Linky Tutorial!

*NOTE*  This page does NOT include a real linky.  It is just a tutorial!

If you haven’t used the Linky before, I know it can be intimidating.

There may be aspects to your own blog that you are unaware of.

I thought some pictures would help, and a bit of describing.

If you look at the top photo of this post…Think of the Main Blog Address as being Piringer St SW.

Piringer St SW is a destination, but it is not enough to find that particular house.  There are many houses on that street, just like there are many posts in your blog.  We need to add the house number to the main address to find the right house.  ((Don’t you love analogies?!))

The Main ((STREET!)) address of my blog is Quiltville.blogspot.com.

Screen capture of my main blog address.

See the arrow pointing to my main address in the top bar of the browser??  This is your MAIN address.  But it is NOT your post address.  It is the post address that we need in the Linky.  The reason being, these linky  posts are archived FOREVER.  And if someone clicks your link on last year’s mystery and you didn’t link to your specific post---what they are going to get is your whole blog, and your most recent post.  Not the post you wrote showing your progress on last year’s mystery.  It’s like giving someone the name of the street where you live, but not the house number. 

To find the full address of your specific post – click on your POST TITLE!

Each post that you write has it’s own unique address!

After clicking my post title, the address in the browser bar shows the address or URL for that particular post.  SEE?

THIS is what we need in the linky.  Copy THIS address.

Alternately, if you are on your main blog address (Look at the top bar to see that it is your main one) you can hover your mouse OVER the post title you want, and right click on it to get an option that says something like “Copy Link Address”.  If you don’t get that option, it is likely that you are already on the specific post.  Again, check the browser address bar at the top of your page.

You can always get to your "main blog" by clicking on the header picture of your blog.  Clicking that picture will take you "home".

With the address copied, you are ready to fill in the Linky form.  Click the button that says “Add your link” and a form will drop down.  The space that says URL is where you want your complete post address to go.

Again –your main blog address is NOT ENOUGH.  If you are on Blogger, your post address will end in html.  If you are WordPress it may be a bit different, ending in a / but it won’t be .com!  Remember to NOT include the http:// as that will be automatically added for you.

Continue to fill in the form and hit Next Step!  On the next page you will be able to click an image that you want to appear as your thumbnail.  From there it is fairly straight forward to get your link to work with everyone else.

PLEASE include a link back to my post within your own blog text so folks know where to click to view the linky and see who else is participating.

You can also link a flickr page -- but you can NOT link to Facebook.

I want you to have fun with this, and I know it can be frustrating, but once you learn it you are good to go!

Happy Linking, Everyone!