Blog Integration

PhotoLasVegas · September 24, 2013

Wondered if there's any (easy) way, or any plans in the works, to integrate a Blog into Smugmug?
The new Smugmug is good enough to be an actual website (obviously) and it sure would be nice to just go to 1 place to make a blog as well... could even make it possible to integrate each Gallery into a blog post (select the photos that are allowed to be seen within the blog post), so that each blog photo doesn't have to be uploaded again into a separate blog, etc....

James Lyall · September 24, 2013

PhotoLasVegas wrote: »

Wondered if there's any (easy) way, or any plans in the works, to integrate a Blog into Smugmug?
The new Smugmug is good enough to be an actual website (obviously) and it sure would be nice to just go to 1 place to make a blog as well... could even make it possible to integrate each Gallery into a blog post (select the photos that are allowed to be seen within the blog post), so that each blog photo doesn't have to be uploaded again into a separate blog, etc....

Have a look at http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=240784

thenickdude · September 24, 2013

SmugMug posted a guide on how to emulate a "blog" feel on your SmugMug site today actually:

http://school.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Tips/How-to-Make-a-Photo-Blog

It's pretty slow work as you have to create each of your blog pages from scratch every time (we don't have any user-creatable templates), but the end result works well.

denisegoldberg · September 24, 2013

It really depends on what you mean by a blog. If your blog is photos only keeping it inside of smugmug makes sense. If it is mostly text but you don't post often keeping it in smug may be acceptable.

There isn't any reason why you can't use an external blogging tool and match your blog to your smugmug site. I use blogger and have matched blog to smug site; you can see the implementation by clicking the links in my signature.

I don't reupload photos into my blog, I use the embed links from Share... Get a link to place the photos into my blog. Clicking on the photo in my blog takes the viewer to lightbox in my smug site.

--- Denise

ko04 · September 24, 2013

denisegoldberg wrote: »

It really depends on what you mean by a blog. If your blog is photos only keeping it inside of smugmug makes sense. If it is mostly text but you don't post often keeping it in smug may be acceptable.

There isn't any reason why you can't use an external blogging tool and match your blog to your smugmug site. I use blogger and have matched blog to smug site; you can see the implementation by clicking the links in my signature.

I don't reupload photos into my blog, I use the embed links from Share... Get a link to place the photos into my blog. Clicking on the photo in my blog takes the viewer to lightbox in my smug site.

--- Denise

Since I am using my own css navbar I too am using blogger thanks to Denise old tutorial on how to do it with the legacy site. I got it look pretty much how my smugmug website looks expect for a few minor things but all in all I am very happy with it. you can see my blog here http://k-ophotography.blogspot.com and my smugmug website here www.k-ophotography.com.

anorien · September 24, 2013

Sweeet!
What a great solution for small blogging efforts or folks that don't want to spend a ton of time customizing. Just implemented it on my newly migrated site, I am one happy camper!

:ivar

James Lyall · September 25, 2013

anorien wrote: »

What a great solution for small blogging efforts or folks that don't want to spend a ton of time customizing. Just implemented it on my newly migrated site, I am one happy camper!

:ivar

Should love to see the result; can you show a link to your site?

anorien · September 25, 2013

Here you go.

http://www.anorienphotos.com/Blog/A-mug-of-blog

I have to admit I'm having a bit of fun tweaking my site with the new SmugMug. I know, strange definition of fun

Joyce

James Lyall · September 25, 2013

anorien wrote: »

Here you go.

http://www.anorienphotos.com/Blog/A-mug-of-blog

I have to admit I'm having a bit of fun tweaking my site with the new SmugMug. I know, strange definition of fun

Joyce

Well done, looks promising! Need to sort out the 'About' link.

anorien · September 25, 2013

James Lyall wrote: »

Well done, looks promising! Need to sort out the 'About' link.

Thank you sir. Yup, have a few more things to take care of still, but I'm sort of having fun playing with all the new stuff. It's sad really, my inner geek is running amok.

Darter02 · September 25, 2013

ko04 wrote: »

Since I am using my own css navbar I too am using blogger thanks to Denise old tutorial on how to do it with the legacy site. I got it look pretty much how my smugmug website looks expect for a few minor things but all in all I am very happy with it. you can see my blog here http://k-ophotography.blogspot.com and my smugmug website here www.k-ophotography.com.

Hey man, your navbar is half off the page in the upper right. My screen is 1920x1200.

Darter02 · September 25, 2013

Lamah wrote: »

SmugMug posted a guide on how to emulate a "blog" feel on your SmugMug site today actually:

http://school.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Tips/How-to-Make-a-Photo-Blog

It's pretty slow work as you have to create each of your blog pages from scratch every time (we don't have any user-creatable templates), but the end result works well.

The not having the ability to create templates hinders this. I know I don't have time to create a custom page every time I want to blog about a shoot. If they incorporate the template idea, I'd be more inclined to create a blog series. I used the same method outlined to create my wedding services page linked in the signature here. I have in mind to create a whole series of similar pages highlighting my various skill sets. I'd like to display my past portfolio from when I was in exhibits at the museum. But for a day to day sort of blog, I just don't have the time to create from scratch. I have photos that need processing...

