Blogging 101 on ExpressMilwaukee.com

1.So you want to write a blog?

Writing a blog, or “blogging”, on ExpressMilwaukee.com is very easy and beneficial for your clients, your company, and the Shepherd Express.If the concept of blogging is still new to you, look at it as a daily or weekly diary to share insight with current and potential cliental, building an interactive, participatory environment platform to stay in communication.Regularly updating your blog ensures that our readers will check back frequently.

2.How and where do I start?

After creating 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 your computer, complete the following steps to successfully load a blog:

1. Click on the “add new” link
2. Look for the title text box and click it to type in a title for your blog
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 hotlink is direct, clickable link to another website from a selected word on within your blog document.Hotlinks can be a very effective tool for offering the reader more information on a specific point, word, or idea that you are blogging about. You can hotlink in word in your blog by following the next 4 steps:

1. 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.
2. While leaving the text highlighted, click on the chain icon in the HTML editor box.
3. 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.
4. Click on insert, and your word is now hotlinked.

4.How do I post photos or other images on my blog?

Images are generally the last thing the most bloggers upload before posting a blog.Posting an image on your ExpressMilwaukee.com blog is very easy and can be completed in just a mere two steps:

1. Click on the “change image” link at the bottom of your blog entry.
2. 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 any information in “tags”?

Yes!Tags are very important for helping ExpressMilwaukee.com users and readers find the accurate information that they are looking for when searching the site.Think of a tag as a related word or phrase that pertains to your blog.For example, if you are blogging about 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, your blog will come up, and will more than likely be read.Tags can easily be inserted by following the these steps:

1.Look under the “title” heading, where you have already entered text and find the “tags”text box.

2.Type in the appropriate tag words for your article. 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 you have to do now is click on the “submit changes” link at the very bottom of your blog page.After clicking this, your blog will be posted on ExpressMilwaukee.com, and considered “live” or active.