Myspace Blog

Steps to creating your own myspace blog

Myspace Blog - Step 1: Start a Myspace Blog

Once you have set up your MySpace profile you can start creating your MySpace blog. The MySpace blog has many features you can customize to make your blog entries look better.

From the MySpace editing page, which can be found by clicking on "Home" after logging in, click on "Manage Blog" in the editing box toward the top of the page. On the next page scroll down and find the box labled "My Controls" and click on "Customize Blog".

Myspace Blog - Step 2: General Blog Settings

These are some general settings that will effect how your blog entries look.

Background Color - Choose your background color of your blog entries by clicking on the little color palette icon and choosing your color from the pop up box or find your color code from an HTML color chart.
Alignment - Decide whether you want your blog entries to be aligned to the left, right or center of the page.
Width Length - How wide do you want your blog entries on the page? Do you want the text of your entries to go all the way across the page or do you want them shortened so they look longer? You can choose your width by number or by percent.
Default Font - Choose the style of your words, they can be plain or fancy. There is a drop down box to help you choose but they don't offer any preview for this so you can see what the font looks like before you choose it. Also choose the size of your words and the color.
Normal Link - Choose the color of the words in your blog entries that link to other Web pages. Also decide if you want the links underlined.
Visited Link - A visited link is a link that the reader has already clicked on. Choose a color and if it should be underlined.
Active Link - An active link is one that is unclicked. Choose a color for them and decide if you want them underlined.
Blogs per Page - This is where you decide how many blog entries you want per page. You can choose from 1 - 15.

Myspace Blog - Step 3: Header Settings

The header is a bar at the top of the blog page that can have the title of your blog and a message or whatever you want it to say.

No Custom Header - If you don't want a custom heading put a check mark here and you are finished with this section.
Site Name - Put your blog's name here. (ie. Lin's Blog of Fun). This title shows up on the left side of your header.
Site Name Font - Choose the font style, color and size you want for your blog text.
Tagline - Put a short phrase here. This tagline shows on the right side of the header.
Tagline Font - Choose the font style, color and size for your tagline.
Border - If you want a border around your blog post then you need to choose a color for your border here.
Interior - This is the background color of your header. you can make it the same color as the background color of your blog posts or add some contrast and make it something different.
Your Own Header HTML - This is an advanced feature for those of you who know how to create style sheets. Insead of using the Custom Header described above you can create your own style sheet and add the code in here. Style sheets are created using CSS.

Myspace Blog - Step 4: Sidebar Settings

The sidebar is the area on the side of your blog post that has information about you in it. You need to decide what you want the world to know about you.

Side Module Position - Do you want the sidebare to be on the left or on the right side of your blog post?
Font Color - Choose the color you want your sidebar text to be.
Alignment - Do you want your sidebar text to be centered in the sidebar or do you want it aligned to the left or right side of the sidebar?
Border - Choose what color you want your sidebar's border to be.
Interior - This is the background color of your sidebar.
Show Gender - Whether you want your readers to know what your gender is.
Show Status - This will show if you have logged into your MySpace account recently (I don't know how long this takes to time out).
Show Age - Do you really want people to know how old you are? Maybe.
Show Sign - This is your astology sign.
Show City - If you are looking for people who live near you then you probably want to show your city. Otherwise this may be a security concern.
Show State - Showing your state is fun, and I don't think it's too dangerous.
Show Country - Necessary. I like to know what country people are from when I'm reading on the Net.
Show Signup Date - This is the date you signed up for MySpace.
Show Subscriptions - Blogs you have subscribe to so you can read them.
Show Blog Groups - A list of blog groups on MySpace you have signed up for. Blog groups are groups of blogs that are similar.

Myspace Blog - Step 5: Blog Post Settings

This is ther area where your blog posts show up. Since this is the area people will be reading from you want to make sure the colors are easy to read and that it looks nice.

Blog Background Color - Choose the background you want for your blog posts. Make it something light so your words can be read easily. If you want to use a dark background then you will want to change your font color to something light or something that contrasts.
Spacer Color - The spacer is a line at the top of the blog post area.
Date Background Color - This is the color of a bar that goes across the top of the blog post area right where your date shows up.
Date Format - This is how the date shows up on your page; month first, day of the week first, etc.
Date Alignment - Do you want the date on the left, right or centered at the top of the blog post?
Subject Font - Choose the font style, size and color of the title of your blog post and the mood you are in.
Subject Bold - Decide if you want your blog post title in bold or not.
Time Format - The time you posted your blog entry shows up at the bottom of each of your blog posts. You can choose how you want the time to show. There are two 12 hour clock options and two 24 hour clock options.
Time Position - You can have the time of your blog post on the top of the blog post or on the bottom of the blog post.
Blog Text Indent - This is how far in from the edge of the blog post do you want your text to indent.

Myspace Blog - Step 6: Comment Post Settings

If you are allowing people to post comments to your blog posts then their posts will show up on your blog. You need to decide what those posts look like.

Comment Profile Background Color - This is the color of the background color of the profile area in the comment post.
Comment Background Color - Choose a background color for your reader's comment posts.
Comment Spacer Color - Just like in the blog posts, a spacer is a line that goes across the top of the blog post area. This spacer goes across the top of the comment area.
Myspace Blog - Step 7: Background Settings

Besides color there are other things you can add to your background to make your blog posts more fun and more interesting. Try some of these.
- Background Image - If you have an image of photo that is online and you want to use it as the background to your blog posts instead of using just plain color, add the address of the image here.
- Fixed background - If you don't want the image to move when the page is scrolled on so it always stays in one place, click on the "Fixed" button. Otherwise click on the "Scroll" button.
- Repeat Background - If you want the image to show up over and over on the background you can do it vertically, horizontally or both. If not then you can choose "no repeat".
- Music Url - Do you have a song that you uploaded to the Internet that you want to play on your blog? Add the URL of the song here and you will have music to go along with your blog posts.
- Loop Music - If you want the song to play over and over then make sure there is a check mark in this button. If you only want it to play once and finish then uncheck the button.
Myspace Blog - Step 8: Custom Style Sheet

If you know CSS and want to create your own custom style sheet then this is where you would put your code. If you don't know CSS or don't want to be bothered with it then just leave this blank.

This style sheet option is limited to 8000 characters and you should not add the STYLE codes at the beginning and end of the code.

Myspace Blog - Step 9: Conclusion

When you are finished updating all your blog settings click on the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. If you want you can click on the "Preview" button first to see how it looks and if you need to make any changes.

As you are going along making changes there are "Preview buttons all along the way. You can make a change and see how each change looks before moving on to the next change.

Now that you blog looks great don't forget to update it at least once a week and have fun with it.