How To Set Up Your Blog

A new feature here for us are the blogs. You can use the blogs here just like you would on any other blogging site (blogger, wordpress, etc...). You can name your blog, customize it, add widgets from other sites to it, etc...

In this article we will give you some tips to get you started. To get to the Blogs just click on Blogs in navigation bar at the top of any page. This will bring you to the Main blog site. It will look something like this:



You will now notice a new navigation bar under the main navigation bar where you clicked on Blogs. This new navigation bar is the Blog navigation bar. The first link (My Blog) will take you to your blog main page. The second link Recent Entries will show you all the latest blog posts made. The 3rd link, Most Popular, will show the most popular blogs here on USMC Hangout. The 4th link, Member Blogs, will list the members who have blogs here, the 5th link, Blog Settings, is where you go to configure your Blog and should be the first place you go before you start blogging.

Once you are on your Blog Settings page, you will notice a new navigation pane on your left. Start with the first link and work your way down to set the settings for your blog. The most important one will be your blog name (title) and its description.

After you have given your blog a title and description, click the next link which is customize your blog.

CUSTOMIZE YOUR BLOG
Depending on which usergroup you are in depends on which features you can use to customize the blog. Once you have the appearance of your blog the way you like it. Click on Organize Sidebar.

ORGANIZE SIDEBAR
The blog sidebar is located on the right hand side of your blog when you are viewing yours or another members blog. Within the side bar are what we call blocks. You will see these blocks listed on this page. You can also create your own block (again this also depends on the usergroup you are in). To create your own custom block, just click Add Custom Block at the top right. You can also arrange your blocks to how you wish, or hide blocks you don't wish to use. To hide block un-check the check box under the active column. To arrange the blocks use the display order column.

EDIT CUSTOM PAGES
Again this is based on usergroup. This will allow you to create a custom page for your blog. I have yet to figure out the purpose of this, and will update it more when I decide to play with it more.

PERMISSION & PRIVACY
Here you will set your default settings for your Blogs permission and privacy settings.

BLOG STATS
This page lists your blog statistics. Although I don't think it is working properly at the moment.

MANAGE GROUPS
We have a feature that is called group blogs. This allows you to add members who can also post entries to your blog. This page will allow you to add/delete those members. This page will also show you any group blogs you are a member of.

MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS
This allows you to manage any subscriptions you may have to other blogs.