Guide for Bloggers
From Newscloud
NewsCloud is a great way for you to share your blog with readers in our community and to add more news-related materials to your own blog or Web site. For example, my NewsCloud journal displays headlines from my blog which in turn displays headlines from my NewsCloud journal. NewsCloud also automatically posts nightly summaries from my journal to my blog so I don't have to.
As a blogger, you may only want to write about one or two topics a day, but you might want to organize links to news stories about a number of topics each day. NewsCloud helps you make your blog more relevant by making it easy to organize news content for your blog.
NewsCloud is a great way to expand the reach of your audience. As NewsCloud readers see the stories you're selecting, they'll link from your Journal and personal bio to your own blog.
Of course, you can also post your own writing to NewsCloud as stories and opinion for the community to read and comment upon. If NewsCloud readers vote up your stories, your photo and bio will be featured on our cover page each day as a Top Poster.
We encourage bloggers to adopt NewsCloud sections or topics and regularly populate stories and moderate discussions in these areas. For example, if you have a blog about the Environment, post stories about Climate Change or Clean Energy with the tag Environment. Pose questions in your comments and get other people involved in talking about these issues. NewsCloud's primary sections include: International, U.S. News, Technology, Environment, Opinion, Science, Health, Sports, Arts, Entertainment, Spirituality and Oddities. But if you have another topic that you'd like to cover, just tag your posted stories with the topic e.g. psychology, cia+leak+case, dating+romance.
Here are a number of ways to integrate your blog with NewsCloud:
- Use the NewsCloud Bookmarklet to Post Stories Related to Your Blog
The NewsCloud Bookmarklet is a button on your browser bar that lets you add any story on the Web to NewsCloud as you browse. It's the easiest way to add stories to NewsCloud.
Just visit the Post a Story page at NewsCloud and drag the Save to NewsCloud button to your browser links bar. Be sure to sign up for NewsCloud first.
When you see a story on another news site that you'd like to submit to NewsCloud, just click the 'Save to NewsCloud' button on your browser bar to add it to our site. Any text you have selected will also be added to the comments field. You can also use the bookmarklet to add a post from your own blog to NewsCloud.
It's super easy and only takes seconds.
- Use NewsCloud to browse for stories from around the Web
The NewsCloud Browse for Stories page is a personalized online feed reader that lets you follow stories from your favorite news sites and blogs.
Add feeds related to the topics you blog about and keep up with breaking news. When you see stories you'd like to add to your journal and share with other readers, just click Post to NewsCloud.
- Upload Your Photo and Bio at NewsCloud
When readers see stories you posted, they'll want to learn more about you and your blog. Be sure to upload a real photo of yourself and a short 2-3 sentence bio about you on your NewsCloud Account page. You can include a link to your blog or your home page in your bio.
- Post any NewsCloud story to Your Blog
If you are a TypePad, WordPress, LiveJournal or Blogger user, NewsCloud can post stories from NewsCloud to your blog automatically. If you see a story on NewsCloud that you want to blog about, just click Blog This.
When you post your own stories, just click the checkbox at the bottom of the page for Post to your blog.
Be sure to set up your blog account information at NewsCloud first.
Note: If any of the following steps feel too complicated for you, please feel free to contact us. We have friends in the technology consulting community who are glad to help you customize your blog at a low rate.
- Put News Headlines from Your Journal on your blog
TypePad users can use our NewsCloud TypePad Widget to place headlines from our top feeds or your journal on your TypePad blog.
For non-TypePad users, we recommend using Feedburner.com's BuzzBoost feature for generating the Javascript (JSS) code for your blog or Web site. When you place the JSS code that BuzzBoost provides for you, your NewsCloud Journal headlines will appear on your own blog.
1) Register for a FeedBurner account
2) Burn your NewsCloud Journal feed. The URL for your journal feed is http://www.newscloud.com/rss/journal/your-newscloud-member-name
3) Visit the Publicize -> BuzzBoost page in your FeedBurner account to set up your BuzzBoost JSS. We usually display 7 headlines with no item content and include a link to our feed.
4) Add the JSS code from BuzzBoost to your Blog template. Your blog software should provide instructions for this. It should look much like the right column on the NewsCloud blog.
You can also choose to put JSS for any NewsCloud feed rather than your journal feed e.g. Top Stories or Breaking News. You can find a complete list of NewsCloud RSS Feeds and more details about this on our blog.
You can get an Overview of BuzzBoost or get more technical information here.
- Customize Your NewsCloud Journal Template to Look More Like Your Blog
NewsCloud Journals can be completely customized using HTML and CSS. You can even generate revenue by including ads on your Journal. If you are interested in this, we recommend you visit our Guide to Templates.
Visit Your Account -> Templates to setup your Journal with a custom template or create your own. Visit our Guide to Templates to learn more.
Here are some example templates which show what is possible:
Default NewsCloud Journal Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 Example 4 Example 5 Example 6 Example 7 Example 8 Example 9
If you would like for us to refer you to a design firm to help you with your custom templates, please email us.
- Display Recent Posts From Your Blog on Your NewsCloud Journal
Since many NewsCloud users will see your Journal, it's a good idea to display headlines from your blog on your Journal. NewsCloud makes it easy to do this. See the Guide to Templates for more information.
Be sure to set up your blog details in Your Account profile.
- Automatically Post Nightly News Summaries to Your Blog
NewsCloud's can autopost a summary of headlines and abstracts from your NewsCloud journal to your blog (WordPress, TypePad, LiveJournal or Blogger) each night.
Turn on autoposting here: Your Account->Blog Settings.
Have feedback or feature requests for us?
Contact us if you have suggestion for how we can make NewsCloud a better site for you and other bloggers.
