Publishing on ClayCo — Student Guide

ClayCo is the public-facing publishing platform for COMM 130 student businesses. Every blog post, social media post, and promo video your business creates this term gets published at clayco.work, under your business’s byline, where anyone in the world can read it.

This guide should take about 5 minutes to read and 10 minutes to do your first post.

1. Create your account

Go to clayco.work/admin in your browser. Bookmark this URL — it’s where you’ll write everything.

1. You’ll see a Log in with Netlify Identity button. Click it.
2. The login modal opens. Click the Sign Up tab at the top.
3. Enter your Lane email address (yourname@my.lanecc.edu) and a password you’ll remember.
4. Click Sign Up.

You’re in immediately — no confirmation email, no waiting. Your account works the next time you visit clayco.work/admin too.

2. The big picture: businesses, posts, and comments

ClayCo organizes content in three layers:

• Your Business — one entry, created once at the start of the term. This is your business’s identity: name, tagline, description, location.
• Posts — many entries, created throughout the term. Each post is a blog post, a social media post, or a promo video, and is attributed to your business.
• Comments — short replies to other businesses’ posts. Attributed to your business, not your personal name.

You’ll create your business first, then create posts that link to it, and optionally leave comments on other classmates’ posts.

3. Create your business (do this once, at the start of the term)

1. Go to clayco.work/admin and log in.
2. In the left sidebar, click Your Business.
3. Click New Business in the top right.
4. Fill in the form:
   • Business name — the official name. Example: “Riverside Bicycle Co.”
   • One-line tagline — 5–10 words describing what you do. Example: “Sustainable bike repair and refurbishment.”
   • Description — 1–3 sentences introducing your business. This appears at the top of your business page.
   • Location — defaults to Eugene, OR. Change if your fictional business is elsewhere.
   • Term — leave as Spring 2026.
   • Founded — the day your group started this project.
   • External links (optional) — Instagram, YouTube, or website URLs if your business has any.
5. Click Publish in the top right.

Within about a minute, your business’s page goes live at clayco.work/industries/your-business-name. Check the Industries list on the homepage — you should see it there.

4. Create a post

1. clayco.work/admin → Posts in the sidebar → New Post.
2. Fill in the form:
   • Title — the headline of your post. Don’t include “Blog:” or “Social:” — the site adds those automatically.
   • What kind of post is this? — pick Blog, Social, or Promo Video.
   • Which business is this from? — pick your business from the dropdown.
   • Date — defaults to today.
   • Video URL — only for Promo Video posts. Paste the full YouTube or Vimeo URL.
   • Image — optional, especially good for social posts.
   • Image alt text — required if you added an image. One short sentence describing the image.
   • Body — the actual content. Use the toolbar above the field for formatting.
3. Click Publish. About a minute later, your post is live and appears in Recent Posts on the homepage.

5. The three content types

Pick the type that matches what you’re writing.

Blog Post

Long-form writing, a paragraph or more. Use for thought pieces, announcements, customer stories, behind-the-scenes posts. Examples: “Why we don’t sell new bikes,” “A day at the riso,” “How we source our coffee.”

Social Media Post

Short, casual, image-friendly. Even one short paragraph is fine. Use for quick announcements, event mentions, photo posts. Examples: “Saturday market preview,” “May roast schedule,” “New zines in stock.”

Promo Video

An embedded video plus a description. Paste the full URL into the Video URL field. Supports:

• YouTube (including Shorts) — copy the URL from the address bar or the share button.
• Vimeo — copy the URL from the address bar.
• Google Drive — upload your video to Drive, click Share, set “General access” to Anyone with the link, then copy the link.
• Instagram (Reels, regular Posts, IGTV) — copy the URL from the share menu. The account must be public for the embed to render.

Examples: “How we source our frames,” “Meet the team,” “Behind the scenes of our spring drop.”

6. Comments (replying to other businesses)

Comments are short replies to other classmates’ posts. They appear directly under the post they’re responding to, attributed to your business — so when Mag-Matchers comments on a Golden Goose Getaways post, the byline shows “Mag-Matchers.”

How to add a comment

1. Go to clayco.work/admin and log in.
2. Comments in the sidebar → New Comment.
3. Fill in the form:
   • Which post are you commenting on? — pick from the dropdown.
   • Commenting as which business? — pick your business.
   • Comment — write your reply.
4. Click Publish. About a minute later, your comment appears under that post.

Community moderation

Anyone signed into ClayCo can delete any comment — including yours, and including comments from other businesses. The Delete link only appears when you’re logged in; visitors who aren’t signed in just see the comments as readers.

Every deletion is logged in the project history, so if someone abuses the delete power, it’s traceable. This is intentional: it lets the class self-moderate in real time without waiting for the instructor.

What’s appropriate

• Constructive feedback, questions, encouragement, business-to-business banter that fits your brand voice.
• Disagreement is fine. Personal attacks, harassment, or anything you wouldn’t say in class is not.
• If something crosses a line, delete it. If it keeps happening, tell Clay.

7. Common pitfalls

• “My business doesn’t show up in the dropdown when I’m creating a post.” You haven’t created your business yet, or you didn’t click Publish on it. Go to Your Business → New Business first.

• “I uploaded an image but I’m not sure what to put in alt text.” Describe the image in one sentence as if telling someone over the phone what’s in it. Example: “A blue and white bicycle leaning against a brick wall outside a workshop.” If the image is purely decorative, leave alt text blank.

• “My post doesn’t have the right type label.” The site adds “Blog:”, “Social:”, or “Promo Video:” based on the type field, not your title. Don’t include the type in your title.

• “My video isn’t embedding.” Make sure the URL is from YouTube, Vimeo, Google Drive, or Instagram, and copy the full URL (starts with https://). For Google Drive: sharing must be set to “Anyone with the link.” For Instagram: the account must be public — private accounts won’t render in the embed.

• “I want to edit or delete a post after publishing.” Go back to /admin, click Posts, find your post, edit or delete from there. The site updates within a minute.

• “My comment doesn’t appear under the post.” Refresh the page after a minute — the site rebuilds whenever new content publishes. If still missing, check that you picked the correct post in the dropdown.

8. Help

• CMS won’t let me log in / I forgot my password — email Clay (williamsc@lanecc.edu) and he’ll reset it.
• Site won’t load / build error — let Clay know; usually a typo in a field. Easy fix.
• Anything else — office hours T/Th 10–12, Zoom or by appointment.

This guide also lives in Moodle under the project resources.

Spring 2026 · Lane Community College · COMM 130