click Create a new gallery in the Attachment Details (as shown in the image below).

Create a WordPress Gallery

  •  You will be taken back to the Page and you should see the thumbnail.
  • Click on Caption this Image, and give it a name.

WordPress Gallery Tutorial

  • In the Gallery Settings, choose Link to Attachment Page.
  • Choose the number of columns that you want. I like to have 5 columns.

WordPress Gallery Tutorial

  • In the Attachment Details, click Insert Gallery.
  • You will be taken back to the page, and a blue box will have appeared. This is your gallery.

WordPress Gallery Tutorial

Edit the Gallery and Add More Links

  • Click on the Blue Box to activate the Gallery and then click on the Edit Gallery Button that appears (not the red Delete Symbol!)

WordPress Gallery Tutorial

  • Click Add to Gallery, then repeat the same steps to add the rest of your links as desired. Click Update Gallery when you are finished, then Update your Page.

Add The Page to the Menu Bar

  • Choose Appearance > Menus. In the Pages dialog box, click the box next to (PIES) “Your Page Name” to select it and choose Add to Menu.
  • Click Save Menu. Go to your blog (refresh the page) and check it out, you should now see the new Page on the Menu Bar. Congratulations! that’s the start of your first gallery!

So there you go! That’s how to create a Gallery in WordPress using the WordPress Gallery Links plugin.

How to Create a Project Gallery Part II

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In Part I of my series on setting up a Project Gallery, I went over some reasons on why it is a good idea to have one, and what you can do with it.

Today I’m going to give an overview of the process, and outline the steps because there are quite a few (but don’t be put off by that).

Slow and steady.

Create a project gallery using the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin.

But first, I want to talk a little bit about the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin vs Inlinkz.

I’ve used InLinkz (Project Manager) since I started my blog in 2010. I was on Blogger at that time and then migrated to WordPress in January of 2013. Inlinkz came with me and I have to say it is a really great tool. It has a lot of different applications but I use it solely to create galleries. So what’s the big difference? Well for me, it’s ease of use, and control.

InLinkz is an off-site application where I go and create a database of links that point to my blog. I go to InLinkz, sign in, add my links, get the code, copy the code and then paste it into a page in my blog. On a side-note, InLinkz charges for some of their services and indeed they should. Someone has to bring home the bacon, right? And I would pay for it if I was going to continue using it. Right now I have 74 free links to go, after that I have to pay a monthly fee. No big deal, but …

The WP Gallery Custom Links plugin is installed on my blog. It’s free (but you can make a donation to the developers), and I don’t have to leave my blog. I have complete control of my links and my images. All the images that are on my blog are now saved on the server at HostGator. My blog is self-hosted; it’s not a WordPress.com blog (there’s a big difference).

OK! Enough of all that. As promised, here’s an overview of where I’m going with all of this!

  1. Download and install the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin.
  2. Create a Page.
  3. Add the Page to the Menu Bar.
  4. Create a Gallery.
  5. Add more images to the Gallery.
  6. Add another Gallery to the Same Page.
  7. Create a drop-down Menu.

First of all, if you haven’t already, back up your blog!!

How to Create a Project Gallery using the WP Gallery Custom Links Plugin

Download and install the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin:

  • Go to the Dashboard.
  • Click Plugins.
  • Choose Add New.
  • Search for WP Gallery Custom Links.
  • Click Install Now. That’s it! It’s installed and you are ready to go.

So that concludes Part II of my series. Please join me on Friday where we will really get down to business!

Hope to see you then!

How to Create a Project Gallery Part III

How to Create a Project Gallery (and 5 Reasons You Should Have One)

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Today I want to talk about how to create a project gallery using the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin, and why you should use galleries.How to create a project gallery using WP Gallery Custom Links Plugin, Keeping With the Times, Blogging Bits and Bytes, WordPress

Many of us have some type of navigation system, typically situated at the top of our blogs in the form of tabs, or pages, etc.

There are also Archives, or Categories, or Search Functions, which are usually found in the sidebar. These are all fantastic tools to help your reader find what they are looking for.

A Project Gallery is simply another way to organize and promote your work, and is used for many of the same reasons as Archives, etc.

So why should you have a Project Gallery?

  1. Your best posts aren’t lost forever. You put a lot of work into them, why should they have only 15 minutes of fame?
  2. It gives readers a convenient visual tool, and people respond better to visual prompts.
  3. It keeps you organized.
  4. It’s not just for home projects or recipes. I also use it to organize Blogging Tips, Photoshop Tips, Word Art, and Photo Art.
  5. If done right, it adds a feeling of professionalism to a blog.

My blog is set up using the Genesis Framework and the Lifestyle Child Theme.

In a series of posts, I’m going to share how I created a Project Gallery (with drop-down capabilities) in WordPress using the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin. I am not a technical guru or an expert in WordPress, or the WP Gallery Custom Links plugin. This is based solely on my experience. Please take that under consideration before doing anything drastic to your blog!! Oh, and make sure to back up your blog before installing any new plugins!!

This is an example of what you can do with this plugin. You can put a Project Gallery anywhere (well, almost anywhere).

My Arizona Holiday (click on an image to be taken to that post)

So that concludes Day 1 of my series on Creating a Project Gallery.

Please come back on Wednesday, where I’ll go over my thoughts on InLinkz vs. this plugin. At the moment I’m using both systems, but I’m slowly drawing away from InLinkz and I’ll tell you why. BTW, I think InLinkz is a fantastic tool, I’m just ready to move on.

In the meantime, back up your blog!!!! I can’t stress that enough. It’s just good practice.

How to Create a Project Gallery Part II

A Helpful Little Blogging Tip

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squirrel1

A little visitor at our bird feeder yesterday.

The other day I was looking through Google Reader and saw a post by fellow blogger, Jennifer at Town & Country Living. She  had recently moved her blog to WordPress and knew that she wasn’t showing up in people’s blog rolls as a result (and I know that for sure because I hadn’t seen her for a while). You see, for some of us, when we move to WordPress – our followers from Google Friend Connect can’t see our feeds any more (so sad…)

Then how could I have seen her post, you may ask…

She had simply gone back to her Blogger dashboard and published a post from there! I just about fell off my chair… you mean you can do that? I thought “how brilliant”!

I immediately went to her WordPress blog and left a comment about how I had found her, and then I re-subscribed to her new feed.

We had a little discussion and she encouraged me to try it for myself. Since she had been subscribed to my old Blogger blog, she said she should be able to see it.

I signed into my old account, wrote a post about how I had moved my blog to WordPress, where to find me at my new address – www.keepingwiththetimes.com and published it. And guess what? she could see it – plain as day! Eureka!! Since then I’ve had several friends visit me and tell me that they had been wondering where I went and were glad to have found their way back.

So for the next few months I’m going to have to publish the odd post to Blogger to remind people that I haven’t dropped off the edge of the earth – I’m simply at a new address and to please, please come see me.

If you’ve moved your blog from Blogger – perhaps this little tip is just what you were looking for! If something I wrote here isn’t clear –  please give me a shout and I will try to answer your questions!