The MC Professional Blog is a built-in blogging tool your association can use to create a blog within your MC Professional solution. Find it under Community > Blog.
On this page
Dashboard
The Blog Dashboard is the starting point for any new post. The dashboard includes shortcuts to all the blogging features: Entries, Categories, Tags, Comments, and Settings.
General Stats gives you an overview of the number of blog entries—approved and pending—plus total comments, categories, and tags. The dashboard also shows your most popular blog entries and their number of hits (views).
Creating a new entry
A blog entry is a post on your blog. Each entry creates a separate post with its own link.
- Go to Entries, then select the New icon.
- Give the entry a title, then press Tab to generate the alias.
- Set the entry to published, and select a category for the entry.
- Add images, text, and links to create your blog entry, then select Save.
Changing an entry's listed author
When a blog entry is created, the entry's author is the admin who created it. To change this, select the Metadata Information tab at the bottom of the entry, then add the desired author's name in the Author box.
Creating a new category
Categories organize your blog entries. Each category contains multiple entries and keeps your content organized on the blog. Blog categories are similar to article categories—see Categories.
- Select the New plus sign.
- Give the category a name, and add a category slug (optional). A slug is similar to an alias and helps improve your blog's Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—see Search Engine Optimization (SEO). For example: category name Best Practices, category slug best-practices.
- Set the new category to published. If it should act as the default category, select Yes next to Default.
- Give the category a description (optional), then select Save.
Creating new tags
Tags are keywords that identify blog entries with particular subject matter, and they help with SEO. Using the same tag in more than one entry lets users search for entries with that tag. For example, say your blog has 10 posts and 3 are tagged networking. Viewers can search for "networking" to pull a list of all posts using that tag.
- Go to Tags and select the New plus sign.
- Give the tag a name and a slug (optional), then select Save.
When you create a blog entry, add tags under Tags: select the checkbox next to any applicable tags, add new ones as needed, then select Save.
Managing comments
Under Comments, admins can publish and unpublish comments as needed, or delete comments that are inappropriate.
Members must be logged in to leave a comment on your blog. Public commenting isn't available. Once a comment is added, it appears at the bottom of the blog post.
Settings
Configure the specifics of your blog under the Settings tab.
The Main Blog Page Settings:
- Introtext: If enabled, a blog entry's intro text displays on the home page of the blog.
- Remove objects and images: If set to Show, images and other objects are removed from the intro text area to save space on the blog's home page.
- Number of Introtext Paragraphs: The number of paragraphs to display as intro text.
- Show Read More: If enabled, a Read More link displays as needed on the blog's home page.
The Comment Settings:
- Comments per page: Limits the number of comments on each blog entry.
- Inappropriate Words Filter: If enabled, words listed in the Words to Filter box are filtered out of blog comments.
- Words to Filter: The words to filter from blog comments.
- Replace Inappropriate Words: The symbol or words that replace inappropriate words.
Permissions
To give members access to view or comment on the blog, go to Permissions and select the appropriate group checkboxes.
Adding the blog to your website
To add the blog as a menu item, go to Website > Menu Items. Select the menu you want to add the blog to, then select the New plus sign. Under Select Menu Item Type, choose Community > Blog.
The blog on the front of your site displays entries in chronological order.