How to post on Madison-Chatham InJersey
For Madison and Chatham residents who want to publish on Madison-Chatham InJersey, here's a crash course in how I use the InJersey blog software. It’s good to look over, but the best way to learn is just start posting. You won’t break anything.
InJersey runs on WordPress. If you've worked with WordPress, you're already familiar with the popular blogging platform.
GETTING STARTED
It's extremely easy to do. First, register an account.
Once logged in, note the navigation bar across the very top of the page (it's at the top of every page). Hover over the "My Account" tab, then over the "Profile" option to change your avatar.
It’s good to add a photo of yourself for your avatar, and a little about you.
You can also join this group: Madison-Chatham InJersey Contributors (And any other groups of interest)
Back to the navigation bar across the top of the page: Hover over "My Blogs," and a list of towns will drop down. Hover over "Madison-Chatham," then select "Dashboard" or "New Post" (Dashboard is where you handle behind-the-scenes stuff, including adding new posts)
When creating a new post, there's a field for a headline, and a field for the story. Then there's a button to "Publish" toward the top right corner of the page. Fill out the headline and story fields, click “Publish,” and you’re done. Very simple.
GOING FURTHER
But we can do more. Below the “Publish” button there’s a field to “tag” your post. Tags make it easy for people and search engines to find our posts. Tags often should include the names of people, businesses, organizations and restaurants mentioned in the story.
Below the tags, there are check boxes for some broader categories: “Crime,” “Schools,” “Sports,” etc. Check off whatever categories match the content of your post.
Those are the basics.
Beyond that, there are a few other things that are good to know how to do from the same page: Inserting images. Adding links. Selecting a place to break up longer stories, so the whole article doesn't appear on (and dominate) the homepage. Previewing the post.
All these things are very easy to do, but here are the basics:
1. Adding photos -- Above where you paste/write the story, there are buttons to "Add media." Click in the story where you want to photo to appear. Then click the button to "Add an Image" (the first graphic, which looks like a photo). You'll upload your photo, add caption info, then insert it into the post. (There are other fields to enter info about the photo, but the "Caption" field is what actually displays.) You can align photos left, right or center, and pick how text wraps around the image. Once the image is in the post, you can drag a corner to resize it.
2. Adding links -- In the story field, highlight the text you want to become a link, then click on the button that looks like a chain link. Enter the http://url to where you're linking and WordPress will create the link.
3. Break up the story -- Next to the chain links is a dashed line. Click in the story where you want the story to be broken up with a "Read more" button on the homepage, perhaps after the first captivating paragraph. Then click on the dashed line and WordPress will insert the break point. At that point, readers can click a button to read the rest of the post.
4. Preview -- In the top right, there's a button to "Preview." This is a good way to check your photos and headline lengths before you go live.
This is all easy to figure out, but probably difficult to explain/understand in words. For additional info and video guides, visit InJersey Academy. And I will gladly try to help. Email jake@injersey.com or call 973-428-6621.