We have replaced this News Blog with the New Extrapounds Support Group.
This follows the launch of this brand new feature last week. Extrapounds Support Groups are designed to be shared spaces where you and other EP members can join together to talk about issues that interest you and help motivate each other on your weight loss journeys.
We've paved the way with our very own Support Group which everyone is welcome to join. The new Extrapounds Support Group replaces this blog page and is now where you will find all the latest EP News. Feel free to take a look and post your comments and feedback in our group's Forum. Extrapounds Support Group
Find a Group that Interest You You can either make a specific search or just browse the existing groups by visiting this page Browse/Search GroupsOnce you've found a group you like you can become a member. Click here to read how.
Start your Own Support Group If you are a Gold Member you too can start your very own group. Visit the new Support Groups area from your Administration Panel and click the ´Create your own group' button to get started. It's so easy you'll have built your custom group in minutes :)
We hope that you’ll get great enjoyment from usingExtrapounds Support Groups and that they are a useful aid in your weight loss journey.
You can now personalize your blog design using the Extrapounds.com blog design wizard. This interface lets you make changes to every aspect of the design and is very easy to use! For example to add an image, simply enter the URL of the image and decide where on the blog you want it to appear - that's all! You can also see the changes being made to a sample as you make them.
With the help of the editor you can now select and change the following:
The background color
The background image and the position of this image
The color of the main text boxes and the width, style and color of their borders
The color, font, position, style, and size of:
-the post lettering
-the dates and links text
-the information boxes text
-the blog headers
Try it out! In just a couple of minutes you can have a totally individual design!
Click on the `personalize your blog´ button in the blog section of your account, followed by the blue `blog design wizard button´. You then choose which format you want to modify – one has the profile section on the left, the other on the right. You can then play with the sliders and select different colors etc.. until you are happy with your design.
As some of you may have already noticed, the website is now a little wider - unlike the members!
When analyzing the website statistics we have seen that the large majority of you have screen resolutions that allow for a wider website format/layout. So we are widening the website and the blogs in order to make the most of the space available. This means the design looks tidier and is easier to navegate, we can add more things and requires less scrolling down the page!
Just to let you know that we are making some changes to the width of blogs, and during this process there may be some titles on your blog that are not aligned correctly. Please be patient while we correct this.
Welcome to Sara, our new extrapounds eliminator to be featured on the homepage!! Congratulations on reaching your goal!! (Watch this space, Alexia is coming soon!)
Today we have also added an exciting new tool and improved an existing feature!
Buttons
Listen up Deservebetter! Your buttons are here! In the blog section you will now find a selection of 8 different buttons, 4 large and 4 small! Use these in your websites, other blogs and forums by clicking on the button you want and copying the HTML source code that appears in the box. Then paste this to the location where you want it to appear!
Choose your tune!
You can now add the music of your choice with an MP3 from the internet. Simply visit the blog section and enter the URL of the MP3. This will then be played on your blog.
Please note you will be the only one responsible for the content of your blog. It must not infringe any relevant copyright laws.
Are you curious to know who and when people are reading your weight loss thoughts? If you have a gold membership then you can now see who were the last 20 people that visited your blog and the time and date they dropped by. You can then click on a direct link to their blog to return the visit and see how they are doing. This option is available in the community section of your account administration page.
Use more than one language and different characters for post titles !?=$&/
The type of characters that you can use in the post titles has now been extended and you can write them in any language and use ! and ? for example.
Write more when you contact someone
Previously the contact me form on the blogs had a limit of approximately 200 characters, perhaps a bit limiting when you want to introduce yourself to someone. This has now been extended and you can write up to approximately 1000. Start contacting people now!
Keep track of your friends more easily
Your friends list has been changed so that it now shows the displayname of the person’s blog, rather than the title, some of you commented that the blog title can be changed and sometimes it was confusing to keep up with which blog belonged to which friend!
Access your blog from two addresses!
