Embed Your Instagram Images

I can’t deny how convenient and fun Instagram is, even though I’m not totally sure how I feel about it — how it’s drastically changed the way I take photos, and how I interact in the midst of an experience. Some of you have voiced your displeasure with phoneography and mobile blogging in the comments of recent posts: A phone is a phone, not a camera. Or a phone screen is not an ideal place on which to write and edit your thoughts. It’s interesting to hear your varied perspectives on blogging and sharing on the go — we all use these new technologies differently.

Blogging on the Go: Mobile App Basics

I hope you’re as excited as I am for phoneography month here at The Daily Post — my phone is always in my pocket, ready to capture even the most fleeting moments of my day. I’ve come upon cool posts by bloggers who use their phones in different ways to document on the go. The recent “Something to Ponder” photo essay by JT in Seoul — shot all from a BlackBerry Z10 — comes to mind. It’s great to see people take advantage of these handheld devices and use them in creative ways.

But if publishing to your blog from your phone is new to you, read on. I’ll cover the basics for popular WordPress.com mobile apps and introduce you to helpful features so you can post on the go — and participate in this month’s challenges!

Video Shortcodes

Yesterday, Elizabeth talked about adding videos to your blog. Here let’s dive a bit deeper and look at how to use shortcodes to embed videos. On WordPress.com, you can use these handy bits of code to do cool things on your site with little effort, like embed files and create objects.

WordPress.com has a number of video shortcodes you can use to embed videos from a variety of sites like YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, and Flickr. As Elizabeth mentioned, you can embed a video by placing its URL in your visual editor. But using the shortcode method lets you customize the video in various ways, from controlling its width and height to specifying a start and end time for a clip — it depends on the shortcode and the video service.

Everything You Wanted to Know About WordAds

Yesterday, Krista gave you some questions to consider as you decide whether to monetize your blog. If you’re leaning toward “yes,” then this post is for you — the nitty-gritty of applying to and participating in WordAds, in the form of ten questions for our Ads Lead, Jon Burke. (Hi, Jon!)

Should You Go No-Ads?

This week on The Daily Post, we’re all about advertising. We know lots of bloggers are interested in monetizing, so we’ll explore how to know if monetizing is right for you and feature a Q&A with staffer Jon Burke, the WordPress.com AdMaster.

First off, though, let’s talk for a minute about going no-ads.

Widgets 101

Earlier this week, Krista talked about ways to get widgety on your blog. You’ll find an assortment of widgets in your dashboard (by going to Appearance » Widgets), waiting patiently for you to activate them! So, now what? Let’s zoom in on several ways to transform your sidebar and enhance your site with different widgets.