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Why Share Your Bookmarks as Trails?
Once you've imported your bookmarks and started to use them and add to them using the AntStorm toolbar, you could just stop there and use AntStorm as a portable bookmarking tool, but you will miss out on a lot if you do. If you are willing to share your favorite bookmark links with others as trails, the trails you create/share can generate money for your favorite charities. You'll be helping other people find better information faster. And you can collaborate in groups with others who share your interests. Members of your group can suggest great new links on the trail's topic - exposing you to super new links and resources you won't find on your own!
How To Share Your Bookmarks as Trails
There are two basic ways to go about sharing lists of links as trails. One is to create trails from scratch using My Nest and the AntStorm toolbar. The other way (described below) is to import your browser bookmarks and organize and annotate them a bit. Following are more detailed instructions.
Imported Bookmark Folders as Trails
If you have organized your browser bookmarks on different topics into folders before you import them, each folder will be imported into AntStorm as a trail, and the bookmarks from that folder will be links in the trail. In this case, you can simply edit your trail summary information as follows:
- First go to My Nest by clicking the My Nest link in the upper right corner of any page on the site. If you do not see the My Nest link, then you need to sign in by clicking the Sign In link in the upper right corner of any page.
- Once you are in My Nest, click the Trails tab.
- On this page, look in the Trails column to find a trail you want to share with others. The names of the trails should be the names of the bookmark folders you imported.
- Click on the trail name text link, and a pop-up menu will be displayed. Click the Edit command in this menu.
- Enter a descriptive name in the first box and a good description of your trail in the second box so other people will know what your trail is about. Check the "Publish this trail…" checkbox so that others can see your trail. Then click the Save link at the bottom of the yellow editing area to save your changes to the trail summary information.
Creating a New Trail to Organize Bookmark Links
If you did not organize your browser bookmarks into folders before you imported them, then you will want to create new trails into which you can organize your links as follows:
- First go to My Nest by clicking the My Nest link in the upper right corner of any page on the site. If you do not see the My Nest link, then you need to sign in by clicking the Sign In link in the upper right corner of any page.
- Once you are in My Nest, click the Trails tab.
- On this page, click the "Add new" link at the top of the Trails column.
- Enter a descriptive name in the first box and a good description of your trail in the second box so other people will know what your trail is about. Make sure the "Publish this trail…" checkbox is checked so that others can see your trail. Then click the Save link at the bottom of the yellow editing area to save your changes to the trail summary information.
- Now find the links you want to organize into this trail. If these links were not organized into a folder on your browser, then they are probably in the Default Trail. Click to select the trail called Default Trail, and you will see the bookmark links displayed in the Links column.
- Scroll up and down in the Links column to find the links you want to place into the new trail you created. Drag each such link, and drop it onto your new trail in the Trails column. This will move the link into that trail.
Annotating Your Links
The final step in converting your imported bookmarks into AntStorm trails is to annotate your links. The reason you want to do this is to help others understand what is unique and valuable about each link relative to the topic of the trail. You can easily annotate the links in your trail as follows:
- Once you are in My Nest, click the Trails tab, and then click to select the trail for which you want to annotate the links.
- Click on a link name, and a pop-up menu will be displayed. Click the Edit command in this menu.
- Enter a descriptive name in the first box and a good description of your link in the third box so other people will know why each link is valuable and whether it will be useful to them given what they are trying to explore or learn. Then click the Save link at the bottom of the yellow editing area to save your changes.
- Repeat these steps to annotate each link in the trail.
Examples of Well Annotated Trails
The quality of a trail (in terms of its usefulness to users other than you) is a function of both the breadth and the quality of the links you have found, and how well you describe and explain the trail and its links. If you have a great set of bookmarks on a topic, but you don't annotate it at all, it will look very sparse, and other users won't have a good understanding of its value. Following are a couple of examples of trails that have been well annotated so you can get an idea of what they look like and how the annotations can be helpful to others:
After You Have Shared Your Trails
After you have annotated and shared a trail with others, here are other things you can do with your trail:
- View It. Go to My Nest and click the Trails tab, and then find and click on the trail name link in the Trails column. A menu is displayed. Click the View menu command, and the trail page for this trail is displayed. This is how other users will see your trail when they find it through AntStorm, or using search engines like Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft.
- See Who Uses It. Go to My Nest and click the Reports tab, and then click the Traffic tab under Reports. You can view reports to see how many people are viewing and using your trails. You can also click the Earnings tab under Reports to see how much money your trails are earning for charities.
- Add More Links. Download the AntStorm toolbar and use it to add more great links to your trails as you browse around the Web and find valuable new resources.
- Start a Group. Start a group and invite others who you know share your interest in the topic of one of your trails. Get the whole group using and contributing to the trail, and get exposed to great new resources you would not find on your own.
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