How to Blog on PFC

How to register to become a Level I Contributor on Passionforcinema.com

Please read the blogging and publishing policy before creating your account. link

Important: Your published content on PFC should be completely original and not prior published anywhere. Only publish content that has never be published elsewhere, not even your personal blog or website, or offline. Failing this key policy will result in your account being blocked permanently

Click on the “Login” link at the top right corner of any Passioforcinema.com page to arrive at the login-in screen. Registered users can login here and new users can register here. You may register here using your credentials from any of these websites: Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Google.com, yahoo.com, blogger.com, or wordpress.com. Or you may choose to create an independent profile by clicking the “sign in with a password” link at the bottom of the page.
Once registered you can always use the login link to enter your editing dashboard. This is the place you will always come to write your posts, save posts as drafts, publish your posts or edit posts.
Authentication: If you chose to login with a third-party profile, you will be redirected to the specified website where you must enter your username and password you use to login to that website. If you are already logged in to that website while you are trying to login to passionforcinema, you will be automatically logged in. If you chose to create an independent profile on passionforcinema.com your password will be emailed to the email address specified during registration. Please change your password immediately after your login for the first time.
Tip: You can choose to check the “Remember me” check box.
Click on the “profile” link on the left sidebar to edit your profile after the first time you sign in. Please enter your profile information, especially a brief bio of two to three sentences so you are more personable to readers. Please also change to a new password here. When you are done editing your profile, please click the “Update Profile” button at the bottom of the page to save changes before exiting the page.

I’m Registered. Now how do I post?

Fig 1

Once logged in, click on the “Posts” link on the left sidebar (Fig 1). This will open up the “Posts” menu; click on the “Add New” link under “Posts” to get started on a new post.
Type the title of your post in the long text box at the top of the page. Please ensure that the post’s title contains words that will help users search for content. For instance, if you write a post on The Godfather, please try to mention the word “Godfather” somewhere in your title. This way your post will be discovered easily, will be featured along with other relevant posts and eventually lead to more readers to your post. Having said that, let’s also be sensitive not to abuse the title by using popular words that are not very relevant to the post.
Please Note: Please keep post title brief in length, between 1-6 words is most desirable. Always enter your title in the title text box before you write your post.
Once you have a title (even if it is a working title) save the post as a draft by clicking the “Save Draft” button under the “Publish” section in the right bar.
Compose your post in the big text box in the center of your screen. Use the layout bar at the top of the text box as appropriate.

Composition & Content

The goal for PassionForCinema has always been to be an open place for original, passionate, and creative content on cinema.

By original content we mean, content that has never be published elsewhere, not even your personal blog or website, or offline.

Since PassionForCinema is a pretty open forum, most things go. So the following pointers are about the few no-nos on PFC and some key things to remember. Apologies, if it sounds too dictatorial.

If you have your own website and would like to publish content on PFC off it, please do not do so. To keep PFC’s content original we would advise you to first publish articles on PassionForCinema.com and then on your website with the first line of the article showing “Originally published on Passionforcinema.com” and a direct link to the article. Two line spaces should be left above and below the credit line.
Please never copy and paste an article from some other source. If you wish to refer to an article, please provide a link to the source, quote portions of the source, and opine on the article.
Please break down your post into paragraphs and keep your paragraph lengths between 3 and 7 sentences, if possible. Please leave a line break (blank line) between paragraphs.
It is mandatory to add at least 1 relevant image to your post.
To add images or video you can click the appropriate buttons to the right of the “Upload/Insert” section on the layout bar which is on top of your compose text box (Fig 2). All instructions, valid file types are mentioned on the dialog box that pops-up when you click on the button. To add videos from websites like youtube.com go to the URL tab on the dialog box that pops up when you click the video “Upload/Insert” button (Fig 3). Please make sure that your images are never more than 500 px in width.
Fig 2

Fig 3

After you are done composing the post there are a few important steps before you publish the post

Fig 4

Add Tags (”Post Tags” section on the right sidebar — Fig 4):
- Search engines like Google will fall in love with your post if they have enough relevant tags.
- Tags are used to indicate key items mentioned in the post, even if they are not central to the post. Be liberal with tags.
- When you are adding a tag such as “Ram G…” the text box will suggest the most popular tags that are similar to the one you are attempting to add. Chose the most accurate version.
- If you are adding artist names, use the full name and please check for the right spelling on imdb.com, same goes for movie titles.
- It is good to have about 5-10 tags per post.
Add Categories (”Categories” section on the right sidebar — Fig 4):
- Select Categories – as many as you think are suitable for your post. For instance, if you are writing a movie review select the category “Review”
- IMPORTANT: Please do not use the “Exclusive” category or the categories branched under “Exclusive”. These categories are meant for PassionForCinema’s exclusive authors.
- Please also do not use the “Qwiki” category.
Compose and edit your post for as long as you wish. Save your post from time to time by clicking the “Save Draft” button.

Submitting Your Post for Review

A post is not yet sent to the editor desk when you save the post.

Before you send your post to the editors, click the “Preview” button on the right sidebar to examine your post the way it will look on the website. Please take time to spell check your post, check that you have appropriately titled, tagged, and categorized your post.
Please make sure that the pictures you have added to the post are laid out to your liking and are not disturbing the layout of the rest of the page (such as overlapping or pushing out other parts of the page). Make sure the maximum width of any image is 500 pixels.
Submit your post for editorial consideration by clicking the “Submit for Review” button.
If you are a Level I Contributor, once you hit “Submit for Review” the post is sent to the editor desk where editors review it before putting it out on passionforcinema.com. Editors might take a few days to review Level I Contributor posts.

“Oops. I forgot something. Can I edit my post?“

Level I Contributors can edit their posts as long as the post is in the review stage.
To edit your post, login, go to the “Edit” link under the “Posts” section.
Here you will see a list of your posts. Rollover your cursor over the post you wish to edit and you will see an “Edit” link. Click on it and you will be able to edit your post.