Since there are many ideas and suggestions on how to promote your blog, I’ll leave this post open to comments for anybody to share their ideas!

The simplest way to begin promoting your blog is to first make sure you have some content, you don’t want to promote an empty blog! OK, so the simplest method is your email signature. Write an inviting line in your signature so that every email you send out has a link inviting the reader to read your blog. Another method is to add it to your signature in the PepperWater.com forums and your profile. Do not shove it in people’s faces though.

Any other ideas / suggestions are welcome.

1. This assumes you already know how to write a new blog, if not read the tutorial on “Getting Started” and “Writing your first blog”.
2. When you are writing your blog you should see an “Upload” section just below.
3. Click on the “Browse” button to search for your file.
4. Enter a title. For example; Puppy!
5. Enter a short description.
6. Click on “Upload”
7. You should see your image appear.
8. Now to place it in your blog, click where you want to place the picture. If you want it to appear at the top, click at the top etc..
9. Go to where the image is(at the bottom) and select either options: a. Show thumbnail - this means that a smaller version of the image will be shown in your blog RECOMMENDED if your image is large. b. Full size - this means the image will be displayed in it’s actual size - RECOMMENDED if your image is small. c. Title - this will not display your image. It will display a title of your image - Not recommended.
10. Below you will see “Link to” File - Recommended if you selected “Show Thumbnail” in the “Show” option.
11. Now, click on “Send to editor”. This will send the picture to your blog wherever you clicked.
12. Click on “Publish” to publish your blog and you are done. Check out your site to see the image of your pup! Below is a sample image.

You can add as many links on your site as you wish, you can create categories for them as well, for example; Create a category called “Friends Blogs” and under that place all your friends blogs links. You can then create another category called “Cool websites” under which you can add a link to all the websites that you frequent (ahem… pepperwater.com). Get the idea? Good! Now lets see how to do that!

1. By default you have two links in your category “Blogroll”. You can delete them or leave them, thats up to you. For now, this deals with how to edit them and replace it with your friends link.
2. Log in to your admin panel and click on the “Blogroll” menu.
3. You will see a sub-menu of “Manage Blogroll”, “Add link” and “Import links”
4. Also in that page you will see the two default link, click on the “Edit” link beside the link name.
5. You can change the name to your friends name (or whatever site you are linking to)
6. Enter the address in the “Address” box
7. Enter a description if you want (not necessary though)
8. Check the appropriate options in the “Rel” section. This keeps track of how you are related to that link.
9. Image Address - You can leave this section blank. I’ll explain later.
10. RSS Address - All blogs have an RSS address. Ask your friend what is theirs and enter it in here. It is not necessary, you can delete the default one and leave it blank
11. Enter an appropriate rating.

Now the panel on the right, you should be familiar with it by now as I’ve explained this in the “Writing your first blog” section of this tutorial.

You can create a new category for your link and add your link in that category. Good luck and happy relationship building! Remember that visiting these blogs personally and writing a comment will also help in promoting your blog and building a relationship. There are hidden prizes which I will get into at a later stage.

1. “Approve” - This means that when somebody writes a comment, it will not appear on your blog till you click on the “Approve” link in your email. When you click on that link, you will be taken to a confirmation page where you can edit the comment or just approve it. After that, it will appear on your site.
2. “Disapprove” - Clicking on this link will take you to a confirmation page where you can disapprove which means it will not appear on your site.
3. “Spam” - Clicking on this link will mark that comment as spam. Spam comments are inevitable but we can work to minimize the amount you receive. They generally are not humans, but programs that hunt the internet and find blogs and leave comments to sell drugs and even offensive websites. Just mark these as spam.

You can also modify a comment later. If you log in to your admin panel and click on “Comments” menu you will see the list of comments, you can search for a specific comment and edit it or delete it or mark as spam.

Here is how you can change the design for your blog!

1. Log in to your admin page.
2. Click on the “Presentation” menu.
3. You should see a list of pictures, these are the available designs (also referred to as a “Theme”).
4. Find a “Theme” that you like and just click on it!
5. At the very top of the page, click the “View Site” link to see your blog with the new design. That’s it!

If you are unhappy with the theme, go back to your admin page and select another theme and view your site. I will constantly keep adding various themes to suit a wide range of tastes. So, if you don’t see anything you like, send me an email to request a theme or just check back now and then, you might find some new surprises!

1. Click on “Manage”
2. In the sub-menu, click on “Pages”
3. You will see the “About” listed, click on “Edit” to the right.
4. Enter your information, you can even upload your picture (more on uploading pictures later)
5. You can choose to allow comments or not.
6. Click on Save or Publish and you are done!

Now click on “View Site” at the very top left of your admin page. You will be taken to your blog. You will see “Site Navigation” move your mouse over it and you will see the link to “About”, click on it and you will see your “About” page!

• First we have to get rid of the demo post “Hello World” So we are actually going to edit it, meaning, remove all the demo text and add your own. So it’s not really writing a “fresh” post but editing a post.
• In your administration panel, click on the “Manage” menu.
• In the sub menu you will see “Post” click on that, because you want to “Manage your Posts” right? Generally it should be selected by default and you won’t have to click on it.
• You will see the “Hello-World” post. Click on “Edit” to the right
• You can now change the title, delete all the text and then write your own.
• When you are done writing, look at the column on the right where it says “Categories”
• You can add as many categories as you’d like then click “Add” you will see them appear below.
• Now uncheck all of the categories and leave only one checked, the one that your post should belong to. For example if you wrote something generic, then create a category called “News” or “Genera” or “Random” and save all your random posts in there.
• Below the category panel you should see the “Discussion” tab. In there you can allow or disallow comments.
• Allow pings can be left checked (i’ll explain more on that later)
• “Post Password” - This means that you can write anything and if you enter a password, it means that only those who know the password will be able to see the post. So you can write a secret post and if you enter a password, send it to that secret person so that when they try to read it, they will be asked for a password which they can enter and then read.
• Post slug - Change this to anything short, probably the same as the title of your blog.
• Post status - If you are yet working on it, select draft, if it is good to go, select Published, if you want to keep it private which only you can read, select private!
• Post timestamp - Select the date that it should be published.
• Click on “Save” or “Publish” to publish it instantly! and you are done! Visit your blog by clicking the “View Site” at the top left.

