Blogging. Wordpress.com Weebly.com Penzu.com Blog.com Wix.com Blogger

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1 Blogging What is Blogging? A Blog is a website containing a writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites. Blog is short for web log and can be used as a noun ( I read about the new scandal in a gossip blog. ) or a verb ( After our date I went home and blogged about the evening. ). A blog is a journal that is kept on the Internet. It is also an easy-to-use, personal web site that you can access from the Internet. It does not have to be a journal, though many start out that way. Blogs started as a way for people to notify each other of interesting and fun links on the Internet. Later, people started using their blog sites to keep a journal or make observations about current events. Several web sites offer blogging services they will let you post your thoughts on your own blog on their web site using their software. Usually this service is free, but you have to register in order to use the site. Here is a list of a few blogging sites. Wordpress.com Weebly.com Penzu.com Blog.com Wix.com Blogger Reading blogs is free (see page 5). NOTE: For class we will be using Blogger, which is a Google App. Who writes a blog? Anyone can write a blog. Some are personal. Others are business related. Some cover entertainment or fashion. Many are political. Blogs provide information and opinions for anyone with an interest in expression. Blogs can be written by one person or by a group. A family can have its own blog. A department at work might want to use a blog to communicate with each other. Sometimes students will have blogs that their friends read to keep up with gossip and to chat. Registration To start using Blogger, sign in with your Google Account. If you do not have a Google Account, create a new one by following this link ( Proceed to fill out the registration form as required. Once you have signed up for an account, go to Blogger.com 1

2 and log in. Then enter a display name and accept the Terms of Service. Choose a profile that people will see when they view your posts. You can use your Google+ profile if you already have one or want to create one. If you want to use another identity such as an assumed name than you can create a limited Blogger Profile instead. Once you have made the decision between Google+ or limited Blogger Profile, click the Continue to Blogger button. Create a Blog 1. Click on the New Blog button to get started. 2. Give your Blog a Title. 3. Give it an address. 4. Choose a template. a. The template is how your blog will look when people view it. b. If you are not really sure about a template you can change it later and choose from more options. 5. Click Create Blog button. Dashboard You will always start on your dashboard where all your blogs are listed and buttons to help you perform certain actions. The pencil button will allow you to create new posts. The paper button will allow you to see a list of all your posts and to do some customizing. The View blog button will allow you to see your blog as others do. If you click on the paper button, you will be taken to a page that looks like what is on the next page of the handout. Right now, we are on the page that lists all your posts that you can publish, revert to draft, delete or tag. We will discuss this more later. 2

3 Overview Overview will allow you to see the activity for your blog. How many time your pages were views, updates, news and tips from Blogger, a Blogger Guide, and recent Blogs of Note. 3

4 Pages You can organize your blog into separate sections like About me or Contact me using pages. Pages appear as either tabs on the top or links on the side. Pages differ from your homepage because they are usually used to display content that doesn't need to change very often. Comments If you choose to enable comments, visitors to your blog will have the option to respond to your published posts. For example, if someone has a question, found something interesting, or just wants to share something about what you wrote, they can comment about the particular post. For example, if you put a crochet pattern on your site, someone might want some sort of clarification as to how you handled a particular part. The settings for comments is found under the settings button at the bottom of the list on the left hand side. Stats Stats will list an overview of your stats. You can choose to see the stats related to individual posts, where the traffic (referring URLs, Sites, Search Keywords) of these stats are coming from. You can also see information about your audience such as the country, browser, and the operating systems your visitors use. Layout Layout allows you can add, remove, or edit gadgets on your blog. If you want to change columns or width you will go through the template designer. If you click on the link that says add a gadget a pop up box will appear listing basic gadgets. You can click on the left hand side if you want to view more gadgets or add your own. The list of gadgets will have a definition of the gadget and who it is created by. The basics are created by Blogger. Under the More 4

