Need Help With Your Blog?

Follow these steps!

• Step 1: Read through the Getting Started With Your Blogs information on Edublogs Help and Support site
• Step 2: See if the answer is on Edublogs Help and Support site
• Step 3: Ask for help in the Edublogs Forum

How To Ask For Help in the Edublogs Forum

1. Go to Edublogs Forum
2. Before posting your question search the forum and check tags to see if your question has been answered
3. If not logged in – log into the forum
4. Click on the appropriate Forum Topic to post in such as how do I do that or trouble shooting.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and write your post to ask for help.

Remember to include:

• Title of post
• Brief but detailed description of problem
• Your Blog URL (blog address) or the URL of the site you are having trouble with
• Sign it with your first name
• Add tags

Edublogs supporter subscriptions can be purchased from the Supporter tab in your blog’s dashboard as:

1. Single blog subscriptions
   • USDA 6.95 each month
   • USD 14.95 every three months
   • or USD 39.95 for one year
2. Bulk upgrades
   • Upgrade 5 blogs for USD 99.95 for one year
   • Upgrade 30 blogs for USD 239.95 for one year
   • Upgrade 100 blogs for USD 389.95 for one year

Supporter Tips

1. Supporter status is on a per blog basis not per user.
2. Which blog becomes a supporter depends on which blog dashboard you are in when you sign up to be a supporter
3. Payment via PayPal is the only payment option for Edublogs supporter subscriptions
4. Make sure if you pay by Credit Card that you complete the final step by signing up for a PayPal account
5. PayPal is taking time to process your payment. How long it takes to activate your Edublogs supporter status depends on which PayPal payment option is used. Normally it is almost instantaneous however Echecks can take several days
6. You can tell if your blog has been upgraded to Edublogs Supporter by the increased storage space (5120 MB)

Disabling Ads on Blogs

Ads are automatically disabled on your Edublogs supporter blog once your subscription is activated.

You can use your supporter blog to disable ads on up to 30 other blogs as follows:

1. Click on your Disable Ads Tab (Supporter > Disable Ads)
2. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enter the name of the blog you want to disable ads on. For example http://theedublogger.edublogs.org/ would be entered as theedublogger.edublogs.org
3. Now click Search
4. Once the blog is located select it and then click Disable Ads

See Also:

• Comparison of Free, Supporter and Campus Blogs
• How Do Use Your Bulk upgrades To upgrade Blogs To Edublogs Supporters?

1. Free Edublogs blogs
2. Edublogs supporter blogs
3. Edublogs Campus blogs

Institution or district with their own Edublogs Campus installation get everything that supporters have on all their blogs, and a lot more!

Features of Supporter and Campus blogs

If you do decide to upgrade your free blog at Edublogs and become an Edublogs Supporter or Edublogs Campus users get extra features such as:

1. Increased upload space and storage
2. To use your own domain name, for free –
3. Ability to activate XML-RPC — needed for blogging applications used on iphones (and other mobile devices) and any software that needs access to XML-RPC
4. Access to Blog &  User Creator to easily mass create student blogs in batches of up to 15 users
5. Access to the Add Users tab to easily add students to a blog in batches of up to 15 users
6. No ads on your site at all
7. The ability to turn of ads on up to 30 student blogs
8. The ability to activate XML-RPC on up to 30 student blogs
9. Unlimited privacy settings
10. Access to the Stats tab
11. Ability to create multiply forums

Edublogs Campus also have the ability to upload custom themes and request plugins (depending on their blogging package)

Edublogs Supporter or Edublogs Campus users get extra widgets:

And access to plugins that extend your blog’s functionality:

Note:

1. Find out more about Edublogs Campus — the school solution
2. Edublogs supporter subscription is per blog (not per user). If you have multiple blogs, you will need to purchase the upgrades for each individual blog, as necessary.

Becoming an Edublogs Supporter

Edublogs supporter can be purchased from the Supporter tab in your blog’s dashboard as:

1. Single blog subscriptions
2. Bulk upgrades
   • Upgrade 5 blogs for USD 99.95 for one year
   • Upgrade 30 blogs for USD 239.95 for one year
   • Upgrade 100 blogs for USD 389.95 for one year

To access the dashboard of a different blog attached to your username you simply click on My Blogs and the Dashboard link below the name of appropriate blog.  This takes you to that blog’s dashboard where you write posts, pages, manage comments, change your blog design, add widget etc (depending on your user role on that blog).

This means you don’t need to log out of the dashboard of one blog to work inside the dashboard of another blog!

The Blog & User Creater is designed specificially to save time and make it easy for educators to mass create student blogs in batches of up to 15 users.  This feature is available only on Edublogs supporters and Edublogs Campus blogs.

