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So you guys are some of the lucky few to have "cracked" the puzzle eh? Well, it turns out I've been busy with a tutorial to help you guys out. Every step of the blogging process is detailed here. If you have a problem, you can simply, check out the MyQJ forums and ask for help. On with the tutorial!
Once you're registered and logged into MY.QJ.NET, you will see this:
Click on the right where it says "Click here to start blogging for my.qj.net" It should take you to the Publisher backend...
Welcome! What you see is what we personally use for blogging on the QJ.NET official blogs, only a more powerful version of it. Nothing to worry though, we've only removed the parts which are not useful enough, or ones which are specially related to the official blogs. Secondly, you shouldn't have to worry about messing up anything. We're gonna be there in the MyQJ Help Forum helping out people who've just started, or want to try out advanced things...
The Profile and Change password links are self explanatory. The Biography page is where you can fill up your own info. Everything goes, as long as it follows our terms. Now, moving onto the two main sections of the Publisher Backend.
The Articles section:
This is where you can check out all your submitted articles. It doesn't matter whether they're accepted, pending or denied. You can check them all out. You will be using this area extensively, so get comfortable with it. You can even sort them out if you're searching for one.
The Add new article section:
This is the place where you will be writing your content. Although it's pretty self-explanatory, I'll run down the features and the rules. This is where most of your time will be spent, writing ;).
The first thing is the title.. You have to think of something catchy; something which almost invites your readers to "jump it"!
For example, something like a "Pimp your PSP with these skins!" is better than a "Huge collection of awesome PSP skins!". It needs to convey your point properly and nicely. Again, the use of exclamation marks is fine, but don't over-do it with more than two. For example, this looks like a 3-year old wrote it "PSP EXPLOIT FOUND!!!!!!!!!!"
Now, the first thing you do once you have a proper title is draft it. This is done so that it appears in the articles list. If the Content Managers see any duplicate article by either you or anyone else, they will promptly inform the person so that their time is not wasted writing something which is already in the process of being written by someone else. You can change the title later, so it's best to draft it before moving on to other things like writing the content itself. Once you click the "Save as Draft" button, the article will be created and you will be returned to the same page.
Now it's time to add the content. As long as the content follows the rules and is on-topic, it will most probably be approved. You do have to make sure that it isn't old news though. The Content Managers might disapprove it if there are any major spelling/grammatical errors. You can simply use either OpenOffice or Microsoft Office to write your articles.
Warning! If you decide to use one of the office suites to write your articles, make sure that you first copy the content into Notepad, and move it from there into the Article area. The simple reason for this is that when you work with those office suites, a lot of formatting is automatically added. Since the Publisher backend has its own way of formatting stuff, it's best left up to it. When you copy your content into Notepad, all of the formatting is stripped.
This "clean" version can now be moved to the main article area. A small tip is to do your formatting directly in the main article area. Since you're gonna be stripping it anyways, it's no use formatting it in Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer first. Although we do not have any strict guidelines while posting content, make sure you follow these tips:
- At-least 1 picture per article.
- Easy-to-understand English. A large part of our readers are international. Make sure they understand what you're trying to say.
- Normal sized sentences. Please use proper punctuation and grammar.
- No more than 7-8 lines per paragraph. The text shouldn't appear too crowded.
- Indentation can be used.
- Game-names should be italicised.
- When you're quoting someone, make sure to indent+italicise the quoted part.
- Thumbnail images if the original image is wider than 540px. You can use the Thumbnail too from the Image button above
See, isn't that easy? Once you're done with a few articles, you'll probably find that it comes naturally. Hey, I know! I've been there too...
If the article is big, you can split it into two so that it doesn't take up the full page. Just click on "Short Version" and it will change to the short version view. Nothing will be different, apart from the fact that you can keep the snippets for here, while the full article is revealed when people click on the article name or the "Read" button below. You've probably seen them on our official blogs.
Once you're done with the article, make sure you fill up the source area with the name and please link back to the original. Plagiarism is taken seriously and make sure you're not ripping-off anyone's creative work.
Once that is done, you're just about ready to submit the article for posting. There's only one more thing left- Categorising it. Just click on the + sign next to the categories and it will reveal all of the sub-categories in which you can list your article. Make sure your article fits in atleast 1 category. You can select multiple categories as long as they're valid and correct.
You can even request the creation of an entirely new category if you're writing about something which would be written about in the future. So if you're writing about an emulator which isn't already listed in the sub-categories, you can simply enter the name of the emulator and select the proper blog/sub-category. If the Content Managers see it fit, they'll gladly make a new category.
Now, it's time to submit your article. At this point, it will save your article and return you to the article page again. The article will now be listed as pending in the article list category. The only thing left to do now is press the "Back" button to leave the article page. At this point, your article will be unlocked so that the Content Managers can have a look at it.
You can probably go and have a cup of coffee now...once one of the Content Managers approve/disapprove it, you'll get an email detailing the same. If it's approved, it will list the categories in which it will be listed. If it's disapproved, you will know the reason for it. Either way, you'll know the outcome of your article within a few minutes.
Scared? Don't be! We're all here and we know that you guys are just taking your first steps at MyQJ. Me and the rest of the Blogging/Moderating crew is ready to help you should you have any questions/problems.
The best way to start is to simply make an article. Get some good content and submit it. Your first article will go a long way in encouraging you.
So, good luck and have fun!
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Nice looking "beta" tutorial Pranav. =)
by Jamie M. , at Sep 20, 2006 at 08:29PM