Students registering for the January session of the blogging studio course, Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune will have the opportunity to win a free premium theme from StudioPress. Over the holidays, StudioPress had a contest for a free premium theme and I won! Lucky me

I already have a Pro Plus All Theme membership for my freelance work so I already own all of the themes. So, I asked permission to transfer the theme to a lucky student and StudioPress graciously agreed. On January 16, I will randomly select a student from the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class to receive a free premium theme. The lucky student will be able to select any theme from StudioPress that best meets their needs.

In the Blogging Basics course, we focus on the widely available free themes but there are some situations where a premium theme can be advantageous. This is particularly true for photoblogs and for when you want your blog to be an integrated part of your web site. You can utilize WordPress to control your entire web site with one of these quality themes.

These themes retail for an average of $60, so don’t miss out on this opportunity. Registration closes on January 6th, so register at LVS Online today!

Welcome to Week Six: Tags and Categories with Lorelle VanFossen

In this week’s session, we’re going to talk about blog categories and tags.

As you go through the exercises listed below, use the following three step filter:

Your tags and categories must:

1. Group related content into “bodies of work”
2. Provide navigation to related content
3. Send a clear message about your blog’s content

As recommended in the tags and categories class notes, take each task one at a time before reading the next one.

• TASK 1: Make a list of all the words that describe your blog subject. List a minimum of 25 words or phrases.
• TASK 2: Cull down the list of descriptive words and phrases to 5-10 “groups” representing the words on the list.
• TASK 3: Edit your blog category list to represent the post content within each category.
• TASK 4: Edit your blog category list to represent keywords and search terms best representative of the post content within each category.
• TASK 6: Write FIVE blog post titles/ideas under each category.
• TASK 7: Re-examine your brainstorm list. These are now your post tags, the descriptive words that described the meta data of your post content. They are your blog keywords.
• TASK 8: List the tag words for the featured blog post content in the class document.
• TASK 9: Share the lessons learned about rethinking your blog categories here, on the boards, and/or on your blog and link us.
• Optional: Upload and share your Wordle image.

For more specifics, see the class notes.

Remember, a tag can be any link:

<a href="http://example.com/" rel="tag">Example</a>

Tags are the link text (anchor text):

<a title="Example of Example" href="http://example.com/" rel="tag">Example</a>

I’ve scattered some tag links throughout this blog post. Look at the page source code to see how many you can find.

Open for Discussion

I get a lot of questions about tags and categories. They are an often misunderstood bloggy beast. To start us off, here are two of the most common questions I am asked about tags and categories.

What’s the difference in WordPress between a tag and a category?

WordPress only supported categories for a long time, long before other blogging platforms offered them. When Technorati started their blog post taxonomy (tags) directory, tags for labeling content by micro data categorization came into popularity. By adding rel="tag" to any link, that link text became a tag.

WordPress Themes added the rel="tag" to categories soon afterwards, but resisted the notion of adding tags. Tagging post content is not as easy as it may seem. Tags are designed to not only categorize content, they must be searchable and able to be accessed in a variety of ways, such as related content (synonyms).

When tags were finally introduced to WordPress by popular demand, WordPress kept categories as tags and tags were tags, all identified by the rel="tag" as tags, since it didn’t matter to Technorati if the keyword was a tag or category – any link with that relevance attribute was a “tag.” WordPress users were very confused.

In general, WordPress creates a “search results” page listing the posts in chronological order when the user clicks upon a tag or a category. The page title changes, identifying it as a tag or category pageview, but the results are basically the same. If you are using a WordPress Plugin which displays post content using tags, such as related content, related post titles can be displayed on the post itself (usually in the post meta data area with the date and other information), or on the sidebar. Tag clouds are show on Pages or often found in the sidebar, header, or even the footer.

I use WordPress.com and do not want my tags to link to everyone’s content. How do I change that?

As a fellow blogger on WordPress.com, I totally sympathize. I’ve nagged the staff for years to permit global (off-site) and local (on-site) tagging options, but so far, the response has been to set all WordPress.com post tags to global only. The theory is that this increases the exposure of your blog content for those who search those tag pages or use those keywords.

