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Sunday, April 19, 2009

How to participate in a Mr. Linky / Blog Carnival

The first time I heard of a Mr. Linky I was totally lost. A "Mr. WHAT?" I asked myself. The thought of it was totally intimidating. But, once I saw it in action and did it once, it was no big deal.

Basically, you see two text entry boxes.

The top one, is what the other blog readers will see in the list. This is where you will want to put your name / blog name / title of your post... whatever you want the other blog readers who will see the list of posts on the carnival's host site to see.

This is a great opportunity to build recognition of your blog name and to draw new readers by a good post title. Use it wisely and don't get too wordy, but think of how you might draw a reader into your topic. Also be consistent across all blog carnivals in how you type your name. For instance, I am just about always Donna @ WayMoreHomemade when I link into a carnival. It builds name recognition to sign it the same every time.

The bottom box is where you will post your link. Most blog carnival hosts will ask you to post a permalink. "What is a permalink?" you ask. Well, click here to read a little, then come back and well discuss some more about it. Go ahead... I'll wait.

{cue theme from "Jeopardy"}

Ok. Time's up.

Now that you know what a permalink is, let's discuss how to get it. In my experience, the easiest way for me to find the permalink is to click directly on the blog post's title. The address now showing in your browse bar at the top of your browser should be the permalink. In blogger, you can also go to your "Edit Posts" tab and click on "View" for the particular post you want to see. Again, the address in your browser will be the permalink.

All you have to do now that you have the permalink in your browser, is to highlight it, copy, and then past it into the bottom box of the Mr. Linky.

Now, here's your chance to practice. I have put up a Mr. Linky on this post. Feel free to link up and practice using it. If this is abused and there is spam being posts, I'll take it down immediately. But I'd love to be able to leave it up for people to have a safe place to practice.




Here's to enjoying your next blog carnival!!

4 Comments:

Holly said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Holly said...

Funny, I just posted my first Mr. Linky. And have spend the better part of yesterday afternoon trying to "figger" it all out :0)

Love when that happens!

God bless you, sweet Donna! I have been looking for you on Life Today--have they shown any of the sessions y'all were at, yet?

Pam said...

OK...true confession... the first few times I saw a Mr Linky thing, I thought it was just a funny made up name for something with a big technical name.

(Oooooooh, it really *is* just called Mr Linky!) Silly me! LOL

Donna @ Way More Homemade said...

Kay - OMG! So did I!!! :)