TIP - Backlinks

Warning! This could seriously damage your health! Following these instructions could send you loopy trying to jump from one 'screencap' to the next. I'll try and make things easier by opening each of them in a new window, but your 'method' of working may vary, so I shall leave it up to you how you approach the task. CTRL+N will open a new window (or tab) and that might be a better solution for you!

First, a brief explanation. The 'Backlinks' feature enables you to keep track of other posts on the web that link back to your article. It is also an excellent "link-love" attribute that, in its simplest form, raises your page ranking with Google!

You must first turn ON backlinks by going to your Settings | Comments tab and choosing to turn it on. You can turn OFF backlinks for individual posts by expanding the "Post and Comment Options" when you are composing your post and choosing the option.

Finally, in this intro, to answer one of the questions posed by Lee, you choose to activate a backlink on the post you wish to link to, not on your blog. The backlink feature will build a new post on your blog, but more about that later.

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1. Backup your old template!

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2. Edit the "nofollow" instruction that appears as the default in all Blogger templates. If you don't, Google won't bother to follow the link, which slightly defeats the object, huh?

When you've edited the template, SAVE it.

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3. When you find the post or article that holds your interest, and you decide that it is worth linking to it, click on the "Links to this post" in the comments section of the post.

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4. The next window that opens is the 'page' that the post occupies on your Blog. You probably already knew that each post has its own page and that the Blog 'front' page is a composite of all the posts, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case! At the bottom of the display you will see the "Create a link" invitation:

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5. When you click on that you are shown a new window. This is a 'Post' window that will create a brand new post and lodge it on YOUR Blog. It is actually a very clever bit of coding by the developers. You don't have to leave the Blog you are visiting to be able to post something new on your own Blog. Now, how cool is that?

The things you need to change have been highlighted in the image below, so I won't repeat myself here. Follow the cryptic clues I've added to the image:

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6. The following image shows where I made my own alterations and it is something you should consider before getting to the end of the process:

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7. This is the confirmation that YOUR blog post has been published. If you have your own Blog open in a new window, hit refresh and you'll see that this confirmation message is not a lie:

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8. The next image shows that, indeed, the 'Post' has appeared as if by magic on the blog of origin. Remember, you did this on somebody else's site. Way to go!

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9. My preference is to now call up this post on my own site and add, delete or edit the post so that it has a relevance to the post that it has been linked to on the other site. I've added this screen shot to remind visitors that editing in HTML is a cinch with Blogger, because it won't let you post anything that doesn't meet strict validation standards. Shame the templates don't meet the criteria, but that's another story!

For those that are unfamiliar with HTML, or just curious, the instruction to justify the paragraph alignment is missing a double quotation mark ( " ) after the word 'justify'.

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10. The next image is the same post that appears in #8. above with a little bit of eye-candy and text added. Something you would automatically do to any post that appears on your site:

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11. The next image is a shot of the original post that you elected to link to. Darn, doesn't seem to have worked!

Patience, people. The Google search engine that finds, itemises, logs it somewhere and then publishes it, is fast, but not as fast as you!

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12. Voilã, 2 minutes and 37 seconds later the link has appeared. That was the time it took for this link to appear; yours might take longer - or less time! The job's done.

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I know the explanation seemed to go on FOREVER, but I wanted it to be simple enough for a novice to follow without getting him or herself into a bit of bother. I hope I succeeded.

Standby for a variation on this theme ...