Welcome to BlogHer, the blogging community for women! We invite you to join us to gain additional exposure for your blogs and your ideas (that's our mission) -- and you can even start your first blog here with us if you like. With more than 13,000 members and 10,000 blogs on our blog list, we're all working together to create a community that is fun, informative and supportive.

Here are 10 ways to jump-start your BlogHer.com experience :

• Register
• List Your Blog
• Create Your Profile
• Read and Talk Back
• Blog on BlogHer.com
• Subscribe to Newsletters and RSS
• Surf the Blog Directory
• Share Your Photos
• Dish about What's Hot
• Meet the Community

1) Register: When you register, you'll be able to list your blog, create your own BlogHer blog, and interact with contributing editors and community members.

2) List your blog: After you've registered, you'll want to list your blog(s) so it will appear in the BlogHer blog directory. Click the blue "Create a Post" button under the search button and click "List a Blog". Make sure to select topic(s) that your blog is really about. Once our editors review it, (hey, we have to be careful, we don't want to build SpamHer), your blog will appear in the "blogs" tag within the topic(s) you selected. (NOTE: If BlogHer's editors feel you've misfiled your blog, we'll change it.)

3) Create a profile and Introduce yourself: Now that you've registered and you've listed your blog(s), the next step is to create a profile. Click the "My Account" button underneath the search box. You'll be taken to your default profile, click one of the "edit" links to access the edit page. At the top of that page you'll see four links, "Account Settings", "Basic Profile", "BlogHer Conference Attendance" and "Public Profile". Fill out each section of your account. Pay particular attention to each section of your "Public Profile" since that's the profile that will be visible when people click your membername on BlogHer.com. You can even add the RSS feed for up to 10 social networks/blogs that you participate in. (NOTE: Basic Profile, Public Profile and Conference Attendance information is public so DO NOT enter personal information that you want to remain private.) Sorry to YELL, but it's so important that you know how to protect your privacy on BlogHer.com.

Now it's time to introduce yourself in the forums. (The link to find the forums is at the bottom of every BlogHer page.) Don't forget to include your blog in your post or in your signature. (FYI: There's a signature block feature within your account settings page. If you missed it, click "My Account" under the search box and scroll down to "signature". HTML is accepted in this box so you can pretty your signature up, if you like. )

4) Read blogs and talk back:

You can surf BlogHer blog content by checking out the home page or by clicking "All Topics" in the horizontal menu at the top of the page to expand our topics menu. The default page brings you blog posts written by BlogHer's Contributing Editors (often referred to as "CEs".) You'll notice links at the top of those pages - one for the "editor posts" and one that says "all posts" where you can find blog entries written by both BlogHer CEs and BlogHer community members. If you're interested in which posts have been read most often, look at the right column for the "Most Read" block.

We want to know what you think about the blog posts that you're reading, so please comment often. We provide comment notification via email on BlogHer to help encourage discussion within the comments.

5) Start blogging on BlogHer: Look at that search box again and click the blue button that says "Create a Post". On the next menu, select "Blog Entry" and start blogging! (Here's a link that provides tips for using the rich text editor, launched on 3/27/8.) Make sure to choose the appropriate topic in the drop down menu (for multiple topic selection, hold down the CTRL key and highlight additional topics as needed.)

When you publish your blog post, you'll be able to find it on the front page immediately, in the "All posts" link under the "What's Hot" feature. You'll also find it in the "All posts" link in the topic area(s) you selected. A link to your BlogHer blog will be included at the bottom of every post you write.

6) Subscribe: You can subscribe to newsletters that will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of what women bloggers are thinking and doing. If newsletters aren't your thing, we have RSS feeds for every area of BlogHer - from the front page to the forums. Just look for the little orange RSS icon.

7) Go surfing: Click Blog Directory in the top, horizontal navigation bar and you'll have thousands of fabulous blogs written by women at your fingertips. You can start surfing by topic or by alphabetical listing.

8) Share your photos:

The brand new photo header at the top of our page is driven by photos from the community and we'd love to include yours. We're looking for photos that show what BlogHer's community is up to -- yes BlogHer events, but also your life and events. Join the BlogHer Header Group on Flickr and share your photos with the group. Our editors will select new ones to feature several times a week.

9) Dish about What's Hot:

Check out this new BlogHer feature and jump in with your two cents. We want to hear exactly what you think. About ... everything -- and we mean it, check out our list of topics.

10) Meet the members of the BlogHer Community: Scroll down the page and in the far right column you'll see pictures pulled directly from profiles created by members of the BlogHer community. Instant fame for those who have added a photo or icon to their profiles. (You can add a photo or icon on the "Account settings" page of your account.)

Thanks for reading. We’d love to know what you think of BlogHer.com and how you’d like to be able to use it. Please come tell us in our forum, Using this site. Additional information about BlogHer and the BlogHer website can also be found in our FAQs.