Blogging in 10 minutes on Minds.com
Quick and straightforward publishing
Minds.com is excellent space for writing and posting your own blog. The blog post stays on the internet and it is easy to share it with your friends and followers on other platforms. Minds users can comment and discuss under your blog post; you have option to promote and monetize your writing.
In three brief chapters I guide you step by step through (1) writing and posting, (2) editing, formatting, and including multimedia (3) getting more out of the blogging functionality. This blog is written for computer users; at present I cannot ascertain how it works on the tablet/phone.
There is also a brief guide to signing up to Minds.com.
Chapter 1: Write and post
A blog post is several paragraphs of text, with a title and a header image. You can also add images, video, links, etc., covered in further chapters below.
Start as if you were writing a regular post - in upper right corner, the "Speak your mind" button:
Continue with "Create Blog" button:
This brings you to the Blog view. Four familiar elements await you: "Upload Banner", "Title", "Speak your mind...", and "Publish". You'll typically use them in that order. For Banner image, I recommend using a free stock image site, for example https://unsplash.com.
Once you are done writing, redacting, and correcting your post, you go ahead with Publish. If need bee you'll be able to edit it in the future.
Congratulations, your blog post is published. Minds automatically posts a snippet of it on your timeline just as well. Now is great time to share the link with your friends and followers on other platforms - Gab, Twitter, Discord, etc.
The blogging on Minds.com has several additional options available - images, lists, formatting, links, etc.. We cover those briefly in Chapter 3 below.
Chapter 2: Editing, formatting, and including multimedia
Minds allows several options to make your Blog posts richer and valuable to your readers.
Add images in content: click the Enter key to move to the new paragraph, and you're presented with a (+) button to the left. Click the button, select Image icon, and continue with selecting a file. Optional: caption and alternative text; click on the image to add either.
Formatting of text helps guide readers quickly through the article. The common options are available: Bold, Italics, Underline, Strike-Out, Text Alignment. Click twice on a word, or click thrice on a whole paragraph. This pops up a small menu with formatting options. Alternatively, click-and-sweep mouse to select some text, this also pops up the menu.
Links to other documents, posts, articles, etc.; both on Minds and on other websites. This is done similar to formatting: select a word or passage that should link elsewhere, use the 🔗 link button from menu, and provide the address linked to. Example of a link to Minds.com blog post. Another example, this time link to a website outside of Minds.
YouTube Video can be added to a blog post easily: copy and paste the link (adders) of video into the content, and it is automatically replaced by the video itself.
Bullet Points and Tables are also available. Particularly valuable are Links - they let you connect to other documents in the usual way.
Headings are excellent way of organizing longer documents. Highlight a line of text (triple click) and select Heading 1 or Heading 2 or Heading 3. This document uses Heading 2 for its structure.
Chapter 3: Getting more out of Blogs
There's a small menu in upper right corner that allows you to set up visibility, licence, and NSFW warning. "Permaweb" is an innovative option from Minds, of making your blog posts durable through the Blockchain technology.
There are a couple options at the bottom left, for Tagging, Meta description (for internet search), and Monetization. Fill in with details to improve discoverability.
The Save Draft button at the bottom saves your blog post to your timeline, visible only to you. From your timeline you can enter your blog post, continue editing, and finally Publish it.
Lastly, you have option to Edit, or Delete, your blog post after publishing it. There is a small menu to the right, just under the blog post title.
To list all your blogposts, including the saved Drafts, go to your channel's feed and select "Blogs" from the "Type" selection:
Chapter 4: Blogging to share ideas and connect with people
The Prudentialist discusses importance blogging in his condensed, 10 minutes video: MMM #2 - Return of the Blogosphere!
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This concludes the short guide. If you found it useful, please share and thumbs up 👍
If you have questions or comments, please post them below, and I will try my best to answer, or perhaps even update this guide.
Banner photo by Adolfo Félix on Unsplash
My other guides:
- Inviting your friends to Minds and how to start
- Tokens - paying and getting paid in your virtual currency
- Tools, addons, and services for Minds.com