How To Start Your Own Blog!

Blogging is simply writing articles (often with pictures) and then publishing them on a website like blog community. The arrowheads.com Artifact Blogging Grounds is a great place to show and tell others about your artifact collecting interests.

Starting a blog is similar to using a message board, only with a blog the articles are saved into folders in your "my blog" area in your profile page.

Including photos in your blog articles attracts more readers as readers enjoy seeing pictures that go along with the content of the article. Photos can be uploaded straight from your computer to the article you are writing in a matter of clicks.

Creating your own Blog and writing articles within it is a matter of only 7 simple steps here on Arrowheads.com.  (step-by-step instructions are below)

1.)     Login (if you are not yet a member, join! It's totally free!) and go to your profile page
2.)    Click My Blog Tab in your profile
3.)    Complete your blog preferences
4.)    Click on  New entry tab
5.)    Write blog article
6.)    Upload pictures
7.)    Click "save" to publish

Le's look at these steps one at a time:
1.)    LOG IN:   Log in to arrowheads.com and go to your profile page.
2.)    GO TO MY BLOG:  Once at your profile page, click on the "my blog" entry on the link bar


3.)    CREATE BLOG PREFERENCES: Click on the "Preferences" tab. This is where you can name your blog space and put a little information about yourself, your collecting, etc. You only have to do this when you first start your blog, or when you want to change what you have written.  


4.)    CREATE NEW BLOG: Time to write your first blog!  Click on the "new entry" tab


5.)    WRITE BLOG ARTICLE: Once you have clicked on the neew Entry tab, a box will open up.  This is the area where you will write your blog article.  Enter the title in the top line, and then enter the text of your article in the white box area. There is a tool bar to select font size, colors, etc. about the text box area.


6.)    UPLOAD PHOTOS:  When you would like to place a picture within your article, it is a simple 3 step process.  
First, click on the "images and documents"  link on the right side of the text box area.

Next, click on the "Upload" button, then on the "browse" button which will open your "my computer" box over the text area. Select the photo you would like to upload and use in your article.

Once you have selected the photo, click the upload button to upload the photo to the arrowheads.com server. The photo will then automatically appear in your article.

7.)    PUBLISH BLOG ARTICLE:  Once you have finished writing your article, placing your photos and spell-checking your text you are ready to publish your article for the collecting world to see!  Simple click on the "Save" button on the top right of the page and you have just posted your first article in your blog!  Congratulations!


Other Helpful Blog Tips

Using You"re My Blog Tools:
Once you have started posting articles, there are other helpful tool tabs within your "my blog" area.


The first tab is the "My Entries" tab. This area give you information about the articles you have written. This is where you can see how many hits your articles have received as well as where you open articles to edit or to delete old articles.


The Preferences Tab has been explained earlier, so moving to the third tab "Statistics" will give you additional stats on the on your blog articles.

The final tab to discuss is the fourth tab over which is the "Comments" tab.  Visitors who read your articles will often leave comments about your articles.  These comments can either be approved, and then visible to the public, or deleted.




Adjusting Photos Within your Article
Certain adjustment can be made to your photos that you have placed within your article. Once you have place a photo in your article, click on the photo icon on the tool bar about the text block


You will see a box open which allows you to direct how the picture will line up in your article as well as allowing you to add space around the photo, add a border etc.  Once you have entered the adjustments you would like made, simply click the "update" button and the changes will be made to your photo and you will be returned to the text box area.