FYI - Your blog is now accessible from two addresses, the existing one (as the subdomain), and as a subdirectory. For example, the news blog is viewable on http://news.extrapounds.com and http://www.extrapounds.com/blog/news . This is to help improve our google ranking and perhaps makes it a little easier to surf around various blogs by changing the last word of the address.
Today we have launched two highly requested features in order to enhance the Gold Membership! Both features are managed in the blog section of your account admin menu.
Customize your blog design
If you are a Gold member you can now completely change the look and feel of your blog. You will require some knowledge of XHTML and CSS (stylesheets) to do so. One of the EP designers has changed this blog design as an example of what can be done. You can create more than one personalized blog design by changing the different original designs.
Get visitors to your blog grooving by choosing a song from our selection of music. This will play whenever somebody opens the blog. Use it to reflect the mood of your progress!
If you don’t have a gold membership yet and want to have these features, then you can upgrade by visiting the membership section from your account admin menu.
Small and large trackers
For all EP members we have introduced a smaller sized tracker that you can post in forums and on your other blogs. The size options are now: small (320x104) or large (400x130).
EP Members featured on the homepage
We have replaced the stock photos with real EP members who have reached their goal weight!
THANK YOU to Swimkatt, Leanne and Shelley for taking part.
All these changes were requested by regular EP bloggers and we thank them for their feedback and for helping us to improve the site.
In response to your feedback about the new EP design and layout, we have made a few changes, mostly to the homepage.
These changes are designed to make it easier for you to meet new members to the site, make new friends, read a wider selection of blogs and generally facilitate the interaction of everyone within the EP community!
Back by popular demand……The list of most active blogs! The list of last posted blogs has been shortened slightly and you can now see the list of most active blogs.
Please welcome our new members!
New to the site is a list of the latest EP members, who have recently signed up, made their first post and are looking to meet people and give and receive support. You can also see where that user is from to make it easier to find those bloggers speaking the same language or from the same country and to welcome them to the site.
Wish EP members a Happy Birthday!
We have added a list of birthday bloggers, so you have an extra reason to make initial contact with a member and share their special day. This means that everyone gets to be on the homepage!
Plus!
New weight loss graph options
We have also added a new option in the weight log section, as requested by several of our users. You now have the option of not showing the weight loss graph on your blog, or selecting whether it shows your weight loss from the start or over the last 7, 15 or 30 days.
Also check out the EP user quotes, with links to their blogs – if you would like to add a comment about the site then let us know.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next set of changes/improvements/developments coming soon! We are working on the other feedback we have received and some other major features.
I thought you might be interested in this competition that the website Metro.co.uk and ask.com are organizing to find the best of British blogs. It could be fun to enter, there are great prizes to be won and it might give you some more motivation to keep blogging and more importantly to lose weight! There are many great blogs on extrapounds.com that are funny, witty, inspiring, motivating, give great advice and much more and deserve to be shared! They are doing the competition in order to increase the popularity and awareness of blogs in the .
If you would like to nominate your blog, then simply visit the website and follow the easy step by step instructions.
If you are not British but have an EP friend who is and you love their blog, then why not ask them if you can nominate them.
We have already contacted a few people to suggest they take part, but cannot read and contact everyone, so hope that this way if our members want more people to see their blog and a chance to win some great prizes, then they will know how!
We have made a couple of changes in the past week, based on the feedback we have received from users.
1. When you go to write a comment after a post on somebody's blog, if you are already logged in then you don't have to enter your login info in order to post a comment which makes it easier and quicker to support your EP friends.
2. Once you are in your account administration you no longer see the large "signupnow" text or the images as they appear on the homepage. This means you don’t have to scroll down to your menu.
3. As you navigate around your account administration, you can go back to the main admin panel by clicking on the EP logo that now has account administration written below it.
4. We have added a homepage link located on the top left hand menu to make it easy to go back to the homepage and see who posted last.
Thanks for your suggestions, we have made these small changes and are now working on bigger changes that take more time and planning to implement.
