Using This Site

Welcome to BlogHer, the blogging community for women! We invite you to join us to gain additional exposure for your blogs and your ideas (that's our mission) -- and you can even start your first blog here with us if you like. With more than 130,000 members and 25,000 blogs listed in the Blog Directory, we're all working together to create a community that is fun, informative and supportive.

Here are some ways to jump-start your BlogHer.com experience:

• Register
• Join and Surf the Blog Directory
• Create a Profile
• My BlogHer
• Private Messaging
• Read Blogs and Join the Discussion
• Blog on BlogHer.com
• Chatter!
• Groups
• Subscribe to Newsletters and RSS
• Search BlogHer
• BlogHer Buttons & Badges

1) Register: When you register, you'll be able to list your blog in the Blog Directory, create your own BlogHer blog, and join the discussion with contributing editors and community members. Registration is a whole lot easier now that you can log in with your Facebook account.

2) Join and Surf the Blog Directory: After you've registered, you'll want to list your blog(s) so it will appear in the Blog Directory. Click Blog Directory link and then click Join, (you have to be logged in to access the Join page), to read our guidelines and submit your blog(s). After editorial review, (hey, we have to be careful, we don't want to build SpamHer), your blog will appear in the Blog Directory within the categories you selected and be found in site search and the Blog Directory Search. (NOTE: If BlogHer's editors feel you've misfiled your blog, we'll change it.)

Once you've submitted your blog to the Blog Directory, surf some blogs! You can surf by topic, alphabetically, or you can use the Blog Directory Search to find the blogs you're most interested in reading.

3) Create a profile: Now that you've registered and you've listed your blog(s) in the Blog Directory, the next step is to create a profile. Click My BlogHer and then click Edit Profile. Enter data in as many of the areas as you're interested in -- be sure to click Sites to expand a menu that allows you to link your online presences within your BlogHer profile. Scroll to the bottom of the page and save your changes, (and include http:// in the url or the link won't work.)

Everything you put in your public profile is public and can be seen by everyone! (If you had private data in your profile prior to 3/6/2010, that data is still private. We'll be bringing back expanded private profile options in the future.)

4) Updated! My BlogHer: Click My BlogHer and you'll find your public profile, your account settings, your friends and followers, and links to your recent content and the recent content of your friends and those you follow.

(To follow a BlogHer member, click her linked user name to access her public profile. On her public profile, you'll see a link to click that says follow. You can unfollow someone by going to her profile and clicking unfollow. Friending is also available, if you prefer that term but requires the person you're friending to accept your request.

While you're exploring My BlogHer, be sure to click Account Settings and upload a profile photo, create a signature block that will appear on all of the content that you create, and set up your email notifications for content updates.

5) Send private messages on BlogHer: Private messages can be sent to other members of the BlogHer community. Only Friends can send and receive private messages on BlogHer. Check My BlogHer -> Friends/Following to see who you can private message and edit up your private messaging settings in the Account Settings area of My BlogHer.

6) Read blogs and talk back: You can surf BlogHer blog content by checking out the home page or by clicking our main topics in the horizontal menu at the top of the page.

On the homepage, blog posts by Contributing Editors, BlogHer Staff, syndicated bloggers, posts spotlighted from the BlogHer Publishing Network and from the community appear in the What's Hot section of the site. Click More to see all of the most recent blog posts by these bloggers.

Click More to access more featured posts and to access posts just from the community members or just from the BlogHer Publishing Network.

The topic level landing pages have a similar layout. You'll find the most recent posts from Contributing Editors, BlogHer Staff, syndicated bloggers, spotlighted Publishing Network and community posts. Click More to find the posts that have scrolled from the landing page and to access all of the posts from community members and Publishing Network members

If you're interested in our most active discussions this week, look to the right at the, Most Sparkled, Most Viewed and Most Commented box.

We want to know what you think about the blog posts that you're reading, so please comment often. We provide email notification to help encourage discussion within our community. You can find your subscription settings by clicking My BlogHer -> Settings -> Subscriptions.

7) Start blogging on BlogHer: Click Create a Post in the top right corner of BlogHer.com and start blogging! (Please limit your blog posts to no more than three per day or your account will be flagged for flooding and the extra posts may be deleted.) Make sure to choose the appropriate topics and sub topics from the vocabulary menu. You should choose only the topics and sub topics that pertain to your post, not the topics and sub topics that you're interested in.

When you publish your blog post, you'll be able to find it immediately, by clicking the Bloggers link on the topic level pages that you selected when you created the post. Some of the best member posts will be selected for front page promotion, too. Your BlogHer.com posts will be included in your Public Profile and on your BlogHer.com blog, (url format: http://www.blogher.com/blog/user-name).

8) Chatter: Click Profile when you're logged in and you'll find Chatter in the horizontal navigation Chatter allows you to send a 140 character message into the BlogHer Chatter stream. You can tell us what you're doing, ask a question, or just chatter... and of course you can reply to BlogHer Chatters, too.

You can also automatically send your BlogHer Chatters to your Twitter stream. One stop status updates! Just click the Twitter link in your Account Settings to set that up.

9) Join or Create a Group: Click Community and browse the existing BlogHer Groups alphabetically or by topic or peek at the most recent group discussions. Click Search if you're looking for a very specific group Join the ones that interest you and join the discussions. If you don't find a group for your favorite topic, click Create a Group to create one that you'd like to lead.

Growing a group is hard work, you might find it helpful to read some group building tips before you create one of your own.

10) Subscribe: You can subscribe to newsletters that will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of what women bloggers are thinking and doing. If newsletters aren't your thing, we have RSS feeds for every area of BlogHer - from the front page to the forums. Just look for the little orange RSS icon.

11)Search the network: Our site search allows you to and find BlogHer.com content that can be sorted by content type, date, and author. Enter a search term into the box located at the top of all of our BlogHer.com pages and start exploring.

13) Add a button to your blog: For the last three years, this has been the question most often asked by members of the community..."Is there a button or a badge that I can add to my blog?" Yes, yes there is. BlogHer buttons are available.

Thanks for reading. We’d love to know what you think of BlogHer.com and how you’d like to be able to use it. Please come tell us in the BlogHer Beginners Group. Additional information about BlogHer and the BlogHer website can also be found in our FAQs. Contact Us with questions or to provide feedback.