Hi,
I am a steady reader of your site and I commend you for doing
a great job in publishing such interesting articles. I really like the post
about Whole Wheat Pasta with Rainbow Chard and White Beans.

I am looking for the right person to contact, for a proposal that would
benefit both our site. Would that sound interesting to you? Please let me
know.

My response…

I’m not interested if it involves swapping links or posting text link ads for a one time fee. I also have no interest in a new ad network or any shady SEO practices. I don’t post guest posts. I don’t like pop up ads and I won’t provide any of my content for free or in exchange for “credit.”

If your offer doesn’t fall into any of those categories, I’d love to hear from you.

-Roni

I haven’t heard back yet.

I don’t know if I’m the only one, but getting the Pinterst button to work on my site was a major pain in the…. butt. It took me a few attempts and some troubleshooting, so I thought I’d share my experience to help those having a hard time.

The Code

This is the basic code for a Pin It button from the Pinterest site.

<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?
url=URL&media=IMAGE&description=DESCRIPTION"
class="pin-it-button" count-layout="none">Pin It</a>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>

We need to replace URL, IMAGE, DESCRIPTION with the link, image link and description of our post.

Description and link are easy using the_permalink() and the_title() functions.

<a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?
url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&media=IMAGE&
description=<?php the_title(); ?>" class="pin-it-button" 
  count-layout="none">Pin It</a>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>

That leaves us with IMAGE to worry about.

WordPress introduced the Post Thumbnail feature in version 2.9 so if you are up to date with your WordPress version you will access to it. Post Thumbnail is like a default image associated with each of your posts. By using this feature we can access the URL of the thumbnail to be used as the image of your pin.

If you haven’t been setting thumbnails already, there’s a few things we may need to do.

1. Enable Thumbnail Support

The first thing you need to do is add the following to your functions.php file if it isn’t already there.

<?php
  if ( function_exists( 'add_theme_support' ) ) { 
  add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' ); 
  }
  ?>

2. Assign a Thumbnail to all Posts

Thankfully there is a plugin for this! Install and activate the Auto Featured Image. It will go through your archives and set the first image in your post as the thumbnail. It will also automatically assign a featured image to any new posts you publish.

Once you activate the plug-in go to Settings -> Auto Featured Image and click "Generate Thumbnails"

Let it do it’s magic!

3. Access the Thumbnail URL

Now that your theme supports thumbnails and you have one associated with each post, all you need to do is access it. This is done with a simple script.

<?php $featuredImage =
wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ),
'single-post-thumbnail' ); ?>

By placing this script above the Pin It code we can use <?php echo $featuredImage[0]; ?> to pass the URL of the image to Pintereset.

Final Code

Putting all this together, simply place the following code where you would like the Pin it button to display (within the main loop, of course)

<?php $featuredImage =
wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ),
 'single-post-thumbnail' ); ?>
 <a href="http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?
url=<?php the_permalink() ?>&
media=<?php echo $featuredImage[0]; ?>&
description=<?php the_title(); ?>"
class="pin-it-button" count-layout="none">Pin It</a>

<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script>

Hopefully this sheds some light. I’m sure it will all be replaced with a plugin soon enough if it isn’t already, but I like the automation aspect of this approach. Once it is in place each Pin It button is ready to go without any additional work from me.

Phew.

“We shouldn’t be surprised when someone chooses to publish their photos, their words, their art or their opinions. We should be surprised when they don’t.”

-Seth Godin in this post.

Ryan wrote yet another awesome post on his blog NoMoreBacon. In it he talks about 4 questions all bloggers should ask themselves and I feel compelled to not only share but answer them as well. Questions and my answers below…

Could I describe my blog to a friend in 3 sentences or less?

YES! I think I can and this makes me feel good about my 2 personal blogs. Let me take a stab…

Roni’s Weigh is my personal weigh loss and weight maintenance blog. I share my life (struggles and successes) to inspire others to live a little healthier.

