Blog
Unsplash pictures
You can now add beautiful pictures from Unsplash to your Owlstown website. Here’s an example: Not familiar with Unsplash? Unsplash is a free service where you can find awesome pictures to use on your website. It has millions of pictures that talent...
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Your academic website needs a sitemap
One way that people find your academic website is to use a search engine. They do a search with your name or your research topic, and your website appears as one of the search results. Of course, this depends on how well your website ranks among other ...
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Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Owlstowners! I hope you’re enjoying your much-deserved break. Or if you’re busy, I hope you're making good progress. Hello, you’re awesome! I started Owlstown a few years ago with the mission of helping academics share their research...
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Markdown support
I’ve added support for Markdown for content fields in Owlstown. You can use Markdown with any of these content types: about, courses, custom pages, posts, projects, and publications. Just select Markdown editor on the content field. If you have edited ...
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Member Highlight: Melody K. Waring
This week’s member highlight is Melody K. Waring . She has been using Owlstown since June 2019. You can find her academic website at http://www.melodywaring.com . Melody is in her fifth year of doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s ...
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Your academic website should have your contact info
Okay, so you have an academic website. That’s great! Now, make sure that you have your contact info is on that website. And make it easy to find. You’d be surprised how many academic websites don’t have this information or make it difficult to find. He...
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Support for blog posts
Hi Owlstowners! I just added support for writing posts on Owlstown, which means you can use Owlstown like a blog for your academic work. You can also post short snippets if you prefer posting short updates. This same feature is the same blogging platfo...
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Share project pages, not just publications
TLDR: Share pages that describe your projects. It will help introduce new readers to your work. The internet is full of places to list/share your publications: Google Scholar, Academia.edu, ResearchGate. They are super useful because they help dissemi...
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The smallest academic website you can make
TLDR: When creating an academic website, start small. And finish small. Then grow from there. So you want an academic website, but you don’t have the time. That’s okay. You’re an academic. You’re busy. Creating an academic website feels like a daunting...
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Using a .com domain name for your academic website
TLDR: A domain name ending in .com is fine for an academic website. I’ve seen many people ask on blogs or on Twitter whether it’s okay to use a domain name ending in .com for an academic website. The main concern from askers is that a domain ending in ...
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Should you use your university’s domain or your own domain name for your academic website?
TLDR: Get your own domain name for your academic website. First of all, what is a domain name? A domain name is the address where Internet users can access your website . For Owlstown, the domain name is owlstown.com . For a university, it probably end...
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Custom pages in Owlstown
You can now add custom pages to your Owlstown site. For example, you can add pages such as your teaching statement, your list of achievements, an FAQ, or any page you may need to share more of your academic work. User interface to add your custom pages...
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Prettier websites with support for banner images on pages.
Prettier websites with banner images
Hi Owlstowners! I just added a new feature to Owlstown to make prettier websites. You can now add banner images to pages. Here's an example: I added the feature to all themes, so you should be able to add banner images to your pages. To use, go to B...
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Course pages
Happy summer, Owlstowners! I hope you're enjoying the sunshine. Owlstown now supports adding courses to your website. You can add courses that you're teaching or have taught. Each course has its own page where you can describe it and add links to its c...
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