Personally, I hate it and rarely use them. This means I have to manually create my own site search tags. I do so at the bottom of most of my blog posts using a JavaScript Browser Bookmarklet described in A Tagging Bookmarklet for WordPress and WordPress.com Users. The JavaScript creates a set of links with tag words that link to a site search of my site.

I recommend that if you are frustrated by the lack of a local tagging option, you join me in passing on your thoughts through the WordPress.com feedback.

Now, it’s your turn. How can I help you learn more about tags and categories and how to categorize and structure your blog post content?

Greetings current and potential students and alumni! It is time for me to start planning the topics to be covered for the November session of Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune. I have a bunch of ideas brewing from my experiences at WordCamp Portland and my experiences from organizing WordCamp Seattle but I want to hear from YOU!
Please add your suggestions, wants, wishes and desires to the comments of this post by October 16, 2009.

Mark J. Carter is the founder of TweetNetworking, LLC and ONE80, LLC. He ran Chicago’s first Twestival (an international event in 150+ cities) and is currently running Chicago’s second Twestival.  He regularly trains companies and individuals how to get real results with social media.

With regards to current social media projects: Currently Carter is Director of Social Media for “Saving The World”; a web community founded by NY Times Bestselling author Tim Sanders and runs a social media team for OfficePort; a new, 15,000 square foot “coworking” space in Chicago.

He maintains three Twitter accounts (personal (@mjcarter), cause related (@ChiTwestival) and for a brick & mortar company (@OfficePort) as well as 5 successful Facebook groups and business pages including the TweetNetworking Facebook group (over 1,500 members)

Carter’s social media companies started offline (consulting about how to create pivotal and profitable relationships) and then grew online by applying 7 years of “been-there-done-that” results with business networking/referral systems in the social media realm: How to use Twitter, Facebook and blogs to build your business and brand.

In addition to his consulting business Carter is also the founder of ‘Networking For A Cause’ which solves problems for nonprofits by connecting them with young professionals that can help and: The Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance; an organization that provides an environment for entrepreneurs to learn from mentors, build momentum and thrive.

I am so pleased to announce that Lorelle VanFossen,  aka the Fairy Blog Mother, will be a guest instructor for the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class at LVS Online this coming session!

Lorelle VanFossen has been around the WordPress and WordCamp map. She’s presented keynotes and programs at WordCamps in Israel, San Francisco, Hawaii, Dallas, Toronto, Whistler, Portland, and will be speaking in Holland, Israel, and other places in the world in the next few months. She is the host of the Lorelle on WordPress, providing WordPress and blogging tips for bloggers of all levels, and a long time contributor to the Blog Herald. A web publishing consultant, she also serves as the editor-in-chief of Woopra, the hot new web analtyics program that is changing the web, and works with Bitwire Media and hosts the Liz and Lorelle Show podcast with Liz Strauss and featured contributor on WordCast, the WordPress podcast with Dave Moyer and Kym Huynh. Lorelle is the author of the fast-selling book, “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging”.

Lorelle VanFossen will be a guest instructor, presenting the content for one of the lessons in this six week blogging studio. In addition  to providing her expertise, insight and humor during the written lesson, Lorelle will be available that week of the course to answer your questions on the class message board. This is a great opportunity to interact with Lorelle and I am so grateful that she will be joining us this session.

The first lesson is on 8/29/09. The registration deadline is 8/26/09.

Welcome to the April 10, 2009 edition of lvs online students and alumni.

Ellen presents A Passion for Barbie – If I Knew Then What I Know Now posted at
Ellifolks – Bears, Critters, and Stuff.

Art

Valerie Beeby presents Inside Out or Outside In?
posted at Seeing Things.

Inspiration

Barbara Hartsook presents 10 Life-Lessons I Wish I’d Known Then
posted at Over Coffee….

Stories

Sliloh presents If I knew then? posted at Sliloh’s Rambles.

Jacqueline Harmon Butler presents Sardine Heaven – The Feast of St. Anthony (Portugal) – Stories – Jacqueline Harmon Butler – award-winning travel writer – JacquelineHarmonButler.com posted at Jacqueline Harmon Butler, saying, “I didn’t have much confidence in my cooking or writing skills growing up. It wasn’t until much later in life that I finally realized I had a whole lot of cooking and writing stories to share.”

