SiteBlog 2 adds several new features:

- Versions for blog-only, shared hosting and business hosting users
- Up to 5 blogs per account and up to 10 authors per blog
· Web-based admin panel
· Template customization
· Podcasting

Short for weblog, a blog is a frequently updated Web page usually maintained by one author whose "articles" are generally short, topical, chronological and often contain images and links to other blogs or Web sites of interest. Although the type of users that blog are as varied as those using the Internet, the large community of "bloggers" (or any person that blogs) is often collectively known as the "Blogosphere".

We are proud to introduce an easy-to-use blog tool exclusively for our customers -- SiteBlog 2.

Log in to SiteControl. In the main menu, click WEBSITE TOOLS and Manage Your Blog. Now click the ADD SiteBlog 2.0 button. Then, on the next screen, click the Blog Manager link. In the Blog Manager you can enter a name for your blog and click the Add Blog button. NOTE: If you are currently using SiteBlog 1.0, in SiteControl, you would click on Manage Your Blog, and click on the Upgrade to SiteBlog 2.0 today link. This action upgrades you to SiteBlog 2.0; it preserves your current blog content, but gives you access to the new features.

Domain Name-only accounts: In AccountManager, click Domain Name and then Manage Your Blog to access SiteBlog Starter.

The uses for SiteBlog 2 are limited only by your imagination. Blogs have been traditionally used as an online diary, but since its recent explosion in popularity bloggers have been writing about and discussing anything and everything.

You can use SiteBlog 2 to:

• Publish both your public and private thoughts and insights.
• Publish your creative works.
• Create a single topical point of interest (or portal) to share and discuss ideas and opinions with people of similar OR opposite perspectives. The topic (personal, political, local, national, international, technological, popular, esoteric) is entirely your choice.
• Maintain Web links to interesting sites or articles.
• Express your creativity by not only writing but also using images, colors, fonts and almost anything the Web offers.
• Create an active fan-site devoted to your favorite musician, actor, writer, athlete, whoever and share it other fans.
• Gather and present news.
• Provide updates and reviews on products.

You can use SiteBlog 2 for virtually anything you desire. So get started!

SiteBlog is available to Shared hosting, Advantage server and Domain Name-only plans. Email and SharePoint plans do not qualify for SiteBlog 2. For more information on our hosting and domain plans, please click here. If you wish to upgrade to a hosting plan, please do so in SiteControl.

SiteBlog 2 uses PHP and MySQL as its foundation. But you never have to work directly with either PHP or MySQL because the interface to SiteBlog 2 will do all the work for you. All you have to do is write and click!

Please do note, however, that SiteBlog 2 - through the use of PHP and MySQL - permits live-editing. This means that the changes you make to your blog articles are reflected immediately in your blog page. Unlike other blog tools, no FTP is necessary.

Commenting is the key component of blogs that enable discussions and facilitate interactions with people all over the Web. In essence, it's an instantaneous feedback mechanism. Upon publishing an article in your SiteBlog 2, you can allow (or disallow) visitors to comment on that article. You may respond to that comment and/or allow other visitors to comment on that comment thereby creating an online discussion for all visitors to see (and participate).

However, please note that anyone can write anything in their comments so some moderation may be required.

A comment-spam is just like email spam (aka unsolicited commercial message) except it's in your blog's comments section. Unfortunately, due to the open nature of the comment system it is possible for spammers to leave messages with links to their commercial sites under the guise of legitimate commenting.

Fortunately, SiteBlog 2 offers multiple means of filtering undesired comments - spam or not. In SiteBlog 2's adminstration panel, you can choose to approve all comments first, email you whenever anyone posts a comment, filter certain words, or even prevent visitors from specific IP addresses from posting comments. For instructions, please refer to the SiteBlog 2 Guide.

Please keep in mind that many legitimate commenters expect their comments to appear instantly. Many commenters may not wait for you to approve or may simply become confused when their comments don't appear and may repeat their comments. Furthermore, on an active blog, approving all comments may be very time consuming.

For more information on comment-spam, please visit our Mini-Tutorial section.

A permalink, or permanent link, is simply the full URL to a particular article. For example, if you post often and a visitor enjoyed an article from three days ago that he/she would like to reference again, then the visitor would have to scroll through your blog to find it. A permalink allows the visitor to bookmark that particular article and reference it directly.

You can find the permalink simply by clicking the article's title (and looking at the browser's URL address bar.)

In the Blogosphere, syndication is synonymous with subscription. It's a means by which a reader can "subscribe" to his/her favorite syndication-enabled blog page and be able to instantaneously view the titles of the most recent articles. By default, your blog is syndication-enabled and any visitor can subscribe to your blog "feed" using standard RSS protocol. Read more about RSS in the Advanced FAQs.

Many of the same methods for promoting your Web site can be used to promote your blog, but there are methods unique to the Blogosphere. Unless you are maintaining a commercial blog, the best method is to engage and support the blogging community itself.

Visit as many other blogs as possible (especially those with similar interests or personality) and leave comments in their blogs and in the blogs to which they link; they in return will often visit your blog and comment (especially if you use Trackback.) In addition to visiting other blogs, add links to them in your blog and soon you will have a network of interesting or similar blogs.

There are countless blogging organizations that either focus on a common trait/interest, topic or even geographic location. If it fits your interest, then join it and you'll have an instant network of fellow bloggers.

Set your blog to ping (or notify) Update Services (Changing Options > Writing), such as "http://weblogs.com", "http://blo.gs" and/or "http://technorati.com" each time you publish. These are sites that dynamically update a list of all the blogs that ping them, thereby giving you (and any other user) a directory of all the blogs that have recently published a new article.

Yes, your blog data will be included.