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THIS CODE IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED

 

Here is all the code you need. This code will also work if your website used secure communication “https://.”

<iframe src="https://aalbc.com/events/list-widget.php" style="border:none;width:100%; height:1500px"></iframe>

Paste the single line of HTML code above on your website and you will be able to show, an automatically updated, events calendar on your website.  The font size and color will follow that of your website's style.  The height parameter may be modified, to suit your website as well.  

2017 events will added shortly.  Events that have occurred will roll off this display after the last day of the event, automatically.

The video below shows you how easy it is to add the our events to your website or blog

 

Or course if I'm missing an important event or festival.  Please let me know (post the information below).  My goal is to ultimately include English language events from around the world. Right now all of the events are in the United States and Caribbean.  Enjoy!

 

Oh creating this widget was @Mel Hopkins's idea :)

 

If you run into any problems using this widget let me know.

 

The events calendar widget code is used directly below. I changed the height parameter from 1500px to 400px so that less vertical space is used. 

 

I have added it to my Edit 1 (manuscript editing service) website too.

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The site could be loading slowly because of the plugins you are running did you install one, or a few, recently?  

You could also be jammed up by too many requests (process trying to hack your site), check your server logs for unusual activity.  

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I actually used Mel's site in a video to show the press this feature so our community is doing some good work.

Oh, I added the widget, but man that is one long widget. I would have to imagine it would be better to create a post for the backlink and then embed it into the post. I guess it's not important though because most people don't know how to add it to a widget or to their site. You may want to do a video just for the heck of it to show the process.

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Hey Chris post a link to the Blog post about press this.

Can you don't have to live with the length I provided.  You can customize the length of the widget.  The code I posted has the site set at 1500 pixels, but the code I actually pasted in the sample above is using 400.  You can set that number to suit you site.  Just change the height parameter, to something that works for your page. 

height:1500px

The width is set at 100%, that way it will use the available space will work nicely on mobile optimized websites (viewable at a narrow width).

 

 

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Chris I just visited your site: http://www.cbpublish.com/ is loads very quickly from what my vantage point.

But if you really want to get into optimizing your website for speed check out this page.  If I were you would would definitely take advantage of compressing your images and caching.  You can download plugins to take advantage of both of these.

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Yeah you can definitely alter the html, but I have a feeling most people aren't going to mess with it out of fear. I still think it's a great opportunity for another video. I'm realizing now that video is king and daily update of content is right there with it. I'm not getting huge views on the YouTube, but it's growing slowly. I'm cool with that since it's not a primary income, but a new venture. I'm okay with the length because I have my blog set up to show 50 posts which makes the page long so it looks fine in my sidebar.  I do need to get a compression plugin, but like you I'm having issues with Wordpress themes. I may have to bite the bullet and build my own.

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Thank you ! @CDBurns ! I've been buried so deep in my projects I haven't come up for air yet!  I did get a chance to put the AALBC events widget on my site! I put it in the sidebar for now 500px - I do have some affiliate stuff I have to add at a later date but for now I like this Events widget.   It keeps me focused on  my writing projects.. Check it  out when you get a chance  http://theleadstory.org/

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I love the growth of your sidebar!!!!! Nice job Sis! When you get your adsense account I can't wait to see those ads and your updates and tweets from there. We all have to empower ourselves and capitalize on everything. I'd rather make 1 dollar for my blog work than zero so why not monetize that sidebar? Nice work.

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@Mel Hopkins, I modified the widget so that it would fit in your sidebar without the horizontal scroll bar.  

  • I made the AALBC.com logo and powered by text less pronouced.
  • Shorted the text in the drop down menu (which was causing the horizontal scroll)
  • I got rid of the indentation so the text and image use the full available width. 

The widget looks a lot better on both of your pages now.  You see I never would have anticipated that people would the "widget" on the side bard of the page, so it was not optimized to display in a width that narrow.  Now it is so it will bok good on a full width display as above or a narrow display like a cell phone of the sidebar of a Blog.

The events page is very popular people are using it as intended.  This should add value to your websites, help promote the events and AALBC.com--lifting all boats.  If use of the widgets grows I could event insert a ad and do a revenue share with those who use the banner based upon impressions served.  

I'll create video to demonstrate how to use the widget and announce it's availability.  I'll also use your websites as examples of how it is implemented.

This idea should be applied to a wide variety of things.  How about a sneaker widget when we sell Chris' most popular brand and earn a commission?  

Thanks again for the ideas, there is potential in this....

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All very good points Troy. As far as a sneaker widget, when you go to my online store you will notice that all of the shoes listed there are listed as Amazon Associates Ads. Most of the shoes are for shoes I have in inventory, but a lot of the shoes are years old and I don't have them but others do so I still get a kickback on commission through Amazon Associates. I say this to say don't waste your time building a widget for my sneakers... simply use your Amazon Associates and earn revenue that way. It's what I do. I stopped trying to fight the battle of selling solely through my website. I talked about this on one of the BBZ lectures last week. I can put a shoe up on my site for 150. I can put the same shoe up on Amazon for 250 and people will pay the 250 99% of the time. It's crazy. 

As of right now I have the AALBC link in my blogroll and the events widget. The more people who do this we create that precious web ring.

Oh I forgot to link the video for the press this feature when you asked... my bad.

 

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Thanks again @CDBurns I found your video pretty helpful.  We should probably start another conversation about press this under bloggers helping bloggers.  

I took your advise and created the video (added to original post above).  Creating these videos is not trivial-this 3 minute video took me a couple of hours. I'll start another conversation on this subject under Bloggers Helping Bloggers

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just upgraded this widget to include a full year of events.  Many of the events have not updated their websites, but they usually take place during the same time of the year so I have updated our Events Calendar to reflect this.

I also updated the widget to work on secure (https) websites.

As I was updating the events calendar I noticed a couple of book fairs decided to call it quits. One, The Blue Ridge Bookfest, gave three primary reason for stopping, which I will share in a separate conversation.

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  • 6 months later...

I just noticed Mahogany Books is also using the events calendar. They get it.  I'm also modifying my website's code such that if they offer any deals, the buy links on my website for that book will only go to Mahogany Books.  

Generally, when they offer a deal the book is priced less that Amazon and often signed. Now I know people may still choose to leave the site and buy from Amazon, but they will have discovered MahiganyBooks.  Who knows maybe somewhere down the road, that reader may ultimately choose to support and Black indie bookseller over Amazon.  

mahoganybooks.com book festivals/

 

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  • 10 months later...
Guest Rss feed inquiry

Hi Troy,

I would very much like to put your feed on www.booksigningevent.com

However, the code isn't working.. does your posting generate an rss feed, with images and links back to aalbc.com, that we could use?

Thanks

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  • 8 months later...
Guest Promote Black Authors

We would like to add your feed of events to our website www.promoteblackauthors.com however the code is not work.

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I'm using the code below (see end of this post).  When you paste it into your website make sure you are using HTML or Source mode.  It you paste it as plain text it will not work.  An RSS feed would be ideal for this sort of thing, I just have not gotten around to doing it. 

 

 

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