GreenLiteBites is all about food! I share how I TRY to feed my family a little healthier, what I cook for myself and how I make what I make. It includes food photos, recipes, school lunch ideas and baby food adventures.

Would I subscribe to my own blog?

This is a tough one. I don’t subscribe to many blogs (NoMoreBacon being one of a handful.) That being said I would subscribe to GreenLiteBites because the feed includes a photo of the most recent recipe and I like food photos.

If I’m being honest, I don’t think I would subscribe to Roni’s Weigh but I’d bookmark it. I don’t subscribe to many journal style blogs because they get overwhelming to follow, but I like to check in on that type of blogger when I have time. Hence the bookmark.

Where am I taking my readers?

Good question! It’s kind of hard to answer on Roni’s Weigh as I’m giving them a peek into my life. A lot of things are out of my control, but my plan is to always be honest with my readers and share things I think will inspire and motivate others.

GreenLiteBites is similar. I’m sharing my adventures with food. I hope to get a little healthier along the way and inspire those who are reading to do so as well.

On both blogs I guess you can say I’m taking them along for the ride that is my life.

What promise am I making with my blog?

My promise to be honest on Roni’s Weigh. As someone who is sharing a weight loss story I want the good, the bad and the ugly out there. Too many times people sugar coat weight loss stories and I think it does a disservice to the reader.

On GreenLiteBites I promise to do my best to share good healthy food ideas.

Conclusion

Even if you blog for a hobby, DO THIS! I can’t stress how helpful it is to clarify your mission and build blog confidence.

There are times, however, when I think the product is a good match.

Recently, a custom t-shirt company reached out and asked if I’d be willing to write a review for them. At first I wasn’t that interested but then I saw some potential with FitBloggin’. If they had the right type of shirts there may be sponsorship potential. So I replied to their pitch with a pitch of my own.

Hi XXXX! 

It’s nice to hear from you. I’d love to do this. Right now I use Zazzle for a few things but it’s pretty impersonal. I also host a conference called FitBloggin and we are looking for a shirt sponsor. Do you have any fitness apparel or something more then just you basic cotton T?

-Roni

Their response….

As a matter of fact, we do!  We have athletic tops in mens and women’s and customizable sweatpants and shorts. 

Right now I can offer you two free t-shirts for review, and you are more than welcome to look through our other stuff if you’d like to order any of it.  We pride ourselves on our low prices.

Let me know what you think.

Best,

I was excited! My plan was to design a shirt for a running event. Give it a try during a race and then post a review on Roni’s Weigh.

This opportunity just became a perfect fit for my site and my brand. I was excited for our potential relationship.

Once the design was done I was told how to proceed with ordering. Part of the email included…

You will need to enter in your credit card information and be charged one cent for your order.  We only do this so we can charge people full price for the shirts whenever they don’t end up doing the review they promised.  If you have any further questions or concerns let me know. 

Hold the phone! What? I was floored by this. What if I didn’t like the shirts? What if I didn’t write the review fast enough? What if they didn’t like my review? They could decide to charge me whenever they wanted?

My reaction may have been a little harsh but I meant every word.

As for charging if the blogger doesn’t do the review, that concerns me. I generally only post positive reviews, so if I’m unhappy with the shirts or the printing and decide not to review you would charge me?? 

I’m not saying it’s going to happen but I’m also not going to take an $75 dollar chance. Blogging is my profession. It’s how I make a living. You are asking me to promote something for you to my audience free of charge in exchange for a sample of your product. Is there a risk there? Of course, but that risk should be yours not mine. 

I’m sorry but I don’t feel comfortable providing you my credit card information. I don’t like to be pressured into posting a review and by holding the cost of the shirts over my head that’s exact what you are doing. 

Thank you for contacting me but I’m going to have to pass on the review offer. 

Listen, I’m flattered when I get these offers. I’m grateful when companies see the value I may be able to add to their campaigns but, like I said in my response, I refuse to be pressured into posting a review.

