Week Two. Blogs

Blogs

Now that you’ve done some exploring around this website and understand how this program will work, it’s time to setup your very own personal blog. For this program, we recommend that you use Blogger*, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use. Blogger is owned by Google. You may already have a Google Gmail account. If so use it to sign in to Blogger, or if not follow the steps below.

# 2. Set up your Google Gmail account. Gmail is a free web-based email service similar to Yahoo mail or Hotmail. You will need a Gmail account to sign up for your Blogger account in the next task.

# 3. Set up your Blog and add a post
The first step is to set up your own blog to record your thoughts, discoveries and exercises in the ECU 23things.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. Your blog should be work friendly. For the duration of this tutorial there will be work related content on it and your co-workers may read it. After the tutorial is over, it doesn't have to be about work, but readers should be comfortable reading it at work.

2. Your blog posts should be at least 100-150 words each week - we'd like to have a conversation and the more you post, the better the conversation will be.

3. How you choose to identity yourself on your blog is your choice. You can blog under a screen name, anonymously, or as yourself.
For this exercise I am recommending you use Blogger, a popular free online blog hosting service that is easy to use. Creating a blog using Blogger takes just a few easy steps:

Exercise

1. Go to http://www.blogger.com/

2. Click on Sign in

3. Your sign in name is your gmail address, without the @gmail.com for example yourname
your password is the same one you use for your gmail account

4. You'll be taken to this screen, click on "Create blog now"

5. Select a display name.

6. Name your blog and choose an address.
The name is the title that displays at the top. For example, Bobbi's Thoughts or Bobbi's Babbling
Your address is the URL people will type into go to go your blog, they do not have to match.

For example your address could be bobbi123.blogspot.com
It may be hard to find an address that's available, you may have to try several and use the "check availability" button

Be sure to also write down your blog address.

7. Select your template.

8. You're ready to start blogging! Create your first post, even if it's just a test post.

9. Email your Campus Senior Librarian with the web address. We will add it to the ECU Participants' blogs list on the web

Once you’ve created your blog here are a couple important things to know:

1. To add posts: Log into your account at http://www.blogger.com/
2. Click on sign in
3. Use your gmail address and password to sign in
4. To view your blog: type in your URL from step 6.

# 4. Register your Blog on the ECU Library intranet

This will enable us to track your progress, but will not be visible to any outside ECU.
Add your blog URL to the spreadsheet at L:\LIBRARY\LibServices\23 Things Project

Resources

Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services

Read this great introduction to libraries and blogging