Blogs: postings listed with the oldest first

For some applications of blogs it may be more useful to list your postings with the oldest first rather than the standard ‘newest first’. Examples include a CPD blog where you are recording your training, thoughts on your professional development, meetings with mentors etc or a blog that records the progress of a project. At present, neither Blogger nor WordPress offer an alternative to the standard reverse chronological order: TypePad, which is a subscription service, does. Go to Configure and under Post Listing Preferences, Order of Posts check the Oldest first (Ascending) radio button.

There are several TypePad pricing options starting at USD 49.50/year.

Converting RSS feeds to email alerts

As well as RSS alerts for new blog postings and comments,  you can offer your readers email alerts. There are several services that will convert your RSS feed to email. One is Feedburner.  Sign up for a Feedburner account and follow the instructions to create a Feedburner version of your feed. Once it has been set up click on the title of your new feed, then the Publicize tab followed by the Email Subscriptions link on the left hand side of the page. Follow the instructions and you will be given the code to add to your blog. In WordPress, add a Text widget to your layout and paste the code into that.  In Blogger, under Layout select Page Elements and then Add a Page Element. Choose HTML/Javascript, give it a title – for example ‘Email Alerts’  – and then paste the code into the box.

Blogarithm is another RSS to email conversion service. Set up an account, follow the instructions to get the code and paste it into a Text widget if you have a WordPress blog or an HTML/Javascript Page Element if you are on Blogger.