College blogging guide

Before you start

When you apply for a College Wordpress blog you will need to know:

  • What is your preferred blog URL? E.g. /photo-digest
  • What is your preferred blog display name? E.g. The Photography Digest
  • Preferred blog sub heading. This is a very short description of the blog. E.g. College photographer Thomas Angus reflects on campus life
  • Who is your intended audience?
  • What is the purpose of your blog - what will you be blogging about?
  • If multiple individuals will be blogging, please provide the email address of those requiring edit access. Only College email addresses can be added.
  • What kind of content do you intend to post on your blog? E.g. just text, images, videos.

And have ready:

  • Ideally a first post - even if it is very short and basic, as soon as the blog is created it will be live so it's better to have something in there!
  • An about page – this can be long, or short, but should tell people what the blog is going to be about.

Writing and publishing a post

  1. Log into your blog using the link at the bottom of your blog homepage - you should use your standard College log in without @ic.ac.uk e.g. jbloggs1
  2. This will take you to your blog dashboard. If you are already logged in, you should click on Dashboard in the Wordpress banner at the top of the page.
  3. Click on Posts in the left hand navigation. A list of your current posts will appear in the window. You can edit existing posts from here.
  4. To create a brand new post, select Add new from the left hand navigation.
  5. An editor window will appear and you can start drafting your blog, adding photos and video where relevant. To add images, use the Add media button.
  6. You can use either the visual or the HTML view to compose your posts.
  7. Make sure each blog entry has a different blog title.

Screenshot of Wordpress dashboard8. Add a category and keyword tags.
9. Save your post.
10. Preview your post - This allows you to see how your post will look before publishing it, and is recommended as blogging good practice. Please ensure you spell check and proof your blog entry before publishing..
12. When you are ready, click Publish.

Publish button highlighted in screen grab

Publish Status

Publish status: Shows two states for the post:

  • Published status means the post has been published on your blog for all to see.
  • Unpublished means the post has not been published and remains a draft.

Select a publish status and then click the save button.

Adding photos and videos

Important note on image files: Please try to optimise your images with Photoshop or a free online tool like Pixlr prior to uploading - image file size should ideally be kept to 1MB or less per image.

In your blog go into the dashboard, click on add Media in the left navigation.  Select Add New. Add files you wish to upload. (You can also add media directly from your Posts dashboard.)

Screenshot of Media Library dashboardClick on the file you have uploaded to add further details. You can rename the title, add a caption, AlT Text and a description. 

You can delete the file from the Media section if no longer required.

Writing and publishing pages

A blog page is a static webpage within your blog which is not listed by date. Pages do not use tags or categories and are often used to introduce the blog and blogger, and provide further information about the topic being discussed. An About page is the classic example.

When you first receive your blog, you will find a basic page already created. We recommend that you edit this page to add details about yourself and your blog.

To edit or add pages, log into your dashboard and click on Pages in the left navigation. A list of existing pages will show in the main content area. You can edit existing pages from there in the same way as editing posts. There is also an option to Add new if you want to create more pages.Categories and tags screenshot with add new category highlighted

Categories

When writing content it is good practice to assign a blog entry to a category; the default category is uncategorized. The categories appear on your blog homepage and are a really good way for readers to navigate your blog and jump to topics of interest. Examples of blog categories for a student blog could be study, social life, hall, food tips etc.

To create categories: Go to Categories in the right hand side of your post. Scroll down below the text box and enter the name of your new category. It is possible to have a top level category, or a category within an existing category.

Tags

In addition to setting a broad category for each post, you can also add a number of tags for a post, highlighting keywords relating to your content. Go to the tags section on the righ handside of your post. Type a tag into the text box and click add.

Comments

Bloggers are responsible for accepting or declining comments to their blog entries. You will be notified by email of a new comment, and will be required to accept or decline and it. To do this you will need to log onto your blog, read the entry and if you are happy accept it.

Bloggers are reminded of the College Web and social media comments policy and  blogger terms and conditions, and should refrain from accepting any posts which break these.

If you want to change the comment authorisation process or if  you require any advice on whether to accept a post please contact the Service Desk 

Declining a comment: A declined post will not appear on your blog.

There is good spam identification installed on College blogs and a lot is filtered out.

Further help

Spam

Please advise the Service Desk if you receive a large quantity of spam comments, and we will work with you to find a solution to the individual problem.