How to get started with your own blog on FitEyes.com

If you would like your own blog on FitEyes.com, here are the steps for getting started. It's a piece of cake!

1. First, you have to request a blog. Just send me an email and I will be more than happy to enable your blog. Please don't hesitate to ask. We want people to have their own blogs. I will email you the link to your blog, and you'll need it at Step 8.
2. NOTE: You can follow each step to learn about navigation, or you can just skip down to step 8 and go directly to the link I send you via email.
3. From the home page at http://fiteyes.com/, click the Blogs link in the navigation bar which runs across the top of the page (under the title). (If you don’t see the link, just browse to the URL shown below.).
4. You will now be at the blogs page: http://fiteyes.com/blogs/
5. On the right side there are several sections. Look for the “Blogs” section. Click the link to “Blogs on this site”. 
6. You will now be at the bloggers page: http://fiteyes.com/blogs/Bloggers/
7. Look for your blog in the list and click on your blog name.
8. You will now be at your blog. If your name is dave, your blog will be located at: http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/ (The link for your blog will be in the email you receive after you request a blog. You won't have a blog until you request one and receive an email with the link.)
9. On the right there are several sections. Look in “Common Tasks” and click the link to “Write a Blog Post”.
10. The only thing I need to point out about writing a blog post is the “Tags” section. A tag is like a category. A blog post can have more than one tag, but be sure to separate each tag with a semicolon. For example, if you wanted to tag a blog post with the two tags “fresh air” and “natural vision improvement”, you would do it like this:
1. Click the “Select Tags” button to see if tags equivalent to those already exist. If they do, just use them by checking them and clicking OK at the bottom of the list. Let’s assume they don’t already exist.
2. In the “Tags” box, enter: fresh air; natural vision improvement
11. You can also explore “My Blog Dashboard” to change your blog settings.
12. In “My Blog Dashboard” under “General Settings” you will find options for changing the name and description of your blog, among other things.
13. Under “Manage Content” you will find a setting for creating an “About My Blog” page. This is how I created my “about” page: http://fiteyes.com/blogs/dave/about.htm
14. Under “General Settings” in “Advanced Post Settings” you will find an option to allow or disallow anonymous users to comment on your blog and another option to allow users to rate your blog posts.
15. When you are finished managing your blog, click the large button in the upper right that says, “Exit Control Panel and Return to Site”.

Some other tips:

1. You can add an Avatar (a small image) that will show up by your forum posts, and set many other customizations.
2. If you want to add images to your blog posts, the easiest way to do it is to use a Flickr account (or any similar photo sharing service). Get the link to the photo you have shared (via Flickr, etc.) and then use that link in your blog post. There is a small icon with a green tree that lets you insert an image into your blog posts. Feel free to try it out and experiment.  You can always delete posts you don't like.

You’ll notice that all users can post to and manage the content on the IOP Research blog. I may change the name to Glaucoma Research Blog… However, feel free to post anything related to the latest research on that blog.

You'll also notice that you can post on the forums and comment on other blogs even if you don't have your own blog. Please participate any way that makes you happy!