New Users Guide

Firstly we would like to start by welcoming you to Its Round And Its White, we are confident that you will enjoy your time here and we can assure you that we will do everything in our power to assist you in any way.

We assume that have already registered, read the rules and that you are here to read and/or write articles. This guide will show you exactly how and more.

1. Create a Profile

This is going to be the place people come if they like your writing, take some time to fully edit your profile and include all the information you feel is relevant. Add your twitter and include your website in the About You section, if you have one. Change your avatar too, nobody trusts a faceless persona.

2. Reading

This is the easiest and possibly the most enjoyable aspect of Its Round And Its White, we really do get some great articles on the site and it is up to you not to miss them. We take the initiative to include some of the best/important writing on the home page within the featured articles app but there isn’t room for it all. Articles are published on the homepage in the order that they are submitted (most recent), so if you are looking for something in particular you can use the search box (located on the right) or using the tabs menu (located at the top) where you can click certain leagues, clubs or special features and you will see only the filtered articles that are related to what you have chosen. These too will be displayed in the order of most recent.

3. Writing

We strongly recommend that you use Microsoft Office Word to write your article, this will ensure that there are no spelling or grammatical issues within your writing. You should use our Writer Guidelines to help improve your writing, this will also ensure that your writing matches our requirements. You should read this announcement too.

Now you have written your article, it’s time to insert the headline, add a picture, categorize your article, pick some tags and add submit it to the site for approval. Below is a step-by-step on exactly how to do so:-

1. Add a New Post – Homepage > Dashboard > New Post.

2. Don’t just Copy & Paste your article direct from Microsoft Office Word, you need to make sure that you review the spacing as it sometimes changes unexpectedly. Switch to the HTML tab located on the right above the text box, this will ensure the font doesn’t change. Also, don’t forget to include a headline.

3. Choose the relevant categories, tags and insert at least one picture. *See Adding an Image below for more details.

4. Submit the article for Review. Now wait, we aim to have all articles approved within 24 hours.

4. Adding an Image

Use the small image of a picture located next to Upload/Insert (above) to include a picture. If you own the rights to the picture you wish to upload then by all means use the Select Files button (below) to chose the image from your computer, give the image a suitable title (and caption if necessary), centre the image, make it full size (if it fits) and then choose Insert Into Post to finish. Owning the rights basically means that you took the picture yourself.

If you are not lucky enough to have a photograph you have taken yourself, do not to worry. You can use the Advanced Google Image Search below to find your pictures, (ideally select the aspect ratio as wide and the size as medium or large) and then the Usage Rights as Only images labelled for reuse (below). However, this method differs slightly, DO NOT upload the image to the site, see below for details on how to insert an image using a URL (website address).

To insert an image from a URL is extremely simple, all you need to do is find the image you desire using the method above, copy and paste the URL (website address) into the Image URL box. Give the image a title using the Image Title box, keep is simple. Position the image, if the image is on the small side it is probably best either to the left of the right, if it is large then centre it. Fill in any of the other boxes if you feel the need, click the Insert into Post button and your done.

Alternatively, we are currently in the process of building an image stock library for our users. Adding one of these images is very similar to the method shown above except you need to click ‘Media Library’ instead of From Computer or From URL. Use the search box to find whatever it is you are looking for but please note, the library is currently under construction so you may not always find what you are looking for. If you would like to help, we want your football photography, for more information please check out our Football Photography page.

5. Promote Your Work

Let your friends, family and followers know about your writing, promote the article using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. This will ensure that even more people see your writing skills and it will help you to gain a following. Always include a link to your article, you can use certain websites such as bitly.com to shorten the link. Use hash tags (#) on twitter to ensure people can find what they are looking for, so if you write an article about Blackburn Rovers being relegated under Steven Kean as we have above, an example of how you could post it can be seen below:-