WANTED: Writers, Reporters, Columnists, Experts, Satirists, Journalists
The greatest thing about Tallahassee Grapevine Online Magazine http://www.tallahasseegrapevine.com is it is written by YOU. There is no editor. There is no middle-man. You do not have to submit your article and hope it gets printed. You do not have to send your press release and pray it is published in time or at all. This is the wave of the future of information – Localized and Created by You and Your Neighbors.
Are you an expert at something? Ever wanted your own weekly column? Want to become a local celebrity? Do you have something to say? An Event to promote? Do you want people to actually read what you write?
A lot of people are writing blogs on Wordpress and other national blog sites. But then what? Who really reads them? Your blog on other larger sites are just a needle in a haystack. Do you want to be lost in a sea of articles, or actually read locally? They are more effective when introduced to a local audience. It gives it a sense of community. They say people connect more with the abandoned kitten outside their window than a starving child a thousand miles away… and it seems to be true.
We need you. We need you to write that weekly column about your high school sports team. We need you to post your upcoming events on the Event Calendar. We need you to write articles on your local organization that is helping the community. We need a local food critic, movie critic or arts critic. We need experts to write about health, diet, fitness and whatever else you are interested in. We need someone to write about gardening in Tallahassee or reporting on local interests. Think you are funny? Write a satirical column every week ranting about life in Tallahassee. The possibilities are endless.
In Other Words: This is YOUR Magazine. Use it.
That said, there are some rules: No Hate Speech, No Porn or Offensiveness. These will be deleted. Use your head – kids and grandmothers are going to be reading this stuff. Thanks. On the other side of the coin, The Grapevine is all for Free Speech – so please don't complain because someone's politics don't match yours, just write a civilized rebuttal.
Here are some hints: Write the article first. Edit it. Spell Check It. Have a friend proofread it. Make sure it is organized and not jumping all over the place. Stay on topic. Make the first few sentences Hook the audience. Do everything your English teacher used to tell you to do to get the A. You want to be taken seriously, right? No one will read your article if it is not semi-professional. Take the time to make it stand out.
Next, think up an interesting Headline / Title for it. Something that will make others that are not your mother want to read it.
Then, Copy and Paste it to the Blog Page. Of course, you can come back and edit it at any time.
Wham Bam! Holy Cow! You are Published! Give me a Fist Bump through the Screen!
For You Less Web Savvy Folks please read below. Once you do this once or twice, you will be an expert.
When you click CREATE A BLOG, a page appears with Fill in the Blanks. It is pretty self-explanatory. The body of the article is to be typed or pasted in. There is an editor at the top of this box so you can change your font, size, color, etc, just like in a word processing program like WORD.
ADDING HYPERLINKS:
Instead of typing out the link you can make the word or phrase into a link and the reader can click on the word and be taken to another page or site. In the body of the blog you are creating, HIGHLIGHT the word or phrase with your cursor. Then click on the icon above it of the Earth with a Chain Link in front of it. A box will appear – type or copy & paste the name of the appropriate web address (URL) that you want the reader to go to if they click that phrase. Hit submit and you are done. The words will turn blue, which lets the reader know these words are links.
ADDING PICTURES:
Make this more like a magazine article by adding photos after the appropriate paragraphs.
Make sure your cursor is flashing in the place in the body box you would like your picture to be. Click on the little green picture icon on the top bar (when you hover over it, it should say “Insert Quick Image”) Now a box should pop up. Make the box larger so you can see the whole thing.
In the top drop down box, choose IMAGE. Then below, click on CHOOSE FILE. Find the picture on your computer that you want in the article. Make sure it is sized correctly and is not too big for the blog.
Once you find it, double click on the image and its name will be in the box. Now click UPLOAD. This might take a minute as it uploads. Now find the name of the file on the list and click on it. Click OKAY on the bottom right side. Wah La! The picture is now on the blog. If it is huge, then hit backspace to delete it, resize the original and upload it again.
ADDING VIDEO:
(Stream from YouTube - which means the video has to first be uploaded to YouTube) Put your cursor in the place you want the video box to appear. In the dashboard above the box you will see a YOUTUBE logo on the right hand side. Click on it. Now Copy & Paste the YouTube URL (web address) for that video's page and Paste it in the URL line in that pop-up box. Click OK.
There will be an empty box on your page that says "Flash" all over it. Don't worry. Once you hit SUBMIT BLOG, the final blog will have the video. The videos do not start automatically, the reader has to click on it for it to begin. It does not link to the YouTube page to watch it, they can watch right here on your blog.
http://www.tallahasseegrapevine.com
