DBWS Blog Manager Reference Guide

Transcription

1 DBWS Blog Manager Reference Guide Your Demonstrator Business Web Services (DBWS) are important tools and resources that you can use to build your business on the Web. Through your DBWS, you can increase your communication and marketing efforts and gain access to new markets and customers. Blog Manager Your DBWS Blog Manager allows you to keep and maintain a blog. You can use your blog to keep your customers informed of your activities, and create closer relationships with them. Your blog can be an important and effective marketing tool as you build your Stampin Up! demonstratorship. With your blog manager you can: Manage new entries Review previous entries Moderate comments on your entries Set up and manage categories on your blog Create links Edit preferences for your blog

2 Create/Edit When you click on the Blog Manager tab, the Create & Edit tab will display. From there you can select New Entry, Entries, Comments, Categories, and Links. New Entries In the New Entries screen, you can input new blog entries. As you write your entry, make sure to create a title, assign a category, and add tags to help facilitate searches of your entries. You can use the text editor tool in the content field of the New Entries screen to create the body of your blog entry, or you can create it in your word processor and paste it into the content field. To learn more about the HTML editor, see the HTML Editor Reference Guide. When you finish writing your blog entry, you can either click the Save as Draft button so you can work on it again later or post it to your blog by clicking the Post to Blog button.

3 Advanced Settings If you want your blog posting to go live at a certain time in the future, you can use the Publish Time settings to set the time by simply entering the hour, minute, and date that you want your post to publish, and click the Post to Blog button. You can also manage how long comments to your blog will display by selecting the desired length of time from the drop-down box. If you want to disable comments to your blog so that readers cannot leave comments at all, simply clear the Allow comments checkbox. Additional comments settings are available on the Preferences tab of the Blog Manager. Entries Your DBWS Blog allows you to manage existing blog entries clicking Entries in the Create & Edit tab of the Blog Manager. Under Entries, you can edit, preview, or delete any of your existing blog entries. To find entries more easily, you can use the Filter entries feature to limit the number of posts shown. To use the filter, enter the desired information in the corresponding search fields, select the status, and click the Filter button.

4 Comments Visitors to your blog will be able to leave comments about the different entries you make on your blog. To manage these comments, click Comments in the Create & Edit tab of the Blog Manager. All of your comments will display in the Comments screen. When managing comments, you can approve them, mark them as SPAM, or delete them by selecting the desired checkbox (displayed to the left of each comment) and clicking the Save changes button at the bottom of the page. Approved checkbox When you select the Approved checkbox, and click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page, those comments will be posted to your blog. SPAM checkbox When you select the SPAM checkbox and click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page, those comments will not be posted to your blog, and any future comments from the same individual will be automatically blocked as well. There are many programs that search the Internet and blogs for key words or phrases. When these programs find the key words they are looking for, they will enter comments into the blog s comments field, redirecting your readers to other sites or services. In cases like this, you would want to mark the comments as SPAM. However, we recommend that you not mark a post as SPAM if it is from a legitimate visitor to your site. Instead, delete any comment that you do not wish to have post on your blog. Delete checkbox When you select the delete checkbox and click the Save changes button at the bottom of the page, the comment will not post to your blog, but future comments from that individual will not be blocked. While the choice to delete a comment is yours to make, remember that not all negative comments are necessarily bad. Some negative comments can help to promote discussion of your blog entry, increasing visitor interest, comments, and traffic to your blog. We recommend that you reserve deleting a post for posts that contain vulgarity, off-color, or hate-filled posts.

5 You can use the Filter comments feature to limit the number of comments that are displayed. To use the filter feature, enter the requested data in the corresponding fields, select the pending and SPAM status, and click the Query button. Additional comments settings are available on the Preferences tab of the Blog Manager. Categories You can use the categories tool to organize your blog entries into specific categories to which your readers can subscribe. Categories also help to organize your posts and will facilitate searching for specific topics. To manage these categories, click Categories in the Create & Edit tab of the Blog Manager. To add a category: 1. Click the Add Category link on the right side of the page. The Adding Category screen will display. 2. Enter a name and description of your category. 3. Click the Save button. The Manage categories screen will display, and your new category will be added to the list. To remove a category, simply click the remove button to the right of the desired category name. Links Your Stampin Up! blog features a links section where visitors to your blog can see a list of sites that you recommend. To manage these links, click Links in the Create & Edit tab of the Blog Manager. To add a link: 1. Click Add link on the right side of the page. The Adding new link page will display. 2. Enter the link Name, Description, URL, or Newsfeed URL. 3. Click the Save button. The Manage links page will display and your new link will be added to the list.

6 To delete a link: 1. Select the checkbox to the left of the desired link. 2. Click the Delete selected button. Editing a link: 1. Click the edit icon to the right of the link. The Editing link screen will display. 2. Edit the desired information. 3. Click the Save button. Preferences You can edit preferences in the Blog Manager by clicking on the Preferences tab. The Preferences screen enables you to manage General Settings, Comments and Default comment settings, and SPAM prevention. General Settings Under General Settings, you can enter or edit your blog s title, tagline, and address. You can also choose to make your blog active or inactive by selecting the corresponding checkbox. You can also establish the number of blog entries that will display on each blog page.

7 Comments Under comments you can choose whether to allow comments on your blog or not. The Moderate Comments box allows you to choose whether you want to approve all comments before they post or not. Leaving this box unchecked will allow all comments to post automatically. You can moderate your comments after they post using the Comments section of the Create & Edit tab. Additional comments settings are available on the Create & Edit tab of the Blog Manager. Default Comment Settings In this section, you can determine whether you ll allow comments on new blog entries, the amount of time that you ll allow comments on new entries (unlimited or up to 90 days). You can also select whether you wish to apply these settings to your existing entries. Additional comments settings are available on the Create & Edit tab of the Blog Manager. SPAM Prevention You ll want to prevent as much SPAM as possible from posting to your blog. You can do that by entering certain key words or phrases that you want blocked. When comments containing these words or phrases are posted, they will be marked as SPAM and blocked. When you enter undesirable words or phrases, press enter after each entry so that they are listed as one word or phrase per line. External Blog Feed If you already use another blog tool, you can still display those postings on your DBWS by using the external blog feed tool. Setting your DBWS to import from an external blog: 1. Open your Site Manager and select Page Setup. The page setup screen will display. 2. On the Page Setup screen, select Blog. The Registration Tools window will display. 3. Enter the URL of the external blog you wish to import to your DBWS blog in the appropriate field. Note: Make sure to use the blog feed URL and not the blog s address.