Fire Star Press: Hyperlink Know-how Part 1

As promised on my last month's FIRE STAR PRESS blog post about putting together an online media kit which you can find by clicking HERE, I'm going to share with you how to hyperlink words. This month I'll demonstrate how to hyperlink using the Blogger blog service. If you use a different blogging or website service, the process for your blog or website host will probably be similar.

You can just copy and paste a URL, or web address, directly into a blog. For example, the web address for my novel, Family Secrets published by FIRE STAR PRESS looks like this:

http://prairierosepublications.com/OTHER-IMPRINTS/FIRE-STAR-PRESS/

I prefer to hyperlink descriptive words to direct the reader to the web page. It is neater, more concise and more descriptive. I can word it something like:

Read about Family Secrets by Zina Abbott by clicking HERE.

Or I can word it as follows:

Read more about Family Secrets by Zina Abbott on the FIRE STAR PRESS website.

Either way, by clicking on the hyperlinked words, the reader will direct the web browser to open a new page with the website page linked to the words in the blog post. Whichever style is used, I believe it looks much cleaner than just hyperlinking the URL. Here is how to hyperlink words in Blogger step by step:

1. Type the words in the blog window/page. Using your mouse or touch pad, highlight the words you want hyperlinked. Then click on the Link icon in the toolbar.

2. This will bring up an Edit Link command box. You will be interested in the section that links your words to a web address.

3. Next, on your web browser, open a new window and bring up the URL, or web address, of the site to which you wish to connect your hyperlinked words. Note in the example below I have one window for Mozilla Firefox Start Page, one for Blogger Fire Star Press and one for Prairie Rose Publications, which happens to host the Family Secrets page of their imprint Fire Star Press. Highlight that web page's URL and Copy using either the <CTRL>+C command, or by right-clicking on your mouse or touch pad and selecting Copy.

4. Toggle back to the page for your blog post. In the Web address window of the Edit Link command box, Paste the URL you just highlighted using either the <CTRL>+V command or by right-clicking on your mouse or touch pad and selecting Paste. Note that the words you have highlighted to be hyperlinked are in the Text to display window.

5. I always use the Test this link function to bring up the URL I pasted into into the Link to:Web address window to make sure the link is correct. If the webpage does not come up properly, I find out why not and redo the link so it works.

6. I prefer to have my links open in a new window, so I check the Open this link in a new window command. Then click on OK.

7. Once the Edit Link command box closes, the words you highlighted are now hyperlinked, or connected, to the website. When you hover over the hyperlinked text, information about the link plus options to either change or remove the link are made available.

8. And, once again, here is what that hyperlinked text looks like in the blog post. click on the following link and let it take you to the FIRE STAR PRESS page for the book:

Read more about Family Secrets by Zina Abbott on the FIRE STAR PRESS website.

Next month I'll cover how to make life easier by hyperlinking information you regularly use in Microsoft Word so you can copy and paste it to an email, blog post or where you want it.

Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, AChristmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. The first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, are now available.

The author is a member of Women Writing the West, American Night Writers Association, and Modesto Writers Meet Up. She currently lives with her husband in California near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She enjoys any kind of history including family history. When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.

Please visit the Zina Abbott’s Amazon Author Page by clicking HERE.

Zina Abbott Author Links: