Putting Twitter on your TypePad blog

Did you know that Twitter has a widget for you and that it is incredibly easy to add it to your TypePad blog?  It's true - it ain't no rumor!  If you're a Twitter user (let's face it - who isn't a Twitter user?) - you are already expanding your online presence outside the walls of your blog.  Why not bring that conversation into your blog and increase your visibility and exposure to new readers and visitors?  It's also a great way to include a "Microblog" on your blog on those days you're having that 'not so fresh feeling' and just want to blog in blurbs.  Anyway, I digress ... 

Have a visit to Twitter's Widget page and see! (ahem - you apparently need to be logged into your Twitter account in order to view the widgets page) -  Click the TypePad tab:

Then, click the "Continue" button and you are presented with just a few options for configuring your Twitter display on your website.  Select the number of Twitter updates you'd like to display, along with the title of that section of your site.  You can see in my right sidebar, I've chosen to display 10 of my last Twitter updates under the title of "OnTwitter".

When you've chosen your options - and are using a standard TypePad theme (a/k/a not advanced templates) - simply click the "Install Widget on TypePad" button and you're off and running.

For those of you, like me, who are using TypePad's Advanced Templates, there is a little bit more work involved...but it's easy cheesy! Just copy the code they give you after you click teh "View the code" link. Paste it into your template at the spot you'd like it to appear and save. That's it. I chose to publish my Twitter feed in my sidebar, which you can see over there on the right side of the page.  My Twitter updates are currently displaying 6 updates, but I can change that easily enough, anytime I want to, in the code provided by Twitter (and change I probably will, so no fair pointing out 6 months from now that I'm now displaying 16 instead of 6, deal?)

Here's the code snippet:

< div id="twitter_div"> < h2 style="margin:0" class="module-header">Twitter Updates</h2> < ul class="module-list" id="twitter_update_list"></ul> <a href="http://twitter.com/LisaSabinWilson" id="twitter-link" style="display:block;text-align:right;">follow me on Twitter</a> < /div> < script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/javascripts/typepad.js"></script> < script type="text/javascript" src="http://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/LisaSabinWilson.json?callback=twitterCallback2&count=6"></script>

In that last line of the script that says "count=6" - - change the number 6 to whatever number of updates you'd like to display in your sidebar.  I said it was easy, right?  I wasn't lying!

*Hot Twitter Widget Tip - - sometimes the Twitter.com website has been known to have some technical difficulty, and as such - having their script on your site could potentially slow down the loading of your site, which is never a good thing!  To avoid this (for advanced template user only!), take those last two lines that start with < script > and end with < /script > and copy and paste them into the bottom of your site - in the footer, if you will, before the ending < /body > tag.  This will ensure that your site loads properly, despite any current performance problems Twitter is currently experiencing.  Why the bottom?  Simple:  your site content loads first, site scripts load last.

Consequently, you can follow me on Twitter @LisaSabinWilson  ;)