Members can create and host an original blog in FaithVillage or network an existing blog into FaithVillage using their RSS feed.
Be sure you're on your profile and have clicked Edit Profile beneath your photo.
- Click the gray tab to Manage My Blogs.
- Click the orange button to the right to Create New Blog.
- Choose Automatically Import Entries via RSS if you want to use an RSS feed to pull each post from a blog you already created through a host website (i.e. Blogger, WordPress). Note that your feed will commence according to the feed schedule of your host site so there may be a delay before posts appear. With a networked blog you can also create original posts inside FaithVillage that appear only here.
- Choose Manually Create Entries if you would like FaithVillage to host your blog, and you will create each new post here. Note that if you create a blog via RSS feed, you may still write original posts in FaithVillage by clicking the + sign next to your blog listing in the Manage Blog tab.
- For manually created blogs, provide your blog title, description and select a category in which your blog best fits. You may only choose one.
- Choose whether you want Comments to be enabled or disabled. In beta, comments may be deleted if they are not acceptable but cannot be pre-moderated before going live. This feature will be added later. If you don’t want to manage comments inside FaithVillage you can tag your posts with “please comment at my original blog [link].”
- Click the blue button at the bottom to Create Blog.
- Once your blog is created you will find Edit Blog tools in a collection of tabs. Use Primary Photo to upload a header image that measures 620px x 115px. The Blog Entries tab enables a text editor for the creation of original blog posts. Note that images can be pasted in-line with text and then edited by right clicking on the image to set size, border, horizontal and vertical; float and alignment.
Each blog entry can be saved as a Draft and will not be visible until the Active status is selected. Use the Blog Roll tab to create links to your favorite blogs that will appear in a right sidebar unit. The Sharing, Flags, Likes and Views tabs will provide analytics on these actions. The Change Log captures all interaction with blog entries, especially helpful if multiple people are managing the blog, such as for an organization.
Once the blog is created you can navigate back to the blog tools by the path from Profile/Edit Profile/Manage Blog. Where your blog is listed you can select the + icon to create a new entry or click the Edit icon to access tabs for Primary Photo, Blog Entries, Blog Roll, Sharing, Flags, Likes Views and Change Log.
