Blog guide revised

Basic Blog GuideKathleen Cragun© September 2012

APPROXIMATE BLOGGING INDEXCREATE YOUR BLOG…………………………..3,4,5BLOG SETTINGS…………………………………5,6BEGIN POSTING………………………………...7,8POST SETTINGS………………………………….9,10PUBLISH…………………………………………..11CHOOSING A TEMPLATE……………………..12,13ADDING A PICTURE…………………………...14 2

GENEALOGY BLOGGING 101 with blogspot.comCREATE YOUR BLOG September 2012To get started: It is necessary to have a Google account to use blogspot/blogger. If you don’t have a Google account-go set one up at: https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount (You already have an account ifyou have gmail.)Then go to blogger.com—this page will come up—Sign in with the email andpassword you used to create your account. Then………….…..Click on New Blog You are on your way 3

What do you want your title to be? Put it in.You can change your Title at any time. The next line down……..Addresscombined with blogspot.com will be your URL. When you put it in it will auto-matically tell you if it is available or not. If it is not, choose another one until itsays it is available. Accept. Remember this URL, write it down in a safeplace. Also write down the email and its password associated with thisaccount. If you don’t you may never be able to get into this blog again!You can continue and select a Template here if you want but we suggestyou first write a post, then you will be able to better tell what your blog willlook like when you try out different templates. You can change the template 4anytime too. You cannot change your URL unless you start a different blog.

Your blog has been created! Before you begin posting there is an important decision you need to make. Is your Blog going to be PUBLIC or PRIVATE???? Click on the little down arrow we have Pointed to – this list will come up with 9 options. At the bottom of this list is Settings. This setting is for your whole blog. Click on this and you can select the options you want. You can change these anytime. See next page. 5

After you Click on Settings,This will come up—then Clickon Edit. If you want it Publicyou don’t have to do any-thing. Change if needed. The two items shown here will allow you to keep the search engines from finding your blog if you don’t want them to. Just Click No & Save Changes 6

Click on the words Start Posting. You could click on Dismiss if youchicken out, but we hope you don’t. At first it is like climbing amountain, it gets easier and begins to be fun.What should you write? Who are you trying to reach?You could write some interesting stories of your ancestors. Then inviteother family members to your blog. If you tag (label) your articles withkeywords that might attract a relative you haven’t met yet, you mayget a comment and a connection with that person that may bring youeven more information about family members. That has happened toLarry Cragun.You might ask a question. What are some of the mysteries you have yetto solve? When was great-great grandma Sally Mae Perkins born? AndWhere?There just might be someone out there that has the answer. These rea-sons would require your blog to be public and found on Google.Maybe you just want it to be a private blog for your research or just forcertain people you want to share with, not the whole world. All arepossible. Keeping your blog out of Google is just a matter of a click (inthe right place).We showed you that on the previous page.After you get your blog going, if you want it to be found in Google youwon’t want to delete posts. You can make major changes, but don’tdelete. The URL of the post will go to a dead end. Not good for ratings. 7

Put in your titleEvery Post Will Have It’s Own Title-It becomes it’s own URL! Here is where you will write your blog post…..A post is the same as an article. Relax . Just typing here will start your blogging juices flowing. It will soon become natural. After a while it won’t seem hard.If you want someone to come to a specific post, on the published page ofthe post click on the title, highlight it in the address bar, hit Control C, then inan email to them, hit Control V and it will paste the link so they can go rightto that post. It’s a good way to start sharing your blog and getting theminterested. They may even start to read it regularly.Notice at the top, there is a button you can push to PUBLISH. Don’t do ityet! Notice there are other buttons as well, like Save and Preview. BlogSpotdoes save automatically but I don’t take any chances. If you are going toput up a lengthy article it is a good idea to save occasionally even if youare not done. Bad things can happen and it is bad if you put a lot of timeinto an article and you lose it. Happened to me!Preview lets you see what your post looks like before you post it. Other 8items let you change the text, bold, underline, etc. like Word. There is more.

Post Settings—Choose Before You Publish Your PostOn the right under Post Settings are thingsyou need to do before you Publish: ClickLabels (same as tags). Putting these in helpsGoogle and readers search for the infor-mation in the labels. Separate differentones by commas and Click Done. Your readers will thank you that they don’t have to search through your whole blog to try to find info about the Sweeney family or your article on family dogs. Next after Labels Click on Schedule. Continue to the next page for the diagram. 9

Post Settings—Continued………………………………. Next Click on SCHEDULE Here you can set your post to be published the minute you hit Publish OR You can Click Set Date and Time and choose what day and hour you want a post to go live. You can have it set for 4:00 am Monday morning no matter when you write it. Everyone will think you are up and at it very early in the morning! You can also write 5 posts and schedule them to go live at separate times or days while you are on vacation laying on the beach eating Bon Bons. Don’t forget to Click Done PERMALINK is next. The default is Auto- matic and we suggest leaving it this way. This is what allows each post to have its own URL. Click Done. We are almost done with post settings. We know you are eager to get your post published!The last item in Post Settings is OPTIONS You can Click on it but we suggestleaving the Options here as they are. If you don’t want to Allow commentsyou can check Don’t Allow. Your sister might be really mad though?! 10

Take a Deep Breath and Click—PUBLISH Below is what your blog will look like without a Template. Kind of boring, but not for long. Now you can experiment with different Templates. 11

Changing TemplatesTo see what your post looks like? Click View BlogRemember we suggested you wait until you get a post up to choose aTemplate. Now we can try out templates. Since you have a post up, it willshow you how things will really look on your blog. You can changetemplates and even customize them.The kind of blog you are going to do will help determine which one youchoose. If you are doing a research blog and it will be mostly for you andyour research, you will probably want something simple. If it is public,maybe more elaborate. You be the judge. Continue to learn aboutTemplates………………………………………………………………………….. From the same place you got into Settings (pg 4) Click on Template. This will bring up many choices . Remember you can try out many to see how you like them with a click of your mouse. When you find one you like, Click Apply to Blog. You can still change it after you do that! 12

Changing Templates……...continuedYou can select Templates from these three categories shown above.Dynamic Views are a little complicated to start out with. Each categoryhas a number of different templates to choose from. Click on any of the tabs upper left to customize your template after youselect and apply one. It is often necessary to change widths of differentsections to accommodate Photos, etc.A Template can completely change the character of your blog. Andhow your readers will view it. Remember to Click Apply to Blog.Have fun experimenting. Next we will show you how to add photo toyour posts. 13

Adding Photos to Your BlogTo add a picture to your blog postclick on the photo icon, that will pullup the Browse button. This is verymuch like adding an attachment toan email. From your computer youcan select the picture you want,click on it to select and Open to addthe picture, it will appear thenclick Add Selected. Done. There are many ways to get photos into your blog from other sources as well. Add selected 14

Do your grandchildren think of you like this? Maybe your blog will change their mind! 15

This Users Guide does not cover everything but is intended to getyou started without too much frustration. After you grasp thesebasics we think other things will be easy to grasp and then you canconcentrate on how you can use your blog to further your FamilyHistory. We sincerely hope you have many bright ideas. 16

Blog guide revised

by Larry Cragun on Sep 09, 2012

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