1.So you want to write a blog?
Writing ablog, or “blogging”, onExpressMilwaukee.com is very easy and beneficial for your clients, yourcompany, and the Shepherd Express.Ifthe concept of blogging is still new to you, look at it as a daily or weeklydiary to share insight with current and potential cliental, building aninteractive, participatory environment platform to stay in communication.Regularly updating your blog ensures that ourreaders will check back frequently.
2.How and where do I start?
Aftercreating a profile on ExpressMilwaukee.com, click on the “my blogs” link in the top right-hand corner of the website.After the “my blogs” page loads on yourcomputer, complete the following steps to successfully load a blog:
- Click on the “add new” link
- Look for the title text box and click it to type in a title for your blog
- Look for the content text box, and click it to begin typing your blog text.Make sure that you are working in the “HTML editor” version, by looking at the right corner above the content text box.
- You may copy and paste a blog that you have already written on a word processing program by right clicking the mouse within the text box and selecting paste after you have copied a document.
- Using the HTML editor icons above, make sure that all of the formatting that you wish to use is current on the blog, such as paragraph alignment and indenting, font typeface and sizing, and any words that you wish to have hotlinked.
3.What is a hotlink and how do I hotlink a word?
A hotlinkis direct, clickable link to another website from a selected word on withinyour blog document.Hotlinks can be avery effective tool for offering the reader more information on a specificpoint, word, or idea that you are blogging about. You canhotlink in word in your blog by following the next 4 steps:
- Select the word, series of words, or sentence that you would like to hotlink by holding down the left click on mouse and highlighting over your selection.
- While leaving the text highlighted, click on the chain icon in the HTML editor box.
- A pop-up dialog box should open.Enter the website that you wish to link the text to in the Link URL section, starting with “http://www . . .” etc.
- Click on insert, and your word is now hotlinked.
4.How do I post photos or other images on my blog?
Images aregenerally the last thing the most bloggers upload before posting a blog.Posting an image on your ExpressMilwaukee.comblog is very easy and can be completed in just a mere two steps:
- Click on the “change image” link at the bottom of your blog entry.
- Click on the “browse” icon to open up your computer documents to find an image to post, and select “open” to place image in your document.
5. Should I fill out anyinformation in “tags”?
Yes!Tags are very important for helpingExpressMilwaukee.com users and readers find the accurate information that theyare looking for when searching the site.Think of a tag as a related word or phrase that pertains to yourblog.For example, if you are bloggingabout an Italian restaurant that you own, you would want to insert words like“dining, Italian food, restaurant,” etc.This way, if a user logs searches our site for any of said words, yourblog will come up, and will more than likely be read.Tags can easily be inserted by following thethese steps:
1.Look under the “title” heading, where youhave already entered text and find the “tags”text box.
2.Type in the appropriate tag words for yourarticle. Try to avoid using very common wordssuch as “Milwaukee,” as it will make your blog post harder to find –instead, try using a more specific phrase, such as “Bay View” or “Eastside.”
6.I am done,how do I post my blog?
All youhave to do now is click on the “submitchanges” link at the very bottom of your blog page.After clicking this, your blog will be postedon ExpressMilwaukee.com, and considered “live” or active.
