How to use the Going Abroad blog

Why we want you to USE the blog The Going Abroad Blog is not only nice to look at, it can be a useful and powerful tool for YOU as a participant of the project. However, it can only be as good as the participants involvement – if nobody uses it, it will be useless – if you DO use it, it can support you and your business, and last but not least, your fellow participants. After all, we are all sitting in the same boat and want to improve our businesses. - Let yourself be inspired and inspire others - Get tips and help from other participants - Socialize with your international “colleagues” Going Abroad is an international project, and as you rarely meet the other participants face to face, the blog provides a platform for fruitful discussions, critique, your comments and questions. It is a little bit like the kitchen at an office, where colleagues chat with each other and share information – our “kitchen” it’s just online;) This means that if you have something interesting to say to your fellow participants – please share it with them on the blog: write a post, respond to someone else's post, share the link to an interesting homepage... Just ask yourself: Would you tell them about it if they were standing right next to you? If the answer is YES – please put it on the blog.

Examples for posts and blog entries The following examples are supposed to give you an idea of what you could post. However, this is NOT a limited list. You want to expand your tourism business to one of the other participating countries but you need tips for sightseeing there? Ask for tips on the blog – Participants who live in that region will surely be happy to help you! You read that there are new export regulations for the EU? Please post the link – there are many others in the project whose businesses are affected by that. You have added a new product to your selection? Post a picture of the product and tell the others about it- they might be the first ones to buy it or they can give you feedback. Your turnover has increased by 5% since you joined Going Abroad? – Please write a post and inspire other participants. You found a cheap supplier for wool and you know that other participants work with wool too – please post the link to the supplier’s homepage. Someone might know an even cheaper one or be very thankful for your money-saving tip ;) Your daughter showed you a speech about ”Gender Equality” on YouTube? This concerns EVERYBODY in the project – please share the video in a post. ANYTING that has a connection to the project and/or your business is gladly accepted – use your inspiration.

How to use the Going Abroad blog Here we want to explain in a few steps how you can become active on the Going Abroad Blog. Go to http://blog.goingabroad.nu/

Choose a language On the main page (Home) you can choose between English, German and Lithuanian in the top right corner of the screen. The content of the blog will then appear in the language you picked.

How to comment on a post Without logging in or registering, you can read all entries on the blog and respond to a post/ comment on an existing entry. Comment on a post If you want to comment on a post, click on “comments” below the headline of the post and the mask called “Leave a Reply” will appear.

Leave a Reply Fill in the required details – your name and – your e-mail Write your reply to an existing comment in the window under ”Comment”. In order to publish your comment, click on ”POST COMMENT”

Your response will then appear under the original entry

How to register on the blog However, we would like you to register on http://blog.goingabroad.nu/   If you are not registered, you can comment on existing posts, but you cannot create new ones. In order to register click on  Log in in the main menu. Now click on Register …

How to register on the blog …and the WORD PRESS - mask will appear. Under Username, you fill in the name of your choice – it will later appear under everything you write on the blog. Fill in your e-mail address in order to receive a password. Press ”Register” and a password will be sent to you via e-mail. Go to your e-mail account (hotmail, Gmail …) and open the e-mail.

Open the e-mail On your e-mail account, you will receive an e-mail with the subject ”WordPress [Going Abroad Blog] Your username and password” Open the e-mail, click on the link (it’s blue), and the mask that you see on the right will appear. Type in your Username and the Password you just received via e- mail and press ”LOG IN”

Change your password You are now logged in and the ”Note” in the red frame that you see below appears. Now you have the possibility to change your password to something simpler. In order to change it click on ”Yes, take me to my profile page” On the page that now appears you can (if you want) fill in some information about yourself – only people who are registered too can see this information. In the middle of the page you find ”NEW PASSWORD”, where you can change your password to a simpler one.

Log in with your username and password From now on, when you visit the blog, you just click on Log in in the main menu … … and then on the Log in button Fill in your username and your new password, press the blue Log In button and start posting  If you have logged in successfully, your name will appear on the top right corner of the screen

Once you have logged in, you get to this page called ”Dashboard” Once you have logged in, you get to this page called ”Dashboard”. From here you can quickly access the most used areas of your blog, like your posts and your profile …

Now you click on ”Going Abroad Blog” and you will get to the main page of the blog, that you already know as ”Home”. Here you see the latest posts.

Creating a post In order to create a new post, you scroll over +New at the top of the page and click on Post. The mask you see below will appear

Tags and Categories Both tags and categories are a method to organize your posts – which means it makes it easier for others to find them. Categories are used for a general grouping of post topics while tags are generally used to describe your post in more detail. Example: You grow organic vegetables and your post is a tip for others who work in the agricultural area – you found a new organic spray against bugs. - The category for this post could be Tips and Inspiration - The tags could be “anti-bugs”, “organic, “vegetables”, Don’t worry too much about your categories and tags, they only make it even easier to find your post.

Once you are finished with writing your post you press on ”Submit for review”. Your 1. entry will not be visible immediately, as it needs to be approved by one of the blog administrators. -We do this to ensure the quality of the content on the blog and that no “bad content” like advertisement or pornography can be published on the blog - Once your entry has been approved, it will be published on the blog and be visible for everybody. After your 1. entry has been approved, you will be “approved” as a blogger and from now on, when you are finished writing you klick on “publish” and your entry will appear immediately.

Posting for everybody In general, if you choose Lithuanian or German as your blog language and create a post – only people who also choose Lithuanian or German as their blog language will be able to read your post – even if it was written in English. If you want to share your post with everybody, please choose “Show content in: English” (2nd picture) when you are creating a post (1st picture). This way, your entry will appear as the latest post for everybody, regardless of which blog language they chose.