What is Bristol Blogs?

Bristol Blogs is a free service offered by the University of Bristol which allows researchers to create and host project websites via wordpress.

Bristol Blogs is run by the Digital Experience Team (web-editor@bristol.ac.uk)

Below, is our standard advice regarding Bristol Blogs which you may find useful if you are thinking of creating a project website. If you would like further advice on whether or not Bristol Blogs could be the best option for you then please email us at research-it@bristol.ac.uk.

Bristol Blogs Information 

For general information on research websites: Research websites or non-standard websites (sharepoint.com)

Bristol Blogs can be used for project websites. The term ‘blogs’ is a little misleading as the underlying technology for Bristol Blogs is WordPress, which is used by ~37% of all websites and is very flexible and not only used for blogs.

• Bristol Blogs is a free service offered to all staff at the University of Bristol (UoB) using the CampusPress service (based on WordPress). This means you have no set-up cost apart from your time and there is no ongoing maintenance and hosting.
• Bristol Blogs is run by the Digital Experience Team (web-editor@bristol.ac.uk) and you can sign up for a blog from https://help.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ without needing anyone to give you access or permission, there are also links to help pages from this link.
• Bristol Blogs can host images, documents and videos and should be perfect for a simple project website.
• Plugins can be used to provide additional functionality, for example to display a newsfeed or slideshow https://plugins.campuspress.com/
• Branding is UoB centric but can be customised with different colour schemes, some examples https://assensar.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ , https://captrial.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/ or https://student.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/
• Or you can apply to use one of a range of non-branded themes if your project needs to have a less UoB identity. https://campuspress.com/docs/themes/. However, they will take more expertise to set up and are not always kept up to date, which can lead to compatibility issues down the line. To request a non-Bristol template email web-editor@bristol.ac.uk for permission and include the rationale for a non-branded theme, more information can be found here: https://help.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2018/06/06/university-of-bristol-blog-theme/
• If you require a custom domain and SSL certificate (i.e. something that isn’t projectname.blogs.bristol.ac.uk) this can be purchased via the Digital Experience Team. To purchase a domain name contact web-editor@bristol.ac.ukwith the following information:
  • name and URL of blog
  • name of desired custom domain (CampusPress can only handle one custom domain per blog)
  • name of domain owner for future communication (if not enquirer);
  • desired lifespan of domain
  • budget code to cover cost of domain
• LinkedIn learning for short courses on using WordPress - IT Learning and Training (sharepoint.com)
• The ability to find your website using a search engine can be enhanced by adding the "Simple SEO Plugin" WordPress plugin to your website, https://help.edublogs.org/simple-seo-plugin/
• Blogs service is intended to provide a project website and researchers should not need any specific technical expertise (other than for custom domains and SSL as set out above). If they do not feel confident doing this themself then there are external, independent WordPress developers who may be able to help, it may be that the Digital Experience Team could recommend suppliers.