THE CHECKLIST

The Checklist is a list of things that you must do in order to publish an article in the order that the steps appear when you are creating a post. You might want to print this out.

No Featured Image This is a friendly warning that reminds you to insert a featured image. No action is required.
ADD TITLE This is where you insert the headline for your article. Headlines should be no less than 30 characters and MUST be no more than 68 characters (including spaces) in order to maintain a consistent appearance. Note that headlines should never begin with a punctuation mark, a numeral, or a symbol because that screws up the alphabetical listings of the articles.
Text Area This is where you insert your content. We recommend that you write longer articles off-line, and then simply paste the article into this space.  Pro Tip: If you want to BindleSnitch to look just like a word processor, click on the X on the right end of the tool bar and you will get just that. Click again to return to the regular view.
Featured Image The featured image is the picture that appears at the top of your article and wherever your article is listed.  The BindleSnitch format requires a featured image in order to maintain a consistent appearance. Pro Tip: If you want, you may use a headshot or an avatar if you want to scrounge around looking for a suitable image.  Click HERE for more information about featured images. 
The Excerpt The excerpt is the teaser that appears wherever the article is listed on the website. This is where you tell the reader what the article is about. The system does not allow you to publish an article without an excerpt. Excerpts should be between 30 and 40 words. You may find that the teaser is actually the first sentence of your articles.
Category The Category field tells the system where to place your articles. You cannot post an article without a category.  You can only choose one category at a time…but you can change categories in order to increase the exposure for your articles and get more views.
 DO NOT SELECT “***Choose a Category*** because, if you choose “Choose a Category,” your article will not appear anywhere on BindleSnich.DO NOT USE THE BINDLESNITCH CATEGORY BECAUSE YOUR ARTICLES WILL NOT PUBLISH IF YOU USE THAT CATEGORY

PRO TIP:  If you don’t want your article to appear on BindleSnitch, but you want to be able to post your article on other sites, or send links to your mailing list, then DO CHOOSE Choose a Category (or Bindlesnitch) to prevent your article from publishing on BindleSnitch. (Confusing but accurate.)

Tags We use tags for a very specific purpose: to help us build your author pages. Therefore, the ONLY tag that you should ever insert would be your own byline…and always re-use the same exact by-line.
Spelling and Grammar Check This is a reminder that no one is going to review your work…so you are advised to re-read your article and make sure that it is ready to publish. We strongly recommend that you install the Grammarly Writing Assistant extension on your web browser. It’s free and helps you to avoid embarrassing mistakes.
Pre-Publish Checklist The Pre-Publish Checklist is there to remind you of these steps. You must check off each of the steps before you can publish your article. Don’t check off the steps without doing the steps first. That sort of defeats the whole purpose of the checklist.
Publish Panel The Publish Panel is where you can save a draft of an article if you need to put it aside for a while. Just make sure you have named your article before you save the draft. You can also preview your article by clicking on the “Preview” button to see how it will look on the site. When you are satisfied, scroll to the bottom and click the PUBLISH BUTTON
The Other Stuff If you scroll down past the Publish Panel, you will find a number of other sections that you don’t need to mess with, and probably shouldn’t because Discussion, Likes and Shares, Themify Custom Panel, Yoast SEO, and Comments have all been pre-set for maximum performance. Leave them alone, please.