You can view all of the main page
and the My Pages of Members, their
blogs, photos, and videos and all the videos, upcoming events that lists upcoming events and shows, the times tables, etc.

BUT IF YOU WANT TO INTERACT WITH OTHERS OR HAVE YOUR OWN PAGE, PICTURES, BLOG, VIDEOS,ETC YOU NEED TO JOIN,
WHICH IS FREE.



There are 2 types of instructions below.

(1) The first are written instructions, broken down into a few sections that will give you what you need to get started. Particularly how to create your  Own My Page, set up your  blog, add photos, videos, and arrange the elements of your My Page so that you can best reflect who you are and what you are interested in, and this can include items you have for sale or services you offer. We suggest you copy these instructions to a word file and print them out from there.

(2) And after there are 12-14 graphics that will also help clarify how to use the site. Many people will just need the instructions, but if you are having some difficulty you may want may want to look at the graphic representations.

FIRST, HERE ARE THE WRITTEN INSTRUCTIONS.

A. Signing In and Choosing Settings ( takes about 10-20 minutes)

1. Sign Into the Site on the right hand or left hand side of the page
2. Click on “Settings
3. Profile  - You will be on Profile – Upload a picture of yourself or something that represents you. You don’t want to have just that gray silhouette.
4. Click on Privacy – choose your initial privacy settings – everything can be changed, choose your initial settings for visibility and moderation
5. Click on Email – pick your initial settings - everything can be changed
6. Click on My Page – put your cursor on and click Appearance and pick your color scheme or leave as is, or choose a different style for your page, and upload some type of picture so you are just not that gray silhouette
7. Click on Connections – if you Twitter – you may want to connect your Page To Twitter

B. Enriching You’re My Page ( Takes about an hour or more depending on what you want)

NOTE; AFTER YOU ADD THINGS OR MAKE CHANGES YOU WILL ALSO NEED TO CLICK ON SAVE IN ORDER TO SAVE WHAT YOU HAVEADDED

1. Click on My Page at the Navigation Bar at the top
That will take you to your own My Page and then follow the following instructions.
You should tell a bit about yourself for several reasons. For one, this community can be a great way for you to meet like minded people, form collaborations, find resources, new friends,, network etc, so if you are just a name and a gray silhouette you really aren’t opening a door for friendly connections, and may even appear a bit scary. It’s pretty easy to flush out a My Page that represents you, by doing a few simple things.

1. Add a picture of yourself or something that represents you, by going back to the settings we talked about above, and add a picture of you, or something that represents you, by uploading it from your computer.

2. If you want, you can add a blog now or later. From the navigation bar across the top OF ANY PAGE, click on blogs, and then click on add a blog, and type in a paragraph or two telling people about yourself. ( You can also paste it in from other sources such as a word file, web page, etc) Then click publish and it will be added to YOUR MY PAGE. Anytime you want to add a blog, just follow these same steps. You don't NEED to have a blog but it is available.

3. If you want, you can add some pictures by going to photos and uploading pictures. Go to photos in the Navigation bar on any page, click on add, and add a photo from your computer..  When you do this, there are 2 other things you should do. You should add a tag to each photo, that includes at least your last name. You can add other descriptors such as a title for those particular group of photos (Cape Cod, New Year’s, Winterton,), date, etc. Just put a comma between each set of descriptors. Second, we recommend putting groups of photos into Albums. This is easy to do, by just clicking on Photos in the Navigation bar, then clicking on my albums and clicking on Add an album. You can also put in a description of what that album is about, etc

4. You can also add other videos or your own videos. If it is a video already posted somewhere else, just click on the videos navigation tab, copy the code from where you have found it, and paste it into the empty box under videos.
If it is your own video, the best way to do this is add it to YOU TUBE and then download them to your My Page in the same way you added photos. Suggested length of videos is no more than 10 minutes and one to four minute videos are suggested, given people’s attention span.

