Tuesday, January 12, 2010

CONNECTING MADE EASY

I am no techie guru. Luckily, I have a dear friend who helps me with this wide world of web wonder (thanks Steve!) Today I'd like to share a simple and useful tip: make it easy for people to get to your blog. Use a link.

A couple fellow bloggers have emailed me and asked how I put the link under my comments. The one that a reader can click on and be whisked away, easy-peasy, to my blog. I figured if a couple of you are wondering, maybe more of you would like this knowledge. Me being the considerate gal that I am, I will happily share it with all of you.

Here's the beauty in sharing this tip. Many might start using it. They will leave comments with a handy-dandy link included. Others will read these comments, click on their link, and be taken directly to their blog. Without having to visit their profile page, scroll through to find their blog title, sort out which one they really use--because many of you have multiple blogs, and THEN click on the link to be taken there.

Let's face it, most of us are writers and we are very busy. Family, friends, jobs, cleaning, cooking, and whatever else life throws at us. ANY time savers are a great help. Especially when it's already mission impossible to follow and comment on all the blog posts. This is a simple habit to get into, but this one habit will make it easier for others to connect with you. And isn't that what we all love about blogging? Connecting with each other?

Here's what I do. I keep my code in a Word doc on my desktop. When I'm ready to read and comment on blogs I do a simple CTRL C (copy) and keep my link code armed and ready. I read posts. When I want to comment, I type in what I have to say then hit CTRL V (paste) at the end of it. Voila! Easy. Peasy.

Somewhere in my past couple weeks of using this system, I have racked up many more "Supporters." (I don't like the term Followers. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.) That must mean some of you have clicked on my link. I bet you clicked on it because it was easy. Right there where you could find it without even trying.

Many times I've received a comment from a new person who I want to go check out. I would LOVE if everyone had a link to their blog with their comment, but sadly, I rarely see one. I have to hunt them down the long and painful way. Let's all stop making it so hard to meet each other. Use a link.

Here's how easy it is. Open a blank Word doc (or notepad or Works or whatever)

Copy and paste the text below.
a href="http://karenamandahooper.blogspot.com">My Blog

Now, add a < at the beginning. Directly before the first a.
Next, add a > at the end. Directly after the a at the end.


Since you don't want to direct everyone to MY blog (though you can if you really want to) we need to make this custom fit for you.

Remove http://karenamandahooper.blogspot.com
Make sure to leave the set of quotation marks.

Inside of those quotation marks put YOUR blog address.
If you want it to always go to your main page just use the general address. You can also paste a detailed address in that space if you want your link to direct others to one specific post. Just open the post you want to link to then copy and paste from the address bar. You'll see the detailed web address.

Now the fun part. See where it says >My Blog<

That is where you get to write whatever you want your link to say. You can use "My Blog". Or "Click here to enter my world" or whatever you choose. Go crazy. The possibilities are endless.

Just remove My Blog from the code, but make sure to leave the symbols (see I don't even know their official name) and type in whatever you want your link to say.

In this case, the above code will appear like this: My Blog

Ta-da! You are done. Now save the doc with your personalized code to your desktop so its handy and easy to get to. Remember to paste it at the end of each comment you leave. It will make it so much easier for people to find you and get to your blog.

Hope that made sense. I'm not an experienced How To kind of person. If you have a problem, or question, leave a comment and I will answer.

**Update: A few of you have had tiny issues and it's always something simple, so I'm going to use Natalie's altered code as an example. Here is what your final code should look like. (BUT REMOVE THE SPACES BETWEEN SYMBOLS--I have to insert them or it would show up as a link) Make sure all quote marks, symbols, brackets, etc are still in tact.

< href="http://nataliebahm.blogspot.com">Check Out My Awesome Blog!< / a >

Final result:
Check Out My Awesome Blog!

45 comments:

  1. Great instructions! I click on their blogger profile and then to their blog. But a link eliminates one of those steps. Yay!

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  2. You rock! I've been wondering how you did that! Thanks for sharing the trick. :-)

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  3. Thank you! I am going to try it.

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  4. Sweet! I was wondering how to do that too!! Thanks, Karen!! You're awesome.

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  5. Yikes. HTML is scary stuff. LOL Not really. Very cool. I was wondering how people did that. btw, if you want, there should be a spot somewhere in your settings where you can change the title of followers on your sidebar to supporters. :-) One lady's blog says My Stalkers, which I always get a kick out of.
    Thanks for the tip here!