I say this in fear of sounding like a complete jerk but sometimes, what I really want to say to them is: I don’t need to review your product, you want me to.

Am I being unreasonable? Would you have provided your credit card information?

Related posts:

• Why I’m Hosting Giveaways on my Blogs Less and Less
• Do you post negative reviews on your blog?
• My Response to Product Review Pitches
• The Power of “Thanks, but I’m Not Interested” in Response to a PR Pitch.

Hi Roni,

I noticed that when I went to subscribe to Roni’s Weigh, you had a bunch of great extras that I would love to have on my RSS feed as well.

Could you tell me how you:
1. track how many subscribers you have to your RSS feed.
2. Have that “if you’re not reading this in your feed reader or on [site], this is stolen” text in each post.

Thank you in advance for your help. I have tried a few methods for tracking RSS subscribers, and not a single thing seems to work. I’m new at this blogging thing, so any help would be super appreciated!

Mandy

Hi Mandy!

SO sorry for my late reply! I have 2 quick and (hopefully) easy answers for you.

1. Tracking RSS Subscribers

I use Feedburner to track all feeds for my sites. It’s works like this…

1. You “burn” your feed.
2. Feedburner gives you a unique feed URL.
3. Publicize feedburner URL instead of your feed url.

For example my base feed here is http://roninoone.com/feed/ but if you click my RSS feed button to the left you’ll notice it links to http://feeds.feedburner.com/Roninoone

By routing people to the FeedBurner address I’m able to not only track subscribers but publicize, optimize, and even monetize my feed.

2. Add an RSS Footer in each post.

I do this through a function in WordPress, but there is a slightly less compicated way using CSS as well. Click here to see my tutorial.

I hope that helps Mandy!

-Roni

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do … If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.”
-Steve Jobs

I can’t stop buying domain names!

Right now I own 30. THIRTY! Some I’m using, of course, others are ideas. Site ideas, blog ideas, book ideas.

I may not have time to act on these ideas right now, but buying the domain name is a first step. I give myself a year. One year to do something with a domain name I purchase. If I don’t make any progress towards using it within that year, I let it go.

This morning I purchased yet another one. I had an idea while running and snatched the domain on Register.com.

Register.com is my domain registrar of choice. I’ve been using them for over 10 years. They have great customer service and an easy to use interface. My only complaint: price.

Before I checkout I do a quick google search for a promo or coupon code (side note: I do this for ever online purchase) and I always find one that saves me a few bucks.

This morning I found the ultimate one: REG5

Just plop REG5 in the promo field and get any domain for $5!

It only works for a year, but that’s all you need to secure a name. When and if you actually do anything with it, you can always negotiate longer terms with Register.com. I’ve done it for all my permanent sites like, RonisWeigh.com, GreenLiteBites.com, BlogToLose.com and SkinnyMinnyMedia.com. All of which I now own for 10 years.

So if you are in the market for a new domain name check out register.com and use the promo code REG5 for a cheap way to grab that domain name you’ve had floating in your head.

Disclosure: I am a register.com affiliate.

Don’t forget to use the code EX9MPHR6 for 20% off. That’s a savings of $3.99 making the book a mere $15.96! Click here to order your copy today!

GreenLiteBites

• JennieM
• Janine Turnbull
• Amy Stoehr
• Amber
• Jeri:

Roni’s Weigh

• @LastMinuteMandy
• Laura Healey
• Leighann
• norma
• heather b.

RoniNoone.com

• Jen
• Phebe
• Megan Swartz
• Kim
• Sherry Hight

PoopButterflies

• tonilea
• Kris K
• Haley N
• Amy @ A Little Nosh
• Janice

BlogToLose

• Emily Fowler
• Cinemarie
• SaminSTL
• Svanita
• Kelly Fuller

Don’t forget to use the code EX9MPHR6 for 20% off. Click here to order your copy today!

Winners selected using the Pick Giveaway Winner Plugin.