Blogging Insights # Leaving Links

On the internet a link is like an address or a telephone number. It guides you where you want to go and connects you to who you want to contact.

The link for your blog post is like your signature, your autograph , your footprint or fingerprint. It identifies your post. Today we talk about the usage and value of links in blogging.

TODAY’S QUESTIONS

How important do you think it is to embed links in a blog post?

How often do you link to your own previous posts?

Have you ever left a link on somebody else’s blog?


MY ANSWERS

How important do you think it is to embed links in a blog post?

During my first year of blogging, I paid for a plan that let me use the Yoast plug in. This plug in advised you to use three external and three internal links in every post. I found this rather tedious and since my blog was not a business venture I soon switched to the cheaper Personal WordPress plan.

In my opinion embedding links in a post should be a matter of relevance as well as personal choice. Just as images should be used to add to the value of the post, so should links.

How often do you link to your own previous posts?

This varies with several factors . The nature of the post, my time and inclination are some variables.

Have you ever left a link on somebody else’s blog? Under what situations do you think this is acceptable?

I have often left links in the comments section of other blogs. I feel it is acceptable in the following situations:

1. A Blogging Event : sometimes bloggers host social occasions where they invite you to leave a short introduction of your blog together with a link to your favourite post.

2. Regular Blog Promotion Sites : godoggo cafe is a site that invites you to post a link to one of your posts on “Promote Yourself Monday” and to another blogger’s post on “Pay it forward Thursday‘

3. Linking to a Prompt : When posting something in response to a writing prompt, bloggers link to the original prompt. This allows more people, particularly the “prompter” and “other promptees” to view these posts.

4. To illustrate a point or to support an argument in a discussion in the comments section.

When people use links in all the above situations it makes perfect sense to me. What I don’t like is people leaving links to their posts in my comments section for no reason at all.

I would love to read your views on the subject. You can leave a reply in my comments section. Better still, why not write a post of your own. Just remember to tag it #blogginginsights