Making background for photography

11th December 202027th November 2020 by Kar-Ling

This is a blog post on making background for photography. I would focus mainly on food photography as I blog about recipes quite regularly. It’s been slightly more than 2 years I have been blogging. I would say I am expert at blogging nor I am a professional photographer, however in recent times I wonder … Read more

Using Pic monkey a review

27th March 201927th March 2019 by Kar-Ling

This blog is about a review on using PicMonkey. Recently I have sign up for a one week free trial using PicMonkey. I have also been using other apps or no apps to make pins or images for Pinterest. For more information what is Pinterest click here. While some apps like Canva are free. As … Read more

6 Things I wish I knew before blogging

28th May 20191st February 2019 by Kar-Ling

Here are the five things I wish I knew before I started blogging. I started blogging out of a whim as I wanted something to do in my spare time. After 5 months latter I wish I knew about these before blogging. This post does contain affiliate links which means I earn a small commission … Read more

How to increase monthly views on Pinterest

13th September 202131st December 2018 by Kar-Ling

This is a blog post on how I got from 0k to 180k monthly views on Pinterest with the help of using Tailwind. I have started blogging not long ago only about 5 months ago. Along the way, I have learned about few things. One of it is traffic to my blog. I have tried … Read more

Hiding pinterest images

23rd December 201814th December 2018 by Kar-Ling

Hiding pinterest pins in blogs it is quite easily done if it is done properly. Why hide your pins? Do you need to hide your pins? Oh yes you do. Just have a look at the top pinners. Just click on their ‘Pin it’ button. Here is an example Think Creative Collective blog Lots of pins hidden … Read more

Creating vertical Pinterest pins

4th April 20223rd December 2018 by Kar-Ling

For Pinterest pins to work they are best to be vertical pins as they stand out. This blog is about creating vertical size Pinterest pins.

735px X 1102px says Canva. or 1000px by 1500px says Pinterest. Basically a 2:3 aspect ratio.https://business.pinterest.com/en/creative-best-practices

I use Canva as it’s easy and pretty straightforward to use.https://www.canva.com/ In order to use Canva you to sign up to set up an account. Either by using an email, google mail or Facebook account. There are options to use Canva either on the desktop or mobile app. Below is the screen snapshot of the Pinterest designs I have created on Canva.

But there are limited preset vertical Pinterest pins designs. For example, if you want to change the colour of fonts or background colours. Once you are happy with the colours then you can the texts that is preset. Then just save it to be posted directly to Pinterest or onto your blog. Once it’s posted don’t forget to link up to your blog and write a description about it.

If you post this vertical Pinterest pin onto a blog it does take up a bit of room on the blog. As a result, it can take a while for your blog to load as well. Something to consider.

However one couldn’t embed if one is blogging on wordpress.com. However, by having a blog hosted by wordpress.com, the share Pinterest buttons are all present on your blog and pictures. In this means that any images of sizes can be saved on Pinterest.

For those on self-hosted blogs on WordPress, one can embed the vertical pins onto the blog. This is good for popular pins. I will do a detailed write up on how to embed a pin onto a blog.

Changing domain name

16th January 201925th November 2018 by Kar-Ling

When I started blogging I had two different websites. Along the way I found out it is not easy to run two separate websites. Therefore here am I writing on how I changing domain name. I wanted to change as my blog grew I had dressmaking blogs on http://cityediblegarden.com it just doesn’t sound corect. My blog name is makergardener on the title of the website and on all of my social platforms. It just makes sense to change domain name.

When I began blogging about 4 months back I started using the free wordpress subdomain then I upgrade so that I have my own domain name. I bought my own domain name separately from names.co.uk for £6/ year and I got free custom email (it’s info@makergardener.com) as well. I could stay on my current wordpress.com tariff but it means paying more for another name and lots of add on’s like email address, etc. I am now on self hosted using wordpress.org software and it’s fabulous. I am not on any of big web hosting names as my other half bought a virtual server and install wordpress software on it. Here is more information about it Hosted and self-hosted domains

Here are some of things that one needs to do when changing domain name. I only can speak on wordpress as it is the only blogging software I have use.

Redirection plugin

Now I am trying to use redirection plugin to redirect posts from cityediblegarden to makergardener. As one could have change the domain name on most stuff but some it is beyond my control. Like pinterest pins that have been repin elsewhere I can’t change it to my new domain name.

There is also error 404 message on some themes where one can configure messages. So that one can to let everyone that the domain has change.

Social media

On facebook, twitter, instagram social media platforms it is very easy to change domain name. However on pinterest it only allows one domain on your account it’s not that difficult to verify your domain again. As I said it’s the pins that have been repin is the trouble.

Followers

I am only about 2-3 months into blogging I haven’t generated much genuine followers. I have out that on wordpress.com one can easily migrate your followers to your new domain. Just go on the ‘Settings’ then ‘Discussion’ at the bottom of the page you should see ‘Migrate followers from another site’. This is using Jetpack plugin on wordpress.com However, one can’t do it not on wordpress.org wp-admin panel. There are plenty of plugins around to try if not speak some who has a bit of technical knowledge to redirect your website.

Do a backup before the change

Back up all of your work on the old domain before the change. There is export and import buttons on wordpress.org I have export all of old domain content to the new one. The contents will have a new domain on them. So be mindful of links to the old domain in the blog posts. As they will need changing to the new domain address.

In a nutshell changing domain name is like moving home. You need to inform everyone that the domain name is changing.