Veterans of Foreign Wars

Quick Start Guide for

Your WebCOM Weblog

For

Virginia

Revision 3

August 2007

 Questions/Comments:  contact blogmaster@va.vfwwebmail.com

Welcome to the Veterans of Foreign Wars WebCOM Network.

The following information will help you get up and running with your
new weblog aka blog.  Please print or retain this document in a safe location as it contains important information about your account.

 

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I. General Information
II. Getting started

III. Publishing your first message.

IV.  Promoting your Weblog

V. The Mailing List Feature
VI. Helpful Tools

VII. What to blog about
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I.              General Information

The address for your new weblog on the VFW WebCOM network is:

http://www.vfwwebcom.org/va/postxxxx

Substitute the "xxxx" portion of the address above with your post
number (i.e. post123, post1234 and post12345 are all acceptable
example entries).

 

II.    Getting Started

 

You can log into your weblog at:

http://www.vfwwebcom.org/va/login.php

Your username and temporary password are as follows: (see Figure 1)

Username: postxxxx     
Temporary password: postxxxx

Again, substitute the "xxxx" with your post number.

Important: The username and password are case sensitive.

Need assistance? Contact: blogmaster@va.vfwwebmail.com

An online version of this guide is available at:

http://www.vfwva.org/bloging.htm

(Figure 1- Login Screen)

Now that you've claimed your weblog and logged in, there are a few
important details you need to take care of before you make your first
post.

On the top of the page, you will see a directory of links that are the “control panel” for your weblog.

In this listing, please click on the entry entitled "Profile" (see Figure 2) and scroll to the bottom of the page. Click on the link provided (see Figure 3) to change your password and enter your own unique password and security question for your weblog. (See Figure 4)

 

            (Figure 2 – Edit My Profile)

            (Figure 3 – Change password link is beside the Save Changes button)

            (Figure 4 – Change Password)

After changing your password, return to "Profile" and replace
the generic information with your own information in the boxes entitled
"First Name, Last Name, and Email address". This is your contact
information that the network administrators will use to inform you of
system upgrades and other information about the weblog software. Make
sure you enter an email address you check often.  (Some AOL members have experienced some difficulties receiving email from the system so we recommend you use another email provider for this address.)

In the "Display Name" box, fill in the name that you would appear
underneath your weblog entries as the author of the weblog.
Suggestions for this might be Blogmaster, Webmaster, Commander, your name or any other name you choose.

Verify the information under the "Weblog title" and "Description"
information and make any adjustments that might be necessary. Keep
in mind that the information in these two boxes will be visible on
every page of your weblog so choose appropriately.

The rest of the information on this page is optional. You may fill it
in or leave it empty as you wish.  We do recommend that you fill in your post information, as this is a common request from weblog visitors.

Save your changes and you're ready to start publishing with your weblog.

            (Figure 5 – Add New Entry)

III.           Publishing your first message

 

Now that you are ready to publish your first message, select your post blog under the “My Blogs” section on the main control panel.  The screen will now show you the “Blog Entries” area.  This is a listing of all of the messages posted on your blog. 

On the top navigation bar, click "Add New Entry" and a publishing window will open. (see Figure  5 above)

Enter a title for your message in the box provided.

You can now use the publishing box to enter your message. The
controls above the box give you a great deal of creative flexibility
in terms of fonts, colors, spacing and other tools. Feel free to
experiment with them to make your message appear as you like.
To link a word in your message to another web page, highlight the word
you would like to link by clicking the left button on your mouse and
dragging it across the word, click on the button with the globe and
chain link on it and enter the address of the page you would like to
link to.

A quick word about adding pictures to your message.

The VFW WebCOM Network is pleased to provide you with 10 megabytes of storage space on our server.

If you need additional storage space for your photos, we recommend that you set up a free account with www.photobucket.com.

Photobucket is a free photo hosting service utilized by many internet
users for hosting their photos to use in weblogs, Ebay auctions and a
number of other applications. See their help/support system for
instructions on uploading your photos to your account.

To add a photo to your page, place your cursor where you would like
the photo to appear, and click the "Add Image" button above the
publishing box. (The button has a small picture of a tree on it.)  A small popup window will open which gives you the option to either link to an image in another location or upload your own from your own computer.  (See Figure 6)
Enter the address of where the photo is located or browse your computer files for the photo you want to upload.  Resize your image to fit within your weblog (set your width to under 500 pixels).  When you are ready to add your image, click “Insert Image” and the image will appear in your blog entry.

           (Figure 6 – Photo Upload)

Please keep in mind that it is not considered good weblogging etiquette to link directly to a photo hosted on another website/weblog.