Deb Hamele presents If I knew then posted at Blue Barn Farm Blog, saying, “Some musings about what I might have done differently if I knew then what I know now.”

Pete S. presents If I knew then?posted at
href=”http://pingingmyglass.wordpress.com”>Pinging My Water Glass, saying, “A letter to a kid who needed a few hints, from the benefit of a note of hindsight.”

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
LVS Online Students, Staff and Alumni Blog Carnival
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our
blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

lvs online students and alumni, blog carnival.

The March session at LVS Online is just around the corner. The classrooms open on Monday,  March 9 for the Blogging Basics and the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune classes with the first lesson on 3/14/09.

Registration deadline is March 11, 2009.  Don’t miss out on the fun and information. We have a lot of new material in the blogging studio course, Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune this session on blog statistics and monetizing your blog.

Each session the topics for the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class, are determined by the students.

Here are the proposed topics for the March session:

• Monetization
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Advertising
  • Sponsors
  • Selling your product or service
• Search engine optimization and statistics
  • know your audience
    • who do you want to serve
    • who are you currently serving
  • evaluate where to put your marketing efforts
  • impact of social networks
  • optimizing your content
• Refining your content for quality and interaction
• Technorati
  • Building authority
  • Source for blog topics

In addition to the lessons, all students enrolled in this blogging studio have access to the library, which will contain past lessons on topics like Twitter, 43 Things, image galleries, comment plugins and theme customization for comment threading.

Registration is now open for the March session for the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune class.

Welcome to the February 7, 2009 edition of LVS Online students, staff and alumni Blog Carnival on Inspiration.

Participants were asked to share art their art and stories about inspiration. Submissions are categorized into Art, Classes, People and Poem & Stories. This edition of the carnival addresses sources of inspiration as well as our struggles to find inspiration. I invite you to visit the links here to find inspiration and to offer inspiration to others. Although submissions are no longer being accepted for this blog carnival, you are encouraged to share your own inspiration links and stories in the comment section.

Art

Karol’s post reminded me of my own iris inspiration on a wintery day years ago.

Karol Grace presents Longing for Spring posted at Three Dog Studio Art and Photo Journal.

Barb shares with us how a photo, a quick snapshot of a moment, inspired her to create a painting that told the story.

Barbara Hartsook presents Painted for Story… People Photo Inspires an Oil Painting on Canvas posted at Over Coffee…, saying, “People photos inspire stories, which I like to paint. This one is Kali at the Beach, and the story is “Just a Moment to Myself, Please.” I am a student in Bean Fairbanks’ on-going Blogging Studio.“

Adele shares how her childhood inspirations have evolved online

Adele presents Inspiration: Nature, Art, I Ching and Internet posted at I Ching Meditations, saying, “When I am inspired I draw that person, place or event into myself and then expel it out, like the act of breathing, involuntary and necessary for life”

By duty or design, how does inspiration strike you? This is the question Val addresses in her post on how inspiration personally evolves for her.

Val P. presents Inspiration posted at CorelDRAW Classes @ LVS Online.

Inspired by a student’s art, this LVS Teaching Assistant takes the subject matter and makes it uniquely her own.

Sliloh presents Wine and Cheese posted at Sliloh’s Rambles, saying, “Good art and good conversation really bring my creative muse out.”

Elaina shares some of her students’ art work with us.

Elaina Moore-Kelly presents Inspiration! posted at Corel Painter Classes, saying, “My students are my inspiration. They work so hard and are so happy when they “get it”. Teaching has become one of the most important things in my life and I love doing it.”

See how the inspiration and education Tina acquired at LVS Online, took root.

Tina Katnich presents Tina Louise Photography: Timothy & Jessica’s Wedding – Santa Barbara posted at Tina Louise Photography, saying, “I am an LVS alumni member. LVS got me started with digital photography when I began taking photoshop classes, and then I even took an html coding class! I received such inspiration from the classes I took I started my own wedding photography buisness! I love making magic with my camera and it all started with LVS from home! Check out my work! I’m even doing destination weddings now!”

What do you want to make today?

