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Quick Setup Guide
Learn how to get your new "Host" or "Event" account up and running successfully at a basic level. If you have not already created a Megabunk account then go to our help section entitled "Create a Megabunk Account" and then return to this page to continue setting up. Alternatively you could watch our Quick Setup Guide video. This will take you through step by step.
Logging in
The first thing you need to do once you have successfully completed the sign up process is to log in to your new account. There is a "Login" link at the top right of every page on Megabunk. Next to the "Register" Link.
If you click on the login link you should see the display change to the following.
Type in your username and password and click the "Login" button. If the information you typed in was correct and your account is active then you should now see something similar to the following displayed at the top of each page.
In this example the username is richard. Your username should be shown.
Editing your profile
Once you have logged in you can then proceed to set up certain elements of your profile so that your profile will be visible in search results and of course that the public will have something to see and read once they arrive at your profile. When you first create your profile you should see the following message displayed at the top of all pages when logged in.
To make your profile available in search results you need to be contactable in some way and "Host" account holders need to set an accommodation type. We'll get to that in a minute.
Now to editing your profile. Editing your profile is done over a series of pages. Most of the elements are optional, but some are required for your profile to be visible. What follows are the basic things you should do to get your profile operating and visible.
To be able to make changes to your profile you need to access the "Edit Profile" section of Megabunk. You can do this whilst logged in by hovering over your username at the top right of any page.
When you hover over your username a menu will pop up. Click on "Edit profile" in the menu.
This will take you to a series of pages where you can edit the elements of your profile. The default page you are taken to is "Basic Info".
Basic Info
Down the left you should see links to the other sections entitled "Location", "Images", "Criteria" and "Preferences".
The "Basic Info" section is where you create your heading and description. These are both quite important. The description is what viewers will be reading when they land on your profile. So you need to include as much information as you can about your Accommodation or Event. The best advice is to make it informative but simple and easy to read. Check out some other members profiles on Megabunk and see how they do it. Your heading is also very important. Use this for a one line attention grabber such as "Luxury accommodation in the heart of West Sussex". Your heading is shown in search results and is also used as a title for your page. Keywords are also constructed from it so using relevant words is, well, key.
Once you are happy with your changes you can save them. If any changes are made whislt editing your profile, you should see a button appear near the bottom of the page.
Click this button to save your changes. After saving you will be given an opportunity to post to facebook or tweet your update to twitter.
You may notice some little i's n circles on some pages. There are a couple on "Basic Info". Hovering over these i's will pop up information boxes that tell you more about the item.
Setting your location
After changing your basic info, you need to accurately pinpoint your location. When you joined you will have selected a town or city from a list. This will have placed a geographical pointer at a random location close to your chosen location. Click on the "Location" link in the left sidebar to set your exact location.
Once at the "Location" section of "Edit Profile" you should see a google map with a question mark pointer on it if your account is a "Host" account. If your accout is an "Event" account you will see an E icon. This is your pointer. It's a question mark for Hosts because an accommodation type has not yet been set. When you set your accommodation type, the pointer will change to reflect the type of accommodation you have selected.
The google map is interactive. You can use the zoom slider on the left to zoom in and out of the map. If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, that very often zooms in and out too. Drag the map around by clicking and holding the mouse button down whilst moving. You can view the map three different way. The satellite view is good because you can actually identify landmarks not normally shown on maps.
To set your location click on your pointer and hold the button down while you drag it around. Drop the pointer by releasing the mouse button. Once done you can save the new location of your pointer by clicking the save changes button that appears. You can get pretty accurate with your location.
It's important to set your exact location because this will be used when people are searching.
Uploading images
Another important element of any public profile is images. Rich content such as images can make a profile so much more appealing. Also, Host profiles with images get randomly featured on the home page and a few other pages on the site. When uploading images, take consideration over what you want to show. Accommodation images might show sleeping quarters, bathroom, eating area, outside view and anything else that might tempt people to visit you. Select the "Images" link from the left side bar on the "Edit Profile" pages to manage your images. Click on the "Browse" button to select an image file from your computer/device (Those using the Safari browser on mobile devices my be blocked from uploading content. There are alternative browsers out there that allow you to upload from a mobile device). Type in a caption that best describes your image. Then click the "Upload Image" button to upload the image.
You can change captions and delete images in the "Images" section. You can also select the default image to be shown on your profile. This is the first image that gets displayed when someone views your profile. By default it is the first image in your image list.
Setting criteria
One of the essential profile elements that has to be
set for "Host" accounts to be visible in search results and sitemaps is the "Accommodation Type" in the "Criteria" section. If your account is an "Event" account you will not need to set this. Go to the "Criteria" section by clicking on "Criteria" in "Edit Profile".
At the bottom of the page there will be the option for "Accommodation Type".
By default this is set to "Do not show". Select the accommodation type from the drop down list that is the closest match to yours and save your changes by clicking the button that appears. Having "Do not show" available in the list is very useful for those that want to temporarily withdraw their profile from search results for whatever reason.
Choosing preferences
The last basic thing to do to get your profile up and running is to set your communication preferences. Click on "Preferences" in the left side bar of the "Edit Profile" pages. To be able to appear in the search results you need to be contactable in some way. There are three forms of contact on Megabunk. The Megabunk messaging system, a website link or the public contact form.
You need to have at least one of these options enabled to be considered contactable.
To create a link to your website, tick the "Show Website" option. This has two sub parts to it. The "Alt Tag" and the "Website URL". The "Website URL" is the address of your website such as https://www.megabunk.com. The "Alt Tag" is the text displayed on your link. So the best words to describe the link might be "Megabunk Home Page".
The "Allow Messaging" option allows Megabunk members to send you a message through the Megabunk messaging system. You can have these messages forwarded to your account email address.
The third contact option is "Allow public to contact you". This puts a link on your profile that takes visitors to a contact form. Your email address is not revealed. They fill out the contact form and the message gets sent to your registered email address. The validity of their email address is checked and included as a reply address when the message is sent to you.
The lengths that some will go to send spam also includes hiring people to sit down and manually defeat captcha codes. You may notice that there is a sub-option to "Allow public to contact you" called "Request email confirmation". If you have this option ticked then anyone attempting to contact you through the public contact form will first have to confirm their email address by clicking a link in an email sent to them. This stops people sending messages from email addresses that don't exist or email addresses that they do not operate themselves.
Once you have completed the essentials you should see the warning message removed from the top of the screen. If the message is not there then your profile is live and in search results.
Viewing your profile
It's easy to get to your public profile at any time when you are logged in. Just click on your username near the top right of any page and you will be taken to your public page.
To learn how to get the best out of your profile, check out the Advanced Member Guide (watch the video)
Advanced Member Guide
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