You should also take care to resize your images before posting them to your blog to ensure that your image stays within the margins of the page.  This will help your blog look much more attractive and will conserve your storage space.  See Section VI for free tools you can use to resize your images.  In general, converting your images to the .jpg file format with an image converter will also reduce your file sizes.

 

Important: When publishing to your weblog, your photos MUST BE less than 500 pixels wide.  If they are larger, your weblog template will not appear properly to your readers.

After you have entered your message, you can preview it to make sure
it looks ok on your page, save the entry as a draft that no one else
can see or go ahead and add the entry to your weblog.  You may also assign the entry to a category that will make it easier to locate at a later date. 

Categories can be set up in the “Entry Categories” area in the control panel. (see Figure 7)

Congratulations, you've made your first post to your weblog.

 

            (Figure 7 – Manage Categories)

IV.          Promoting your weblog

Now that you’ve been blogging, you want to make sure that your message is getting to any and all potential readers.  There are several methods of accomplishing this.  Please take the time to complete as many of these as you can.

1.    Post the website address (url) in your post and be sure to mention your new weblog website at every post meeting and function.  If you or other members have business cards, be sure to put the website address on your cards.

2.    Submit your website address to the post directory at www.vfw.org under the “Membership” section.

3.    Submit your site to other weblog and website directories.  There are thousands of them on the internet.  Try to reach as many as you can.  The major search engines Google, MSN, Yahoo and AOL have already visited your website and you are already listed there.  You can improve your search engine rankings on those major search engines simply by making use of your weblog on a regular basis.  The more you write, the better your ranking will be.

4.    Make use of the mailing capabilities built into your weblog.  See Section V of this guide for more information on this important feature.

5.    Trade links with other local websites.  Have them put a link to your website on their in exchange for links back to them on yours.  Add their links using the “My Links” feature in the “Edit My Profile” section of your navigation after logging in.  The more you do this, the more you become part of your local Internet community.

V.           The Mailing List Feature

One of the most powerful behind-the-scenes features contained in your weblog is the mailing list feature.  With this feature, you effectively possess your own press release machine that will allow you to quickly get your message to the local media and your local legislators with no additional costs to your Post.

Follow these simple steps and you’ll be on your way:

1.    Find out the email addresses for the editors and news directors at your local newspapers, tv and radio stations and your local legislators.

2.    Simply click “Settings” after logging into your blog and add in the email addresses you would like to send to.  (Important: Be sure to separate the email addresses with a comma or the email system will not work correctly.)   See Figure 8 on the following page for examples.

3.    After adding your email addresses, prepare your next weblog entry as you normally would, but before publishing it, click the “Advanced Options” link underneath the entry area, click the “Yes” button next to the “Send to Mailing List” option and then publish as normal.  The weblog entry will appear on your site and emails will also be sent to everyone on your mailing list telling them that you have published a new entry.  The email will also contain a link to your website which they can click on and come to your site to read what you’ve written.

(Note:  The “Send to Mailing List” function will not appear as a publishing option until you’ve added some email addresses in the “General Setttings” area.

(Figure 8 – Adding email addresses)

VI.          Helpful tools

 

There are many tools on the Internet that you can use to help you
with your site. Here are a few suggestions:

• If you would like to learn how to edit HTML in order to add or manipulate things in your messages, we recommend www.htmlgoodies.com. They offer many easy-to-follow tutorials to get you started.

• If you need to manipulate, resize or convert images, we recommend
the Irfanview program which is available for free from
www.irfanview.com.  You can also use the free Picasa program to manipulate your photo.  It is available at www.picasa.com and contains added features for improving the appearance of your photos.

 • If you would like a shorter domain name for your site, you may
register your own domain name and use the "Domain Forwarding" feature
offered by most registrars to point your address to your weblog. Two
low-cost (under $10 annually) suggestions for registering your domain
would include http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains or
www.godaddy.com.

VII.         What to blog about

 

Your VFW WebCOM weblog is a versatile tool to be used to keep in touch
with your membership.

We recommend that you post new messages regularly in order to keep
your members coming back to the weblog. News and membership
information from the VFW organization or your Post, member birthdays
and anniversaries, upcoming meetings, fundraiser information and new
member welcome messages are just a few ideas.

If you have active military service personnel, consider contacting them and asking them to guest blog on your site about their daily life.  (This is also a great way to build a relationship with them for future membership.)

You may also want to visit www.vfwwebcom.org/virginia and www.vfwwebcom.org regularly in order to keep your members informed of happenings at the state and national levels of the organization.

Be sure to tell all of your members about your new website and ask
them to email you any ideas they may have for messages. Building a
vibrant online community can be a useful tool in attracting new members to the offline community at your Post. Be creative and have fun.

Welcome to a new age in communication for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Your VFW WebCOM Team at Policlicks.com