District O Blogs FAQ

If you are a registered member of the Overstock.com Community, a blog has already been created for you within your persona. All you need to do is give it a name and start writing! To set up your blog, do the following:

1. Log in to your Community account at http://community.overstock.com. (You must be registered to create and add content.)
2. Navigate to your persona page by clicking your username in the upper right corner, then click the Blog tab. Until you have created your first post, you will see the following message displayed:

3. Click the 'Blog Settings' link to configure your blog.

4. Under the "About My Blog" heading, enter a 'Blog Title', 'Tagline' (an appropriate catch-phrase or description – this field is optional.) and upload a photo to represent it (also optional).
5. Under "Blog Preferences", decide how many blog entries to display at a time on your Blog home page, by selecting from the drop down menu
6. Decide whether or not other users can make public comments on your blog by selecting or unselecting the checkbox. (The checkbox defaults to selected.) If you leave the checkbox selected, you must decide whether or not comments must be approved by you before being visible to the public, by selecting the appropriate radio button next to "Comments must be approved?"
7. If you have enabled comment approval, when another member submits a comment, they will be shown "Thank You! Your comment is awaiting approval." You must log in, navigate to your blog, click "Approve Comments" and complete the approval before another user's comment will display on your blog post.
8. Under the "Blog Roll" heading, (optionally) enter the names and URL's of other blogs you would like to link to from your own. The name you indicate becomes the link to that blog. If you fill out the 'Name' field, you must also fill out the corresponding 'URL' field, and vice versa, otherwise your Blog Roll will not display or function correctly.
9. Click "Save" to save the changes you have made above. You will be returned to your Blog home page. You may return to change your blog settings at any time by clicking the "Blog Settings" link.

It's up to you, but it's always a good idea to "go with what you know". Some people use a blog to take a political stand, some to spread the good word about a particular product or artist they enjoy, while others just want to share and comment on their latest vacation photos in lieu of a slide show on the living room wall. No matter what your reasons for blogging, write about subjects that matter most to you. You have unique ideas, opinions and passions. This is your time to take those subjects, give them your own personal spin and shout them proudly from your desktop.

Once you have set up your blog, you can begin writing posts.

1. Log in and navigate to your blog home page. Click on "Write New Post".

2. Enter your post's Title.
3. (Optionally) Enter tags that describe the content of your post. Separate your tags with a comma.

Tip: To boost the visibility of your posts, it's a good idea to add as many relevant tags as appropriate to the material you're discussing. Having said that, be aware that using dozens of non-relevant tags ('tag spamming') for the sake of getting attention will only make you appear desperate and discourage readers from taking you seriously.

4. The post date defaults to today's date. You may change the date and time to a previous or future date by clicking the (image here) icon to select a date from the calendar, then determine the time of day for the post's timestamp by selecting the hour, minute and AM/PM from the drop down menus.
5. Enter the body of your post. The visual editor below the text box gives the following options for formatting text:

6. When you are finished composing your post, click 'Publish' to publish the entry to your blog. If you would like to finish it later, click 'Save Draft'. Upon clicking either option, you will be returned to your blog home page.

Newly published blog entries will show up as stubs on both the 'Home' tab and 'Blog' tab of your persona.

The first thing you'll want to do is distribute your new blog's address to your friends. The format is as follows:

http://overstock.com/community/yourusername/blog

If they like what you have to say, chances are they're going to share your blog with their friends as well.

The District O Community home page and the Blogs home page feature the most recent and most popular blog posts, with content updated several times an hour so that everyone who writes gets a chance to be seen on the front page. Aside from the fact that millions of shoppers visit Overstock.com on a regular basis, complete strangers from around the globe will be able to find your blog through Google search results, by browsing through our site's tags, or following links from other sites that have linked to your blog for relevancy.

The "View/Edit Posts" link on your blog's home page allows you to keep track of your drafts and published entries. When you first click on the link, the view defaults to the most recent entries at the top of the list. You can sort the list by all entries, drafts only, or published only and narrow them down to the last 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days. To change the sort, make your selections from the functions described above and click 'Refresh' to view the newly sorted entries.

Each entry shows the date/time it was saved as a draft or published, the title of the entry, and the ability to edit, view or delete the entry. (Drafts do not have the 'view' function available since they are not published.) If you choose to edit the entry, you have all the same options you did when you first composed it, including the ability to either save it as a draft again, or publish it.

It's always encouraging to receive feedback on your blog posts, however you do have the option to control the comments should you wish to. When you visit "Blog Settings", you'll see the option to turn comments on or off, as well as the option to screen them before they are made visible to other members.

1. Click on 'Blog Settings' and enable comment approval by selecting 'Yes' next to "Comments must be approved?" Save your changes.
2. Click on 'Approve Comments'. Whenever someone leaves a comment on one of your blog posts, they will remain here, in the approval queue until you decide to either approve or delete them.

