Tag Archives: links

STOP! Don’t Press Publish! Have You Remembered to Add The LINKS?

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Image of a linkAre you remembering to link to articles, websites or other blogger’s post when you write about them? Why NOT?

It’s really frustrating when you can’t check out more details in a post because the blogger’s failed to link. Readers won’t waste their time Googling to find the facts. Why BOTHER — it’s easier to change to another blogger.

Linking is a really important part of being a blogger and linking isn’t hard! Yet for some reason most new bloggers FAIL to link!

How To Create A LinkImage of copying link

  1. Copy the URL of the website you want to link to.
  2. In the post that you are writing highlight the text you want linked to the website and click on Insert/Edit Link button, paste the URL and then click INSERT.Image of linking

It’s good blogging etiquette to link to:

  1. A person’s blog if you mention a blogger
  2. The post if you are talking about a particular post on a blog

For example: Larry Ferlazzo is well known for sharing websites that will help you teach. Check out his Best Social Studies Websites — 2008

FINAL THOUGHTS

Most bloggers like to check out posts when people write about them and some will take the time to write comments on your posts. Linking to other bloggers is one way of increasing the conversation and readership of your blog.

What tips on blogging would you give new bloggers?

Image by tarotastic licensed under Creative Commons.

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Creating A Blogroll For Your Sidebar

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The last post showed how you can add links to your sidebar using HTML however the Blogroll and Links widget feature is an easier alternative.

What is A Blogroll?

Bloggers often feature a list of their favourite blogs in the sidebar of their blog; this list is commonly called a blogroll. One of the reasons for adding a blogroll is so your readers can use this list to locate other blogs worth reading — you are saying “these are some blogs I like – which are worth checking out!” The unfortunate downside is readers may get upset if they aren’t on your list — one of the reasons why I call it “Some of the Blogs I read” on my Mobile Technology in TAFE blog.

It is important to realise that the blogroll area of your dashboard is an area for storing any links i.e. not just links to blogs. These links can be organised into categories e.g. blogroll, Favorite Posts, Articles I’ve Written.

Setting up your Blogroll

  1. Your Edublog blog automatically comes with a blogroll in it’s sidebar.  All you need to do is Add or Delete links to change what blogs are displayed.
  2. On your blog dashboard, go to Write > Links
  3. Insert the Name of the blog, its URL and tick Blogroll then press Save.Image of Creating links for blogrolls
  4. To remove a link to a blog from your blogroll go to Manage > Links.  Tick the blog link you want to remove then click on Delete.

Image of Deleting Links

Using Link Categories

Remember that you can also organise links into areas besides your blogroll using link categories.

Image of link categories

Here is an example of how Larry Ferlazzo has used link categories on his blog.

blogroll5.jpg

Larry’s blog makeover used a combination of links created using HTML and blogroll because link list using the blogroll feature was too long i.e. created clutter on his sidebar.

Another way of setting up your Blogroll is to use Google Reader to create it.

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