Updating the ole blog

If you spend any time here at My Tapley Tree... and its Branches, you might have noticed some changes.  Small ones, maybe, but good ones.

I have taken a couple of webinars (that would be a seminar on the computer/Internet) this week, and have learned so much about blogging and social networking that I was inspired to do some tweaking here and on my Facebook and Twitter accounts.

On Wednesday, I took DearMYRTLE's webinar, More Blogging for Beginners, over at Legacy Family Tree.  I learned several things that I incorporated here on this blog:

- Added a "Search this Blog" widget.  See it there on the right?  Right below the "tree" and above my comment about receiving comments?  Now you can type in "Nealie Drake," and every post I have made about my paternal grandmother will come up for your viewing pleasure.

- Added a "Print Friendly" button at the end of every post.  This will allow someone to print one of my blog postings without all the extra "stuff" that makes my blog pretty.  One of my cousins who reads this blog commented that he prints out postings that apply to his branch of our family.  Now he can save paper and ink.

- Changed the font for the blog title.  Doesn't that look more... home-y?

- Added the logo/link for the new blog, GeneaWebinars.  This is a one-stop place to find all of the upcoming genealogy-related webinars.  Our dear friend in genealogy, DearMYRTLE, set this one up for us.  What a GREAT idea.

- Added a Disclosure Statement.  It seems that even us amateur family history bloggers are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and the FTC says that we must disclose "certain types of relationships with other companies and individuals relating to endorsements of products and services." (courtesy of GeneaBloggers)  In others words, if we accept payment or free product for posting about or reviewing said products or services on our blogs or if we use affiliate links (advertising) on our blogs, we are subject to the FTC guidelines.  It was fairly easy to write the disclosure statement, so I went ahead and did one to be on the safe side.

- Added an affiliate link for GenealogyBank.com.  Oh there it is.  That advertising.  I recently signed up on GenealogyBank and have great luck in find newspaper articles (especially obituaries) pertaining to my families.  So I have no qualms in adding a link to their site on my blog.  I believe joining their site is money well spent.

Today I attended a webinar presented as part of the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Jamboree Extension Series by Thomas MacEntee of High-Definition Genealogy entitled "Social Networking - New Horizons  for Genealogists."  (I took a blogging class from Thomas at the Atlanta Family History Expo last November and that one class is the reason I started this blog.)  This class today was very good, and I learned several things:

- What hashtags are in Twitter (i.e., #genealogy)
- How to set up a hashtag
- What RT means in Twitter
- Social bookmarking
- Tweaking my privacy settings in Facebook


and more!

Oh!  I also changed a setting here on my blog, and it is now "mobile friendly."  (Thanks to this post on Find My Ancestor Blog for instructions on how to do this.)  This means that it will load in the web browser on your iPhone, Android, Blackberry or any other Internet-capable smartphone in a mobile version that cuts out all the extras that makes the blog pretty.  Just the content, people, none of the fluff.

It's been a busy week of learning, and my brain is about to explode!  Come on in and "sit a spell"... check out the changes to the ole blog... I think they are for the better.  Let me know what you think!  Make a comment.  As Thomas said today (and I am paraphrasing here), collaborating, or just plain interacting, is one of the best things about blogging!