It Worked!

My gadget in iGoogle got updated within a few minutes. Unfortunately I didn't get an email though so I think for anything really important or urgent club members should still get an email even if it's just one directing them to the blog. So how can people set it up so they know there is a new posting? Several options:

1. Don't do anything fancy but just be diligent in checking the blog twice a week.
or
2. Save the South City Masters blog as your homepage in your browser.
or
3. I use iGoogle as my homepage so things like news, weather etc automatically show every time I open my browser. It's a bit more fiddly to set up but isn't as hard as it looks and is worth it once you are done. You need a google account but we'll get to that.
Firstly, go to the blog (http://southcitymasters.blogspot.com), scroll to the bottom of the page and click where it says 'Posts (Atom)'. You will be taken to a new page. In the yellow box you are given a drop down menu with the default being Google. I suggest you stick with Google. You can choose another option but you are on your own instructions-wise. Hit 'subscribe now'. Now click 'Add to iGoogle Homepage'. If you have a Google account, use it; if you don't, then create one using your email address and a password of your choice.
Now, open Google in your browser. On the top right of the screen you will see a menu. Click on 'iGoogle'. Sign in using the email and password of your Google account. Bob's your uncle! You should see the South City Masters Gadget on the page with the 3 latest postings. Click on the + to read the post or the words 'South City Masters'  in the blue band to go straight to the blog.
You can rearrange iGoogle so your gadgets appear on the page where you want them (just drag them around), you can add and delete gadgets (Add Stuff link) so you can keep your eye on several blogs at once, Herald news etc, and of course you can set iGoogle as your homepage so you can have a quick squizz at things that are important to you every time you open your browser.

Phew! I think we are done now. That's pretty much it for the mock up.

Testing Testing

I've just subscribed to the posts using the 'subscribe' link at the bottom of this home page. I've set it up on my igoogle home page so this blog is on my homepage and I should get notified that there is a new post. Let's see what happens!

New Page - 'Members Corner'

Well I don't know what else holidays are for if they aren't for 'fiddling' and getting on with projects that have been sitting around for a while waiting for a bit of action. So I've just completed the last page which is 'Members Corner'. Click on the link and read the description to see what this page is about. Maybe it's surplus to requirements, maybe not, I'm certainly open to suggestions. I haven't posted anything there as a mock up to get it kick started but am keen to get my hands on Avy's chocolate brownie recipe (hint hint!) so maybe she could send that in.

We Are Designing A Blog - What Do You Think?

Well here I am on holiday and I'm just mucking around really with the design. What do you think? I'm open to suggestions. Do you even want a blog? The idea is to use this to keep club members up to date with club events and happenings and give members a place to post 'stuff' they would like to share with other members. So far I've added 2 pages - a technical page where all the swimming technique info should be posted and a gallery page where we can post photos of anything from swimming events to our snaps from our holiday in Ecuador. Do we want pages for different types of items or just post everything on the one page like most blogs do? Let me know. More soon. Just playing around for now.