Blog
What you need to know to get started
One of the very first things you want to do is add a link from your blog to your main web site. (That is if you have a web site to link back to).
Posts
You're ready to start sharing your thoughts and ideas with the world. Since this is the purpose of blogs, it's time to start writing. The process of writing your blog is easy.
1. Login to your blog Dashboard.
2. Click the link called 'Posts'.
or from the Dashboard tab under Getting Started click 'Write a New Post or Maintain Previous Ones'.
3. Now you may edit, delete, or write a new post.
SAVE OFTEN! While you are editing a post or page, make sure to 'save draft' so you don't loose any information as this program will time out if no activity if you had to step away.
That's it! You expected more? Okay, we have more details below, but from here, you can probably figure it out for yourself.
All Posts
Where you can manage your posts. Posts are the main content of your blog. You can sort your posts from the AllPosts page by using the up and down arrows.
Write Posts
This is the scrolling blog area where you may begin writing about your business, latest thoughts, or even your latest/current events. Each post can have its own unique title. By default, your postings will automatically be sorted so that the most recent post is at the top. However, you can write a post and save as a draft and finish it later or even complete a post and publish on a future date.
- Post Title
- Fairly self explanatory. Enter the Title of your post here.
- Type Your Content Here
- This big empty box is where you'll type in the content and may add images in your post. We recommend sizing images down to 72dpi and 700px wide.
- The Advanced arrow is expandable and allows for you to change the Author, add tags, change the publish date, and add video embed code.
- Save Draft
- This button saves the post and will not display the post until you finish editing it and actually Publish the post.
- Publish
- Makes the post visible on your Blog. Use this button once you've typed in your story, added images, and/or video and you are satisfied that everything is as you want it. If you want to publish as a future date, select the date first from the calendar above and make sure to click on Publish so it will automatically post on that date. Then you don't have to log back in to publish the post manually.
This first part details the sizing and saving of your images prior to uploading. If you've already worked through this and understand the best practices for saving images for the web, you may want to skip to Posting Images
Images can be used in a variety of methods in your posts and Pages. They can be a major subject, or a referenced detail that enhances the information or story.
The first thing to consider is the size of the images. The size and quality of an image for use on a web page is determined by a variety of things.
- Physical Size
- The physical size of an image is based upon two things: The size of the image on the screen and the file size. Generally, the file size is treated as a different issue.
- File Size
- This is the size of the file on your hard drive or server.
- Resolution
- Resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution is sometimes identified by the width and height of the image as well as the total number of pixels in the image.
- File Type
- There are a several image file types that work on the internet. For photographs, jpeg is generally considered the best.
- Image Info tab - click "Browse Server" button to both view and/or select an image you have previously uploaded. At the bottom of the "resources browser" window you can also browse for an image from your computer and upload it to the server. Once it is uploaded you can click the image name to add it to your post.
- Link tab - you can type in the URL address if the image is stored elsewhere on the Internet and not within your blog.
- Advanced tab - Usually you do not need to use this tab for images.
- Comments - Allow visitors to comment on your blog posts and pages. Under options you can enable reCaptcha or Inline Comments.
- Feed - Provide visitors the ability to subscribe to your blog using RSS Feed.
- Search - Provide visitors the ability to search your blog for a specific post/page. An option to give your search box a different title.ecent
- Posts - Provide visitors with easy access to your most recent posts. Within the options area for Recent Posts you can change the number to display in your sidebar (up to 10 maximum)
- Page Protect - Provides rudimentary protection against image theft. Meaning that the script is limited that some viewers may still find a way to disable the right-click script. We recommend you watermark your images for the best way to protect images you post online.
The physical size of the image is information we need to know in order to determine how much "space" the image will occupy on a web page. Your blog features a content area of 700 pixels wide and if the image you want to use is 800px wide, the image will push the sidebar and layout of your web page around, messing up the design. We recommend sizing your images no larger than 700 pixels in height or width.
File size dictates the time it takes to load your page, the larger the file size, often increased because of a high image resolution quality, the longer it will take to load. People often don't have the patience to wait through long web page loads, so keeping your file sizes low speeds up your web page access times. Typically, large high quality images should be kept between 100K and 60K. Smaller images should be closer to 30K and lower.
