1. Comment Moderation: Making sure any comment posted to your blog is approved by you first before it goes on the page. Here's how:
-Click on the "Settings" tab and click on "Comments."
-Choose that anyone can comment (so parents or students don't have to have a specific type of account to comment).
-Change your comment moderation to "Always."
-Add your email address to the email address box and save! Then you're done!
2. Add a labels gadget to your side bar. This way when you label posts, your labels will appear on the side bar so viewers can see them and utilize them.
-Go to the "Layout" tab and click "Get a Gadget."
-Find the "Labels" gadget and click the +.
-I recommend keeping the default settings. Click "Save" and you're done!
3. Add a "Links" gadget to your side bar.
-Go to the "Layout" tab if you aren't still there, and select "Get a Gadget" once again.
-Select the Link List gadget by clicking the +.
-1 Title the link list what you'd like: Student Links, Parent Links, etc.
-2 Select how you would like the links to be sorted.
-3 Type in a web address of a website you'd like to add.
-4 Give the site a title that will appear on your Link List.
-5 Click "Add Link."
-6 If you're done, click "Save." If you aren't done, you can add more links using steps 3-5.
4. The last thing we did was add a way for readers to subscribe via email. When a reader subscribes via email, he or she will not have to check the blog. All posts will be emailed right to the reader's inbox. I would suggest adding this feature and then telling parents about it right when you publicize your blog to them. This way, they can never forget about your blog! It comes right to them!
The website FEEDBURNER is an external website that we used to do this.
I found a resource that explains how to do this well, so instead of recreating the explanation, just go read it here.
That's all for Tech Tuesday this week! Next week I will show you some great blogs to read and how to read them all in one place instead of visiting them to check if they're updated. Not all blogs have a wonderful email subscription gadget like yours now should!
If you haven't attended a Tech Tuesday yet, I would HIGHLY encourage the next session. The only thing you'll need to have is a Google account. If you have a Gmail address, you're set. Otherwise you can use your school email to set up a Google account. Refer to the first Tech Tuesday post to learn how to make your own Google account.
