How do I take part in Blog4CHD?

Taking part in Blog4CHD is easy and free, but first… What is it? Blog4CHD was created by Levi Beers in December 2009 out of the need of a central place for those in the CHD community to be able to share in Congenital Heart Defect Awareness & Advocacy efforts with each other, the general population and the medical community.

It is our hope to encompass the passion of many into a showcase of unity — The purpose is to compile a number of posts about everything CHD; warrior/angel stories, interviews, new congenital heart technologies, videos, CHD Projects, fundraisers, events and more. They will be distributed in a viral method using MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other Social Networks. We have developed Blog4CHD with the latest social media sharing tools and optimized search engine keywords so anyone can easily share your articles/posts on places like Digg, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace — actually — err — everything there is to share on. We’ve made sure of it

Let me give you some of the types of articles/posts we’d like to see:

- Interviews / Stories on CHD Families / Adults / Children
-> You MAY include contact information for the family IF they permit it.
- Your families story, updates, thoughts and/or feelings.
- New CHD Research (please include your take on the research as well as a link to follow)
- CHD Fundraising Events (this can be your event or one you found)
- Opinions about anything in the CHD community (medical options, the best hospitals, etc, etc)
- Tips on Hospital Visits / Surgeries (esp. since up & coming parents will be reading)

Register for an account!

If you do not have a Blog4CHD.com account you can easily get one by visiting http://www.blog4chd.com and clicking on “Register @ Blog4CHD” in the top right in the “login” area. You will be emailed a password, remember what you chose as your username. To login and post an article go to http://www.blog4chd.com, enter your username and password in the login area (top right) and click “Manage Your Posts”. From here you can post an article.

For tips on posting an article using WordPress, watch this video:

* Note * When you just signup you will not have the ability to post. We may send you an email to confirm that you are a real person and are not out to malaciously post or spam our site. You will receive an email from levibeers@gmail.com once we have updated your account to “Author” status.

Problems loggins in?

If you forget your password you can click “Lost password?”, enter your email address and you will be sent a new password. If you still have problems email me at levibeers@gmail.com with the email address you registered with and I will fix it for you.

Why post here if you have your own blog?

The article you post will appear on http://blog4chd.com – If you fill out your profile (Click “Your Profile” on the left side of the page when you login, you can fill out your own blog site in the website field, make sure to include http://myblog.wordpress.com or http://myblog.whatever.com as well as your name and a photo, that way when you post an article and someone views it, they will see your Author information and can visit your blog site. You can also fill out your Bio… An example of what is displayed can be viewed here: http://blog4chd.com/2010/01/18/congenital-heart-defects-silent-no-more/

Many CHD parents and soon to be CHD parents read Blog4CHD daily and share posts using our “Easy-2-Share” systems. This will bring a number of new visitors to your blog.

We’re also going to be doing feature stories / interviews of Families, Children and Adults affected by CHD as well as CHD Advocates, Organizations, Doctors and more. Feel free to take any of those on if you join, you don’t need permission from anyone (aside from the person(s) your interviewing or writing a story about).

But what if I’m not a good writer?

Don’t be afraid if you don’t know what to write, write from your own experience, what Congenital Heart Defect Awareness means to you, how you became aware of CHD’s, how they affect your life, what you’d like to see done whether it be more research, newborn screening, what matters to you. Or you could interview someone who’s family is affected by a CHD by asking them the same questions. The goal is to keep flooding articles about Congenital Heart Defects on the socialsphere.

What am I waiting for?!

So, register today! You’ll see the register link on our main page. I watch my email hourly so i’ll approve you and send you a small email with your confirmation.

I can’t wait to see all of your posts and remember, if you need assistance at any time just email me, levibeers@gmail.com. Let’s all work together to change the landscape of Congenital Heart Defects!