Want a dynamic way to share news, info, photos for your club? Get a blog!

A few words of advice on blogs:
The key to blogs, as the key to everything you are creating electronically, is to be brave, click around, experiment, preview, and don’t get frustrated! Ask someone under 30 to help you if you are struggling. If they don’t know how to blog, they do know how to figure it out! Basically, because they are brave and don’t let the software frustrate them.

Many thanks to Kim Watkin, District Technology Chair, for developing a video on blogging basics.
Click here to view.

Blogging 101:

1.      I like blogspot.com Go there and indicate that you would like to start a new blog.

2.      You will probably have to create a user name and password (unless you already have a blog or are following a blog)

·        Once you create these, you will not have to sign in from the computer you normally use.

3.      Select a name for your blog. The easiest thing to select is (for example) rotaryclubofblanding See if it is available. Or blandingutahrotary, etc…

4.      Once your blog is created, pick a template for it. You can experiment, but Simple Blog templates, are just that: simple!

·        In the layout function you can upload photos, type in text, add ‘gadgets’ to your layout. You really have to just click around to explore and investigate.

·        Photos, text boxes, page view gadget, are the basics. You can add as many photos and text boxes as you want to your layout. Upload great photos of club activities. Use text boxes for Upcoming Event, club officers and contacts, anything that is pretty much ‘static’ info.

·        You can always change the text in the boxes by going to Design (upper right of the blog online), Layout, and then editing.

·        Remember to always Save, or Save Arrangement, if you add new photos or text boxes to the Layout.

·        Use the Preview function to see what things look like on your blog before Publishing or Updating.

5.      To add a new Post, click New Post. Always type in a headline that is interesting and eye-catching.

·        You can type in your blog directly, or write your blog post in a Word document, Select All, Copy, and then Paste it into your new blog post.

·        Add photos by using the little photo icon at the top of a new blog post in the edit mode. You can upload any photo from your computer.

o   Edit it in advance if necessary.

o   Once the photo is uploaded, insert it, and then you will see options to make the photo small, medium, large, and to place it left, right, center. You can also click on the photo and move it around the text if you want.

·        Always use the Preview function before Publishing.

6.      Update your blog ‘static’ info regularly (only the person who created the blog can do this), and have everyone in your club contribute blog posts.

·        In the Settings menu (after you click Design), you can add authors by pasting in people’s email, with commas in between.

7.      Be sure to let club members know when there is a new post by email or by Sharing on your Facebook page.

·        To share on Facebook, be sure you are logged on to Facebook as your club. Open a new browser, go to your blog, click the title of a post. At the top of the page you will see a Share button. Click it and it will prompt you to write some text to share the post on your Facebook Timeline.