Website Insight: Version 1.0

Creating Your SLO NightWriters' Profile

by Anthony V. Toscano

Designing and maintaining a website is in at least one way like manufacturing an automobile. The best Webmasters of The Universe hide the carburetor, battery and overhead cam underneath the hood.

I understand next to nothing about automobile engines. I don't know what a cam is, nor why one should want to hang above my head. I just want to admire the sleek lines of my Corvette Hyundai, tap one pedal to make it go, then tap the other pedal to make it stop in time for lunch at Tex Buffalino's Home-Style Ribs.

And using a website should be as easy as driving my car.

Easy Lesson #1:

Creating, modifying and controlling your Writer's Profile on our website is a valuable benefit of membership. You choose the kind of information you place inside your Profile, and you control who can see that information.

FIRST: Open the car door, and sit behind the steering wheel.

1. The first time you visit our website, you'll want to log in and create a password. Steer your mouse toward slonightwriters.org. There you are. You're home. That was easy, right?
2. Find the Login box (top, right-hand corner of the page). Key in your email address. Do NOT enter a password. Instead, click on the words "Forgot password." A message will be sent to your email address. The message will contain a link (a blue, geeky string of almost words). Click that geeky link. Follow it wherever it takes you. Soon you'll be asked to create your own password. Write down your password.

SECOND: Make your Corvette Hyundai reflect your personality.

1. Now that you have a password, you can log in to our website, and modify your Profile. This time, after you're logged in, click on the words inside the Login box that say, "View profile." Ease up on the gas pedal, and quicker than a Corvette Hyundai winds its way to Tex Buffalino's Home-Style Ribs you'll be taken to your Profile page. Consider this page as your palette, your calling card, your manuscript waiting to be written as only you can write it.
2. Key in your BIO (50 words or fewer is the norm, written in the third person). Upload a photo of your gorgeous face. Do you maintain a BLOG or an author's website? If so, you can list it here, so your fans can find you there. Tell us how you heard about SLO NightWriters by clicking on a button.
3. This step is important. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "SAVE" button.

THIRD: Rest assured. No one can see, or otherwise access, the information in your website Profile, not without your permission. Don't want people to see your email address? Lock that door. Prefer not to advertise your telephone number? No problem. Don't key in the number, or key it in and mark it private. Just like parking your Corvette Hyundai and hiding your valuables from view.

To adjust your settings, follow these steps in exact order:

1. Log in.
2. Click on the words "View profile."
3. Click on the button that says "Edit profile."
4. Click the word "Privacy" and adjust away. You'll see a pretty chart filled with more buttons that allow Anybody, Members, or No access.
5. This step is important. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the "SAVE" button.

Above all else, good friends, please remember that I'm here to help you. So if you have questions, you can reach me at webmaster@slonightwriters.org. Or come on down to Tex Buffalino's Home-Style Ribs and join me for lunch. I'm there most days, long about high noon.

Happy clicks to you, until we meet again.

For Version 2.0, that is, wherein we'll discuss how to include your published books on SLO NightWriters website.