The resolution of the image dictates its clarity. The higher the resolution, though, the larger the file size, so you have to make a compromise between quality and file size. We recommend image resolution of 72 dpi for optimal viewing.
Luckily, the various file types most commonly used on the Internet have compression features. When you save the file as one of these types, it condenses or compresses the data information in the image file. Internet browsers can decompress this information to display the image on the screen. Some graphic software programs allow you to set the compression rate to control the quality of the image (and file size) at the time you save it. Depending upon your use of the images on your site, you may have to experiment with this to get the right ratio that keeps the resolution quality good while maintaining a small file size.
Not all graphic software packages allow you to resize images, though most should. Check your graphics software table of contents or index for resize, size, transform, reduce, or enlarge, all synonyms for the same thing. If they don't have the feature, you may have to find different software.
You can resize an image by simply specifying the image's final size. The advanced graphics programs allow you to set it by exact dimensions or a percentage of reduction or enlargement.
When you have fine-tuned your small sized image, export the image as a jpg.
These instructions assume you are in the Admin of your blog.
1. To create a new blog entry, click "Posts > WritePost". To edit an existing post, click "Posts > All Posts" then click "Edit" next to the desired post.
2. Once you create a new post or edit an existing post, you will see a menu bar above the content box that allows you to bold, italicize, link, etc. Make sure the image you want to insert has already been resized in photoshop. Click the "Insert/Edit Image" icon to insert/browse for an image. (The icon looks like mountains.)
3. The Image Properties dialog box will open.
You must make your filename "server friendly" by removing any spaces, apostrophes, slashes or other non-alphanumeric characters ($,%,&, etc.) before uploading.
All Pages
Where you can manage your individual pages. Pages provide content separate from the blog posts. You may Edit, Delete or Reorder your pages. These page tabs will appear at the top of the main blog.
Write Page
Pages provide content separate from the blog posts. Like an informational web page, you can include page content that you can easily manage without the knowledge of programming code. It's so simple a caveman can do it!
You can add content and images just like you can on the blog posts. More options are found under the Advanced arrow. This link is expandable and allows for you to change the Author, change the publish date, and add video embed code.
Options
Blog Options - Allow you to turn on/off the following features that will be viewable by the public in the "side bar" of your blog which depending on which theme you choose could appear at the bottom, left or right of the screen. Also check out the 'Options' link within some of the features for more tips or personalization.
Blog Info
You may add your Blog Title/Studio name, tagline, and add your meta keywords and description.
Studio Info
An area to enter and display your studio name, address, contact information, and even include a brief bio or mission statement.
Social
Social Options allows for you to easily add the URLs to your social networks, such as twitter, facebook, and myspace with the icons already available for you to use.
Layout
Theme Layout - You can choose between 3 theme layouts to display where your content and profile will display to the end user.
Header
Feeling creative? If you want to replace your current blog header image to personalize your blog, feel free to upload an image.
Recommended Dimensions are indicated on each Theme Layout - Maximum Height: 300 px
Marathon has even made it easier if you want to download one of our designs for FREE.
Color
You can select solid colors for the look of your blog. You can modify background, foreground, border, highlight, inactive links, and text colors.
All Links
You are able to edit, delete or reorder the links you have added to your blog.
Write Links
Just like it sounds. You can add all sorts of URL links such as a link back to your website, organizations you are involved with, vendors, etc.
Links Title
If you don't like the sound of LINKS to display your list of URLs, this can be modified.
Finding the Facebook Page ID
To add a "Like" Box to your blog, you'll first need to get your Facebook Page ID by following these steps:
Step 1: Go to your Facebook Fan Page/Public Profile
Go to your Facebook Fan Page/Public Profile
Step 2: Click Your Fan Page/Public Profile Picture
With your cursor, hover over the Fan Page/Public Profile picture and click the image with your mouse.
Step 3: Copy the Facebook Page ID
In the address field, copy the Facebook Page ID which is the number at the very end of the URL.