This explained how to “Edit” the Hello World post, read on to see how to actually write a fresh new post!

• Click on the “Write” menu at the top.
• You will see a sub-menu for “Write Post” and “Write Page” - This deals with writing a new “Post” or “Blog”. “Write Post” should be selected by default.
• Enter your blog title and then in the box below, type up your blog! It has a few buttons that you can use to format your blog, add links etc..
• A good practice is to break up your post into two, with an intro paragraph and a “Read more” link to read the rest.
• To do this, find the place where you want to insert the “Read more” link, click there and then press “enter” on your keyboard to give it some space.
• In the tool bar at the top of the box where you are typing your post you should see a button to the left of the check mark and abc.. it looks like two halves of a page, click on that. That will automatically insert a “Read more” link.
• For details on how to use the tabs on the right, read the above section, it has detailed explanations.
• Click publish and you are moving! Good job!

The system is basically divided into two parts: Pages and Blogs.

Pages:

You can add as many pages as you like. Pages are individual pages and are generally used for stuff like “About me” or something that you would like a direct link to. You can create sub-pages as well for example, create a page called “About” under which you can add a page each for “About my cat” and “About my dog” etc…

You have the power to determine whether people can leave comments or not for your pages.

Blogs:

Blogs basically fall under categories. For example you started a blog and it’s topic is music so you would have many categories for each style of music. You would have to create categories for “Blues”, “Jazz”, “Funk”, “Rock” etc..

Once you’ve done that, you want to write your thoughts on blues, so you will write your piece of mind and then save it under the category “Blues”. You can write as many articles as you’d like and save them under appropriate categories.

You can create as many categories as you’d like!

You have the power to determine if visitors can leave comments on your blogs or not!

So that is the basic overview of this blog system. You can read more on how to create or manage you blogs or pages in the other articles.

• When you request for a blog, I will set it up for you and you will receive an email with the username and password and a link to log in.
• Click that link and log in.
• Welcome to your administration system! You should see a list of menus at the top and they are pretty self explanatory.
• First, set up your blog: Click on “Options” in the top menu on the right. Enter a title, it could be anything, your name or whatever. It does not affect the address. If you address is http://blog.pepperwater.com/anglo and your blog title is Creepy Dude, your address does not change, it remains as anglo.
• Change the taglin so your title can be for example “Mr Jimbucks” and your tagline can be “Playing Guitar since 1940!”
• You can update your email address if you want.
• On this page you can leave everything else, except the start of your week day.
• Click “Update options” and you are done setting up your Blog.

Now that you’ve set up your blog, you can edit your profile to add a personal touch.

• Click on “Users” at the top, just beside “Options”
• You will see your name, click on “Edit” to the right.
• There will be two columns, we’ll deal with the left column first.
• Username - You cannot change this as this is part of your address.
• Role: Leave this as administrator. You are your administrator of your blog. If you change it to anything below that, you will not be able to manage your own blog! Only administrators can log in to this system.
• Enter your First and last names
• You can choose a nickname, it can be anything.
• Choose a display name.
• Enter a short description about your self in the “About” box.

Now let’s move to the right column!

• You can update your email address if you want.
• If you have a website, you can add that link if not, leave it blank
• You can enter your id’s for AIM, Yahoo etc..
• You can change your password by entering the new one and then re-entering it to confirm it.
• Click on “Update options” and you are done!

The next article will give you an overview of the blog and explain how to get started by writing your first blog!

You can blog as much as you’d like about any topic. If you’ve never had a blog, this is a good time to begin. If you already blog somewhere, now you can blog on a site that is unique to Anglo Indians and possible get more readers.

It is simple, fun, fast. Click here to request your blog now. This will soon be opened to all and you can create your blog without registering.

Who can benefit from this?
The Anglo Indian Artist: You don’t have the time or software to build your own web page, you use your Internet Provider’s page to promote yourself. No more! Use Pepperwater’s sleek system to easily manage AS MANY PAGES AS YOU’D LIKE! Upload pictures, audio and use it like a mini site with your own address: blog.pepperwater.com/YOUR NAME HERE

The Anglo Indian Authour: Create your own mini site, add a recipe/chapter daily or weekly. Let users write comments. Ex; blog.pepperwater.com/YOUR NAME HERE

The Anglo Indian Associations: Create your own blog and use it like a site to write updates on your meetings/events and promote your association. This helps with reports and funding. Ex; blog.pepperwater.com/Association Name Here

Everyone else!: Personal blogs are also welcome. Use it as a spot to blog about family, life and let your friends read and comment and connect with you. If your friends have a blog you can add them as your friend on your blog and build a network of people you know who blog! Ex; blog.pepperwater.com/YOUR NAME HERE

If you have any questions, contact the webmaster. What are you waiting for? Request your personal blog now!

When requesting a personal blog, please tell me the name of your blog. There cannot be any space or special characters like commas and periods etc. Please note that this name cannot be changed once setup.

http://blog.pepperwater.com/NAME GOES HERE

*Unless it contains illegal content or anything that would put Pepperwater.com into unwanted trouble with the law!