Blogging Tips - inserting HTML

Last week we talked about HTML code . . . what is it and why, as a blogger, do I even need to know about it?  If you missed that post you can click HERE to read it.

So let me give you the real life example of what "inspired" this blog post in the first place . . . I organize a Disney Pixar Blog Hop.  I do what is called a "Write Up" for everyone to use . . . I will have to do a blog post about "Write Ups" too.  Simply, the "write up" contains all of the information I feel is important for each participant in the blog hop to have in their post . . . welcome people to the hop, a button image for the event, a list of who the sponsors are with links to their sites.  Since I want to make sure that all of those links are right and names are spelled correctly, if I do the write up and have everyone use the same info then I know it is right . . . or if it is wrong the ONLY person I can blame is myself.

So, I told everyone in the hop to copy and paste the HTML code I provided them into their blog post . . . but if you are new to blogging, how do you actually DO THAT?

Here we go . . . (again, my examples will be in Blogger)

In your blog, start a new blog post
Look at the upper left corner and you will see that you are in the Compose View

Now click on the HTML button to the right of the Compose button . . .

Now copy and paste the code that you were given into the while space (where you would type your post)

Next, click on the Compose button again, and this will bring you back so that you can see the blog post.

In my blog hop "write up" example I have a portion in the beginning that says

If you came here from {insert person before you here}

So I tell people to remove the text between the { } and insert the name of the person who is before you in the line up and make their name a clickable link to their blog

Then, when people go down to the middle of the post and I have a line that says

{insert your project here}

and I tell them to delete the {insert project here} and then they can create their post like they normally would . . . inserting pictures, typing, formatting . . . all in the Compose view.

LAST, in the send off paragraph for the post I have a portion that says

{insert the person you are sending to here}

This is where I ask people to insert the name of the person that is after them in the blog hop and make their name a clickable link to that person's blog.

This whole system helps to keep a consistent look and feel to the posts by all of the bloggers, and helps to ensure that links are working correctly.  Remember . . . all of the {stuff that I do between the brackets} is just my way of doing things.  Each person running a hop may have different ways of addressing how to deal with incoming and outgoing links, so AFTER you insert the HTML code I ALWAYS recommend that you go back to the Compose view and READ the post . . . and read it like you are visiting the blog for the first time to make sure that everything makes sense.

So, that shows you HOW to insert HTML code into a blog post.  Pretty easy.