Getting Started and Settings

In my opinion, the hardest part about blogging is setting up a blog.  Once you have it set up, actually blogging, changing backgrounds, etc is easy (trust me on this)!

Let's get started.

To create a blog you will need to go to www.blogger.com

In the upper right hand corner (in red), click on "Sign Up". I won't go through all of the details but you will need to choose an email to blog from (I recommend using your school email for school blogs, home email for personal blogs), create passwords etc.  I won't go through every step with you as it is pretty self explanitory BUT I will tell you to write down your passwords!  I started a blog at www.blogitteacher.blogspot.com but because I forgot my password (and the new email I created to start a new blog), I am unable to edit it.

You will start a new blog and one of the things it will ask you to do is to choose a layout.  There are many layouts you can choose from and none are set in stone.  If you would like to be able to change the background easily (I use different season themes, etc), choose a layout from the "Picture Window" choices.  I will show you how to change backgrounds in a later post.

The picture above is a shot of your 'dashboard'.  You will see these icons often.  If you would like to create a blog post, you will click right on the orange pencil. The clipboard has an arrow next to it with a drop-down menu to help you get other information quickly and easily and the "View Blog" button is a quick way for you to see what your blog looks like at any time.

Before you begin blogging, review your settings.  To do this, click on the drop-down menu next to the clip board and scroll down to settings.  At this time (blogger can sometimes change), settings is the last choice in the drop-down menu.

This is the screen you will see.  The first thing I would suggest you do, is go to where it says "Privacy" and click on Edit.  

When you click on Edit (above), check that you do not want your blog added to bloggers listing and that you do not want search engines to find your blog. **Don't forget to click "save changes".

Also under the word "Setttings" take a look at the other areas where you have control over settings.

This is what I (change) in my settings:

Under Posts and Comments:

1. Change "Who can comment" to Anyone. I do this so that parents who do not have a google account can still comment.

2. Change "Show word verification" to No.  I do this because I think this deters people from commenting.  I don't comment on blogs with word verification because it is sometimes hard for me to read the letters and numbers in the strange font.  If you get spam on your comments (which you shouldn't since you turned off your search engines) you can go back and change this setting (and any other setting) at any time.

***Save Settings***

Under Mobile and Email:

1. Comment Notification Email

In this box will be the email you set up your blog with.  If you are doing this from an email you do not check often, add the email you use the most.  This box will send you an email of any comment that is left on your blog.  For example, I add my person email to this box so that if someone writes a comment on my school email (which I don't check daily in the summer), I will still see it immediately (since I do check my personal email).

There are other settings that you can decide (There are different ways to display the date/ time etc).  I have left all other settings as is, but this is your preference.  You can come back to this page and change these settings at any time too.