As we were testing the process of leaving links in the comment section, we made the discovery that, if you simply paste the URL into the comment, it's treated as text and isn't clickable. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to make a clickable link under the Blogger platform (the one we're using now) and also how to make a signature block for your comments on the Blogger platform so people can visit you at your blog.
This is the format of the link:
<a href="URL of your post">LINK</a>
When you want to add your link in a comment to one of the daily letter posts, do this:
- Copy the line above. You might want to put it in a Notepad file, because you're going to use it frequently during the Challenge.
- Paste the line into a new comment.
- Copy the address (the URL) from the address bar for your latest post. Be sure to open it in a new tab or window; you don't want to lose the line of code you pasted in the comment.
- Delete the words URL of your post from the line you pasted into the comment. Then, paste the URL of your post between the quotes.
- Optional but highly recommended: Change the word LINK to the title of your post or some other text letting us know what it is.
- Post the comment by clicking the Publish button.
If you've done everything correctly, your link should look similar to this:
<a href="https://thesoundofonehandtyping.wordpress.com/2016/04/01/atozchallenge-advertainment/">Advertainment</a>
And your comment should look like this:
Go ahead and click on it; it'll take you to my first A to Z Challenge post from last year.
Many users, particularly Blogger ones, add a "signature" with their name and a link to their blog at the end of the post. Here's what mine looks like:
Here is the code to do that:
----------<br />
*your name*<br />
<a href="*your blog's URL*">*your blog's name*</a>
I'll have a video that demonstrates all of this shortly. Stay tuned!
Feel free to practice below using these templates for the link to your post and your signature. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments.
I wish you were kidding with all this, but unfortunately, you're not. This would have been my 5th year or is it 6th, of the Challenge and I have a bunch of things ready, photo support etc. Without the sign up list, which you say is too much trouble for the team, you have made it too much trouble for those of us who participate. We need a sign up list to work our way through during and beyond the challenge. I have lost track of the number of people that have come to the blog after the challenge, still working down the list. Those of us who work with a theme/category save a lot of wasted time reading only those blogs that hold interest for us. All of this is gone. AND requires this daily fiddling around to show that we are participating, which is my biggest complaint. I think you shoot yourself in the foot over this 'less troublesome way' amongst past participates who already know how much work this takes to do it right. Please reconsider!
ReplyDeleteStepheny again has echoed my sentiments. I am so disappointed. Isn't Arlee the main guy? Has he weighed in on how he feels about these changes?
DeleteWithout the list, there is no way to determine who you visited, who you would like to visit and how others will find you. Do we scroll through the comments?
Stepheny and Tami,
DeleteThank you both for your responses.
Yes, Arlee is the founder of this Challenge. Yes, he is part of the A to Z Team that decided to go without a list this year.
We didn't make the decision lightly.
Although we do hear what you're saying it is not feasible for the A to Z Team to continue to maintain a master sign-up list.
It is our belief that if you are visiting this blog daily, as you would be to find the list, that we didn't make this Challenge any more difficult by asking participants to add their daily links to the comments.
If you 'work your way down the list' looking for blogs to visit, there would be no difference working your way down the comments section.
In fact, instead of just a name/blog name/2 letter code, you might find a short summary of what participants have in store for you on their blogs, saving you time and effort on blogs you don't want to visit.
We hope you will join us this year and participate in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.
Heather
Tami, yes I'm on board with trying something new. In previous years in my Reflections posts I've often said how I'd ideally like to see things done with the Challenge--a flexible more interactive list that is not a traditional Linky list--but so far we've not found someone who can technologically create this and it would be too expensive for me to pay to have it done.
DeleteWe are offering a number of alternative ways to approach the 2017 sans Linky List, which to me provides a range of ways to do the Challenge.
Ultimately though, April (with or without the list) basically comes down to blogging in much the same way you normally would do it except with daily posting (an extra effort for most people which is what make this a "Challenge") and with an increased effort of networking on behalf of each participant.
