The following videos are designed to get you, as an editorial contributor on the Red County website, up to speed and publishing as quickly and efficiently as possible. Even if you are an experienced blogger, these brief videos will offer some tips and tricks... along with basic posting guidelines... that will make your experience exponentially better.

You can share these videos with your blogpen of contributors by sending them the following link: www.redcounty.com/howtopost.php.

There are four basic videos. The first outlines basic posting techniques. The second highlights why cutting and pasting your content from Microsoft Word is bad (PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO). The third outlines how to embed an image inside your posts. The fourth outlines how to embed a YouTube video.

I have decided to post links to the videos instead of embed them inside the post. Each link will take the user to a full size viewer that will be much easier to see.

More advanced video instructions will follow as demand and interest require.

Thank you in advance for taking a few minutes to watch the videos.


BASIC POSTING TECHNIQUES (Length: 3:18)

MICROSOFT WORD IS NOT YOUR FRIEND (Length: 5:00)

HOW TO PROPERLY EMBED AN IMAGE (Length: 3:00)

HOW TO EMBED A YOUTUBE VIDEO (Length: 2:54)

Part of last weekend's upgrade included the functionality to automatically create profile pages for each of our editors and contributors. The page will show an image of the author, their name, their bio, and a hyperlinked list of their Red County posts.

Each time an author's name is listed (whether on a post, on the homepage, or in the blogpen), it will be hyperlinked to his/her profile page. A sample of that page can be viewed here.

The goal is to raise the profile of each contributor and give them and their readers a single place to find their archive of articles.

You can update your bio by clicking EDIT YOUR PROFILE on the homepage of the Movable Type interface. Then type your bio in the box labeled BIO. There is not a word limit that I know of, but let's try to be somewhat brief.

Here are some screenshots:

There are currently 20 Red County blogs within our network. All posts to individual blogs also appear on the home page at www.redcounty.com. Additonal exposure can be generated for some of your more substantive posts posts by selecting "FEATURE" from your categories menu before publishing.

As a result of the natural crossposting functionality created by blogging within the network, there is no reason to crosspost from one Red County blog to another. Doing so creates an appearance of "duplicates" on the home page. 

Moving forward, please select which blog your post is best suited and use the FEATURE category if you feel it is worthy.

Please use the this link to upload your list of readers and media contacts. The names on the list will automatically be added to the distribution list for your local Red County website. You can also email me directly (mail@redcounty.com) any names you have and we will add them for you. Try to keep any email attachments you send me to less than 3MB.

We are proud to introduce Red County Global Affairs. The focus of this new site will be to provide right-of-center insight and analysis of international issues and events that influence and shape U.S. policy at home and abroad. 

Red County has selected Michael Johns as editor and he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position. Michael Johns is a health care executive, former U.S. federal government official and conservative policy analyst and writer. In his industry capacities, Michael has held executive management responsibilities in several components of the U.S. and global health care industry.

In addition to his extensive private sector career, Michael has served as a White House speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush, a senior aide to former New Jersey Governor and 9/11 Commission Chairman Tom Kean (R-NJ), and as a senior United States Senate aide to U.S. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Michael began his career as a foreign policy analyst at the Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Foundation and as an editor of the foundation's scholarly magazine, Policy Review.

Michael has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, National Review, CBS HealthWatch, Utne Reader, and other national media. He has appeared on PBS, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox Morning News, and other networks. He is the author of The U.S. and Africa Statistical Handbook (Heritage Foundation, 1990; second edition, 1991) and a contributing author to Freedom in the World: The Annual Guide to Political Rights and Civil Liberties (Freedom House, 1993) and Finding Our Roots, Facing Our Future: America in the 21st Century (Madison Books, 1997).  He also authors a widely-read conservative public policy blog: Michael Johns.

Michael is a graduate of the University of Miami, where he majored in economics and graduated with honors. He can be reached at:  michaeldjohns@gmail.com

The "News" category is part of a bug that reared its ugly head during the upgrade. Each site has a category called "News". It has to be there (until we resolve this little quirk). However, if you check the box "News" your post will not appear.

We know why this happens. This fix just requires staring a thousands of lines of HTML code. We will get to it as soon as is practical.