All potential ‘bloggers' are required to register online using an electronic form.
As part of this registration, you will need to think of a suitable username, a title for your blog and complete some personal details. You can also register an existing blog in the directory as long as you have the web address of its feed (called ‘RSS').
Registration consists of nine steps:-
1. Initiation
2. Choosing an account type
3. Entering your personal details
4. Submitting your application to ICELE
5. Blog approval by ICELE
6. Setting up your blog for the first time
7. Choosing a domain name (optional)
8. Buying a domain name (optional)
9. Automated domain registration (optional)
1. First of all, find the "click here to sign-up" button on the homepage of www.bloginabox.co.uk.
Clicking on this will initiate the sign-up process.
2. Next you are prompted with the account selection screen.
Select "open an account" if you want to start a new blog on our system and move to step three.
If you are registering an existing blog in the directory then click on the lower icon. A new screen will appear - enter the RSS feed of your existing blog (e.g. http://www.myblog.com/rss) and select the details that best match your profile in the drop-down lists provided.
We will review your submission and enable the directory entry within 24-48 hours.
Tips for finding the URL of an existing blog RSS feed
Click on the RSS icon in your internet browser to reveal the URL. Alternatively the following conventions are used by popular blogging platforms:-
Blogspot : myblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Wordpress : myblog.wordpress.com/rss
3.The next series of screens contain forms which must be populated with your personal details, including email address.
Choose a username carefully as this will be visible to the public.
Select your job type, local authority and political party from the drop-down list. This is used to populate the blog directory. You can alays modify this later-on.
You must accept the terms of service by clicking the appropriate box at the bottom of the form. Basically these terms are for your own protection, to avoid abuse of the service.
Finally, choose to subscribe (or not) to the newsletter. This will contain regular news about updates and any planed downtime e.t.c.
Click "Sign-up" when you have completed all the fields.
Hint: Using your ".gov.uk" email address when registering will speed-up the application verification process.
When choosing your screen name please don't use ‘councillor' or ‘Cllr' at the beginning as this hampers people finding you in the list.
4. You will get an email at the address that you specified in the registration form confirming that your application is being processed
5. A member of the Bloginabox team will verify that you quality for a free account and send you a follow-up email within 24 hours of your application.
This email will contain a web-link that you must click or copy into a web browser to complete your registration. This enables us to verify that somebody else has not registered for a blog in your name.
6. You are now ready to set-up your blog.
This screen allows you to choose the look and feel of your blog and populate your public profile.
You should also write your first entry by typing in the on-screen box. This is to make sure you don't have a blank blog - we suggest you simply announce your presence to the world or bloggers!
At the bottom of the set-up screen you will see two options:-
We recommend you select "create my blog with a linked internet and email address".
This will give you the chance to purchase your own internet address (e.g. www.yourname.me.uk) instead of using our default one which is www.bloginabox.co.uk/yourname.
Getting your own, memorable internet address, will allow others to find you easier. This is yours to keep for two years and you will retain control of it should you decide to move away from Bloginabox in the future.
There is a small charge for your own internet address of around £10 per year. Click "for free" if you aren't interested in doing this or want to register your own address from an alternative provider.
7. If you have selected to purchase a linked internet address (called ‘domain name') then you will see this screen.
Blogiabox will automatically suggest an appropriate domain name for you based on your username. Click "buy" to accept this and move on to the checkout.
You can search the internet for available names by using the availability checker. Simply type-in a suggestion, including domain extension but without "www" (e.g. yourname.me.uk) and click the ‘search' button.
We suggest using a ".me.uk" suffix to your domain name, the default chosen when your search results are shown. This is because ".me.uk" is allocated to UK personal websites.
It is possible to choose a ".org.uk",".co.uk" or ".com" but these are normally reserved for businesses or organisations.
8. Selecting "buy" will redirect you to our secure payment facility.
Check your details and the total amount then click "checkout".
Next enter your payment details, summary and finalise the payment.
We accept credit cards, MasterCard or Visa, or PayPal.
Payments are processed by a third party, the checkout is completely secure and your card details are encrypted.
The current price for a two year ".me.uk" domain lease is £20 (£10 per year, inclusive of VAT). The domain will be registered in your name and with NOMINET, the official UK registrar. ".com" names are £20 per year.
You can renew at the end of this lease but cannot be refunded once you have purchased a domain or ritire from it early.
9. We will process your domain name registration at this point
This make take upto two minutes...so be patient and wait for the on-screen instructions to complete.
You should see a step-by-step account of what is happening.
Completing your setup
At the end of the process you will see the following screen:-
Please make a note of the username and password provided for your domain management. You will need this if you want to modify your domain name purchase at a later stage.
Proceed to your dashboard to configure your blog further.
Please note: It may take upto 24hrs for your new domain name to register with the internet.
Notes
- We reccommend using the FireFox internet browser for creating blogs on Bloginabox although the service is compaible with all major browsers.
- Bloggers who choose not to purchase a domain name through ICELE during the registration process can purchase a unique domain name through an alternative online reseller (e.g. 123reg). This may be cheaper but will involve manual configuration.
- £2.50 per domain name registered per year through this site is recycled into the sustainability of the Bloginabox project. The pricing of domains is otherwise determined by the reseller and online transactional costs to ICELE.