Blogger Management

Run a blogger program for your store. Open applications, review and manage bloggers, track posts and deadlines, and coordinate with bloggers from the web.

Allomancy includes a built-in blogger program so you can recruit Second Life bloggers, give them access to your products, and review their posts without leaving the web. The system spans two surfaces: a merchant-facing Blog Dashboard inside Allomancy Stores, and a separate blogger-facing website where bloggers apply, retrieve products, submit posts, and coordinate with you.

This page is the starting point for understanding how those pieces fit together. Each major workflow has its own detailed tools inside the Blog Dashboard.

Where to find Blogger Management

The Blog Dashboard for the blogger program lives at stores.allomancy.com/blog.

The Blog Dashboard groups the program into ten tiles:

Bloggers: your active bloggers, with per-blogger profiles and actions.
Posts: posts your bloggers have submitted, with approval and rejection.
View Deadlines: per-blogger and per-product deadlines for posts.
Extension requests: deadline-extension requests from bloggers.
Coupons: coupon codes and the rules bloggers use when they generate their own.
Applications: applications submitted from the blogger-facing site.
Messages: messages sent between you and your bloggers.
Vacation requests: time-off requests from bloggers.
Bans: bloggers blocked from your blogger program.
Settings: store-wide settings, including default deadlines, required posts, onboarding, and the application form.

The Blog Dashboard also shows a link to the blogger-facing website at bloggers.allomancy.com.

Opening your blogger program

Two switches on the Blog Dashboard control whether new bloggers can find and apply to your store:

Applications are open / closed: when open, bloggers can submit an application to your store. The label appears in green when applications are open and in red when they are closed.
Listed for bloggers: when enabled, your store is listed on bloggers.allomancy.com so bloggers can discover it. This switch is disabled while applications are closed.

While applications are open, the Blog Dashboard also shows a copyable Applications URL for your store on bloggers.allomancy.com. You can share this link directly so a specific blogger lands on your application form without browsing the public list.

The blogger-facing website

Bloggers do their work on the separate site at bloggers.allomancy.com. From there they can:

Find and apply to stores that have applications open.
Manage their blogger profile, including a short bio and links to their blog and social pages.
Track which stores they currently blog for.
Browse and select retrievable products from a store and submit a post about them.
Update an existing post that is still pending review.
Request a deadline extension for products they have selected.
Request time off from a store with a vacation request.
Read messages sent by the merchant.
Generate or update their personal coupon code, when the merchant has enabled blogger coupons.
Leave a store they no longer want to blog for.

You do not access the blogger site as a merchant. Bloggers reach it themselves, log in with their own account, and pair their Second Life username through that site's account flow.

The merchant lifecycle

A typical blogger relationship moves through these stages from the merchant side:

Open applications

On the Blog Dashboard, turn on Applications are open and, if you want bloggers to discover your store on the public list, Listed for bloggers. Configure your application questions and the rest of your program in the Settings tile before opening, so applicants see the form you want.

Review applications

When a blogger applies from bloggers.allomancy.com, their application appears in the Applications tile. Open each application to read the answers and accept or reject the applicant.

Manage your bloggers

Accepted bloggers appear in the Bloggers tile. From there you can review per-blogger profiles, retrieved products, and post counts, and take per-blogger actions when needed.

Track posts and deadlines

Use the Posts tile to review and approve or reject submitted posts, and the View Deadlines and Extension requests tiles to track deadlines and respond to extension requests.

Coordinate, reward, and moderate

Use Messages to communicate with your bloggers, Coupons to manage blogger coupon codes and store-wide coupon settings, Vacation requests to handle time-off, and Bans to block bloggers from your program when needed.

Permissions

Access to the Blog Dashboard is gated by the Manage Bloggers permission. Store owners always have access. Store managers see the Blog item in the sidebar only when their permissions include Manage Bloggers. To grant or restrict that permission, see Store Managers.

The Bans tile under the Blog Dashboard is for bloggers in your blogger program. It is separate from the customer ban list under Settings, which blocks a customer from purchasing.