In actuality, the list was a bit of a cheat for some bloggers as well as a deception. What I mean is that there were a number of bloggers who posted on their sites and just waited for visitors while never visiting many blogs on their own which missed the point of the original intent of the Challenge. The interaction between bloggers and the networking is the main point of the Challenge and not just being on a list hoping for an onslaught of visitors. One of our frequent complaints in the past was from bloggers saying they received very few visits to their blogs during April.
We are hoping the minimal (and it really is minimal if you put the Challenge in perspective with your normal blogging) effort we are suggesting will actually enhance the visits to your own site while at the same time help you make new blogging contacts.
AS with anything new and different, we never know what will happen until we try it. If things are a total bust this year then maybe we'll be forced to go back to the List as in the past or find a totally new solution.
Like many, I'm not a big fan of change, especially if it sounds complicated or a hassle or something like that, but we all usually figure a way to adapt if we like the general idea of the concept. But we gotta try because if we don't then nothing ever improves and often improvement can involve some screwing up along the way.
Thanks for continuing to ask questions and express concerns. At least we're all communicating on this.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Would it be possible to do a daily link list? I participate in several weekly hops that have a sign-up list, several of which only open on midnight of the day of the hop. The InLinkz service is free for individual bloggers, with somewhat limited features, and only $2.99 a month for individual bloggers who want almost all of the features. Has that already been discussed among the team?
DeleteThank you Arlee for expanding on that.
DeletePerhaps the Team could entertain the daily link list that Carrie-Anne suggests.
I didn't everyone's responses, I'm in a hurry at the moment but I wanted to add my thoughts. I like the idea of not having a ginormous list. I use to participate in a weekly A-Z Challenge, which allowed me to add my direct link to alphabet post for the day. Everyone who added a link I knew it would be for that day and I didn't have to hunt around on their blog. If you've done your posts ahead, then all this means is you just have an extra step each day and really it isn't a big deal. Hopefully, I can get myself in gear to figure out what I'm going to do this year. :)
DeleteThank you for the idea of posting the code ahead in notepad. I hadn't thought about doing that. I have already finished the posts for first few days of the challenge. Thank you again for this hint!
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad Blogger has to make life so difficult! Just what we don't need is extra steps to follow, but, that's how it is. Thanks for the tutorial. Wordpress will take your link without any fuss, although some people don't allow link posting on their blogs. I always have, plus I use CommentLuv, which offers a post link to the commenter's latest work automatically.
ReplyDeleteSigh. I am wondering if I will be able to figure this out. I hope when you have the video or when my techie son is home for spring break, that I can figure this out. I love the challenge and was thinking of doing it with 2 blogs...
ReplyDeleteBeth, don't stress over this as it's not a requirement. It's something that is helpful for networking with other bloggers whether it be for the April Challenge or not. I'm a technology dunce, but I learned this without too much trouble and now have been using this for years. I greatly appreciate it when bloggers leave a link in a comment to make it faster and easier to find them. Sure beats ending up on Google+ or some such place and trying to find the blogger's link.
DeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Thanks for the shortcut, but this seems like just as much work as the posts themselves! I am trying Openid but not having much luck. If I have to scroll through a bunch of comments to get to the blogs, I will have to maintain my own "list" in order to keep track of which ones I've visited, won't I? Also, if I'm not "Johnny-on-the-spot" getting my link in the comments, I think it will get lost. I'm also afraid the "list" will be very diluted if some link here, some only on FB, and some only on Twitter (which I don't care for and don't have time for). There will be the FB "A-to-Zer", the Twitter "A-to-Zer" and the Google-ites. I don't know where that leaves WP folks. I personally have never been very successful at commenting on Blogger blogs, and I am not willing to maintain a second blog just for A to Z. I'm very disappointed because I travelled thousands of miles and somewhat tortured my husband getting the material for my A to Z and was very much looking forward to it. I have even almost finished my posts! I envisioned scheduling them all and then sitting back and perusing the "List!" Now I have to do this complex-sounding link-up thingy every day before I can try to find other blogs to read. I'll give it a try, but in the end, if this is too time-consuming, I guess only my friends and regular readers will profit from my own posts. I'll try to at least find a couple of A to Z blogs to read from the comments and hopefully if I comment on some, they will find me that way. Bummed out, but hoping it might work anyway...THIS IS A TEST
ReplyDeleteYour link worked! Good job. What I have done for years is keep an assortment of signatures in a Notepad file and when I'm visiting and commenting on blogs I copy the signature I want to use on my comments and just past as I need them. Very easy that way.
