How to use Passionfruit
One of the great things about blogging is connecting with other bloggers. There are so many ways to do this but one fun way is through sponsors! A lot of blogs offer button swaps (like me). A button swap is pretty simple. If you were to do a button swap with me I would put your button on my blog and you would put my button on your blog.
Passionfruit is a great way to manage your sponsors. It keeps track of how long each button stays on your blog, the cost (if you charge) for the space, and what size buttons go where.
So now I am going to teach you how to add Passionfruit to your blog.
1.) Sign up for a Passionfruit account.
2.) Once you have a Passionfruit account you will need to pick which blog you are working with. Some people have multiple blogs and this is the reason for this. You will go up to the Nav Bar on the top of the site and click on My Sites and then pick the blog you are working with.
3.) You will be taken to a page that shows an overview of your blog and ad spaces.
4.) Now we need to define your ad spaces. So click on Site Setup and Define Ad Spots.
5.) As you can see I have only one option for sponsors and that is button swaps.
6.) Now what you are going to do is define your ad spot.
7.) Click on Add a spot in the bottom left hand corner.
8.) Now lets fill out this page.
Spot Label - Are you doing a button swap, a giveaway spot, a medium spot, large spot…. the choice is yours
About - This is where you sell your spot. Why should bloggers sponsor your blog? Are you going to do Twitter shout outs? Group giveaways? And if you are doing button swaps you will enter your promo code here (we will get to that later).
Width/Height - What size buttons will be used for this ad? (150×150, 200×100)….
Opening - How many buttons to you accept each month?
Shown at a time - How many buttons will be shown on your blog at a time?
Duration - How long will each button stay on your blog?
Shuffle - Do you want your ads to rotate? That way each of your ads have the chance for best visibility? I suggest that you do do this : )
Total Price - How much will you charge for this ad? If this is a button swap put in $1 and we will do the promo code in the next couple steps.
Passionfruit Fees - Passionfruit takes a percentage of each ad that you charge for. You will not be charged if you are doing button swaps with a coupon code.
Your Payout - The amount of money you would make off of an ad after Passionfruit takes its fee.
9.) Once you are done click on Save Ad Spot. Your spot should show up on the next page.
10.) Now lets create a promo code for your swappers. Click on Site Setup and Promo codes.
11.) This is what my promo page looks like. I already have a promo code for swappers called SWAP (I know. So original). You can create more than one promo code at once. You might want to go a swap code, a giveaway code (you give to winners of giveaways for ad spots), or a percent off if you charge.
12.) Now lets create a promo code for swapping buttons. Click on Add a promo code.
13.) Now lets fill in this page.
Promo code - What will your promo code be? You can do Swap, Sponsor, or something to do with your blog like TWOMEN. Whatever you want.
Description - This is just for you to remember what the code is being used for.
Applies to - Which ad spot will this promo code be used for? If you have multiple ad spots you might only want to use this code for a specific spot.
Now decided how much the code is for. If it is for a free button swap this would be 100%. And how many times can this be used?
When you are done click on Save
14.) Your promo code should now appear like this
15.) Now we need to add this promo code in the description of your ad space.
16.) Click on Site Setup and Define Ad Spots like we did above.
17.) You are going to edit the space where you want this code used.
18.) In the about section I am going to add the Promo Code. That way when people go to sponsor my blog they have the code to get their space for free.
19.) Once that is done I am going to scroll down and click on Save ad spot.
20.) Now we need to add some coding to our blogs. We add the code so that when someone sponsors our blog their button will show up on our sidebar.
21.) Click on Site Setup and Installation & display
22.) Each ad spot will have its own code. That way if you want to put your featured ads on the top of your blog and your swaps in the middle you can do that. Or you might want to put some ads on the left sidebar and other ads on the right.
23.) Copy the code that you want to use and we are going to paste it onto your blog.
24.) In another tab open your blogs dashboard. I am working in WordPress now but you can also do this in Blogger.
25.) Go to your widget dashboard and pick the Text or HTML option. Place it on your sidebar where you want your ads to show.
26.) Now paste that code into this widget.
27.) Now Save and you are done. Remember that you probably won’t see any change on your blog until you start getting sponsors. If you want to test it out just email me at lindsayintx@gmail.com and I will submit my button to sponsor your blog and we can see if it works.
Oh!
I almost forgot to show you how to ad your Passionfruit store to your blog. This will feature your spots that are available for sponsorship. This is also where you will ad your stats for your blog and whatever else you think might help potential sponsors.
28.) I am going to create a new page in WordPress.
29.) Now go back to your Passionfruit tab and we are going to grab more code.
30.) Click on Site Setup and Installation & display again.
31.) Now you are going to copy the Your Ad Shop code
32.) Now paste that code into your new page on WordPress. Make your you post the code into the HTML section and DO NOT switch over to preview because for some reason it changes the code. Weird I know. If you save and for some reason it doesn’t work just delete the page and start again.
33.) Now I am going to save and preview.
34.) This is what my Sponsor page looks like
35.) This is where bloggers who want to sponsor your blog will come to submit their buttons. This is where they read the description of how each ad space is used and decide which option works best for them.
36.) I am going to save this page and now it will show up on my nav bar.
Phew! That was a long tutorial : ) But I hope it helps you use Passionfruit and understand sponsors better. If you have any questions please email me at lindsayintx@gmail.com and I would love to help!
And why don’t you just add your button to my blog through Passionfruit now that you are a pro at it!
Tutorial Tuesdays – Halloween Door
Ever since moving into the new house I have been dying to decorate for the upcoming holidays! I have spent many of hours on Pinterest looking up decorating ideas and have so many that I want to do.
When I saw this door I fell in love and knew it would become one of my many projects. You have seen my Halloween mantel and I wanted so make something to go with it so I decided to make this door.
(This idea comes from Living Locurto)
I am sure that there are many ways to make this decoration but this is how I did it : )
Source: blog.passion-for-parties.com via Lindsay on Pinterest
First I went to Hobby Lobby and got all my supplies
Roll of green paper $8.99 (But if you use their 40% off coupon it makes it only $5.40ish)
2 pieces of black scrapbooking paper
2 pieces of white scrapbooking paper
5-6 pieces of assorted green paper (I bout 2-3 and needed more)
Using the coupon this all cost me under $10
Once I had all my supplies I covered my front door in the green paper. I had to cut it to make it fit but it wasn’t hard to do : )
After that was done I cut out two big circles from the white paper for eyes. I was going to use something to make sure they were perfect circles but thought it would look better if it wasn’t perfect.
I did the same thing with the black paper for the inside of the eyes. I don’t know why but the picture for that didn’t come out. But you can see it on the next step.
After I was done with they eyes I started on the mouth. I made a long piece out of the white paper to start.
Then I cut some smaller pieces to go up and down to make the mouth looked like it was stitched.
Now it’s time to make the hair. I cut pieces from the assorted green paper and just randomly places them above the eyes.
And you’re done : )
This is what it looks like from the sidewalk
Thank you so much Pinterest for sharing this idea for all of us crafters out there : )! I love the way that the green looks against my stone.
Tutorial Updates
A couple of weeks ago I decided that I was going to bite the bullet and update my tutorials.
When I was doing blog design I always used the minima template which was so easy to use. I also taught blog design with that same template.
But now that blogger has decided to update everything (Boo! I hate the updates!) they no longer support minima. I searched and searched for a way around this and haven’t been able to find one.
I still want to update them but it might take longer because now I have to learn the new templates. I have the background and header figured out but haven’t gotten past that.
And with Ryan, school, and the hubby traveling it has just been crazy around here : )
So just know that I am working on it. I just don’t know when it will happen….
Tutorial Tuesdays
The tutorials I have listed below are tutorials that I have already done. But they haven’t been updated since blogger updated their system. So I have decided once Ryan is in school (August 27th) I am going to start updating the tutorials. I just wanted to let y’all know : ) I will post a tutorial each Tuesday and maybe more than one tutorial each Tuesday. It depend on how fast I can update them.
Let me know if there is anything you want me to add to this list -
Get a Blogger Blog
Get a practice blog
Switch over to Minima template
Add a third column to your blog
Add a blog background
Add a blog header
Add a signature to your blog
Add a post divider
Make cute sidebar tabs for your blog
Add a Nav bar to your blog
Add social tabs to your blog
Make a Twitter background to match your blog
Tutorial Tuesday
Let’s step away from doing our blog designs and focus on Facebook this Tuesday. Facebook is something that is really popular with bloggers and can help inform your readers what’s on your blog.
If you want to make a Facebook page for your blog you will need to make a Timeline Cover.
What is a Timeline Cover?
If you go to my Facebook page you will see this picture. This is my Timeline cover. A timeline cover is pretty much just a picture that represents you, your blog, and your Facebook page.
Now let’s learn how to make one of these.
You see that box where my button sits? You will have this too so keep that in mind when doing your timeline cover.
If you don’t have Photoshop you will need to download Gimp (and read my TOU).
1.) Cover Photos need to be 851 px wide and 315 px tall. If you upload a smaller image your image will get stretched to this size and usually this isn’t a good look.
2.) Open Gimp.
3.) Click on File and then New
4.) Make your width 851 px and your height 315 px.
5.) Press OK and your screen should look like this
6.) I wanted to fill my cover with just pictures. I found four of my favorite pictures and maneuvered them so they fit just right : ) You can also use digital scrapbooking elements (with the designers permission) to make your design.
7.) I am just going to remake my cover to show you how it is made.
8.) To find one of my pictures I am going to go to File and then Open
9.) Your screen should now look like this. As you scroll through you can see the picture on the side. I love this feature and find it so helpful.
10.) Once you find your picture click on open. Your picture might go behind your Gimp screen so move that around and you should find your picture (I hope that makes sense). This is now how my screen looks
11.) Now I need to Copy and Paste this photo into my layout. So I am going to click on Select and then All. Make sure you are doing this in the screen where your picture sits.
12.) Now I am going to click on Edit and then Copy.
13.) Now I am going to click on my white box so I can work in that screen. I am going to click on Edit and then Paste. You can see that it paste my picture right in the middle. I am going to make sure my “move” tool is clicked (if not double-click) and I am going to move to picture to where I want it.
14. Now this is what my screen looks like.
15.) Keep doing this until your cover is the way that you want it to look. It might take you a while to get it just perfect.
16.) Now I am going to go to Facebook and upload it.
17.) Log into your Facebook account.
18.) You will see something similar to this. Now click on Add a Cover.
19.) Now click on Upload Photo and upload the photo you just saved.
20.) Click on Save Changes and there ya go! Once it’s saved you should see the photo you just created : )
If you used this tutorial please do me a favor and “like” my Facebook page – Two Men and a Mommy
And if you have any trouble or questions please don’t hesitate to email me at lindsayintx@gmail.com