5 Gadgets list, you will find gadgets created by third party software. If the gadget has not been added to your blog it will have a plus sign to click. If you have already added the gadget it will state already added. Template This area will allow you to preview different templates. If you click on a template you like it will take your information in a snapshot and add the new look. If you like it click apply to blog, but if you want to change it a little then click customize. When you click customize, you can go through each template. Once you pick a template, then you can change the main color theme, adjust widths, layout, page, links, blog title, etc. You will have to take some time and check out what each option does. Settings 1. Basic- allow you to change: a. Title b. Description c. Privacy d. Blog Address e. Blog Authors and Readers 2. Post and Comments- allow you to change: a. How many posts to show b. Who can comment c. Comment Moderation i. Review comments before published Posts To create a post, either click on the New post button or the pencil button. It behaves very much like word then. You just start typing your thoughts. You can change the font style, size, add a picture, movie, check your spelling, etc. You will need a title for your blog, information about your topic, and when you are all done press the publish button. Formatting Posts Type the title of your post here. You can type in the format related to word processing or if you are proficient in HTML click on the button at the top and you can use that method of writing your thoughts. 5

6 There is an undo and redo button The will let you change the font. The button will allow you change the font size. If you click on this button from heading, subheading, or normal. a drop down menu will appear allowing you to choose The next three buttons are for Bold, Italic, and Underline. The next two buttons will allow you to change the font color and/or highlight the text. The next three buttons allows you to add a hyperlink, a picture, or a video. The next button is to adjust the line spacing. The next two buttons are for using either symbols or numbers for bulleted lists. The last button is for spell checking. Here is an example with some of the changes made using the buttons listed above. How to insert a picture: 1. Click on the button that looks like a picture. 2. You have to add a picture to the site through uploading from your hard drive or flash drive. 3. Click the choose files button. 4. Locate the files on your computer in Open dialog box. 5. Once you find the picture, click on the picture and then click the open button in the lower right hand corner of the box. 6. The picture will be uploaded. 7. Click on the picture you want to use. 6

7 8. Click the Add selected button. 9. You picture will be added to your blog. You can then click and drag it to move it. NOTE: You can also choose a picture that is already on the blog, in your Picasa Web Albums, From your phone, From your webcam, or From a URL. Post Settings Labels will allow you to easily categorize your posts. When you add labels separate them with commas. Labels you've used before will show up below, and you can just click them to add them to the post. When you publish your post, the labels will be listed with it. Clicking any of the labels will take you to a page containing only posts with that label. Schedule will allow you to automatically publish a post at a specific date and time. Permalink will allow you to customize the permalink, if you don t want to use the one blogger creates. Location will allow you to add where you are writing from or possible about if you want to use it that way. Options will allow you to decide whether you want comments on this post or not. Publishing the Post Once you have complete your post, you can publish it, save it, preview it or close. Publish will add it to your blog for anyone to see. Save will save it as a draft to be published at a later date and time. Preview will show you what it will look like on your blog once it is posted. Close will bring you back to your dashboard. If you click close without saving, a message will appear telling you that you have unsaved changes they will be lost. If you click ok then you will lose your changes. If you click cancel you can then save your changes. Reading Blogs 7

8 Finding blogs to add and follow to your blogger account can be done in a couple of different ways. The first way is if it is a blogger site then you can click the Join this site button and it will automatically be added under the reading section of your blogger account. The other way is to click on the Add button on your blogger site under Reading list. A box will open where you can add the URL (web address) from the site you want to follow. If you click the +Add on the right hand side you can add multiple blogs to follow at one time. After you have added all the blogs you would like to add at this time, click on the follow button. After clicking on the follow, it will bring up a little box that says saving. When it is complete, it will say done and refresh your page. On the left hand side of your blogger page, you should see a list of all the blogs you are currently following. You will see a list of all the blog postings in the middle of your page in chronological order. If one of the blogs you are following doesn t appear to be showing it may be that the author of said blog hasn t posted in a while. If you click on any of the blogs on the left you will see the posts specific to that blog only. If you want to read the whole post, click on the title of the specific post to be taken to a new tab where the blog will load. On the right hand side of the page, you will see a gear. If you click the gear, you will be taken to a list of all the blogs you are currently following. 8

9 From here you can click on whether you want to follow the blog publicly or anonymously. If you choose to be Public, this will allow other people to see your profile image and a link to your Blogger profile. Your profile image will be included in the Follower s widget whether they have one now or do not add on until the future. If you choose to be anonymous, then other people will not be able to see your profile image or your link to your profile. It will also not be included on the blogs Follower s widget. You can delete any blogs you do not want to follow anymore for whatever the reason. You can also add more blogs that you would like to follow from this page by clicking on the add button. 9