Benefits of the Blog & User Creator include:

1. Allows you to create blogs in batches of up to 15 users and blogs at the same time, and you can add yourself as a co admininstrator when you create the blogs
2. The advanced feature provides the ability to set user passwords
3. Unlike blogs created using the Signup page — the new blog don’t require email verification to activate the new blogs so users can instantly log into their account

Please note:

• The Blog & User creator is designed to create blogs while creating their usernames — it’s not designed to create just usernames
• The Blog & User creator does not automatically add your students as users to the blog dashboard that you use to create the blogs — if you want them added to your class blog you will need to use Users > Add Users (refer to the section on Add User Screen in these instructions for adding users to blogs)

Simple Version

There are two approaches that the Blog & User creator allows – first (in the simple version) you can drop in a username which will also function as the blog url and an email address… you can also decide if you want yourself to be added as admin to all of the blogs you create. Users will then be emailed their new blog details / usernames with standard WP random passwords.

Advanced Version

Second, you can try out the more advanced form that allows you to specify different usernames and blog urls, set users passwords, set each blogs titles and decide – per blog – whether you want to be admin or not.

1. Using the Edublogs signup page – free Edublogs Blogs
2. Using the Blog & User Creator – Edublogs supporters and Edublogs Campus blogs only

If you are a free Edublogs blog user you need to follow the instructions on this page to create your student blogs.

Step 1: Create the blogs

Go to the Edublogs signup page ( http://edublogs.org/wp-signup.php) and either:

1. Create the blogs attached to your username
   • Follow the instructions for Creating new blogs for your own use
2. Or organise your students to create their own blog
   • Get your students to follow instructions for Signing up for your blog

Step 2: Add The Second User to The Blog

Most educators add themselves as administrator on student blogs so if required they can access the blogs, at any time, to edit any posts or comments.

This means on each student blog you will have:

1. A student user – who may be assigned the role of a contributer, author, editor or administrator depending on the tasks you want the student responsible for
2. Yourself - assigned the role of an administrator

Once the blogs are created you add yourself as co administrator by either:

1. Adding your student as a user to the blog
2. Or getting your students to add you to their blog as administrator

TIP: Remember if your students don’t have email addresses you can use Gmail method.

Using the Add New Screen

The second user is added to the blog using the  Add New Screen.  This screen is designed so that you can either:

• Add an existing user on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site) to the blog
• Create a username for a person who isn’t already a member of the Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site) and at the same time add that new user to the blog

1. Go to Users > Add New in the blog’s Dashboard
2. For an existing user add their username, the email address attached to that username, select their role and click Add User.
   
   • Tip: You will see a message saying ‘Sorry, that email address is already used!’  or ‘Sorry, that username already exists!’  if you enter the incorrect combination of username or email address
3. For a new user, add a suitable username, their email address, select their role and click Add User.
   1. Tips:
   • For both existing and new users they will be sent an invitation email and they must click the confirmation link before they’re added as a user to the blog. This email normally arrives within 30 minutes.
   • New users have 48 hours to click on the link in the email to activate  their account otherwise you will need to reset up their account.
   • Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block these activation emails. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.
   • Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in the username
   • The username is what they use to sign into the blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments they write. You can’t change a username,  however you can change what name is displayed.
   • It won’t allow you to create several usernames with the same email address because the system resets password based on email address. But you can trick it using the gmail+ method
4. Existing users are sent a joining confirmation email
5. New users are sent a blog invite email
6. Once a new users clicks the link in the blog invite email they will be sent an email with their username, their password and a login link
7. After users have confirmed the invite they will be listed as users on the blog’s Authors and Users screen and only be able to access features in blog’s administration panel based on the role you’ve assigned them.

It’s as simple as:

1. Log into your Edublogs (or Edublogs Campus) account
2. Go to the Edublogs signup page (http://edublogs.org/wp-signup.php) or your Edublogs Campus sign-up page
3. Follow the instructions on the signup page to create a new blog

Refer below for more detailed instructions!

1. Login to your account
2. Go to the Edublogs signup page i.e. http://edublogs.org/wp-signup.php
3. Follow the instructions to create a new blog

]]> http://help.edublogs.org/2009/08/28/creating-new-blogs/feed/ 0 http://help.edublogs.org/2009/08/28/tips-when-creating-blogs/ http://help.edublogs.org/2009/08/28/tips-when-creating-blogs/#comments Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:15:15 +0000 Sue Waters http://help.edublogs.org/?p=826 The most common reasons why you would want to create new blogs include:

1. You want to blog on a different topic;
2. You want your students to have their own blogs

These tips will help you avoid common blog creation problems:

