Blog Pointer: put internal links in your posts (& how to link up a photo in a post)

Sorry about the unfinished post that went out (I hit a couple of weird keys and it published itself! Freaky.) Well, now you get an embarrassing glimpse of what my posts start out as: big ol' mess. Hazards of composing in blogger, I guess. Here's today's finished post:

Thank you so much your email requests & interest in my wanna-be geek blogging tips! You all ROCK! I was soooooh excited that you like the idea of pictures (with links) in your sidebar (for blog rolls and stuff) & I's working on that basic tutorial for how to make 'em.

Here's the first installment:

The first step in the linked-photo-buttons in your side bar is creating the posts to link to. heehee The easiest way to do that, with a blog roll for example, is to use your existing blog roll from the side bar. Copy it & paste in into a post.

Here's more on putting internal links in your posts & how to turn a photograph into a link (in a blog post.) This may be really basic for some, but maybe you could use these ideas:

Internal Links in Your Posts:

Bloggers put so much work into posts & then they are relegated to those difficult to navigate archive lists. All that info sometimes seems forgotten. Craft bloggers, for instance, add loads of info...(supply lists, instructions, reviews, tutorials, templates)...

Often, blogs are more like websites than diaries, so it make sense that they should have some of the handy features of websites. One feature I find snifty is internal linking. (Maybe I have the wrong name, but what I mean is linking posts to each other, lol.):

You can link posts to each other by adding:

• a simple link that stands out (bolded/another colour) (click for an example)
  
• an index post filled with links to your posts (example)
• thumbnail photos that are linked (example)
• Whole Indexes of just thumbnails that you've linked up (example)
• It can also be really helpful to your readers to add a link that says "To go back to the Index click here" or "Click to go back to the main blog"
  

Ways to speed up the task:

• Once you create the "back to Index link" (mentioned above), you can Copy and paste it again and again in each of the posts you want to index.

• Use your search bar at top left of your blog (by the orange B) to search out your posts that you want to link or index.

• You can copy photos from older posts (links and all) by copying the html & pasting it into a new post. Don't worry about copying too much html. You can just paste it in while you have the edit Html tab open (top right tabs when you're creating a post) & then switch to the Compose tab to see what it looks like and delete whatever you don't want. :O)

• You can add a photo in your sidebar that will act as a button to go to your index. More on that in this previous post.
  

How to add a photo to a post & make that photo into a link:

Step 1: Add the photo & resize if desired (click on it, tiny white boxes will appear on each corner of the photo click the one in the corner & drag to resize numbers should show up to tell you the size)

Step 2: Copy the URL (link address) of the post you want your photo to link to (for PCs: use control c for copy & control v for paste Macs: use apple symbol and c & v)

Step 3: Highlight the photo using your mouse

Step 4: While the photo is highlighted, click on the link button: & paste the URL (link address) that you copied earlier into the text box that appears.



Anywho... as a blurfer, I love to find thumbnails & link lists 'n' stuff, so I thought I'd share the idea. Hope it wasn't boring or confusing. :O)