3. Putting It All Together: part 1

Add a photo to your blog.

You can upload a photo from your computer or link to a photo from anywhere on the Internet. If you host personal or class photos on a Flickr account, you can link directly from your Flickr photo to your blog. You can also use a photo from http://www.everystockphoto.com. You'll just need the "URL" or web address of the photo. You can right click on any Internet photo and copy the photo's URL.

To add the photo to your blog text, just click the photo icon in the Blogger editor. You will have the option to browse your own computer to upload a photo or to enter a photo URL. After you select your photo, you can choose to display it in a small, medium or large format, and you can choose to display it centered or to left or right of your text. Click the "Upload Image" button to place the image in your blog. It will display at the location of the cursor in your blog text. You can upload up to 1024MB of photos to your Blogger account. Other blogs like Wordpress have a similar way to enter photos.

Add a comment to a blog.

Visit a blog of your choice. At the end of the posting to which you'd like to comment, click on the link that allows you to add a comment. You may or may not need to have an account on the blog. If the blog owner permits comments, you will be able to enter your comment and submit it. Check to see how the comment is displayed or accessed. This is one of the most common forms of Internet discussion.

Subscribe to a blog.

Most blogs "publish" themselves and their changes to the Internet through a feature called "RSS" (Really Simple Syndication). The RSS symbol is a small orange square with white arcs that represent broadcasting or speaking. You'll need a place to read the blogs to which you subscribe. This is called an RSS aggregator. Two of the most common are Google Desktop (iGoogle) and Google Reader. You can create one from your Blogger account (owned by Google). One way is to visit "labs.google.com" and select iGoogle or Google Reader.

To actually subscribe to new blog postings, just visit the blog you wish to read. On your browser or the blog post you should find an RSS icon. Click on the RSS icon and follow the prompts to subscribe to the blog. From now on, all new postings will show up as links in your RSS aggregator. The may sound complicated because of the new vocabulary, but it is really quite easy and convenient.