Link Field in Blogger for Beginners

By Profound Whatever

When I first started blogging, I wondered how I could link my posts to other blogs, articles, or Web sites, to give my readers the opportunity to simply click and go there for more information.  Not that I wanted to send readers away from my blog, but just offer them a service.

Then I discovered the Link field in Blogger. 

You'll find the Link icon across the top of the post entry field.  When you want to create a clickable link in your blog post, you just: 

1. Highlight (click and drag) the text in your post that you want to make clickable (Dummies.com, for instance, or Add a Link to Your Blog).
2. Click the Link icon.
3. If the text you highlighted is a URL (Dummies.com), you're done.
4. Otherwise (as in the case of Add a Link to Your Blog), enter the full URL of the Web site you're linking to (http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-use-blogger-to-add-a-link-to-your-blog.html) into the field in the pop-up window and click OK.

An easy way to make sure you get the correct link is to go to the Web page you're linking to and copy the URL from the address bar (Ctrl+C), as I did with the sample link above, and then paste it (Ctrl+V)into the field in the pop-up window.

A word about permalinks.  A permalink is the unique Web address for an individual post, the page's permanent link.  It's a good idea to use the permalink and not the blog's home page because the blog usually gets pushed down the line by more recent blogs, making it hard to find. 

To see if you did okay, you can test if the link works in Preview.  Just double click and see where it takes you.  Then close preview and save your post.

With a little practice, you'll get a lot of use out of the Link feature in Blogger.