Another solution is to not only make your blogger account look similar to your Smugmug, but also utilize the feed block. It can be for the main feed from your blogsite, or a specific page. I use this method to have my latest blogpost appear on my homepage.

W.W. Webster · September 25, 2013

anorien wrote: »

Here you go.

If you set your blog folder to be "unlisted", it will still be visible from the menu but would not show on your Browse page ,which would be a much better look.

And just drop the About link until it leads somewhere - it will only take seconds to reinstate it, but this will prevent visitors going down a blind alley in the meantime!

anorien · September 26, 2013

Thanks..

hmm, the about should be all set now ( I thought it was earlier....)

When I set the Blog folder to unlisted, then the pages in there inherit the unlisted. Can't seem to find a way to make the individual pages viewable when setting the folder as unlisted.

W.W. Webster · September 26, 2013

anorien wrote: »

When I set the Blog folder to unlisted, then the pages in there inherit the unlisted. Can't seem to find a way to make the individual pages viewable when setting the folder as unlisted.

Is your blog a gallery (in which case it shouldn't/doesn't need to be in a folder), or multiple galleries within a folder (but why would you do this?)?

If you provide a menu link to the (unlisted) blog folder/gallery, your visitors can still navigate through the images even though they are unlisted. Are you aware that 'unlisted' is not the same as 'hidden'? My blog is an unlisted gallery that operates perfectly the way I'm suggesting.

TimSebringPhotography · September 26, 2013

So I'm having an interesting problem. I created a Blog Folder (where the url is listed as http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog) and inside I created a page that has a post (with an image) on it. Then I created a "Blog" navbar entry, pointing to a "Page I choose", then I selected the Blog folder. The issue is that when I click on the Blog navbar link, this is what I get instead of /blog: http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog/n-F7LDV. When I click inside the folder under Organize, I see the page that I created, and instead of being http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog/The-Power-of-Pictures , which is what I would expect, the URL is http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog/The-Power-of-Pictures/n-zKLQg .

Now, the first thing I did was verify that my Blog folder Custom URL says "Blog", which it does. I even tried deleting it and recreating, but the same thing happened, only it was a different stream of seemingly random characters.

Anyone have any idea? Thanks!

TimSebringPhotography · September 26, 2013

Progress?
So I converted from "Page I choose" to "Custom URL", and entered my site /blog address, so now it works without the random characters at the end, and /blog/power-of-pictures works, but the /blog page itself (which would hopefully contain a list of blog entries once I had more than one. Anyone know why my /blog page (which is really a folder) is completely empty, even though my Organize Site page shows that it's got one item inside?

Great New Look by the way, loving it, just working to get my stuff all set up!

Update: I figured out my issue... apparently I failed to add a "Pages" resource to my Blog folder. Once I did that, it showed up just fine. I guess there's a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of how things work, its pretty cool!

TimSebringPhotography wrote: »

So I'm having an interesting problem. I created a Blog Folder (where the url is listed as http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog) and inside I created a page that has a post (with an image) on it. Then I created a "Blog" navbar entry, pointing to a "Page I choose", then I selected the Blog folder. The issue is that when I click on the Blog navbar link, this is what I get instead of /blog: http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog/n-F7LDV. When I click inside the folder under Organize, I see the page that I created, and instead of being http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog/The-Power-of-Pictures , which is what I would expect, the URL is http://www.timsebringphotography.com/Blog/The-Power-of-Pictures/n-zKLQg .

Now, the first thing I did was verify that my Blog folder Custom URL says "Blog", which it does. I even tried deleting it and recreating, but the same thing happened, only it was a different stream of seemingly random characters.

Anyone have any idea? Thanks!

anorien · September 27, 2013

W.W. Webster wrote: »

Is your blog a gallery (in which case it shouldn't/doesn't need to be in a folder), or multiple galleries within a folder (but why would you do this?)?

If you provide a menu link to the (unlisted) blog folder/gallery, your visitors can still navigate through the images even though they are unlisted. Are you aware that 'unlisted' is not the same as 'hidden'? My blog is an unlisted gallery that operates perfectly the way I'm suggesting.

Hmm, couple of interesting things last night. First back to the "about" page, appears I hit the bug mentioned in this post http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=236976&highlight=random+characters+folder and I didn't even notice the random characters until Tim and I were chatting last night about his issue. Now I think I REALLY have that fixed

Yes I am aware of the difference between unlisted, hidden etc. (thanks for checking). Yup the Blog folder is a folder, the individual post is a page within that folder. When I unlist the folder, the individual posts (pages) don't show within the folder, but can direct link to them and the menu on my nav bar lists the post. I'm sure it is something ridiculously obvious that I'm missing, but for now it's off to the day job .....

ko04 · September 27, 2013

Darter02 wrote: »

Hey man, your navbar is half off the page in the upper right. My screen is 1920x1200.

Thanks I know about I post a form for help to see how to fix it

ThreeGuysPhotography · September 27, 2013

ko04 wrote: »

Thanks I know about I post a form for help to see how to fix it

Make sure you don't have large margins around the logo or navigation menu. It is like there is a large margin to the right of the logo. Or maybe the container width is too big for the logo. Click on the triangle and check those values.

W.W. Webster · September 27, 2013

anorien wrote: »

Yup the Blog folder is a folder, the individual post is a page within that folder.

Are you sure you want to have to create a new, unique page every time you want to post a blog entry? If you are going to post entries only very occasionally, perhaps this might be viable, but a blog without regular entries has no reason to attract visitors.

I'd be looking to use and adapt a gallery format that allows you to simply add an image (along with appropriate caption/narrative) when you want to post an entry.

SWOhioDawg · November 18, 2013

anorien wrote: »

Here you go.

http://www.anorienphotos.com/Blog/A-mug-of-blog

I have to admit I'm having a bit of fun tweaking my site with the new SmugMug. I know, strange definition of fun

Joyce

I have also implemented this blog procedure and am happy with the exception of one thing. Is there a way to stop the Blog folder from displaying when you browse? I can't seem to get that to work.

Thanks
SWOhioDwag

sisi74 · November 25, 2013

RSS feed of blog and subsites/subfolders on smugmug

Darter02 wrote: »

The not having the ability to create templates hinders this. I know I don't have time to create a custom page every time I want to blog about a shoot. If they incorporate the template idea, I'd be more inclined to create a blog series. I used the same method outlined to create my wedding services page linked in the signature here. I have in mind to create a whole series of similar pages highlighting my various skill sets. I'd like to display my past portfolio from when I was in exhibits at the museum. But for a day to day sort of blog, I just don't have the time to create from scratch. I have photos that need processing...

Another solution is to not only make your blogger account look similar to your Smugmug, but also utilize the feed block. It can be for the main feed from your blogsite, or a specific page. I use this method to have my latest blogpost appear on my homepage.

thank you, thank you, thank you.
now .. i just have to figure out how to add that feed to my homepage (that blogger URL you shared talks about feed readers but how to add it to the page I'm still confused about). ALSO, i saw your wedding sub-site (is that what it is?). How does that work (in smugmug)? ... Anyway - great inspiration, great site, .. makes me realize how FAR i still have to go. sigh.

sirin
www.sirinsamman.com
rihanphotography.blogspot.com

sisi74 · November 25, 2013

hmm .. can the smugmug blog feature call itself a blog?

anorien wrote: »

Here you go.

http://www.anorienphotos.com/Blog/A-mug-of-blog

I have to admit I'm having a bit of fun tweaking my site with the new SmugMug. I know, strange definition of fun

Joyce

hmm ... but ... how is this a blog? it's all separate pages, there is no archive list, scrolling up or down for earlier entries, tags, etc. .. all the blog stuff. if i were to blog daily...would that mean i would have 365 pages per year in that blog folder without any navigation to go back and forth once a user clicks on a blog entry. ... am i not understanding something correctly?

sirin
www.sirinsamman.com

denisegoldberg · November 25, 2013

sisi74 wrote: »

hmm ... but ... how is this a blog? it's all separate pages, there is no archive list, scrolling up or down for earlier entries, tags, etc. .. all the blog stuff. if i were to blog daily...would that mean i would have 365 pages per year in that blog folder without any navigation to go back and forth once a user clicks on a blog entry. ... am i not understanding something correctly?

sirin
www.sirinsamman.com

If you blog occasionally creating pages in smug for your blog is reasonable.

If you prefer to keep everything on your smugmug site and can find a format that works for you then it's a good idea. Take a look at W.W. Webster's photo blog page at http://rosscollins.smugmug.com/Daily-blog/n-6j4Fh as an example. Also see http://school.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Tips/How-to-Make-a-Photo-Blog.

If you want the features that come with a blog (like archives, scrolling, etc.) then you will probably be happier using a product that is designed to be a blog. My blog is in blogger (linked below) and it will stay there - it works for me quite nicely.

You need to look at your requirements and decide which option will work better for you. I find it interesting that you haven't exposed the features that you mentioned on your blog - if you're not making an archive / list of blog posts available then why you are concerned?

--- Denise

Darter02 · November 26, 2013

sisi74 wrote: »

thank you, thank you, thank you.
now .. i just have to figure out how to add that feed to my homepage (that blogger URL you shared talks about feed readers but how to add it to the page I'm still confused about). ALSO, i saw your wedding sub-site (is that what it is?). How does that work (in smugmug)?

[/URL]

Here's some info on how to set up an inbound feed block on your site. It's pretty straight forward. Use the method I linked to above if you only want a specific blog post.

The wedding page has it's own theme. Here's a post where I talk about it.

Also, when it comes to using feeds here's a problem I have with it. They don't automatically stretch across a page. Another tool that would really help is if we could create a "quick settings for display blocks."

Blog Integration

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