2008-11-08

Blogging in BlogEstates

I have a lady who has just joined BlogEstates and
she has been a bit frustrated by it. So I thought
since I had not written in my blog for far too long
that I should maybe write one on how to navigate
BlogEstates.

So after you have verified your signup, bookmark
your page. Log in to your back office by clicking
on 'Log in', add your information along with the
security code.

Once inside, click on Account, check out the
information, add anything new that you would like
listed.  Now click on Prefs, check where you put in
the title you want for your blog then the subtitle.
It can be whatever you want it to be as long as it agrees
with the TOS or Terms of Service. See where you can add
your domain name if you want your blog to be your own.
Next check out if you can add advertisements, then below
that the description of what your blog is going to be
about. The rest is the color of your page and your photo.

We are just checking out the back office for now, we are
not adding anything. So go to 'Mail' and click on it. I don't
know if there will be anything in there unless admin sends
a welcome letter. Leave that one and go to Upgrade. You can
study this if you are a regular blogger but if you are just
new then just glance through it  because you need to get use
to writing before you try to sell to anyone.

Click on 'Support' next and read all the information but be
prepared to be logged out if you aren't a fast reader.
Blogestates has fairly high time out setting. But I will
get to that later. I find for myself, the best way to read
something on the net if it is fairly long is to highlight
what I want to read, right click and then left click on copy.
Open wordpad or similar and paste the information there.
If you have a printer, print it out where it will be
much easier to read and you don't have to worry about the
page timing out. I would read all the information on this
page for it does explain much of what you need to do to
have a blog on BlogEstates.

On we go now to the next link, your 'Banners'. These are banners
which you can use to advertise your blog. You can put them
in other exchanges, on your own website or anywhere they
allow banners. In the code listed is your BlogEstates referral
URL, you can use that in other exchanges as well. This is my
url;  http://www.blogestates.com/index.php?ref=PrairieMade

As we go across the top you will see 'Offline Promotions'. If
your are just a free member it may not be there. At least it
probably isn't anything you need to worry about for now.
Skip over the 'GJWForums' for now because it takes you to a
separate browser window. Go back to the left side of the page
and click on 'FollowMe Directory'

These are all the programs in the Moneylegs Network Development
Club.  You can put your member ID in the boxes of which ever
program you have joined so far. You then click on 'submit changes'
at the bottom of the page. This way when your BlogEstates referral
signs up to the program in their back office they will automatically
go under you. The more of these free programs you join the more
chances of your referral going under you in the programs rather
than signing under your upline.  The paid programs can wait until
you learn about the free ones and get use to them.

The rest is fairly self explanatory. Your 'Referrals' are who signs
up under you and your 'Network' is all who signup under you and
under your referrals.

You may only be able to send newsletters to your downline if you are
upgraded. You will know if the 'Send Newsletters' is listed. Then
what is left is the 'Photo Gallery'.  It is a good idea to add your
picture so that people get use to seeing your face and get more
comfortable with you. That is your preference and whatever you feel
comfortable with.

So, now that we have gone through your whole back office, you may now
feel like writing.  The first thing I want you to do is log out of
Blogestates and open a 'Notepad'.  This is what I referred to at the
beginning. Blogestates has a high timeout setting, meaning if you sit
in your back office too long it will time out and you will have to log
in again. If you have been going through the different links you will
be ok. Otherwise if you are in the 'New Entry' area and are planning on
writing an article then you don't want to be inactive for too long.

Here you are diligently creating an article for others to read, you are
correcting it here, adding there,  then, 'now it is ready to go'. You
click on submit, then you click on 'Home' to get to your 'Member's Area'.
You look to see the title of your article and it isn't there. WHAT!
You are angry! Where is your article? You went to all that work, you don't
have a saved copy! How discouraging! You won't remember everything you just
wrote!  You aren't doing this over again, this is a useless blog program!
You log out and you go on to something else and don't plan on going back!

Well I want you to come back, because this is a good program. So you know
now why I want you to log out after you have checked out all the
information in your back office.  This is why I want you to open Notepad,
where you can write your article , take as long as you want and save it as
you go. Make a folder on your desktop if you like to write a lot and save
each article there. Also before you paste your pre-written article into the
'New Entry' area, be sure you click on the 'Private' box, so that if you don't
like the looks of your article you can go back and correct it without anyone
on the web seeing what you don't want them to see.  When you have fixed
it to your satisfaction then click on the 'Comments' box. Make sure only
one of the boxes is clicked at a time, they both should not be showing a
check mark. Then last of all, click on the ' Save Changes' box and 'voila'
your first blog is on the net and the link is there for you to click on and
read.

There is more to this blogging but this should keep you occupied for a
while.  Can't wait to see your first article!
Patricia Downing