UPDATE, MAY 14TH, 2009: Unfortunately, a bug discovered by one of our most dedicated authors reveals that comments are disabled on blog posts you email to post@redroom.com.If you choose to use this feature, please send me a quick emailand I'll enable comments on the post. This is just a temporary solution until we fix the bug. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thanks for the heads-up, Jessica! 

By Huntington W. Sharp

Have you ever had a good idea for a blog post, but just can't take the time to log into Red Room and go through the steps to post, tag, edit, and submit it? We've come up with an even quicker and easier way: email your blog post to post@redroom.com. I'm not a techie, but I don't know of any other online community that has this feature, so I'm pretty excited to introduce it to Red Room!

It couldn't be simpler:

• Type your blog post in the body of an email sent from the email address in your Red Room user profile. (If you send from another email address, the system won't know who sent it.)
• Type the post's title in the subject line.
• Email it to post@redroom.com.

Your post will appear on your Red Room blog (and on the blogs landing page) in about twenty seconds. The "From," "To" and "Subject" fields won't appear-in other words, it will look just like a regular blog post, not an email. IMPORTANT: If your email has a preset signature line, it will appear in your post, so you should delete it before you send.

Some things this feature won't do:

• It can't make your post "look pretty." For example, if you include a link, it will create an automatic line break in your post, and you'll need to log into Red Room with your username and password and edit it.
• It can't include photos in your email blog posts. If you're like me and enjoy including lots of photos in your blog, you may prefer to add them later.
• Tags: We strongly encourage you to tag your blog posts thoroughly, but to do that with your emailed posts, you'll need to add them later, too.

Here's a recap of the traditional way to blog on Red Room...

Write your post first in Microsoft Word or another word-processing program. Go to redroom.com, choose "Add Content" from the "Me" dropdown menu, and then click "Blog Entry." Copy the text from your Word document, click "Enable Rich Text," and click the "Paste" icon-it's the blue W that appears in the small toolbar below the text field. Add a title and plenty of tags (here's how), then click "Submit."

... and here are the benefits to emailing your blog post instead:

• If you're new to blogging and still a little unsure, this is a great way to get your feet wet. Just a quick email and you're done.
• Maybe you're at a computer with a slow internet connection, or you're encountering slowness on Red Room when click "Submit." (If this happens to you, please contact support@redroom.com. We have suggestions to help your uploads work faster.)
• Maybe you're traveling with just your iPhone, BlackBerry, or other handheld device. Now you can email your blog posts from the road.
• You'll have your own permanent record of your blog posts if your email is set up to save all your sent messages.

We've created this feature to make blogging super-convenient for you. Email your blog posts as much as you like, but please don't stop coming to the website, too! Red Room's success is measured by how many people visit every day, so please do keep coming back to enjoy the great writing, multimedia, and conversations your fellow authors and members share here every day.