5. Last, you can arrange your page, and even change its appearance, and colors. You can drag and arrange the items on you’re My Page, by putting your cursor on the Heading of the Blog, Videos, Photos, Profile, etc, Cross Arrows will appear and you can drag it to where you want it. You can also change the appearance of your page, there are several style variations and many colors you can choose by clicking on settings in the box in the right hand corner of the main page, and then clicking on My Page, then click on appearance
.
CONNECT WITH PEOPLE FOR FRIENDSHIPS, NETWORKING, COLLABORATION, ETC

You are in control of who you want to connect with, and you start that connection by asking someone you want to be a friend with by clicking on the Ask to Be A Friend message under their picture on their My Page, which you can get to in several ways. For example, by clicking on their picture in Latest activities , or by clicking on Members in the navigation bar and finding them there, clicking on their name or picture there and then clicking on Add as a Friend which is under their picture. From then on you can email them privately by clicking on the Send a Message under their picture.

Once they accept your friend connection , you will be able to send them a private message, and they will be able to communicate privately with you.

INVITING NEW PEOPLE AND FRIENDS TO JOIN CNYARTISTS.COM

You can also easily invite other people you know to join our CNY Artists community. Just go to Invite in the navigation bar at the top of any page and click on invite. When they join, you’ll still have to invite them to be friends on the site, because that step is always necessary so you can choose who you want to be able to send private messages to on the site, choose collaborators on the site, etc

SENDING US FUTURE EVENT NOTICES FOR FREE LISTING IN OUR TIMES TABLE

You can send information about upcoming events by adding the information and pictures at the Add An Event area on the Main Page. A senior editor will take that information, add the event to our times table, and selected events are chosen to be added to the center feature column. Senior editors may also pick items for the weekly Art Blast 

BECOMING A STRINGER, CORRESPONDENT, CONTRIBUTOR, ETC

If you are an aspiring writer, photographer, videographer, etc we are opening the door to you and giving you an opportunity to become published on the site. Go out and cover an event, put the pictures in an album and then add the words under each picture OR mix pictures and write up in a blog. You can do either of these by following either of the 2 methods described earlier here. Or go out and shoot some video and make it presentable and as long as it meets some level of quality we will put it on the site. If questions on any of this, call Peter at (315) 391-5115. ( This is part of our desire to open up New Opportunities for you and others. It’s an open roll call, a situation where you and your work won’t be turned down as long as it meets some level of quality. It’s an open opportunity, and only you can stand in your own way, because we are opening up the door of opportunity for all creators.)

Or, if you have something you want to write about, and your knowledgeable about that subject, and have the dependability and the ability to expound on that topic, we may even give you your own consistent column.

The following screencasts may help if you need more of a graphic representation.

 SCREENCASTS TUTORIAL -In addition to the TUTORIALS take a look at the following SCREEN CASTS for graphic representations

The following are 14 screen casts which will help orient you as to how to Join the CNYArtists.com site; an overview of the navigation buttons, the content on the main page, and how to construct your own “My Page, where you can put words, pictures, videos that let people know about who you are and what you are interested in, etc. You will also find some links to video presentations, and some print tools. Using all 3 will quickly bring you up to understanding how to use the CNYArtists Interactive Community Site. Get Connected, Reap the Benefits.

1. Signing Up On the site http://screencast.com/t/MmM4NjlmOGM

2. Filling Out the membership application – user name, town you live in, what you are interested in, email and telephone numbers are optional http://screencast.com/t/MGMzM2Ez

3. Now choose settings for Privacy, email, connections, etc http://screencast.com/t/NmU5NjNmO

4. Profile Page - here's where you tell a bit about who you are, choose a user name, tell what you are interested in, etc http://screencast.com/t/ZWJhMmM3YmM

5. Choose privacy, who can see you profile, just members, just friends, anyone Also who can see your pictures, video, blog just you, just friends, everyone. http://screencast.com/t/YzFiNGM2MDI

6. Choose email and communication selections - when do you want to be notified and of what http://screencast.com/t/Y2NmYmQ3

7. Some other changes to your MY Page http://screencast.com/t/M2QzNjg1OWYt

8 Choose Connections - Choose to Twitter ? http://screencast.com/t/ZGU0ODk4NGEt

9. Note the navigation bar across the top http://screencast.com/t/ODE1ZTMwNW

10. Note some of the areas in the left column http://screencast.com/t/ZTI5YWRmN

11. Note more content areas in left column http://screencast.com/t/OGE1ZGE2

12. More content in left column http://screencast.com/t/OTUyNTVmZjkt

13. Setting up you’re My Page is easy http://screencast.com/t/NjYwYzIz

14. Sign Out and Signing Back In http://screencast.com/t/Y2RmNmU2Y