Introducing the Hatches Blog Network
I would like to invite anyone that is interested the opportunity to create their very own blog on the Hatches Blog Network. Creating a new blog on the network is effortless and each comes prepackaged with an amazing amount of features and options to make administering your blog as easy as possible.

What is a blog?
Creating a blog on the Hatches Network will give you the opportunity to publish entries on your site that visitors can read and comment on. Entries can pertain to a limitless amount of topics like Trip reports, fly patterns, tutorials, product reviews, short stories or just random thoughts about fly fishing/tying in general. Upon the creation of your blog you will be given a blank canvas and it is yours to do with as you wish. The best part is no programming or design experience is necessary, the administration system is very simple to use and if you can make a post in a forum you can publish an entry on your blog.

Already have a blog?
The Hatches Blog Network is built upon the widely used WordPress platform which means if you already have a blog hosted on blogspot, wordpress.com or your own wordpress based website moving your current posts over to your Hatches blog is quick and painless.

Customize the Look of Your Blog
There are now 100 themes for you to choose from. Many of them will allow you to upload your own custom header graphic and some offer other customization options as well.

To view the available themes hover over “Appearance” at the top-right menu and choose themes. To activate a theme, click on the title which should give you a preview of what the theme would look like on your site. At the top of that popup screen it should say “Activate Theme” which will make it your new theme. Hover over “Appearance” again and you should see options like “Custom Image Header” or “Current Theme Options”. The amount of customization you can do depends on the theme.

This is a new and exciting chapter in what I am doing and I want it to be an extension of what we already have on all of the forums. I am anxious to see who creates a blog and what is done with them.

I am sure that there are going to be a lot of questions regarding this so if you have a question please reply to this topic so that when I have an answer somebody with the same question will be able to learn the answer for themselves.

To signup for an account visit: http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/wp-signup.php

After you fill out all of the information it will dispatch an email to the address you provided to activate your account. At that time it will display a password. I would recommend writing down the password and updating it to something you will remember after you log-in.

Here is an example of a few blogs currently being created on the Hatches Blog Network
http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/40rivers/
http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/koryboozer/
http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/flylife/
http://hatchesmagazine.com/blogs/Flyosophy/