My Friend Karen Taught Me How to Blog

My friend, Karan, taught me how to blog using this ZZN software.  After that, I taught my sister, Debbie, how to blog.  And then, I taught my dog, Snickers.  No, really, it's absolutely the truth! 

Snickers:  IQ of 95 and blogging like a maniac! 

By the way, I'm 55 years old and although I have to use the computer for my business, I am one of those people who is always stuck and confused.  My employees all make fun of me for how helpless I am with technology.  And, of course, Snickers is even worse on the computer.  Anyway, I figure, if I can learn to blog, and my dog Snickers can learn, then anybody else can learn, too. 

My goal is to guide you through the learning process in clear, easy to understand steps that make the whole process fun and easy.  Once you get through the set up and learn to use the software, you're going to really enjoy blogging.  Snickers and I guarantee it!

Just follow my instructions and this will go very quickly.  In fact, you can be starting your first blog in about ten minutes.  Of course, that assumes you know what you want to say.  That's your first assignment....what will your blog be about?  Once you know, you'll need to think of a catchy and short title that you can use as your URL. 

What's a URL?  Yes, this may seem like a dumb question to some of you, but I honestly didn't know the answer when I started blogging.  I told you I was a computer nitwit!!  The URL is the site address that people will type in to get to your blog.  It will be something like http://www.yourfabulousblog.zzn.com.  Because you're using the zzn FREE software, you will have the zzn.com as part of your URL.

Your blog URL is the one thing about your blog that you are not going to be able to change, so be sure that you get it right.  After all, you don't want to be saddled with a URL like blogdog forever do you?

Once you have your name, go to http://www.zzn.com and click on "Get an Email Account".  Remember, this is all free!!!  This will take you to a place where you have a chance to try out URL names to make sure that the one you want isn't already taken.  You'll see this:

                                            user@_______.zzn.com

Fill in the blank with the name you'd like to use and let ZZN tell you if it is available.  Word of advice:  keep it short, sweet and to the point. 

If your desired name is available, you'll get a place to make it official.  It looks like:

http://www.____________.zzn.com

Just add your name in one more time and then  fill out the short list of questions below with your name, email address, etc.  The email address they are asking you for is the one you already use for all your email, not the new one just signed up for. 

You will also be asked for a password.  Keep this short and easy to remember because, you will be using it constantly as you blog. 

Next, a congratulations page will pop up.  Click on the highlighted "log in".  This will take you to your ZZN home page.  On the left hand side you will see a list of options, click on "My Blog" and this will take you to your new blog site.  Yippee, you're ready to blog!!

ZZN has provided you with a number of basic style choices for the look and feel of your blog.  The one I'm using now is Minima in white.  This is my favorite, but I also like Papillion. 

Your blog will have popped up in a style with a green header and two green marbles.  If that is not the look you want for your blog, then look at the menu that runs along the very top of the blog.  You will see a group of buttons starting with inbox on the far left.  Click on "styles".  Here you can experiment.  Click on the choices and choose the blog style that you like best. 

When you've made your decision, it's time to name your blog.  The title and sub-title you type in now will be at the top of every posting you make, so like your URL, you'll want to give some thought to this.  On my blog, the title is "My friend Karan taught me how to blog".  I'm sure you can think of something better for yours. 

In order to type in your blog title, look for the little edit button on the title block.  Click on it and it will open up a seperate window.  In the top narrow opening, type in the name of your title.  The software will not allow you to change type or use colors in this spot so don't bother trying (been there, done that!).

After your title is typed in, go below to the larger opening and type in your sub-head.  In this blog the sub is "And now I'm going to teach you."  On some of the formats, you can use color or change type here or even add a picture.  Keep this in mind for later and after you learn the software, you can come back and trick this up, if you wish. 

Click save and watch as your new title block is displayed on the screen.

It just occured to me that you might want to quit and start up again later.  Let me tell you how to do that so that you're not kept captive at your computer any longer.  To quit, just close out the windows on your site, like you would any other window. 

 In order to find your blog again, just type in your url as you would to reach any site.  Remember, your url is

 http://www.yourfabulousblog.zzn.com 

(only replace yourfabulousblog with your actual blog name, of course.  I know you knew that...didn't you?) Your beautiful blog will come up.  Now look at the right hand column where you sees stuff like "about me" and "recent posts" and scroll down until you come to "email login".  Your name is always webmaster and your password is whatever you chose earlier.  Type these in and click the login button.

Your zzn home page will open up.  Click on "my blog" and you'll be back to your blog and logged in.  You will probably see all the little edit tags up allowing you start blogging.  However, if you don't see them, there is a little "Edit This Page" on the very bottom of your window and you can click on that to pull up the edit tags.  A few of the styles don't have that, but they will have "contact".  Put your curser over the "contact" button and an "edit this page" choice will become available for you to click on. You might also try going to the Publish tab at the top of the page and clicking on "make this my login page". 

If you leave your page up and take a break, you may come back to find that zzn has automatically logged you out.  You'll know this because when you click on edit, the wrong windows will open up.  When this happens, there is a login button on the very top of your page that you can use, or you can scroll down on the right again and use the email login.

To make your learning easier, I am going to put the rest of the blogging instructions into categories.  This way, you'll be able to find information you need without having to scroll through dozens of postings to find it. 

By the way, if you encounter any instructions that are confusing, please leave a comments for me by clicking reply at the bottom of the posting.  Your feedback is important to me.  For immediate answers, you can email me at spipal@dragonflydesignstahoe.com.

If you will scroll back to the top of this blog and look in the right hand column, you will see a section that says "categories"  Go here and click on "Making a Post", which will give you the next steps you need to write your first blog entry.