As many of you already know now, blogging is a huge part of MyChurch. We're not saying everyone has to do it.. (no pressure here), but it contributes greatly to how the community connects. It's a simple way to tell the story of your church together as well as encourage everyone else in their walks of life.

In case you are new to blogging, or have recently started and are still getting the hang of it, we thought we'd shed some light on best practices we've found for getting the most out of your MyChurch blogging experience.

Be a good samaritan with comment and stars!

Not getting any star love with your posts? Connect with other bloggers. The Blogs tab makes it easy to browse what's on people's mind and popular topics. They are making themselves transparent and real to the community. Be sure to leave an encouraging comment or a star letting them know you appreciate their post. Remember the feeling of getting a hand-written note in the mailbox? Well nothing makes a blogger's day like a simple comment or star.

Quick note on stars: It's also a simple way to show appreciation in case you don't have words to express a response. Did you find the blog wonderfully written, a blessing to you, good info on an important topic, or just something silly that made you smile? Then don't be shy: star it!

Formatting saves.

Meaning : Saves the reader from eye-strain, dizziness, and optometry bills. :)

Well-formatted blogs, with paragraphs, line breaks, and bigger fonts for sub-titles, (as well as blogs shorter than 5 paragraphs) are found to get more comments and stars and are generally more read than ones that are not.

Have fun with your blog.

We realize many of your already have the hang of this .. so we'll stop preaching to the choir on this one. :) But to further help with the "fun" element of blogging, we just released (drum-roll please):

Video Blogging!! To help usher in this new feature, we'd thought we'd chime in on the bunny conversation:

For some video sites like Youtube, you just need to cut and paste the url, and simply preview your blog. Other sites, you can embed the code.. give it a try!

Btw, we also revamped the look of your blog pages a little like with this 'Respond' toolbar (see below). We think it's yummy..Happy Friday er Saturday everyone!