How To: Mobile Blogging

I can't count the times that I've been out and about and thought to
myself, "This would make a great blog post!" Whether it's being at
Best Buy and seeing a great sale on a smartphone accessory or just
getting some hands-on time with a new smartphone, I always tell
myself,"I need to remember to blog this." Of course, I then promptly
forget about it.

Luckily, smartphone users have another option for blogging that allows
for far more customization and capabilities than SMS - email blogging.
Using the steps below, you can get set-up in about five minutes to
quickly email blog posts to Blogger for instant posting. It's a great
tool, especially if you're away for the holidays but want to keep your
visitors caught up on the latest breaking news - either in an industry
or just what's going on during your vacation. The instructions below
will work for Blackberry and Windows Mobile users. iPhone users can
follow the same process, but to send photos you will have to do so via
the camera roll instead of just adding an attachment.

Quick note: You'll need to do these steps on your PC, but don't worry -
after that it's all mobile.

1. Go to your Blogger.com dashboard and select "Settings" for the blog
you want to email posts to.
2. In the Settings menu, click the "Emal" tab.
3. You should see a "Mail-to-blogger Address" section under the tab
4. Fill in the blank section of the address part. Blogger provides the
first part based on your username. This is like a password, so make it
hard to guess. The end result will look like this "Bloggerusername.Password@blogger.com
." Make sure to remember this address.
5. You'll want to also select "Publish email immediately" so you have
truly mobile posting.
6. Click "Save Settings."

Now it's time to setup your smartphone.

1. Access your contacts and go to the menu to add a new contact to
your phone.
2. Name the contact "Blog Post" or something that you will remember.
3. After adding the name, go to the section where you can add an email
address for this contact.
4. You'll want to enter the email address you created in Blogger a few
moments ago. This should look like this: Bloggerusername.Password@blogger.com
.
5. After you've entered the email, go ahead and save the contact to
your phone.

And that's all you have to do for the setup. Now when you email " Blog
Post" or whatever you chose to call it, the email will become your
blog post. Remember, the subject line becomes the headline for your
blog, and the body of the email becomes the body text for the post. You
can also send pictures as attachments, and they will post to the blog,
as well. Unfortunately, you don't have too much control over how the
picture posts, so you might have to do some touch-up work to its
placement if it's not quite where you want it.

I've posted this from my smartphone so you can have an idea for the
look and feel. Of course, if you have any questions, you can email me,
and I'll see what I can do to help. Feel free to post your examples in
our comments section.