XCRacer Guide to Blogging

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BY: Matt Sanwell

Published: 22nd October, 2013

Hello XCRacer blogger,

This is a short guide to explain the recent changes that we have made to www.xcracer.com and how to create all future blogs.

One of the main improvements we have made is to include the blog posts into the main article feed, which will enable maximum exposure. We have also made it possible to assign a post to an event if you are writing an event report - great for anyone trying to gather information from all angles on a particular event.

Finally for all you photographers, you now have the ability to add an image gallery to an article, where multiple images can be uploaded in one go. Captions can be also added to each image.

We have simplified the process of adding a post into a series of easy steps, here we will take you through each step - if anything is unclear, please don't hesitate to email with any questions.

OK, so when you have logged in and gone to your 'MY XCRACER' home page you will see the 'New Blog Article' button



1. Click this button and it will take you through the process of adding a blog post

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2. Type a suitable title for your article. It needs to be descriptive and contain a couple of keywords that are relevant to the article subject (eg the event name) as well as what makes your article different from all the other blog posts (eg the fact that this was your first go at 12 hour solo or that you won or crashed etc) :

Torq 1212 Event Report - A 12 Hour Solo Virgins Perspective

This will help sell the article to site visitors and is also good for search engines to index your article.

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3. Tag your article to an event. This is only relevant if you are writing an article about an event. When an article is tagged it will display on the calendar event page.

Just start typing the name of the event and it will show a list of event names with those characters, just choose the correct one and hit next. If your event is not there then it means the event is not in our calendar - if that's the case, please email us and we will add it so you can then tag it later.

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4. Main Image - this is the image that will be displayed when within a list of articles. - please only use LANDSCAPE images. Images should also be relevant to your article and of interest to the reader. If you are using someone else's image or photo, please ask for prior permission to use it and be sure to credit the creator/photographer. If you don't have any images, you can always add one later.

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5. Article Content. This is where you will write the main article, try and get in the habit of writing this directly in the browser, (you can save an unpublished article to work on later) If you do need to paste some text from word or an email, it's really important to use the Insert > Rich Text feature as this strips out all the style code that makes it look nasty. You can add images in the article content if you like, or you can just have text and then add the images as a gallery in the next step. Or if you are doing a photo report you may choose not to have any text at all.

Please remember that even though a blog is a written informal piece from your personal thoughts on an issue or event, your work is still going to be published on the internet, if you are criticising something, make sure it is constructive and please keep it clean - we keep the site 'U' rated for everyones benefit!

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6. Add an image gallery. You can upload multiple images at once and as many as you like. Obviously the more you upload the longer it will take, and if the are high res images you may want to start the upload and then go and make a sandwich. We are continually working on a better progress loader, as the current one is a tad intermittent depending on what browser you are using.

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7. Adding captions and alt text. It's good practice to include captions to your photos - either the rider name or a short story behind the photo. 'Image Alt Text' is a way of describing your images to a search engine You don't have to add the image alt text, but you can benefit from extra search engine based traffic if you do. You can also change the order of the images and delete unwanted ones. At the bottom of the image gallery editor there is a 'Publish' check box. It is checked by default, which means once the article is saved it will appear on the front end of the site, if you want to add more content or images later, just un-check this and it will be saved but not visible - you can of course publish an article later - when you do later publish the article you will need to update the publish date, otherwise it will use the initial created date.

Finally, all of us at xcracer.com value our bloggers as your work allows our reader to dig deeper into the world of mountain biking. It's great to read journalistic features on how the course was designed, who won the elite categories, or who's been picked as the next top rider, but it's the bloggers who give a real perspective on what goes on behind the scenes. We are so lucky to have such a great dedicated bunch, we love to hear about how training has to fit around children, jobs, being broke, bad planning and injuries - it makes it all real and inspires everyone to give racing a go no matter what life throws at them. Keep up the great work and please don't ever hesitate to contact us should you have any questions or comments on the new system (or xcracer.com in general!).

Happy riding,

The XCRacer.com team x