index

Why Affiliate? Why Do I Need a Nano Home?
Well, the absolute answer to both of these questions is that you don't. Honestly, you can join, write, and win without ever doing either of these things. But if you do, your region will thank you - your word count will be included in the total word count for your region and reflect the amazing productivity of your Home. Affiliating also helps your local Municipal Liaison locate and serve you better with assistance, encouragement, and companionship. Trust me, if you are going to write 50,000 words in thirty days, you will need healthy doses of all three!

STEP ONE: Locate My NaNoWriMo
Log on to www.nanowrimo.org. Click the link for "My NaNoWriMo" on the gray bar. (Or grey if you prefer.) Either way, you will be taken to a neat little page called "My NaNoWriMo".

STEP THREE: Locate a Region
This beautiful page lists ALL of the places in the world where NaNoWriMo has taken root and sprouted a region. Go ahead, browse around a bit, and be amazed and baffled at the many different places this madness has gone! Everywhere from Asia to Wyoming, four pages worth! (If I was more diligent I would find the total number and tell you. Sorry!) Once your amazement and disbelief have died down, go ahead and find your region. What? You don't really feel like sifting through four pages of regions to find yours? Well, you are in luck. The Region listing includes a handy-dandy Search feature. Type in a search term (or terms), and all of the regions that meet your criteria will be displayed.
Coming up next, see what happens when you type "Texas" in the search field and click "Submit". Go ahead, give it a try.

STEP FOUR: Affiliate With a Region
See? How neat-o is that? Suddenly, instead of several pages, I have one list of all regions that contain the word: "Texas". And right there at the number two position is: Austin. This is another example of the technical genius of Mr. Russ the firebus. To Affiliate with ANY region displayed in your search results (or the unfiltered Regions listing for that matter) all you do is click the bright red word "affiliate" to the right of your chosen region. "But wait!" you exclaim with fervent fervor; "in your example above, there IS NO AFFILIATE LINK for some of the regions." OK, calm down, take a few deep breaths. You see, once you have affiliated with a region there is no longer a need to have an affiliate link next to said region. As you can see I have already affiliated with two or three Texas regions. Ergo, no affiliate button for those regions. For our purposes here today, let us suppose that I would really like to add the United States ::Texas ::Amarillo region to my vast collection of affiliated regions. To do that, I would click the affiliate link next to that region, and proceed with great majesty and pomp to Step 5.

STEP FIVE: Verify Your Choice
Step 5 is really rather simple. In order to make sure that you never ACCIDENTALLY affiliate with a region, you are given one final chance to change your mind before you are permanently affiliated with any region. (OK, so it is pretty easy to un-affiliate and is therefore far from permanent, but I was on a roll and it sounded good.) If you are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY SURE that you want to affiliate, then click…You guessed it! It is the only button on the page, and furthermore, it is helpfully labeled: "Subscribe". "Wait a minute. I was looking for an "Affiliate" button. What is this Subscribe? I am confused!" OK, so it is not as intuitive as some of the other buttons, but it IS one of two choices on the page, and the other one is to click the word "Cancel". Seriously, which one do YOU think it is?

STEP SIX: Applause! You're Nearly There!
After clicking the "Subscribe" button, you will receive no other message confirming your action. Worry not my little friend! It is easy to tell if you have completed this part of your journey successfully! All you have to do is look at the new list of regions and see if the red affiliate link is gone. If so, you are more than half-way to finding a NaNo home! Go ahead, pat yourself on the back, and give yourself a round of applause, even a standing ovation if you feel the need. You can be proud that you are learning to navigate this Interweb thingy like a pro!
(A note for those following along at home: My "Texas" filter is still being applied to the Regions listing. If you are worried that you have deleted all of the other regions from the list, fear not! All you have to do to get them back is to delete the search term you typed into the search box, and click the "Submit" button once more. Voila! All of the regions are restored to their rightful place! Now don't you feel better?)

STEP IGOR: Click the Home Region Tab
Welcome to Step Igor. You have now successfully affiliated with a region. Are you ready to choose a Home? Great! Click the "Home Region" tab to get started and then meet me at Step Walt. ("Tweety, why have you taken to calling your steps by name instead of number?" Honestly, because I lost track of which step I was supposed to be on. Also, I find it entertaining. I hope you do too. Or at least not annoying. Oh leave me alone! Just go on to Walt!)

STEP WALT: Set Your Home Region
We have done it! We are finally to the climax of our little journey today! If you are feeling a little winded, go ahead and take a break. We will wait for you here, just me and Walt.

Oh, you are back! OK, let's get this over with then. Now you are presented with a list of the regions you have affiliated with. If you have not yet selected a home, you will see that "No Home Region" is selected. Review your list of affiliated regions, choose the one that makes your heart feel all warm and fuzzy (or the one where you live, if they are different) and select it. "Is that all I have to do? Gee that seems WAY too easy!" Your suspicions are correct my young friend. There is one final step you must take before you can move into your new NaNo home. You must click the button labeled "Set Home Region". (Once again, Russ astounds with his logical labeling! Good job!) This will save your selection, and you now have a Home. There will be no confirmation, no loud celebration, no fireworks or personalized Western Union telegram to let you know you were successful. The page just refreshes and looks pretty much the same. Go ahead; click the button again if it makes you feel better. You will just have to trust me on this one I guess.