Work smarter

Madigan made... a "blog button list" tutorial.

I reflected earlier about the recent blog party link debate. I am new to blogging. I thought that referring from my posts to a separate list of party buttons was a neat and reasonable way to link back. But given the opinions out there, I felt I needed to change my approach.

Do I add blog buttons to my posts (which takes time)? Or continue to refer to a link page at the bottom of a post (and just attend the parties that supported that approach)? As a busy girl trying to stay true to why I blog, I seriously considered the latter option.  But I did not want to give up. 

I figured that there must be a solution that was a win-win for everyone.
One that meets the needs of:

• A busy blog participant: she wants a quick, easy and ORGANIZED way to add blog links to each post.

• A busy party host: she wants a clear ‘shout out’ from a post to her blog and party.

I am not a web designer and I barely understand html. I wondered where to start. I knew the answer had to be simple to set up and change. I thought about using a scrolling marquee like my 'popular posts' section of my side bar. But that code (for my html illiterate brain) was sort of involved. I wanted something that did it all for me.

Then I had an 'ah-ha' moment! I played around in InLinkz for awhile. It worked!

Using linking tools may not be an original concept. I liked the end result and wanted to share.

It takes a little patience to set up the collection in InLinkz. But once you do, I think it is a smart way to quickly and simply add blog button images to your posts.

Jump to the end of this post to see how the buttons look.*

This tutorial does not use the actual html "button code" given out by each blog. The buttons are not the original size. But it shows the button image and a link back to the blog. I hope this is acceptable to the blog party community. I consider it a happy compromise.

AND once assembled, you don't need to edit or copy/paste all your blog buttons again! You just need to know a short piece of html code and the collection will show up in your blog.

Wanna know the best part? This method sets the buttons up in a neat and orderly fashion. Love me some good organization!

Here is how to set up a neat collection of links at the bottom of your post**:

(**I am not affiliated with InLinkz. I used its hosting capabilities because that is what I tried for my recent link party. I imagine the other link hosting sites can function the same way.)

1. First, find a quiet area in your blog to ‘tinker’. It might be under construction for a little bit while we put this together. Pick a low traffic page, make an older/draft post or a dummy post in a back-up blog. (I have a back-up/private blog where I write all my blog drafts. It is the same template as my real blog and allows me to post and see what the formatting looks like. I did this because I hate how the preview button never seemed to match what was posted. Grrr to Blogger for that one. )

2. Open an InLinkz account. Don’t worry, it’s free.

3. Create a ‘new collection’.

•  Name the collection and add a little intro to the list. This will show up every time you use it, so keep it generic. (i.e. these are the blog parties I frequent...)
• The default start and end time is 1 week. Leave it for now. We will come back and fix it.
• Pick a Linkz type. You may just want a text list. I like showing a button, so I used the thumb image.
• Select a size of the image. I tried 50 px, but that was way too small to read the buttons. So I went up to the 75 px. (I know, it will resize some people’s buttons and make them smaller. I’m sorry, but I hope they understand my reasoning. I like things neat, remember.)
• Pick the # of columns across. Your choice. I picked ‘Neat Fit’ so I could get as many as I could across.
• Pick a display style. The buttons you add will already have the blog name, so I used just the image only.
• Don’t bother with getting an email or setting a recurring meme.
• Submit! You will get a code generated.

4. Copy the code generated and paste into the html view of your page or post.

5. OK! Now we need to publish that code. NOTE: Once you publish the page, you’ll see the button to start linking. Technically (unless you are doing this is a dummy blog or other virtual way to draft) this meme could be open to your readers to link. It may confuse them a little. We want to add in the links right now and close the collection ASAP to avoid other people linking in. (but if they do, don't worry, it is easy to delete them)

6. Just like you would for a link party, start adding in links to your favorite blogs. I linked to the main page of everyone’s blog. I know some buttons take you to the specific party area, but I want to keep this simple. (hope they understand)

• This step is a bit tedious, but it is rather mindless clicking. I grabbed a snack and watched a little TV while setting mine up. You only have to do this once, remember?

7. InLinkz will pull up the images on the blog. For most sites, I was able to find the image of the party button from the selection. If not, I opened the blog and hunted around for the button. I linked directly to the image url listed. 

8. For those buttons that were not perfectly square, I did my best to show the bulk of their button.

9. Once you’ve added in all the parties you want to list, it is time to close the collection. Go back to the dashboard. Edit the collection’s stop time to the current time.

10. There – now you have a closed collection. You can just paste the html code anywhere you want that list to pop up. At the end of a post, on your party list page etc. It is 'closed', so there is no worry that someone will change your links.

11. How do you modify your list after you closed it?

• Deleting a link is easy from the ‘moderate links’ function for each collection.
• Adding a link is a bit trickier. You need to 'edit the collection', change the dates so the collection is ‘open’ again. Go to a published page on your blog with the list and add in the link (step 6-8). Once you are done, go back into Inlinkz and close the collection again (step 9).

This is not a perfect solution. Ideally, I wish I could select a 'check-y box' from the collection of links to show only the ones I am joining per week. But I can't remove links without completely deleting them. As a result, the list displays more link parties than I actually attend in a given week. It may be a little lazy to dump them all at the end of my post. But I prefer to work smarter, not harder. This list will keep me sane while still giving due credit.  Some blogs may get an extra 'shout out' that week (since I'm not posting there). That's OK with me. I list these blogs because I like their content and recommend them to my readers.

How you use this list is up to you. In the past, I linked up my projects to several parties throughout the week. My old parties page contained a long list. But I did not participate in each linky every week. If I added all of those blogs (even as small buttons) to the bottom of my post, the image would be rather large.

In order to keep the bottom of my post from going into information overload,  I am breaking up the blog week. I rarely generate enough material to post more than two projects a week. Two different link collections are a bit more manageable. So if I post in the first half of the week, I will join some of those parties and vice versa.

(I will make exceptions for theme link parties. When I have an applicable project, I plan to include a link back to that unique collection in my post.)

*Below is what will show up in the applicable post:

Yay!! I think this approach will work for me.

I'm going to try it for awhile and see how I like it. If you find a simpler way, PLEASE let me know.

(**Note: I am not affiliated with InLinkz. I used its hosting capabilities because I tried it for my recent link party. I imagine the other link hosting sites can function the same way. I am not an expert on this topic. I just experimented a little to see if it would work. If you have specific questions beyond what this post covers, you may want to direct the question to the linky host you choose to use. I am doubtful (with my limited web savvy) I can elaborate much on the information.)

Update Jan 2011: I should inform you that Inlinkz now has a small fee for its image linkys. I believe that they allow *one* free image linky. If you were going to use that free one for anything, a link party list may be the way to go. OR, you may want to check out the other linky programs out there, but I think that the all charge a fee now.

Update Apr 2011:
I read that Inlinkz just added a new software feature. It allows the link party hostess to *only* allow people to link up if they have a link back within their post. I think that this is a great option for the hostesses to help them ensure participants 'play by the rules'.
BUT Inlinkz initially stated that the website for the host needs to be in your post or page html. Using a linky collection would not register as a link back. Boo! But then after Amanda pleaded with the admin, Inlinkz was able to come up with a fix! Yay! Per their subsequent comment:  "The link is valid if there is a normal HTML link in the page OR an InLinkz collection that contains it." So, as best as I can tell, you can still use the method above to link back.

Posted in: about, blogging