Handouts

Sandra Dykes
 * Handout for Bloggers **


 * Blogger **
 * URL: [|http://www.blogger.com] **

Create a blog. It's free. **

What's a blog?
Blogger serves as a hosting site for blogs, and the basic blog is free. A blog is a personal diary and a collaborative space. It can provide a space for collective links, discussions, memos, and a breaking news outlet to the audience. You can design your own blog, and there are numerous designs to select from to give your blog a personal touch. A blog is a web site, where you can write about all types of topics. Each new entry will show at the top of the page. Blogs are an easy way to collaborate with others and give journalism a new edge.

**Create a blog.** It's free. [|Get started]
__Step 1: Create a ____ Google Account __** This process will create a Google account that you can use on other Google services. If you already have a Google account perhaps from Gmail, Google Groups, or Orkut, please [|sign in first]


 * **Email address**

** (must already exist) ** ||  || You'll use this address to log in to Blogger and other Google services. We'll never share it with third parties without your permission. || ===__Step 1a: Go to __ http://www.blogger.com __ and sign up for a blog __=== Again, it's an easy to use service, but let me give you a few pieces of advice on how to accomplish this:
 * **Retype email address** ||  || Type in your email address again to make sure there are no typos. ||
 * **Enter a password** ||  || Password strength: ||   ||
 * ||  ||   ||   ||   || Must be at least 8 characters long. ||
 * **Retype password** ||  ||   ||
 * **Display name** ||  || The name used to sign your blog posts. ||
 * **Email notifications** || Send me feature announcements, advice, and other information to help me get the most out of my blog. ||   ||
 * **Gender** || Male Female Other ||   ||
 * **Birthday** ||   || MM/DD/YYYY (e.g. "5/3/2012") ||
 * **Word Verification** || || Type the characters you see in the picture to the left. ||
 * **Acceptance of Terms** || I accept the Terms of Service || Indicate that you have read and understand Blogger's Terms of Service ||
 * **Acceptance of Terms** || I accept the Terms of Service || Indicate that you have read and understand Blogger's Terms of Service ||
 * At the start page for blogger, click on the orange arrow that says "create your blog now."
 * Blogger now is part of Google, so if you have a Google account (which allows for things like gmail) you should use that to set up your new blogger account. If you don't have a Google account, now is a pretty good chance to set one up. Otherwise, it is just a matter of following the instructions on this page.
 * Be sure to check the "terms of service" box; of course, you might actually want to read through it a bit first, though the rules are pretty standard for these sorts of services.
 * ** Save your username and password some place. **In fact, I would encourage you to write it down some place. **Don't lose this!**
 * When you're done, click on the orange "continue" button, which will take you to another page. **If you did something wrong or you supplied a username or password that doesn't work, Blogger will stop you from proceeding until you fix the error.**
 * The "Blog Title" will be what appears in the title portion of your blog. I recommend you keep it something simple like "My English 328 Blog" or whatever you want.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">For the address of your blog, I'd encourage you to use your username. So, in my case, the blogger blog address would be http://krause328.blogspot.com Unless you know what you're doing with ftp functions, you should use blogspot.com to host your blog.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The "word verification" section is a security set-up the blogger folks have; simply type in the word you see in the funky font into the provided box. Click "continue" when you're done.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">You can choose any template you want for your blog, and you can also change the template later if you would like. Click continue when you're done.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">After waiting a few moments, you should get a screen that says your blog has been created. Good for you! Click on the "start posting" arrow and get to work!

__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Step 2: Get posting! __
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The posting screen for blogger is pretty straight-forward. Give your entries a title, type in the appropriate window, and use the editing tools for your blog entry as you want. We'll talk about more advanced options for your posting later, but if you know any basic html, you can incorporate most of that code into your blog posts.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">To post or "publish" your post, click the button at the bottom of the screen "Publish Post." If you start writing something but you don't want to post it until later, click where it says "Save as Draft."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">When you publish your post, blogger will process the information and then, if everything worked (and it usually does), it will give you the option to "view blog." Take a look at it; you should notice a couple of things:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The address for your blog-- something like http://stevendkrause.blogspot.com-- is the address for your blog. **Send this URI (web address) to me!** I will link to your blog from the class web site.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Readers should be able to post a comment to your post by clicking on the "comments" link

__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Step 3: Do some adjustments to your account __
There are a number of different things you might want to do to make your blog a bit more useful. But here are a couple of things you really should do no matter what.
 * Blocking blog spam.** I know, hard to believe, but yes, the world of spamming extends to blogs too. Fortunately, Blogger has a pretty decent security feature that will eliminate almost all spam posts from your blog. Here's what to do:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If you aren't already logged in, log in to your Blogger account. You did remember your username and password, right?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">From the "Dashboard" screen, click on the name of your blog.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Click on the tab "Settings."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Click on the link near the top of that page under the tabs labeled "Comments."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Set "Who Can Comment?" to "Only Registered Users." It isn't essential that you do this, but I'd recommend it.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A bit further down, set "Show word verification for comments?" to "Yes." This is a security feature that requires the comment poster to type a specific word that shows up as slightly distorted text in a window.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Select "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page.
 * Time zone.** It'd be nice if the time was right on your blog, right? Here's how to do that:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If you aren't already logged in, log in to your Blogger account. You did remember your username and password, right?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">From the "Dashboard" screen, click on the name of your blog.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Click on the tab "Settings."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Click on the link near the top of that page under the tabs labeled "Formatting."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Under "Time Zone," select the right time zone (and if you're reading this as part of one of my classes, that'd be "Detroit." Duh.)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Select "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page.
 * Doing things to customize your blogger blog.** There's lots of stuff you can do customize your blog. At a minimum, I'd recommend including some links to your classmates' blogs or other blogs you like to read, but there are a lot of other things you can do, too-- include pictures, lists of stuff you like, etc., etc.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If you aren't already logged in, log in to your Blogger account. You did remember your username and password, right?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">From the "Dashboard" screen, click on the name of your blog.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Click on the tab "Template."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Make sure the "Page Elements" tab under this is selected, and click on "Add a Page Element." From here, simply follow the instructions. Be sure to save you page element additions and double-check that it worked.

__<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21.3333px;">Step 4: Repeat __
This is all you need to do to set up your blogger interface (though, as you can see further down on this page, there are some other things you will probably want to try to do sooner than later). Easy, right? To post to your blogger blog from now on, here's all you need to do:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Once again, go to http://www.blogger.com
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Log in with your username and your password (you remembered your username and password, right?) DO NOT click on the "create your blog now" because that will just get you back to step 1.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">After you log in, you should get to your blogger "dashboard," which has a link to your blog. Click the link to manage the blog or click on "New Post" to make a new post to the blog.