1) While logged-in, select Profile next to your login status display.

Note: If you are not a logged-in portal user, you will not be able to customize the Feed Panels on the home page.

2) Select the Feed Panel Settings tab.

3) Enter a new Panel Title and click the Add Button.

4) Make sure the newly added panel is selected. The selected panel will be highlighted.

5) Under the RSS Feeds section, enter the URL for the RSS Feed you want to add.

Click “add” next to the URL line to make it stick and to open a new line.

Note: Adding more than one feed will add Tab Controls to the feed panel with each feed under a separate tab. In this case, you will want to have a Name for the feed. “Name” is what will show in the tab.

When finished adding feeds, click the Save Panel button in the footer of the Edit Panel.

Warning: If you forget to Save the Panel, your newly added feeds and setting changes will be lost.

When you Save your Panel, you will see a Panel Preview towards the bottom of the page. This is how it will appear on the Portal Home Page. Adjust the panel settings as needed and Save Panel to view your changes.

6) Reposition your feed panels by dragging and dropping the panel icon.  This determines the order the panels appear on the Portal Home page.

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RSS is a great way to link to blog content with a feed reader such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Reader, MyYahoo, NetNewsWire, SharpReader, or even the customizable feed panels on the MyCopper portal home page. 

Definition: RSS means “Really Simple Syndication”

Setting up Microsoft Outlook to receive RSS feeds:

1) Select menu item Tools > Account Options…

2) Select the RSS Feeds tab. Click New…

3) Enter the URL for the blog feed you want to receive. Click the Add button.

4) In the RSS Feed Options screen, the Feed Name should auto-populate with information Outlook receives when it connects to the feed. You can change the Feed Name if you desire. This will be the name of the feed folder under the Outlook directory: Mail Folders > RSS Feeds.

Click the OK button.

Setting up Google Reader to receive feeds:

1) Log in to Google Reader  with your Google account or select Create an Account. You can log in using your Gmail account if you have one.

2) Click Add a Subscription and enter the RSS feed URL in the textbox and click Add.

Note: Further help can be found at http://www.google.com/support/reader/?hl=en.

See CopperBlog article “Customizing your MyCopper Feed Panel”

Note: When adding the URL for an RSS feed, be sure you are viewing the XML document. Your browser will recognize this as a feed and display a yellow feed panel at the top of the page. MyCopper blog feeds will end with “?feed=rss2” example:http://www.mycopper.net/blogs/CopperBlog/?feed=rss2.

Ping Services, also known as Update Services, are a way for you to let other people know when you have updated your blog. Each time you submit a blog post, MyCopper will submit a notification to any of the Ping Services listed in this interface. This can help your search engine ranking by having multiple sites referencing your blog. People browsing a Ping Service site like Technorati or Sphere will be able to find your most recent blog posts.

To add a Ping Service, simply enter the service URL in the text box and click “Add Service”. Once added, a ping service can be updated or deleted.

Note: Each Ping Service will need to be added individually.

There are many Ping Services available. Here is a list of some of the most common or widely used XML-RPC Ping Services:

http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping

Step by step instructions on getting your blog activated.

1) Log in to portal.

Note: Only portal members can create a blog.

2) Click on the My Blog link in the Site Navigation Bar.

Unless you already activated the blog for your account, you will see a textbox requesting a URL-friendly name for your blog.  Some blog services such as WordPress call this URL-friendly name a “Slug”. This URL-fiendly name is used as part of the URL address for your blog. 

Note: The URL-friendly name cannot have any spaces. Spaces will be replaced with a hyphen if submitted.

Example: The name “Copper Blog” (with a space) will result in the URL-friendly name “Copper-Blog” and the URL for this blog would be http://www.mycopper.net/blogs/Copper-Blog

The URL-friendly name can be changed on the following screen or any time after your blog has been created.

Warning: changing your URL-friendly name at a later time once your blog has been established may result in broken links  to your blog and will compromise any search engine rankings for your posts.

3) You should now be at the Blog Settings tab of your account profile.

Note: This can be accessed any time by selecting Profile. When you hover over your account name in the Site Navigation Bar, select the Blog Settings tab.

Default values for your blog’s details have already been filled in for you. To begin blogging right away, you can click the Save Settings button or make any needed changes and then click the Save Settings button.

The following is a description of the settings that can be modified:

4) That's it! View your blog and begin blogging.

Once your settings are saved, you can view your blog by selecting the hyperlink of your blog. This is shown after the Save Settings button or at the top of the settings fields labeled Blog: [URL-friendly name].