1. Use only lowercase letters and numbers in the blog URL (blog domain) and don’t have any spaces in the blog URL (blog domain)
2. Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in your username
3. Keep in mind people need to be able to remember and easily type your blog URL into their browser – where possible try to keep your blog URL short but meaningful
4. Don’t stress too much about your blog title as this can be changed any time.
5. Your username is what you use to sign into your blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments you write. You can’t change your username, you can change what name is displayed.
6. New users are sent an activation email when the blog is set up using the sign-up page 
7. Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, may well block username and login information from reaching users. In this case you should use free webmail accounts that won’t block the emails (such as gmail.com, hotmail.com or mail.yahoo.com)
8. Until a blog is activated your account doesn’t exist in our system.  Users have 48 hours to click on link in activation email to activate their blog.
9. If your activation email doesn’t arrive within one hour, and it isn’t in your spam folder, you will need to create a new account using a free web based email such as gmail, hotmail or yahoo.
10. If your students do not have email addresses you can use Gmail method however creating lots of users using one gmail account isn’t recommended because it means all password resets need to be done via that email address

Changing your Display Name

If your reasons for deleting your username is because you want to change the name displayed on posts or comment you write your better option is to just change your display name.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Add your first name, last name or change your Nickname (by default your nickname is always your username unless you change it).  Note: Students please follow your teacher’s guidelines  regarding what personal information you can use online.
2. Click Update Profile
3. Click on the drop down arrow to select your preferred publicly displayed name 
4. Click Update Profile again
5. Now every post or comment you write on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site) will display that name.

Changing your Username

You can’t create several usernames with the same email address because the system resets password based on email address. But you can trick it using the gmail+ method. 

Alternatively, if you aren’t using gmail, and are trying to delete your username so that you can create a new one with your e-mail address, please follow these steps:

1. Log into your current account (the one you were trying to delete).
2. Go to Users > Your Profile and change your e-mail address as described below. This will free up your primary e-mail for use.  
3. Scroll to near the bottom of the page to the Contact Info area
4. Type your new email address and click Update Profile when you are done.  
   
5. An email will be sent to the new email address asking you to click on the link to confirm change of email address — your email adresss won’t be updated until you click on this link.   This email should arrive within 30 minutes.  Make sure you check your spam folder just in case it is marked as spam.
6. Once the new address has been verified, log out of the account.
7. Go to http://edublogs.org/wp-signup.php (or your Edublogs Campus site) and attempt to register a new account with your e-mail address.

Please note: Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, block the emails from your blog.  If you don’t receive this email you may need to use an alternative addresss.

Your user profile is quickly accessed in your dashboard via the Users > Your Profile menu option.  Remember to click Update Profile after making any changes on Your Profile screen.

Your Profile screen has quite a few options, so lets explain them one at a time.

Personal options

There are three personal preferences you can set for your username:

1.  Visual Editor

All users have access to the Visual Editor and HTML Editor for writing posts and pages by default.

Place a check in this box if you only wish to use the HTML Editor.  This option is included because a few users prefer to write using the HTML editor only.

2.  Admin Color Scheme

This option changes the colors in your adminstraton panel.  Gray is the default and your other choice is blue.

3.  Keyboard Shortcuts

This option provides the ability to use keyboard shortcuts to browse and moderate comments. Place a check in this box if you only wish to use these shortcuts.  Refer to Keyboard Shortcuts for more information.

Tips

These are the helpful tips which are displayed at the top of your administration panel that change as you navigates inside your dashboard.  Change to No if you don’t want these tips displayed.

Name

You can’t change your username but you can use the options here to change your name that is publicly displayed when you write posts or comments on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site).  Here’s how you do it:

1. Add your first name, last name or change your Nickname (by default your nickname is always your username unless you change it).  Note: Students please follow your teacher’s guidelines  regarding what personal information you can use online.
2. Click Update Profile
3. Click on the drop down arrow to select your preferred publicly displayed name
4. Click Update Profile again
5. Now every post or comment you write on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site) will display that name.

Contact Info

The email address is only required information in the Contact info section.  Currently AIM, Yahoo, Jabber and Google Talk displays only inside Your Profile inside your dashboard — there is no need to complete this details.

Email

Your email address is required. You may change this, but you can only use one e-mail address per username.  This email address must be valid because to confirm that change an  email will be sent to this address and it won’t be changed until you click on the link in the email.

Refer to Changing your username password or email address for comprehensive instructions on changing your email address.

Please Note:  Although your e-mail address will not be displayed publicly on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site), when you submit a comment while logged into your account, the e-mail address will be transmitted to the writer of the post of blog administrator.

Website

This is the URL that will be linked to your username when leaving comments on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site). Please note: If you update your web site link it doesn’t change this details in past comments only those made in the future.

TIP: Your comment avatar is automatically linked to your primary blog.  Adding your website link makes it easier for the blogger and other commenters to follow the comment on their blog to your blog to read more about your thoughts and who you are.

About Yourself

The Biographical Info displays only inside Your Profile inside your dashboard — there is no need to complete this details.

New Password

The new password area is where  you update your password.  Refer to Changing your username password or email address for comprehensive instructions on changing your password.