Many Creative Gifts presents Ain’t He Cute?! posted at Many Creative Gifts — “be thoughtful”, saying, “Not an article — just a picture of a cute crocheted axolotl that I created in response to a request. But, I hope it will inspire others to explore their creative possibilities.”

This is a late addition to the carnival but I included it because Ellen share lots of her tips for finding inspiration for art.

Ellen presents Art – Inspiration from Books and Elsewhere posted at Ellifolks: Bears, Critters and Stuff.

Classes

One outline, three apples…

Elaina Moore-Kelly presents What can you do with Painter? posted at Corel Painter Classes, saying, “I’m an instructor for Corel Painter at lvsonline.com I wanted to use this blog page to give my beginning Painter students an idea of how versatile the program can be.”

Kat shares with us how getting expelled started a whole new career and a myriad of relationships.

Kat presents LVS Online Classes Inspires Kat posted at LVS Online Classes, saying, “I am partner and instructor at LVS Online Classes. My association with LVS Online is definitely the source of much inspiration. . . .to work and continue to learn; to meet new people and experience new challenges; to remember that standing up for what’s right always pays off in the end; to live each day to its fullest; and, finally, to stop and smell the roses!”

Kat’s second post talks about how Flash has inspired her and her students.

Kat presents Flash Inspirations posted at Flash Classes @ LVS Online, saying, “We teach what we teach because we enjoy the topic we are instructing and enjoy sharing our knowledge. Our real reward comes from our students journey in learning and the appreciation that is shown on completion.”

People

When I am asked why I blog, I think of Chester and how instrumental his blog was in raising the money and support to care for him as he battled Glioblastoma

Bean presents Priceless posted at Healthy Chester, saying, “I think this post so eloquently illustrates how humor and love inspire us to live despite desperate obstacles.”

A story of one teacher inspired confidence to pursue artistic inspirations

Hillary presents Inspiration — My Story! posted at Digital Art Classes, saying, “I carried that finished oil home that night and carried it with me all around the house, totally disbelieving that I had created something I was proud of”

Sliloh challenges us and inspires us to recognize our own interactions.

Sliloh presents Are you a great mind? posted at Sliloh’s Rambles, saying, “Great minds discuss ideas…..and ideals too I think.”

Poems & Stories

Valerie casts an inspiration incantation for her readers.

Valerie Beeby presents Magic! The Spell of the Purple Owl posted at Valerie Beeby, saying, “This poem is actually part of a children’s fantasy novel I never published.”

My patio pots look much better now, thanks to the inspiration that I received in this post.

Carol presents Inspiration? posted at All About Daisies.

This post is for ‘fabricohlics’ everywhere. My garage and closets would look very different if I had this!

Deb Hamele presents The ?UFO Club? posted at Blue Barn Farm Blog, saying, “This is a story about the “UFO Club” which is a group of quilters who help inspire each other to finish their quilts.”

How do you handle inspiration block?

Marilynn presents If you could have just one . . . . posted at Marilynn’s Antics.

Adele shares her personal I Ching on inspiration

Adele presents What does the I Ching tell me about inspiration posted at I Ching Meditations.

A tale of canine motherly love.

Rainbow presents The White Love posted at My Beagle Blog.

That concludes this edition of the LVS Online Blog Carnival. Although it is too late to be included in this blog carnival, we invite you to share your own stories of inspiration here in the comment section.



Submit your blog article to the next edition of lvs online students and alumni using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Blogging Basics  and Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune, LVS Online Blogging courses start this week!

Blogging Basics

The Blogging Basics course is for those brand new to blogging. In this introduction course we focus on creating a plan for your blog, setting up your blogand the basics of good blog writing. We also learn how to make your blog a multimedia experience!

Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune

Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune is a totally different kind of online course for bloggers. Students offer support and critiques of each others work while building social networks. Although there are short lessons each week, the content of those lessons are determined by the need, interest and the desires of the students. Topics include social networking like Twitter, blog promotion, modifying themes, search engine optimization and increasing conversation. We work together to promote our blogs and to stay on top of the best blogging tools.

Both blogging classes start on 1/10/09, register now!
Here is the registration link for Blogging Basics
Here is the registration link for Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune