"How to" Guideline series is coordinated by Helen Mongan-Rallis of the Education Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to improve these guidelines please me at e-mail hrallis@d.umn.edu.

Guidelines for Creating and Using Posterous Blog

By Helen Mongan-Rallis. Last updated: September 20, 2011

To sign up to get a Posterous account

1. Go to https://posterous.com/
2. Complete the sign up information:
   • Enter your email address
   • Enter a username (e.g. my username is hrallis). If someone else already has chosen that username, you will be prompted to pick another name. Once you enter a name that no one else uses, it will say "ok"
   • Enter a password (if it is too short, it will prompt you to change it).
   • Write down this information somewhere safe so you will be able to get into your account in future:)
   • Click the "sign up" button to create your account.

Accessing your Posterous account using your computer

1. Once you have created a Posterous account, you can access it by going to the main Posterous page at https://posterous.com/
2. Once there, click on the words "login" next to where it says, "Already have an account? Login"
   
   
   
   
3. This will bring up the login box. Enter your email address, username, and password (the ones you used when you signed up for your account)
4. If you are using your own computer, you can check the "Remember Me" box so that in future you won't have to type in all of this information
5. Click the "login" button
   
   

To post to your Posterous account

You can post blog entries to your Posterous account in different ways:

1. From your computer browser
2. From an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad using the free app (download Posterous from the App store)
3. By sending an email to your Posterous account.

I'll explain how to each below.

From your computer browser

1. Login to your Posterous account on your computer
2. Click on the "Create a Post" button
   
   
   
   
3. Give your blog entry a heading by typing this in the heading box
4. In the text box, enter the text of your blog (if you want to format it using the text formatting tool bar you can, but no need to be fancy!)
5. If you want to upload images, audio or video files (even documents), click on the button "Upload images, audio, video and docs --> locate the image (or other file type) on your computer, and select it.
6. A little green bar will show that Posterous is working on uploading your image/other file. When it is done loading, the image/other file will appear in the editing box.
7. When you are done adding your text entry, images or other files, click on the green "publish" button
   
   
   

Post by sending an email

1. Perhaps the easiest way to post to your blog is just by sending an email to your Posterous blog, using the same email account that you used in setting up your Posterous account.
2. The address to enter in the "To" line for your email will be your Posterous username followed by the @posterous.com e.g. my username is "hrallis" so the address that I would put in my email "to" line would be hrallis@posterous.com
3. The subject that you give in your email subject line will become the heading for the blog post
4. The text of your blog will be whatever you enter in the body of your email
5. If you attach photos, a video or an audio file to your email, this will also be posted to your blog
   

The screen shot below shows how I posted to my Posterous account by sending an email using my iPhone email program:

Post by using the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch app

1. Download the free Posterous App from the App store
2. Launch the app and click on the login button
3. login using your email and password (same as above)
4. This take you to your blog. Click on the icon showing the pencil and paper -> this will start a new post for you.
   
   
   
   
5. Give it a title click on the "next" button
6. Enter the text in next space. When you are done click on the "send" button -- this will post your post!
   

Settings for your blog

1. Click on the "settings" icon
   
   
   
2. In the settings, it's useful to allow anyone to comment (makes it easier for people to participate in your blog), but do make sure to check the "moderate" button so that you approve comments before they are posted.
   
   

This gives you the basics to get started. Also explore other settings and options within your Posterous blog as you become more comfortable in using it. Have fun!

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