DeleteAs for making it easier to comment on Blogger blogs, you don't have to necessarily start a Blogger blog, but simply open a Blogger account which should allow commenting on the blogs easy to do. Opening the account is very easy (it had to have been for me to accomplish it). Once you've opened that Blogger account, what I would suggest to help drive more readers to your Wordpress blog and something I've seen other WP bloggers do, is start a Blogger blog with one entry on it--a brief invite to your WP page along with a link that will lead visitors to your actual blog page. Also remember to link to your WP blog on your profile page.
I think you will find this all much easier than what you're envisioning right now. And you might actually find it to be much more to your advantage once you get used to it.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Well, it took about thirty minutes to do the above link with h open ID. Too time consuming ! I don't "do" google because I find it too invasive. Maybe I'll just do FB and make do with that.
DeleteI have have used this link for years. It's increased my readership significantly. Until now, very few people knew about it - you've given away my secret!
ReplyDeleteClick to visit Keith's Ramblings!
This is the way teachers link every day in the month of March and every Tuesday for daily Slice of Life posts at Two Writing Teachers, putting a short description and a their unique URL in the comments.
ReplyDeleteTrying it out here....
https://twowritingteachers.org/2017/02/14/time-for-sol-tuesday/
Or putting in the HTML link as described:
Two Writing Teachers New Slices Today
So if you don't want to do the cleaner link as mentioned here, just use the unique URL that links automatically when inserted
Mainely Write - Silver Birch Press Poem
You really don't need the signature link here - just where you visit to make it easier to visit, but some sites won't take a link, so be aware. Then I just paste in the unique URL with my name I keep these HTML codes on a doc to cut and paste to save time and error.
Donna Smith.... now let's see if the links made it!
Your links worked well. I rarely have a problem leaving the signature links, but you're right that on some spaces they don't work. I also keep my signatures in a file for easy cut and pasting. I've done this for years now and I'm so glad I discovered this tool.
DeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Thanks for the 'instructions' here ... I'll worry about it nearer the time I think ... but it's useful to have everyone's notes etc ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteI have never missed a challenge ....Yet, I think I will stick to what I know. Thanks very much for these hints but I have done most of my challenge should I participate.
ReplyDeleteYvonne.
Hey Lee, I just want you to know I use a signature often times when I comment on Blogger blogs, sometimes it works and then there are times it doesn't. I think it has something to do with the blog settings on individual sites. Mind you I do everything right. This isn't new to me and I get an error message and I lose my comment. It could be these sites are set up mark links within a comment as spam. I wish I had taken a screen grab of that error now. Have you experienced this problem? One thing to point out is if someone doesn't make their URL clickable, I've discovered with Mac I can highlight the text URL, right click and open the URL in another tab. I haven't used Windows in a long time, so I'm not sure if you can do that with Microsoft's OS. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteCathy, we talked about that, and we decided we needed to do the full link as above because of folks participating from mobile devices. It's a simple matter to just highlight the URL, right-click for the menu, and click "Go To" when you're sitting at a desktop or laptop. iPad or Kindle Fire? Not so much.
DeleteHi! I was just about to post about how Blogger sucks in letting us post comments, but there you go, Miss Cathy mentioned it above. It's actually a main issue I have with Blogger (which is why I'd choose WordPress over it anytime). Sometimes it allows me to post; most times, it makes me choose which IDs to use THEN still not let me post after even doing the robot test several times. So what I just do is try to remember to highlight and copy the texts first before I try to post. That way, I won't have to keep retyping everything and just paste.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. Always wondered how to do the signature thing. I use WP but have a Blog here that just has a link to the WP blog. That way I can easily comment on the blogs here. Works great. Looking forward to the challenge. Still don't have a theme though. Theme or no theme I will 26 posts.
ReplyDeleteTesting
ReplyDeleteJust Do it
----------
Wendy
Wendy's Waffle
I'm obviously doing something wrong because that's not doing it! lol
DeleteWendy, but you were very close because the link took me to your blog. Maybe it was the backslash at the end of the address?
DeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Success! I played around with it and finally got it to work on my own blog.
DeleteIt is always so good to post this!! What a time saver and convenience this is when you go about trying to visit all the folks who have visited you! I like to create my whole signature on a note or in an email draft (anything handy). Then each day when I start to make rounds, all I have to do is copy that and paste at the end of each comment I leave.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on posts, I'll know closer to the theme reveal if I will get to the challenge. My mind is open to listing blogs in the comments.
ReplyDeleteMy pet peeve are people who leave their blog listed when they know they are not posting or worse the few spammers who list.
I never got to all the blogs although I tried. But I found some very good blogs along the way. Some only do the A to Z each year. With people taking breaks or bored with their blogging it is always good to new have fresh blogs to read.
Freezerburned
ReplyDeleteI think I did it!
Susan Arthur
www.freezerburned-suddenlysusan.blogspot.com
I've been in every challenge....in fact I was THE FIRST to sign up year 1.
ReplyDeleteBut I don't understand one bit about the short cut, so am not sure if I shall be entering this year. Guess I'm a slow learner.
Yvonne.
Yvonne, just post your A to Z posts as you would normally do and blog like you do now and I think you will see that everything will fall into place quite nicely. I'm a slow learner too, but what we are doing this year is very much like we did this the very first year.
DeleteArlee Bird
Tossing It Out
Asian Folktales
ReplyDeleteAsian Tales
DeleteCHANGES COMING TO THE A-Z
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be my first time in the A to Z challenge. Just testing what I have understood.
ReplyDeleteDreams
Hi
ReplyDeleteI'm having a little trouble get my blog post to show. I have tried to follow your very clear instructions exactly but when I post my blog link it says "
Your HTML cannot be accepted: Reference "*http:" is not allowed: A"
The link was copied directly from the Blog post address line in google and is http://ancestralresearchjournal.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/applying-to-emigrate-to-australian.html not sure what to do next.
-------------
*Sandra*
OK - trying out a clickable link:
ReplyDeleteAre books better than the internet?
Trying out the name and blog link
ReplyDelete----------
Nancy
Filled to Empty
God is Almighty
DeleteEach time I think the clickable link has worked it disappears. I have created the link, completed the comment and then hit publish ... then nothing appears in the comments. Somewhere out there are a lot of my comments ...
ReplyDeleteHaving another go:
2017 Theme Reveal
Linda
Smith, the terrible tabby from Taunton, invites you to support him in the fight against malaria. A is for AlA is for Al (The Year of the Cat)
ReplyDeleteSmith, the terrible tabby from Taunton, invites to help him defeat malaria.A is for Al
ReplyDeleteA is for April Fools
ReplyDelete----------
*Barbed Words*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*Barbed Words*</a>
AprilFools
ReplyDelete----------
*Barbed Words*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*Barbed Words*</a>
AprilFools
ReplyDelete----------
*BarbedWords*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*BarbedWords*</a>
Can't get the clickable link thing to work. Trying this instead.
ReplyDeleteBarbedwords.wordpress.com
https://barbedwords.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/a-is-for-april-fools-day-atozchallenge-notanaprilfools/
AprilFools
ReplyDelete----------
*Barbed Words*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*Barbed Words*</a>
AprilFools
ReplyDelete----------
*Barbed Words*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*Barbed Words*</a>
AprilFools
ReplyDelete----------
*Barbed Words*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*Barbed Words*</a>
AprilFools
ReplyDelete----------
*Barbed Words*
<a href="*https://barbedwords.wordpress.com*”>*Barbed Words*</a>
Started with "A IS FOR APRIL" and now working to release "B IS FOR BOOMERS". Need to tweek my page design and confirm how to display my real author name vs. UNKNOWN. I have signed into Google+ so I hope that resolves that issue. Also adding a list of the A to Z Bloggers. My blog is: http://www.coolrvers.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteD is for DUNSTON! LINK
ReplyDeleteISnt Time Eternal? Read Dad's Watch
ReplyDeleteEightUnderratedKDramas
ReplyDeleteLINK
ReplyDeleteLINK
ReplyDelete