Industry guru Dave Taylor offers tech support on technical and business topics, including iPhone, iPod, Microsoft Windows, Sony PSP, cellphones, online advertising, CSS, Web design, business, Unix, Linux, SEO, Mac OS X, and shell script programming.     


How do I make my AOL "my journal" blog public?

Hi, first of all, can you make my blog public? Also, can you walk me through how to publish e-mail to my blog? Keep in mind, I do not know my blog's address. I can access it through 'my journal', please help me. Thanks, Kimi.


Dave's Answer:

You're writing from an America Online (AOL) address, so I'm going to assume that you're talking about the America Online service, Kimi. As you say, the first challenge with AOL is to find the My Journal section in the first place. I logged in - using the Mac software - and am trying to figure out where My Spaces is located.

Logically, I type in "My Journal" into the search box, just to find that AOL has taken me out of its site and shown me Web-wide results, the first of which is my-journal.com, which definitely isn't what we seek.

On the other hand, reading it a bit more closely reveals that the graphic at the top of the page isn't an advertisement, it's the following:

America Online (AOL) Journals

That looks promising. I click on Journals Help then Creating A Simple Journal and Announcing Your Journal. Here's what AOL has to say at this point:

When you click Next after assigning your Journal to a community, a second page of the Create a Journal form appears. This gives you the following choices:

• You can add your first entry.
• You can tell your friends about your Public Journal or add readers to your Private Journal.
• You can change your Journal's address (URL).

If you've created a Public Journal and you select the "Tell others about this Journal" check box, a new page opens. You can enter up to fifty AOL screen names, either manually or by selecting them from your address book. An e-mail is sent to each of them, announcing the name and location of your Journal. You can also add a the bottom section with a description or other information. This is included in the e-mail, which is sent when you click the Send button.

After your message has gone out, you'll receive confirmation within the Create a Journal form. Click OK to proceed to your Journal.

Note:Even though non-AOL members can read and comment on your Journal, you can't send the announcement e-mail to them. If you want to let them know about your Journal, you'll have to inform them on your own.

That should help you figure things out in terms of your public URL. Remember, you can always send yourself a notification of your new journal / blog and therefore figure out its public address too.

In terms of having email automatically turned into a posting, I don't believe that the AOL My Journal system supports that feature. I might be wrong, but there's no clue in the help system about how to accomplish this fairly advanced task, so I surmise you're stuck having to go to the online system and enter your messages by hand.

If you want to get a taste of the AOL My Journal system, you can also start with John Scalzi's By The Way... site. John is paid by AOL to blog, so he can also serve as an additional resource for you as you learn more about My Journal for yourself.

Good luck to you!


More Useful Blogs and Blogging Articles:
✔   Get my shopping cart plugin to work with WordPress?
We've put in a shopping cart for a client that's not working, and we need some help! The cart is currently using the...
✔   Embed an audio player on a blog or web page?
I have some mp3 audio files I've recorded and would like to have people who visit my site be able to listen to...
✔   Can I write a guest review for AskDaveTaylor.com?
Hi Dave. I'm a big fan of your site and love that you're doing so many reviews now. I've noticed, however, that there...
✔   Change author on WordPress blog post?
I have two accounts set up for my WordPress blog and I'd like to be able to have all my posts from a...
✔   How do I restructure my Wordpress blog without losing SEO?
I have a wordpress blog that was using categories in the url structure like this: /category_name/post_name/ Then I had read somewhere that if...

Let's stay in touch!
Sign up for my weekly AskDaveTaylor Newsletter and you'll receive even more tech and gadget help right to your inbox, along with exclusive news and industry updates. It's good stuff. I promise!
    Enter your name: and your email addr:  





Categorized: Blogs and Blogging   (Article 4230, Written by )
Tagged:
Previous: How do I copy a DVD onto my Sony PSP?
Next: Converting WMA to MP3 for iPod?




Reader Comments To Date: 4

tray viera said, on January 28, 2008 7:01 AM:

im a g whit it

tp1205 said, on March 31, 2008 3:27 PM:

ya i have on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jan said, on September 12, 2008 10:28 AM:

Hi,

Do you know of a way to arrange aol favorites in alphabetical order?

Thanks

Derek said, on February 2, 2009 8:56 AM:

Hello Dave,

I know AOL no longer hosts journals. I have been trying to import my journal to blogger.com My journal on AOL was always private, never public. I am told to make my journal public in order to transfer, but I can no longer log into my journal. Everytime I try to import it or use the directs links, the page does not exist.(http://www.blogger.com/AolToBlogger) I realize I should of done this by the deadline of Oct. 31st 2008 but is there anything I could do to retrieve them?
Thanks for any input.
Derek

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











I will never send you any unsolicited email. Ever.






Check This Out Too...

 
Look for Answers
Need Help? Ask Dave Taylor!


Follow Me on Pinterest

Find Me on Google+
ADT on G+
© 2002 - 2013 by Dave Taylor. All Rights Reserved.

Note: This web site is for the purpose of disseminating information for educational purposes, free of charge, for the benefit of all visitors. We take great care to provide quality information. However, we do not guarantee, and accept no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site. Further, please note that by submitting a question or comment you're agreeing to my terms of service, which are: you relinquish any subsequent rights of ownership to your material by submitting it on this site. My lawyer says "Thanks".
"Ask Dave Taylor®" is a registered trademark of Intuitive Systems, LLC.