FAQs - Blogs

• What is a blog?

• How do I submit my Blog for syndication on myLot?

• Are there any specific subject types for blogs that are recommended?Can I submit a blog that is not my own?

• Can I submit a blog that is not my own?

• What does it mean to "claim my blog"?

• Why do I need to claim my blog?

• How do I claim a blog?

• Why has my blog been denied by the myLot blog editors or why isn't it showing?

• What is a feed url?

• A blog is a website created by an individual or group of individuals in which entries are made in a journal type format and are displayed by date from most recent going to the oldest. The creator of a blog is commonly known as the "blog author".

• Blogs are used to provide opinions or news on any subject the blog author is interested. Subjects can include topics such as cooking, sports, politics, local news, and many others. Most blogs combine written text, related images, and links to other related blogs or web pages, and other media related to its topics.

• Most blogs are primarily written text although some focus on photographs, videos, or audio. The actual term "blog" is a shortening of the term weblog. The term "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

• With the increased popularity of blogs, many services have popped up for blogging. Most of these services are "Developer Hosted", which means software services for blogs that are operated by the developer and require no software installation for the blog author. In other words, these are websites where everyday internet users can go sign up and create a blog of their own. Examples of such services are Blog.com, Blogger, Live Journal, and Wordpress.com among many others.

• Simply go to the myLot blogs page and click on the "blogger tools" link on the left hand side of the page.

• If you have not yet added a blog, this will be the only option given to you.

• Follow the directions at the top of the page to add your blog to myLot.

• myLot encourages all subject types. A few types of blogs that we don't encourage are blog aggregators, extremely personal blogs, and adult content.

• Personal blogs are fine as long as they have good content that is appealing to a mass and/or newsworthy. Blogs where moms talk about what's happening with the family or most types of online diaries wouldn't be acceptable.

• A personal blog that would be acceptable would be one where a person documents their struggles with weight loss and gives tips on how they overcame those struggles.

• No, currently we only accept blog submissions from the blog owners. You can always contact the owner of the blog you want submitted to see if they would be interested in submitting it themselves.

• Claiming a blog creates a verifiable link between the myLot user and the blog owner. This is the only way we can verify that the person who submits the blog is the owner. If we cannot verify ownership, we cannot display the blog on myLot.

• Claiming your blog is one of the most important steps you must go through in order to syndicate your blog on myLot. The claiming process verifies that you own the blog you have submitted to myLot for syndication.

• You can write a new post in your blog that includes the link seen below to your myLot User Profile. You may delete this post after our spiders have seen it and marked it as "claimed", and not in progress in the "manage your blogs" section. The following are instructions on how to post a claim:

• In another web browser window, log into your Blog Platform account.

• Create a new post in your blogging software.

• Select the "edit HTML" button to switch to HTML mode if applicable.

• Copy the code below, then paste it into the body of your new post with any title.

• <a href=http://www.mylot.com/username/claim rel="me">myLot User Profile</a>

• Publish the post on your blog.

• Check to make sure your new post is live, then you're ready to proceed by clicking the "Claim Now" button.

• Or you can use the "Embedded Claim" method. You will need to be able to edit your blog homepage HTML or template and add a javascript to your blog. Follow the instructions below to claim your blog using this method:

• Add the following code to your blog's homepage template.

• <script type="text/javascript" src=http://blogs.mylot.com/claim/claim.js></script>

• Make sure this code is on your live website and then click the "Claim Now" button.

• There are many reasons that the editors don't approve blogs.

• The first thing to check is to see whether or not you have claimed your blog.

• Second, make sure you are the owner of the blog you have submitted.

• Other reasons for disapproval could be that your blog is too personal in nature or the formatting of your blog does not allow it to be displayed on myLot appropriately.

• myLot blog editors reserve the right to deny a blog for any reason they deem fit.

• A feed url is a url that is made available by a website or blog for other sites to use to display that website or blog's content. A feed url makes it easy for a blog author to give readers the ability to subscribe to their blog or place it somewhere on the web for others to see. The most common forms of feed urls are RSS, Atom, XML.

• myLot uses feed urls to display the content from thousands of blogs directly on myLot. myLot users can visit blogs that discuss variety of topics without ever leaving myLot.