As I have been gradually adding more features to my blog here I noticed something that is not widely addressed. At least it never came to my attention before as I was learning about creating the 125 X 125 ads I use in the right sidebar. I have done these ads before and not thought about it either. The common way to write the code for a clickable link behind a graphic or picture closes your blog page to take the visitor to the link they just clicked on.

This is a ‘non-desirable activity’ in my book! Yes, I want them to click on the link, but keep the blog there as well. I want a new page to open for them, leaving the blog page open for them to return to. You want this too, right?  . . . say yes!

You certainly don’t need to allow people to accidentally leave your page until they are ready to. And we all know how many times we get distracted by the links we click on and don’t always go back to the original site when it has disappeared from our browser.

If you click on one of the ads on this blog you will see that it now opens a new window, leaving the blog page sitting right there waiting for you to return. I know you don’t believe me, so try it. Hehe, just for practice, really!

OK, so here is what you do about it. All you need to do is add a little bit more code to the link code you already have for the graphic. All it takes is this –

target=”_blank”

Here is an example of where you place this minor bit of code–<a href=”http://makeinternetmarketingmoney.com/pdf-power-brand” target=”_blank”><img src=”http://www.makeinternetmarketingmoney.com/images/pdf-pb.gif” width=”125″ height=”125″ border=”0″></a>

The thing you must pay close attention to is the quotes ( “ ) see how there is a quote at the end of pdf-power-brand” and the two within the added code, target=”_blank”

The term ‘blank’ is for a new page, you may have seen this before.

It’s interesting to note that as I wanted to figure out exactly how to do this I visited several sites so I could look at their code, and you know what? I couldn’t find one that was doing this. Everyone was letting the new page blow away their page when someone clicked on a link. Sure this may be a small thing, but if you have studied the making of a sales page, the cardinal rule is that you never, never, never - did I say, never? Never provide a link where someone can click off the page and get lost. So why is it not important here with a blog as well?

If someone just landed on your main page and got distracted, heaven forbid, by one of your ad links and got taken away from the blog – got real excited, bought something and never came back. Maybe they don’t come back to receive all the great free content you have, get top know you more, and – well you get it.

So go fix your links that can take people away from your blog and you will feel like you’ve accomplished something – it’s called ‘saving traffic’! It takes effort to get, so take a little more to save it. Help readers get the value you intend for them.

There is a nice site I found that has some great tutorials that help with doing HTML. If you are like me and don’t know it well enough to remember exactly what to do a week later, this site can come in handy. They didn’t have this exact code example there which is why I had to extrapolate a little, but it is a good site for HTML coding help. It’s a resource I will use again, I found it well laid out and easy to use.

http://csshtmltutorial.com/

John Halderman

I will address how this is done with wordpress blogs, as that is what the people in Alex’s coaching group are using.

To start, what are ‘Trackbacks” and ‘Permalinks”? They are used when you want to link to a post I another persons blog in your post on your blog. This is another way to set up a permanent link with another blog. It is also a great way to come up with ways to get ideas for content for your site.

Now this should not be done in a trashy way, only if you have something more of value to add to what you read on the other blog. If you are not adding value for other readers, the readers and the other blog owner would see this as spamming.

It is also the accepted protocol that when you do a ‘Trackback’ which places a note on the other blog, that  you must put the ‘Permalink’ in your post to lead back to the other blog post. Both ways, not just one way to your blog from theirs.. I hope you get this, otherwise other bloggers will see you as a spammer.

First
The link you want to use to refer from your blog post is called the ‘Permalink’ which is the full URL of the separate page that the article is on, in the other blog. Don’t link to the main page URL of the other blog, as the articles will always be changing. Just copy this from the bar on your browser showing the URL of the full article page.

• In your ‘Write Post’ page where you enter your post, you can “insert a link” to some text that you have entered there.
• Just highlight the word or words you want to hyperlink to the other blog post page, then click o the ‘chain link’ symbol in the text editor.
• A small window will come up.
• Then, on the line, “Link URL” add the ‘Permalink’.
• Note, get rid of the ‘http://’ that will already be there, the link you copied for the other blog post.
• Then paste the URL link on that line.  You don’t need to do anything with the other lines, just click ‘Insert’ at the lower right corner.

Second
You will need to make sure your blog is properly set up for Wordpress to automatically do the ‘Trackback’ with the other blog.

• In your WP blog control panel,
• Click on ‘Settings’,
• Then ‘Discussion’
• In the ‘Default article settings’ section make sure that the box is checked at, “Attempt to notify any   blogs linked to from the article”

This function works if the blog you are linking to is also a Wordpress blog. There is a slightly different method to use if the other blog is not WP.

Third
Make sure that you allow ‘Trackbacks’ to occur on your blog. This is part of the fairness protocol in dealing with other bloggers. If I allow your ‘Trackback’ you should allow mine.

• In the same place you just were above,
• the ‘Default article settings’
• check the box in front of  “Allow link notifications from other blogs”
• Go to the ‘Write/Post’ page
• Down near the bottom of the page
• At ‘Comments & Pings’
• Check - “Allow Pings” This way each post you do is set to allow ‘Trackbacks’

That should do it.

If you then do a ‘Trackback’ and nothing shows up below the article on the other blog, they have not set their blog to allow this, as you just have. Contact the blog owner and ask them if they will check their settings to allow your ‘Trackback’ because you want to link to their blog post in one of yours.

You can refer them to this article so they can see how it is done.

Happy, happy, happy

John