How to link and create permalinks

Oh yeah, we really should discuss that.

1. Make sure you're in "Compose" mode on the Posting page. Click that top righthand tab if you're not.
2. Type the word you want to display.
3. Select it with the mouse.
4. Click the green globe icon on the beige bar above. It displays "Link" if you mouseover.
5. A new window pops up. Paste in the URL.
6. Hit "OK".

You can also handcode the html or generate it via a What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get (WYSIWYG) program. More on those later.

To encourage inbound links, give each post a unique URL address (permalink). That way webmasters and other bloggers can direct readers to a specific entry like Tremolo Lovesong of the Yukon Mosquito instead of the main Road Remedies page, which features the post du jour.

To make all this magic happen, go to Blogger's Settings>Archiving, then select "enable post pages".

Students often ask, "how do I encourage people to link to me?" The workshop will explore various strategies over the next eight weeks, but following are a few places to start:

• Write specific, original posts. Don't echo chamber.
• Link to notable blogs. Drop the author a note, thanking them for a great entry and alerting them to the headcheck.
• Make thoughtful comments on sites with similar or relevant content. Your profile links back to your blog, encouraging traffic.