Kathleen Cragun

© September 2012

Basic Blog Guide

2

APPROXIMATE BLOGGING INDEX

CREATE YOUR BLOG…………………………..3,4,5

BLOG SETTINGS…………………………………5,6

BEGIN POSTING………………………………...7,8

POST SETTINGS………………………………….9,10

PUBLISH…………………………………………..11

CHOOSING A TEMPLATE……………………..12,13

ADDING A PICTURE…………………………...14

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GENEALOGY BLOGGING 101 with blogspot.com

CREATE YOUR BLOG September 2012

To 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 if

you have gmail.)

Then go to blogger.com—this page will come up—Sign in with the email and

password you used to create your account. Then………….

…..Click on New Blog

You are on your way

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What do you want your title to be? Put it in.

You can change your Title at any time. The next line down……..Address

combined 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 it

says it is available. Accept. Remember this URL, write it down in a safe place. Also write down the email and its password associated with this

account. 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 suggest

you first write a post, then you will be able to better tell what your blog will

look like when you try out different templates. You can change the template

anytime too. You cannot change your URL unless you start a different blog.

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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.

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After you Click on Settings,

This will come up—then Click

on Edit. If you want it Public

you 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

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Click on the words Start Posting. You could click on Dismiss if you

chicken out, but we hope you don’t. At first it is like climbing a

mountain, 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 invite

other family members to your blog. If you tag (label) your articles with

keywords that might attract a relative you haven’t met yet, you may

get a comment and a connection with that person that may bring you

even more information about family members. That has happened to

Larry Cragun.

You might ask a question. What are some of the mysteries you have yet

to solve? When was great-great grandma Sally Mae Perkins born? And

Where?

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 for

certain people you want to share with, not the whole world. All are

possible. Keeping your blog out of Google is just a matter of a click (in

the 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 you

won’t want to delete posts. You can make major changes, but don’t

delete. The URL of the post will go to a dead end. Not good for ratings.

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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.

Put in your title

Every Post Will Have It’s Own Title-

It becomes it’s own URL!

If you want someone to come to a specific post, on the published page of

the post click on the title, highlight it in the address bar, hit Control C, then in

an email to them, hit Control V and it will paste the link so they can go right

to that post. It’s a good way to start sharing your blog and getting them

interested. They may even start to read it regularly.

Notice at the top, there is a button you can push to PUBLISH. Don’t do it

yet! Notice there are other buttons as well, like Save and Preview. BlogSpot

does save automatically but I don’t take any chances. If you are going to

put up a lengthy article it is a good idea to save occasionally even if you

are not done. Bad things can happen and it is bad if you put a lot of time

into an article and you lose it. Happened to me!

Preview lets you see what your post looks like before you post it. Other

items let you change the text, bold, underline, etc. like Word. There is more.

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Post Settings—Choose Before You Publish Your Post

On the right under Post Settings are things

you need to do before you Publish: Click

Labels (same as tags). Putting these in helps

Google and readers search for the infor-

mation in the labels. Separate different

ones 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 fam-

ily or your article on family dogs.

Next after Labels Click on

Schedule. Continue to the next

page for the diagram.

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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 suggest

leaving the Options here as they are. If you don’t want to Allow comments

you can check Don’t Allow. Your sister might be really mad though?!

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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.

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Changing Templates

To see what your post looks like? Click View Blog

Remember we suggested you wait until you get a post up to choose a

Template. Now we can try out templates. Since you have a post up, it will

show you how things will really look on your blog. You can change

templates and even customize them.

The kind of blog you are going to do will help determine which one you

choose. If you are doing a research blog and it will be mostly for you and

your research, you will probably want something simple. If it is public,

maybe more elaborate. You be the judge. Continue to learn about Templates…………………………………………………………………………..

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!

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Changing Templates……...continued

You can select Templates from these three categories shown above.

Dynamic Views are a little complicated to start out with. Each category

has a number of different templates to choose from.

Click on any of the tabs upper left to customize your template after you

select and apply one. It is often necessary to change widths of different

sections to accommodate Photos, etc.

A Template can completely change the character of your blog. And

how your readers will view it. Remember to Click Apply to Blog.

Have fun experimenting. Next we will show you how to add photo to

your posts.

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Adding Photos to Your Blog

To add a picture to your blog post

click on the photo icon, that will pull

up the Browse button. This is very

much like adding an attachment to

an email. From your computer you

can select the picture you want,

click on it to select and Open to add

the picture, it will appear then

click Add Selected. Done.

Add selected

There are many ways

to get photos into your

blog from other

sources as well.

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Do your grandchildren think of you like this?

Maybe your blog will change their mind!

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This Users Guide does not cover everything but is intended to get

you started without too much frustration. After you grasp these

basics we think other things will be easy to grasp and then you can

concentrate on how you can use your blog to further your Family

History. We sincerely hope you have many bright ideas.