LINKY THINGY TUTORIAL REQUEST

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Our dear friend Joanne Noragon who blogs at A Cup On The Bus has a request. She wants to know how to do the linky thingy, and yes, that is the technical term.

I was scared of the linky thingy. I thought it might tun into an evil doll that attacks me in the middle of the night, or it might bite off my fingers, or I wouldn't be able to figure it out.

The linky thingy I've set up for the Cherdo and Janie Junebug Favorite Christmas Memory Bloghop (coming your way Dec. 22nd) is my first ever linky thingy. Linky thingy was much easier to use than I thought it would be.

If you are an experienced, many time linky thingy user, then please feel free to add to my simple-minded explanation.

Start by clicking on LINK. When you're there, you get step-by-step instructions. Linky is free for thirty days. After that, I don't know how much it costs.

On the right side of the Linky Tools page to which LINK will take you, near the top you'll see a box that says "New? get started." Begin by clicking on "sign up," unless you already have a linky account. If you have an account, click on "Log In", which is jut below the pink bar at the top of the page.

When you have an account, you can go to your dashboard. On the right side, you should see an arrow with a drop down list. On that list, you'll probably want to click on "Basic" for your type of linky. Linky recommends that new users get used to linky by choosing Basic, so that's what I did.

Fill out the form that comes up. You have to answer some questions about how many columns you want your linky to be (I chose two because that's what linky recommends). Of course, you fill in some basic information such as the title of the bloghop, and you write a little section telling what the bloghop is about. You also click next to a box that says what kind of blog you have: i.e., Blogger or Wordpress. You choose when you want your linky to start working, and when you want it to stop working.

After you've filled in everything that's required, your dashboard will have a new list. Click on "get the code." The code will appear, or it should--mine didn't at first, and I don't know why. I entered the information again, and voila! There was the code. You highlight the code and copy it (on your keyboard, hold down Control (crtl) and tap the letter "C" or right click and choose "Copy"). Now go to the blog post where you want the linky.

At the top of the blog post, the first two boxes say "Compose" and "HTML." You need to click on HTML. Go the bottom of your post and paste the linky code there (hold down ctrl and tap V or right click and choose Paste). Then you can click on Compose again. You won't see your linky, but when you publish the post, the linky magically shows up.  Linky will also let you make the code available in case other people want to put it on their blogs.

I have been putting the code on the bottom of almost all my posts so followers will see it and be able to sign up. My linky doesn't end until the day after the bloghop in case anyone sees the bloghop and wants to participate at the last minute or even the next day.

The linky page has instructions galore. I referred to them as I created the linky.

At the bottom of the box that says "new: get started", you can click on "Quick & Easy demonstration here" and get exactly that. The demonstration goes pretty fast, but you can always pause it while you absorb the information, or watch it more than once.

I hope this information helps. If you have questions, please feel free to contact me and I'll try to help. As I said, the Christmas Memory Bloghop is my first linky so I'm definitely not an expert, but it didn't take long to create the linky thingy.


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug