Blogging Platform?

sherivw76

I love the new upgrades that SmugMug has made, but am pretty surprised that a blogging feature was not included in the new site design.

One thing I and many other SmugMug fans are yearning for is a blog platform. Is SmugMug planning on creating an option for it's users to have blogging capabilities right within it's site?
I am not interested in having a separate Word Press site and linking it over to my SmugMug site. I manage a SquareSpace site for a client. With how everything is in one place there (including a great blog platform) and how easy it is to manage I am starting to be tempted to switch.

Can I hold out hope that SmugMug has something up its sleeve sometime soon?

Tysax

sherivw76 wrote: »

I love the new upgrades that SmugMug has made, but am pretty surprised that a blogging feature was not included in the new site design.

One thing I and many other SmugMug fans are yearning for is a blog platform. Is SmugMug planning on creating an option for it's users to have blogging capabilities right within it's site?
I am not interested in having a separate Word Press site and linking it over to my SmugMug site. I manage a SquareSpace site for a client. With how everything is in one place there (including a great blog platform) and how easy it is to manage I am starting to be tempted to switch.

Can I hold out hope that SmugMug has something up its sleeve sometime soon?

Hello,

Blogs may become a feature in the future, so keep an eye on our release notes blog for the latest site and feature updates: http://news.smugmug.com/

Also feel free to contact us at help@smugmug.com.

Soul Gaze Photography

sherivw76 wrote: »

I love the new upgrades that SmugMug has made, but am pretty surprised that a blogging feature was not included in the new site design.

One thing I and many other SmugMug fans are yearning for is a blog platform. Is SmugMug planning on creating an option for it's users to have blogging capabilities right within it's site?
I am not interested in having a separate Word Press site and linking it over to my SmugMug site. I manage a SquareSpace site for a client. With how everything is in one place there (including a great blog platform) and how easy it is to manage I am starting to be tempted to switch.

Can I hold out hope that SmugMug has something up its sleeve sometime soon?

You can also create a blog through a customizable place such as Blogger and link to it. You can even match the header/footer via CSS/HTML. SmugMug also has the ability to be a blog as is, just depends upon how intense you want to go and in that case it's best to link out until SmugMug adds blogging. If they do, which would be awesome.

Al Arthur

Blogging would be such a powerful and useful addition. Linking out to another blog platform means either using a free but inflexible option (Blogger, Wordpress.com) or paying for more hosting for a Wordpress site. I have a 'blog' on my Smugmug at the moment and I don't mind the bit of extra work for each post, but with no RSS option and no way to subscribe it's too limited.

mbonocore

Al Arthur wrote: »

Blogging would be such a powerful and useful addition. Linking out to another blog platform means either using a free but inflexible option (Blogger, Wordpress.com) or paying for more hosting for a Wordpress site. I have a 'blog' on my Smugmug at the moment and I don't mind the bit of extra work for each post, but with no RSS option and no way to subscribe it's too limited.

Thanks for the feedback Arthur. We know you, and many other SmugMug users would get alot out of an integrated blog tool. For now, I am like you, and just do my blogging through my SM site. http://www.michaelbonocore.com/Blog

denisegoldberg

Al Arthur wrote: »

Blogging would be such a powerful and useful addition. Linking out to another blog platform means either using a free but inflexible option (Blogger, Wordpress.com) or paying for more hosting for a Wordpress site. I have a 'blog' on my Smugmug at the moment and I don't mind the bit of extra work for each post, but with no RSS option and no way to subscribe it's too limited.

I use Blogger for my blog.

I'm a bit surprised that you say that is an inflexible option - blogger allows customization both using their tools and by altering the CSS and HTML used to present the blog. And even with customization there is no fee.

--- Denise

crockny

Hook up Blogger to SmugMug?
I just made my first post on Blogger - how do I get the post to show up on SmugMug like yours does?

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I use Blogger for my blog.

I'm a bit surprised that you say that is an inflexible option - blogger allows customization both using their tools and by altering the CSS and HTML used to present the blog. And even with customization there is no fee.

--- Denise

mbonocore

crockny wrote: »

I just made my first post on Blogger - how do I get the post to show up on SmugMug like yours does?

I don't believe Denise has her blog showing on her SmugMug site...she has just pretty much matched the design of both her SmugMug and her Blogger to look the same, so the user doesn't notice they are clicking through two different platforms. Another example of this is http://amandadiaz.com

Her website is half WordPress, half SmugMug

denisegoldberg

crockny wrote: »

I just made my first post on Blogger - how do I get the post to show up on SmugMug like yours does?

Michael is right - I've matched the look of my blog (in blogger) to my smugmug site. When you click the blog entry on the navbar you are no longer on my smug site.

--- Denise

THOnline

Specific directions for formatting 3rd party blog platform
I am interested in adding a blog and while I agree a built in platform would be amazing, I'm willing to make either Wordpress or Blogger work for now. But does someone have a description for how to make the blog platform match as closely as possible to my SmugMug website format? (something beyond just "copy over header / footer info") What code am I copying over, where am I getting the code from and where am I putting it? Is it possible with the side navigation I am using?

http://www.Tuffer.com

-Tuffer

Hikin' Mike

THOnline wrote: »

I am interested in adding a blog and while I agree a built in platform would be amazing, I'm willing to make either Wordpress or Blogger work for now. But does someone have a description for how to make the blog platform match as closely as possible to my SmugMug website format? (something beyond just "copy over header / footer info") What code am I copying over, where am I getting the code from and where am I putting it? Is it possible with the side navigation I am using?

http://www.Tuffer.com

-Tuffer

I don't think you're going to find a step-by-step on how to match your sites, with either platforms. Since my "main" website is a WordPress site, it was easier for me to customize one of SM sites to match my WP site. I'm also not using the SM navigation stuff. I just copied my WordPress nav code to my SM header section. I had to make some other changes on the SM theme, FWIW I used 'Sierra' as a starting point.

For me, I'm familiar with HTML/CSS, so it was pretty easy for me. You can see both sites if you follow the links in my sig below.

denisegoldberg

THOnline wrote: »

I am interested in adding a blog and while I agree a built in platform would be amazing, I'm willing to make either Wordpress or Blogger work for now. But does someone have a description for how to make the blog platform match as closely as possible to my SmugMug website format? (something beyond just "copy over header / footer info") What code am I copying over, where am I getting the code from and where am I putting it? Is it possible with the side navigation I am using?

I wrote up a series of steps to match Blogger to a legacy smug site a number of years ago but those steps were written when the site owner created all of the HTML / CSS for the header and menu in smug. To get a general idea, take a look at the first post in the thread HOW TO match your blog to your smug site (blogger-specific) (no need to read past the first post!).

To match your sites today you need to be comfortable with a tool like firebug to identify the CSS and HTML that is needed.

Another option is to place your blog on a page in your smug site by using a feed. That may or may not be a good solution for you - it wouldn't be acceptable for my blog because I want the full blog - including the ability to go anywhere in the blog by either timeframe or label - to be available to my viewers. I matched my blog to my smug site by creating equivalent css/html for my header / menu and placing it in my blog (on blogger). I did not attempt to copy the CSS/HTML from my smug site.

If you want to try a feed, take a look at the thread How to Use a Feed Block for a Specific Blogger Post. That thread shows the code you need to use a feed for your full blog plus use a feed for a specific blog post.

--- Denise