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  6. Sounds easy. Thanks for sharing this!

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  7. Yes! Finally! I've been wondering how to do this. You little gem, you!

    Let's try, shall we?

    <a href="http://carol-in-print.blogspot.com'>Carol's Prints by Carolina Valdez Miller>

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  8. Carolina, you cut off part of the closing set of quotation marks. Easy mistake. Fix the quote marks after .com
    Then make sure the following code is after Miller.

    < / a > (with no spaces)

    Then it should work. :)

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  9. I always wondered why people had that tag; now it makes complete sense to drop that middle step. Okay...here goes...

    The Writing of Art

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  10. Thanks, Karen. I was wondering how you managed to get that nifty link thingy in your comments. Very clever. x

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  11. I've noticed how you started doing this! I like it :-)

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  12. Wow, this is really wonderful of you, Karen. Thanks for sharing this tip with us. I always wondered how to do that.

    My Brain On Books

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  13. Well, it looks like it should work, but clicking on just gets an error message. What did I do wrong??

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  14. Joanne, the link itself looks correct, so it has to be something in the web address. When I clicked on it there is an extra quote mark in the address. Double check your code and make sure you don't have an extra set of quote marks, or any extra symbols after.com.
    Let me know if that works. :)

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  15. You aren't a techie guru, you're a techie goddess. I'm bookmarking this post until I'm ready to use it!

    Shelley

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  16. I'm confused and intimidated but it's such good advice, I'm willing to try.

    crud! It's not working and blogger won't even accept it. It's giving me a red box saying "your html cannont be accepted".

    It's late. I'm tired. I'll try again tomorrow...

    thanks all the same. the problem is w/ my fried brain :s

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  17. Okay here goes. What do you think?

    a href="http://nataliebahm.blogspot.com">Check Out My Awesome Blog!

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  18. All right I obviously did something wrong. I tried again with < marks and it just said my HTML cannot be accepted. Why must it be so hard Karen?!?

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  19. AHHHHH tech talk... all the creative writers must run away!

    j/k

    Thanks for the info and good luck to those of you brave enough to try it. :)

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  20. Karen I have a award for you over at my blog, you should stop by and pick it up! ^_^

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  21. I was just wondering the same thing when I read your comment :) Thanks for sharing!

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  22. I wondered how to do this!! Thank you so much. Now I just have to try it ;o)

    Oh btw having a California Contest over at my blog!

    http://princesscourtneysbarr.blogspot.com

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  23. For the people having trouble with this the brackets are what tells the computer that you are talking to it instead of to people. Every command for the computer has to have one on each side.

    The 'a' tells the computer that you are going to give it a reference point to send the browser somewhere else and the href and holds the information for where to go.

    Then you put in the words for the people to read and know you are providing a link.

    Then you need to add another set of brackets around '/a' to tell the computer that that is all of the command.

    You just have to talk to the computer very simply -- I'm going to do this now, alright this is where I'm doing this, and now I am done doing this you may go back to what you were doing before.

    (I think it helps to know why we do some things. Hopefully I've explained it reasonably well.)

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  24. This is awesome! I've been wondering how you did that! I'll have to see if I can do it now!

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  25. I am so bad with technology that I need at least ten minutes to figure this out. :) Thanks for the walk through.

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  26. Thanks Karen. I must try this out but not right now. I've only just woken up and my brain doesn't work for the first hour or so!

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  27. Very cool. I was wondering how people did that. I might give it a go. :)

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  28. Good advice, Karen, and thanks for sharing. I hope you're having a magical start to the year. x
    My Blog

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  29. While I'm not too picky about how people comment on my blog, some people out there in blogland consider it poor blogger etiquette to paste in your own blog link/URL after every comment. I've heard that it's considered self-centered and pushy. Some even consider it very rude. (Just thought you might want to know.)

    Me, not really. In fact, I've done it from time to time, myself. :)

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  30. Hey Karen, I honored you with a blog award you don't have yet...the HAPPY AWARD. Just click the awesomely cool link below. *Grin*

    DL’s Blog

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  31. Great instructions! I shall have to try that- errr, later. :) Time savers are always welcome. Thanks a bunch for this!

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