That's pretty much it. Add all your friends today, or import those folks you already know.

Administrators are people that own and manage a website. This would be you. All the friends listed on http://www.rollyourownhome.com/people/ manage a website. When you log in as an administrator, you can do more restricted activities such as create and edit blogs, create and edit photo albums, create and edit events, post and edit videos, add or edit friends and remove comments from blogs, photos, albums, videos or user profiles. Administrator privileges are powerful so they have an additional login for your security.

To log in as administrator, go to:

http://www.yourdomain.com/admin/

Use your regular website login, comprised of your email address and a password. Don't share them widely as you don't won't others to run amok with your website. Many of the delete options are permanent and can't be recovered so be careful.

Once you log in as administrator, the administrative options show up in red throughout the site. Many of these are on the navigation bar, but are also inside events, photo albums, blogs, etc. If you ever get stuck and simply don't know how to do something, you can always ask!

HTML color names: This site has a simple list of both regular color names (e.g., brown) and their associated HEX code. I recommend you use the HEX code when possible as not all browsers understand all of the color names. You can choose colors from this list and combine them in creative ways.

Adobe's Kuler color themes. This is a free site hosted by Adobe for users to submit, rank and share color themes, or combinations of colors. This is a great site for those who crave high style, but arent creative enough to combine their own colors (people like me). The names are interesting and emotional, sort of like shopping for paint. If you see a color theme you like, click on the little slider icon and it will display the HEX code for each color. If you've been to vedock.com, you'll recognize the color theme below.

Try it out today, just don't make it look like mine...

Creating your blog

To create a blog, log in as administrator at /admin/. Once you log in as administrator, depending on your layout settings, the red admin options appear on the navigation bar. Next to blog, click "new". If you don't have the admin bar option set, go to /admin/ and click 'Create a New Blog Post' on the Content tab.

There are two required elements in your blog: the blog title and the blog text. Make sure you put some content in each of these fields before you click "post" or include a photo. Your blog title can't exceed 256 characters, and it really probably shouldn't, but the blog text is virtually limitless.

I recommend composing your blog in a word processor or text editor so you can save it, more easily make edits and do spell checking. If you compose your blog in the browser, hit "post" often to save your work.

Adding a photo to your blog

You an add a photo to your site in four ways; using the three options listed on the new blog page or by embedding an HTML photo tag in your blog text (more on that later). When you use one of the 3 photo options below, the blog's photo is included in the blog preview on the home page and on the blog page, and the photo appears at the bottom of your blog posting.

Your options for including a photo are:

1. Choosing an already-uploaded photo from your website
2. Uploading a new photo just for this blog
3. Or pasting the URL to a photo elsewhere on the internet.

Photo Option 1: Choosing a photo

If you've already uploaded photo album and want to include its photo in your blog, use this option. Clicking the link will save your blog and allow you to choose a photo. When you're in Choose Photo Mode, the background of your web page will be bright yellow. This is just a reminder that you're in Choose Photo Mode.

Navigate to a published photo album or an unpublished album. If you choose unpublished, select the desired album and click "Preview". From there you can select the photo you'd like to include. Once you're at the desired photo, you'll see a link that says, "You are in Choose Photo Mode. Click here to select this photo for your blog..." Click that link and the photo will be included in your blog and you'll return to the edit blog page. The background will no longer be bright yellow.

Tip: I created a photo album called, "Blog Photos". When I post a blog with photos, I put the photos there so I can keep track of them and simply add them using the Choose Photo tool. I keep the photo album as "unpublished" so it doesn't appear as a live album for my users.

Photo Option 2: Uploading a photo

Uploading a photo allows you to upload a single photo and attach it to your blog. Choosing this link saves your work and gives you a single file upload page. Choose the file to upload and click the "Upload File" button.

The photo you upload cannot be more than 800 pixels in height or width. If your photo is too large, you'll get a warning message. Resize the photo and try again.

Once uploaded, you'll have the option to use the photo you uploaded, or delete it try another. Click, "Use this photo" to attach the photo to your blog and return to the Edit Blog page.

Photo Option 3: Pasting a URL

In some cases the photo you want to include may already be on the Internet. You could download the file and uploaded it your site, or you could simply reference the already posted photo. Linking to the photo is easy, but carries two risks:

If the photo moves, is renamed or taken down, your link will be "broken" and the photo will no longer appear on your blog.
Some copyright holders do not want their work shown without proper attribution. You should always consider the copyright implications before including someone else's photo in your blog.

Assuming you're not troubled by those risks, you can paste the internet address of the photo into the "Paste photo URL" box. To copy the internet address of a photo, it depends on your browser:

Apple Safari: right click on a photo and select, "Copy image address"
Internet Explorer: right click on a photo and select, "Properties". When the Properties box appears, copy the entire image address.
Firefox: right click on the photo and choose, "Copy image location:

Paste this address into the box and it will be saved when you post your blog.

Option 4: Wait, a fourth option? Yeah, this one is more advanced but easy to use. You can embed a photo anywhere in your blog by embedding an HTML photo tag. Luckily, the site has the ability to generate HTML automatically for the photo you want to include. Here's how:

Open two browser windows. Edit/start your blog in one window. In the other window, navigate to the photo you'd like to embed in your blog. Above the photo, click the link, "blog this photo." A pop-up will appear with the system-generated HTML tag that will display that photo. Copy the HTML snippet intact, close the popup, and paste that snippet into your blog anywhere you want the photo to appear (edit the caption accordingly).

The popup window with system-generated photo HTML tag

Adding a link

You can add a link to your blog by pasting the link in the optional "Paste a link" box. In the box that follows, type a description of the link so the user knows what he's getting when he clicks.

Editing your blog

You can edit your blog (or any other blog on your site) by logging in as admin. Click on the blog title from either the homepage or the blog page to bring up the blog entry. To the right of the title will be a link in red that reads, "Edit this blog". Doing so brings up a window like the create blog page so you can make changes and save them by clicking "Update."

Publishing your blog

You have two options for publishing your blog: email and RSS. Email sends a link to all your blog subscribers that links directly to the blog you publish. This is the easiest way to direct people right to your content.

RSS is a syndication feed that is updated every 5 minutes. A user with an RSS reader, such as any modern browser, can subscribe to your RSS feed and see updates as they are made. Do a Google search on RSS feeds to read more about how this works. RSS feeds are already included with your site, and are updated every 5 minutes.

You can view your RSS feed by typing in the following address:

feed://www.YOURDOMAIN.COM/rss/YOURDOMAIN.COM_news.xml

To send a blog notice via email

Before you mail out a blog notice, check your user list to see who's subscribed to blog notices. If you're logged in as admin, go to Friends, Edit and you can see who has a YES next to blogs. This means they'll receive a notice when you publish your blog. You can change this to YES or NO depending on your preference.

Logged in as administrator, navigate to the blog you'd like to publish and click, "Edit this Blog." At the bottom of the edit screen is a link that reads, "Publish - email blog subscribers about your new post." Doing so sends out an email to each person on your distribution list. The process takes about a minute.

Adding HTML to your blog

You can include HTML tags in your blog text and they will be interpreted by the browser when displayed. This allows you to add some emphasis and flair to your text. I won't go into how to create HTML here, but there are many great free resources on the web.

Option 2
The traditional way to update your status is to login as /admin/ and input your status in the status box on Tab 1, Content. Your updated status will appear immediately and a notice will be placed in the newsfeed. Obviously, this option is not available to non-administrator users.

Add blogs@rollyourownhome.com to your address book and try it out today!