I’ve been watching for an opportunity to talk about comments to blogs, and with this last blog, I got one – first a comment (thanks!) and then an opportunity. More than one of you have said you made an attempt to add a comment but didn’t succeed. So you’re made your comments by e-mail, and I much appreciated them. That hasn’t been a problem and still isn’t especially one. However, it could be a problem in the future, so I’d like to see more of us figure out how to do it.
Up until now, I’ve been writing this blog mostly for my friends and for myself, but if publication ever does loom on the horizon, the blog will be a major way to publicize my writing efforts. I’ve even heard that in this age and age some publishers, when they are considering publishing you, they check out what you already have online, whether it’s a blog, an author’s website, a ShoutLife site or other such. From that they not only get a taste of your writing, but they get an idea of how much of a “public platform” you have, how well you are known, and the like.
Right now, looking at my blog, most could only conclude that not very many people know me or are reading my stuff. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not putting pressure on anyone or worrying about this. The same thing happened to me when I tried here and on a couple of friends’ blogs. But I tried a couple more times and got the hang of it.
What you have to have is a Goggle “account” with username and password. If you don’t think you have one, click on “Sign up here” and put in an e-mail. You probably don’t want to use your main one, so open a gmail one or some other free one. It isn’t something anyone but you needs to know. Then choose a password and type it twice also.
Yes, they give you the bit of hassle about copying the letters you see, but that is a precaution so that I don’t get dumped on with tons of automated spam. You do have to give a name, but not your last name. If you want to develop a profile with picture, more fun, but not necessary.
Come on. Be brave. I look forward to hearing from some more of you. I’ll notice—and I’ll reply to you.
Later: for a clearer explanation of all this, check out the long comment written the day I posted this.
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4 comments:
Hi Esther! I have been reading your blog since you told me about it. I'm hoping you will be able to get your book finished & published soon! We were supposed to be in Oregon now, but DH got sick and we had to cancel our trip. He ended up in the hospital and got a pacemaker installed. I'm sorry we missed your party, but it sounds like you really had lots of celebrating! Congratulations!!!! Love, Gladys
> "What you have to have is a Goggle “account” with username and password. If you don’t think you have one, click on “Sign up here” and put in an e-mail."
You may already have a Google account and not know it. If you use any Google service (Picasa, Blogger, YouTube, Orkut, GMail, Maps, News, iGoogle, Calendar, Docs, Reader, etc.), you have a Google account which will work on any of their services. You can use that account to post comments.
If you do sign up for a Google account, I believe the account creation page is wrong. You don't have to use a pre-existing e-mail address where it asks for one. You can put whatever user id you want in the fields that ask for an e-mail address. That id is what you will use to login to any of Google's services and post comments here.
> "You probably don’t want to use your main one, so open a gmail one or some other free one. It isn’t something anyone but you needs to know."
By picking whatever user id you want as I described above, you are opening a GMail e-mail account, since that is one of Google's services. As Esther said, you don't have to use it or give it to anyone.
Well, it really pays to have a "techie" in the family. Thanks a ton for all those helpful hints, Alan. It was fun this evening to find two comments already. And Gladys, sorry about the DH being sick and about the pacemaker. Hopefully, he'll do real well now.
I've been reading it - though usually in my email since e I subscribed to it. Of course, the drawback to reading it via email is that commenting requires a few more clicks.
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