As there is a growing interest of Kaywa blog publishers for QR Codes, especially for classifieds (in german: Kleinanzeigen), I quickly wrote up a QR Code DIY Guide:

Kaywa's QR Code DIY Guide for blog publishers

Introduction

You have a Kaywa blog and you want to use QR Codes*. On most Kaywa blogs you already see the QR code in the navigation column on the right. Currently this QR Code is what we call a Short Code. Every Short Code can also be changed into an URL which we call the Short Code URL. The advantage of a Short Code URL over the Short Code is that all QR Code Readers and not only the Kaywa Reader can make something with the encoded data in it. This way your QR Code immediately can be read by millions of handsets everywhere in the world. We at Kaywa believe that the URL approach is the only one that will prevail in the near future.

How To Create A QR Code For A Single Post (Short Code)

Let's take the example of this post here.

What we have:

• The Short Code QR Code with the Short Code written right under the QR Code: 2020415403. This Short Code brings us directly to the mobile version of the blog at http://bossardpartners.kaywa.ch/mobile.
  
  
  

  2020415403
• The ID of the post: it is 175, derived from http://bossardpartners.kaywa.ch/p175.html or rather http://bossardpartners.kaywa.ch/mobile/p175 as we want to access the mobile version and not the PC/Mac version of this post.
  
  ※ To get to the post ID, you can simply search for your post (recommended) or click the latest posts if it's one of them. As an alternative you can also check the post ID in your RSS feed.

Ok, now we know the Short Code of the post, it's 2020415403 (Blog ID) + 175 (Post ID) which gives us 2020415403175. We now can create the Short Code of this post with the QR Code Generator. Go to Content Type Text and enter 2020415403175 into the Free Text field. Then hit Generate!. The result is the Short Code for this particular post:

How to URLize my Short Code (Short Code URL)

As you read in the introduction the Short Code can only be understood by the Kaywa Reader. All other QR Code Readers will simply give you 2020415403175 as a result. They can decode the QR Code's data but then they do not know what to do with it - it's simple text for them. That's why you want to URLize it - making an URL out of this Shortcode - to get a maximum reach.

Enters the Short Code URL! The Short Code URL has an URLizer part and a Short Code part:

• URLizer: http://d.kaywa.com/
• Short Code: 2020415403175

Put this two together and you get: http://d.kaywa.com/2020415403175. Basically this works like a TinyURL.

We now can create the Short Code URL of this post with the QR Code Generator. Go to Content Type URL and enter http://d.kaywa.com/2020415403175 into the field. Then hit Generate!. The result is the Short Code URL for this particular post:


The difference between the codes is obvious, the Short Code URL is a bit bigger than the Short Code as it contains more data.

※ Also keep in mind to keep a sufficient Quiet Zone around the QR Code. The above examples do have a quiet zone of between two and three modules. This works normally well, but you certainly shouldn't go nearer.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this little DIY Guide for creating QR Codes for single blog posts and you understand now the difference between Short Codes and Short Code URLs - and why the latter are important to create a worldwide ecosystem. You can also find a much shorter version of this DIY guide in german here and there.

※ Kaywa provides statistics** for both type of codes: Short Codes and Short Code URL's in our commercial solutions. Please contact us by phone or email, if you are interested in our commercial solutions.



* QR Code ® is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED in Japan and other countries.

** It is important to note that we only provide reading statistics without any personal data as we strongly believe that the user has data protection rights.