Did you see this? – Navigating our blog

Posted on April 22, 2011 by | 2 Comments
by Madeline Laughs

Spread Information! Stop the Madness!

If you’re reading this you probably clicked on a link from Facebook or you’ve subscribed to the actual blog site. Have you taken a look around the blog lately? There’s a lot of content that you might be missing. Today I’m going to give you the grand tour :D 

Take a look at the top of the page you’re on right now. In the upper left hand corner you’ll see three links; Home, Posts and About.

Home takes you to our front page. The landscape of this page changes occasionally, whenever Regyna Longlank, our curator, takes a notion, she’ll swap out the posts that live on the Home page for longer amounts of time. The posts are all broken out into the Authors individual posts. For instance, Single Not Desperate is at the top of the page. You can click on her name or on her Hot Topic to read all of the posts that she’s written. Go on over there now and have a look. I’ll still be here when you get back.  Click on it to see what I mean.

About is about the Authors and Contributors. It’s also about why we’re writing this blog. Navigate over there and check out the bios on our different writers. You might see something about one of us that you didn’t realize and you might be compelled to read what this writer has written. At the bottom of the page is a link to contact us if you’d like to contribute. There’s also two posts about what a blog is and why one of us writes here.

Okay, so now you’re back here. Let’s have a look at those mysterious columns on each side of the posts.

There are seven Hot Topics right now.  If you have an interest in only one of these subjects, you can click the Hot Topic and read every post ever written here about that subject.

Below that is a list of our Authors. Under each writer’s name are posts they have written starting with their most recent one.

Below the Authors is the Blog Roll. Some of you might not know what a Blog Roll is. A Blog Roll are blogs or websites that we, Spread Information, like to read and we recommend them to you here, in the Blog Roll. You can click on any link and it will take you right to another online blog or website.

Now hover your mouse over the links in the Blog Roll. See the little message pop up? It’s how we feel about the blog you’re hovering over. When you have time, check out some of our peers. We think they’re awesome!

In the right-hand column we have Categories. We have four Categories; Advice, Memory, Poetry and Rant. If you’re just looking for Advice, click on the posts that offer advice. Memory is writing that is about a memory we have. Poetry are writings that are poetic and written to be mulled over and absorbed like delicious sunshine or a fine chocolate truffle. But what is a Rant, you might ask? Simply defined, a Rant is something that pisses us off, or something we feel very passionate about.

Under Categories you’ll see a listing of our Recent Posts. If it’s listed here, it’s hot off the presses and fresh as a daisy!

Under Recent Posts you’ll see Top Posts. No, it’s not us rating these as Top, it’s you, the readers! These are posts that are receiving the most traffic at the moment. Thank you for reading them and making them so popular!

Under Top Posts you’ll find Recent Comments. You can see up-to-date comments being made on individual blog posts. You can even see when the Author responds to a recent comment.

Archives allows you to search all of our blog entries back to the very beginning of the blog. Let’s say you remember reading something about Egypt or a poem about Patience that you liked and you’d like to read it again. How would you find that particular post without wading through every post in the archives? Just enter the search term “Egypt” or “Patience” and hit Search. The Archive Search will find it for you. If there is more than one blog post with those words in it, you might get a few to filter through, but it really takes the work out of finding what you’re looking for.  You can also search by month, if you remember when it was posted.

Counter is just so we can keep track of what’s being read and by whom. It steers us in the direction of subjects people really seemed to enjoy and helps us keep content flowing that you’ll come back to read again and again.

Then you’ll see all of the Social Media outlets we’re members of and different ways you can be notified each time we post something new. We are a member of Networked Blogs, so you can follow us there. If you’re an avid blog reader this is a great way to find new and interesting blogs to read and subscribe to along with ours. You can click Twitter and follow us on there. And you can become a fan of ours on Facebook by clicking the Facebook Badge. Our blog posts are syndicated through Networked Blogs and automatically post to Twitter and Facebook each time we post.

Last but not least, Blog Stats! See that number? That’s how many times our blog has been opened by different readers around the world since October 27, 2010. I know it’s not millions, but I think it’s a pretty good number so far.

Now let’s have a look at the Post itself. The top of the post will have the title of the article and the date it was written. Under that will be the Author Byline. That’s who you’re reading. Right above the post you’ll see text in blue with arrows. These are easy ways to navigate through our most recent posts.

Related Articles are always posted beneath every new post. These are articles written about, or close to, the same subject we just wrote about. They’re from different authors and make great additional reading. Click on a few and check them out.

We also give you, the Reader, some control within our blog posts. You can express your own opinion about the post you’ve just read. We give you eight different ways to Share our posts with your friends. Take your mouse and hover over the Share button. See? You can easily re-post our blog post to your Facebook, Twitter or whatever page with the click of a button.

You can also Like the post. Your Like only shows on our blog post and it’s not the same as a Facebook Like because it won’t show on your Facebook page. We really Like Likes! Each time you Like one of our posts, we get an email saying;

“This Reader recently read your post, titled Cherokee Indian Wisdom, and enjoyed it enough to click the ‘Like’ button. Congratulations.”

Getting an email like this just makes every writer’s day a little brighter. Thank you!

Leave a Reply is where you can write to us about your thoughts on the subject. Don’t be shy! Even if you disagree with us, please comment. Each comment is moderated before it is allowed to post because nastiness or meanie comments are just bad form. So if you don’t see your comment right away, don’t worry, it’ll show up before the day is over. Once you have your comment all typed up and you’re ready to hit Post Comment, look right below the button and you’ll see;

“Notify me of follow-up comments via email.”

If you’d like to know who else comments or if the Author responds to your comment, click this box. This way you’ll get an email with any follow up comments included.

You can also Subscribe to the blog and get updates right in your personal email Inbox.

That’s the grand tour! I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about what’s in the blog and I hope you’ll keep returning to read us. We still have a lot of information to spread!


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2 Responses to Did you see this? – Navigating our blog

  1. Pingback: The Spread Information Blog Evolution | Spread Information

  2. Pingback: Eating my own Words *burp!* | Spread Information

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