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Blog

The Blog page lets you publish news, updates, and devotionals to your church website. Posts appear in a card listing at /blog, at their own URL, and in an RSS feed that other tools (like Zapier) can watch for new posts.

Before You Begin

  • Complete the Initial Setup for your website
  • Add a navigation link to /blog from Managing Pages if you want visitors to find your blog from the menu

Accessing the Blog​

  1. In B1 Admin, open the Jump menu (the search bar at the top-left) and expand Website.
  2. Click Blog.
  3. The Blog page lists every post along with its state and publish date.

Adding a Post​

  1. Click Add Post in the top right corner.
  2. Enter a Title. A URL-friendly Web address (slug) is generated for you automatically as you type -- you can edit it directly if you want a different address.
  3. Add an Excerpt -- a short summary shown in the post listing, meta descriptions, and RSS feed. If you leave it blank, one is generated automatically from the start of your post content.
  4. Write the post body in the Content editor using Markdown. Click Preview to see how the formatted post will look.
  5. Choose a Category (pick an existing one or type a new one) and optional comma-separated Tags.
  6. Click Select Image to choose a photo from your Files gallery, or upload a new one. Uploaded photos open in a built-in crop tool locked to a 16:9 ratio, so you can frame any photo to fit the post header and listing cards.
  7. Set the Author -- it defaults to you, but you can search for and select any person in your database.
  8. Turn on Published when you are ready to make the post public. A Publish Date field appears, set to today; change it if you want a different date. Leave the switch on Draft to save the post as a draft.
  9. Click Save. A post needs a title and a web address that no other post uses.
tip

Set a Publish Date in the future to schedule a post. It stays hidden from visitors and shows a Scheduled chip in the Blog list until that date arrives.

Post States​

Each post in the list shows one of three states:

  • Draft -- Not published. Only visible in the admin.
  • Scheduled -- Published is on, but the publish date is in the future.
  • Published -- Live on your website and included in the RSS feed.

Editing, Previewing, and Deleting Posts​

  • Click Edit next to a post to make changes.
  • Click View on Site (shown on published posts) to open the live post on your website in a new tab.
  • Click Delete to permanently remove a post.

How Visitors See Your Blog​

Published posts appear at {yoursite}/blog, 10 per page with Older posts/Newer posts links to page through your archive, along with category chips that filter the list and each post's byline and photo. Tags render as clickable chips at the bottom of each post, letting visitors filter the list by tag the same way. Individual posts live at {yoursite}/blog/{slug} and end with a More in category section listing up to three other posts from the same category. See Blog in the B1.church guide for what visitors see. The blog page also publishes an RSS feed, auto-discoverable by feed readers and automation tools like Zapier.

Published posts can also appear in a News section on the Home screen of your church's app, if you turn it on -- see Home Screen Sections.

info

Blog posts are a separate content type from regular website pages -- they are not built in the page editor and do not appear in the Pages list. This keeps blog authoring fast and focused on writing.

Adding Comments Below Posts​

B1 doesn't host blog comments itself, but you can add a comments service. You can also put anything else below every post, like a newsletter signup or a giving button.

  1. Sign up with a comments service such as Hyvor Talk, FastComments, or Disqus and copy its embed code.
  2. On the Blog page, scroll to Below Every Post.
  3. Paste the embed code and click Save.

The code appears below the content of every published post. Your comments service handles moderation and spam filtering, so check its dashboard regularly.

tip

Clear the box and click Save to remove the code from every post. Only people who can edit church settings see this box.

Next Steps​