Note that approved comments will be displayed in order or what time they were made by the user, regardless of what time or order in which they were approved.

Deleted comments: If you should find that one or more of the comments on your blog has been removed, they may have been reported by others as inappropriate and removed by the moderator.

Have you ever waited through a thirty minute newscast just to hear the weather forecast near the end? Or maybe you walked into your favorite bookstore with anticipation, only to find that the new releases of the week haven't yet been shelved for purchase. Chances are, there are several blogs or web sites which you consider to be favorites and visit often. Most likely, they're not updated every time you visit them, causing you to waste time by visiting them in vain.

RSS solves this problem by automatically notifying you, in one central place, when your favorite sites have been updated with new content. Accordingly, RSS lets the readers of your blog know you've made a new post, without effort on your part.

To take advantage of RSS, you must first subscribe to a reader. Some readers are web based, while others are downloaded to and run from your desktop. There are several options available, including free readers such as Google Reader or Bloglines.

Once you have a reader, you can subscribe to any RSS feed. Much like bookmarking your favorite sites, you simply click on the appropriate RSS link or icon on the site or blog you wish to follow, then copy and paste that URL into your reader. The link on our Blog site looks like this:

For someone who wishes to keep current with your Overstock.com blog or a specific post, they need only click the 'Subscribe via RSS' link (as shown above), located at the bottom of the post or the bottom right corner of your blog home page, then copy the code into their reader.

Provided the link is relevant to the subject you're blogging about and does not interfere with our Terms of Service, then yes, you may link to your personal web site or current auctions for sale on Overstock.com Auctions.

However, don't just slap an ad or link on your blog post and click Publish. Qualify your ad with some good content, giving the reader a reason to be interested in what you have to offer on your own web site. For example, you could present your post in relation to a favorable review of a product you currently offer for sale.

• Statistics show that keeping your headlines/titles short and to the point (fewer than 60 characters) is more effective at getting attention. You should also endeavor to keep your paragraphs lean, using a maximum of 6 or 7 sentences. Doing so improves the flow of the post and helps to keep the reader's attention. Bullet points and lists are effective at keeping your posts easier on the eyes.
• How To's and Top 5 or 10 lists have been shown to be successful in luring readers. (i.e. 'Top 10 DVD's for the Holidays')
• Write new posts often to keep your blog in circulation.
• Use several, relevant tags on your blog posts.
• Read and comment on other peoples' blogs, especially those who share your same interests and have already established a good reputation. Doing so encourages reciprocal participation.
• Maintain a blogroll, consisting of links from your blog to other successful blogs which are of interest to you and relevant to your own blog's content. This is another way of building a network of friends through reciprocal participation.
• Show passion and conviction, even if it's a bit controversial.
• Have patience; don't despair. It can take a while to build a network of readers. Most bloggers with large audiences have been blogging for at least a year. Remember, it's quality that counts, not quantity. In the end, your passion is what matters most, not the number of readers you acquire.

The District O Community staff will periodically choose blogs to be featured on the Blogs Home page as both a reward to the author and encouragement to other writers. To be considered for one of these coveted placements, simply put some good thought into your content, write frequently, show passion and adhere to the Community guidelines.

We're sorry, due to H.R. policies, Scooby Snack bribes can no longer be accepted.

If you should see any content that needs to be reviewed by our moderators, please click the appropriate "Report Abuse" link and give a brief explanation of why you are reporting it. If you are reporting content within a particular blog post, click the report link at the bottom of the post. If you are reporting a comment left on that blog post, click the report link adjacent to that comment.

Note: You must be logged in to report content, and a report issued is not a guarantee that any action will be taken for that content. Our moderators may have a different opinion of the content reported, based on context or as dictated by our Terms and Conditions.

1. Log in to your account from the home page of overstock.com.
2. Click on the tab titled "Account Settings".
3. Click either the "Change Password" link or the "Change Email Address" link in the left column.
4. After entering the new password or email address, click "Submit Changes". Note: Your information will be immediately updated for your shopping account, though it may take up to one hour for your new password/email address to be in effect on your Community account.

Please write to the site administrator using the contact form located here. Questions are answered within two business days.

If you should encounter an error message or problem with the functionality of the blog site and are unable to find a solution within the FAQ pages, please send a message with a detailed description using the contact form located here. We appreciate your help!

Yes. This feature allows you to take advantage of your creative juices now, by writing blog posts when it's convenient, then scheduling them to automatically publish later. It's great for keeping your blog in circulation while vacationing or to ensure you have fresh content in the event that you should experience a creative "dry spell".

While writing the blog post, in the 'Post Date' field, choose the appropriate date from the calendar, then select the time of day from the drop down menus. When you click 'Publish', your blog post will show on your list of recent entries, however it will not be visible to other members of the community until the date/time you have specified.

Note: Your scheduled posts will be published reflecting a timestamp of Mountain Standard Time.