How often have you seen this in the comment box?
I see it in my comment box and on other blogs enough that it’s in my consciousness. Here, I often just quickly edit the comment to add a live link because it’s quick and easy.
But it’s also quick and easy to show you how to create your own live link that you can use in the comment box on almost any blog. It’s easy to learn and only takes an extra moment to write. And what you get is a real, live link to wherever you’re referencing in your comment.
But one note before we go on. Just because you’re about to find out how to leave links in comments, please only due so when your comment truly warrants it. Don’t add your affiliate links in the comment box. And don’t pepper every comment with 3 self-promoting links back to your blog. Both of these are prime ways to turn off the blogger you’re leaving comments with. Likely, you’ll not end up in the comment box, but in the spam filter. You may even mean well, just remember that spam is in the eye of the blog owner.
That said, let’s get on to it.
All you need to know to create a live link in the comment box is a very small bit of HTML. So, are you ready? Here’s how you create a live text link with HTML:
<a href=”https://dmiracle.com”>link to Dawud’s blog</a>
And here’s what it will look like in the comment box:
That’s all there is to it. Really. It’s that easy.
Just be sure of a few things and you’ll be fine:
- Be sure to open your your HTML tag correctly. Put <a href=”your-url“> just before the first letter of the word or phrase you want to make into a link. All the syntax as displayed is important – the placement of the < >, the = and the quotes around your-url.
- Be sure you’ve typed a (space) href correctly as show above. I’ve been writing HTML for more than 10 years and I often mistype href or don’t add the space between a & href.
- Your linked text. What will display, as you see above, is the text just after your > and before the </a>. What you place in that position is the text that will carry the link.
- Be sure to close your HTML tag correctly. Close your tag means after the last letter of the word or phrase you’re linking, be sure to add </a> exactly as it’s typed – the slash is important. If you don’t close the tag, all text after will be a link. Probably not something you want to do.
So just to review, the syntax for creating a link looks like this:
<a href=”your-full-url“>displayed text link</a>
That’s it. Now you should be able to add links to your comments whenever you like, easily, quickly and without trouble. Just be sure the syntax is correct before you submit your comment. Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
Also, one further note. Some blogware will not let you add HTML to your comments. So try it and if you get a message that HTML is not accepted, you’ll know. Trying it won’t hurt anything.
Have fun…
This is a very easy to follow how-to! I am sure that a lot of people will find it useful. And I am going to add it to my Learn Something New – Take the Blogging DIY Challenge post!
Although I have been doing HTML for some years myself, I too misspell href from time to time.
Edward brings up a bgood point, if there’s an easy way to do this it would save a considerable amount of time (over time of course).
Alas, there is a way: type the code in your browser and save it as a bookmark in your bookmark toolbar. Then, whenever you want to add the code to a comment, simply drag the bookmark into the comment box and viola, instant code.
Hope that helps.
Great tip Dawud. It’s interesting that even though I know the html code, I sometimes just copy and paste the url into a comment. It’s more out of laziness than lack of knowledge. This was a great reminder that adding the html code really won’t add a whole lot of time to the commenting process.
This post made me wonder if there might be a Firefox extension that lets you store little code and/or text snippets that you use on a regular basis. It would be great to be able to build a little library of snippets that you could paste into comments and posts quickly and easily.
Have you heard of anything like this?
Thanks!
Char,
Thanks – on both accounts. And thanks for displaying an example.
Ed,
I found these two:
I’d love to hear how these work for you.
Hey Dawud, a colleague suggested using alt tags and title tags additionally in the link tag. I have done that with pictures, but am unsure about the spamminess or the actual affect of this technique when doing it in the actual links.
You’ve made it so simple to understand and apply. Thanks so much. Many people will benefit from this instruction.
well kind of a generic post but i guess a bit helpful for the noobs. thanks.
Dawud, Great post on how to code links!
I get frustrated when a link gets left in a comment in its raw form and it is so long that it extends way beyond the comment box.
Folks should definitely code up the link like you described in those cases.
Alternately they can run the long link through something like TinyURL or urlTea to shorten it.
I prefer the way you described though because it doesn’t hide where the link is directing me to.
link to BobsLog
I think bloggers have to make it clear whether or not their comments fields allow HTML, as I think that it would cut back on the number of people posting url’s next to the text they’d like linked.
Especially if you can’t edit your own comments.
Thanks Dawud!
and Tanner, nice tip on making it easy…this has been bugging me so I’m glad to have a easy to follow “how to!”
I find it a hassle having to add the code each time to link >_
Thank you, that was helpful to me!
nice tip for beginners who dont know much about basic HTML
Adam,
Absolutely. I just wanted to cover the most basic link structure in this post to make it easy for people to follow and learn. Perhaps I’ll write a second.
Michael,
Thanks.
cartoon,
Meant to be simple for people to learn from.
Chris,
I get a bit frustrated too. That’s why I wrote this. Overall, I don’t really care from my blog’s perspective. What frustrates me is that people commenting aren’t taking advantage of the link love.
Robert,
Nice example….I’ll give you one.
David,
Then why add a URL at all? It’s only a few more characters to type in what’s usually a rather lengthy address.
David,
Good point and certainly a fair assessment. It would be interesting to poll people to see. I do know in a few cases people leave ‘naked’ URLs on my site because they don’t know how to create live links.
Dylan & Heather,
You’re both welcome.
Easy it may be, but why doesn’t your blog automatically link them up like everyone elses blog? 😀
Very nice tip – thank you. I actually get a little bit irked when readers leave comments with more than the original (website section) link back to their blog/site. It starts to feel a bit spammy in my mind. For their sake however I always let this go unless they start to take advantage of linking too often ;).
Dawud
You’ve been tagged for the “Does Most Leadership Suck Challenge”. Check the link for details.
Take care…
JWM
Thanks so much.
The tech advice is certainly good for people who don’t know it, but this is the real gem of the post, imho:
Yes! That’s a message some folks really, really need to hear.
gio,
Thanks
Blogs for Money,
Do you mean a wysiwyg editor?
John,
Will take a look – thanks.
Paul,
I try to give commenters as many benefits as I can so I don’t care if they link. But I am judicious in what they link too.
Bandana,
Sure…you’re welcome
Thanks, Dawud. In fact I have been doing that when the blog says some HTML is okay. I didn’t see that comment on your blog, so I haven’t been doing it here. In general is it safe to do it on most blogs?
Adam,
I know. I think those that try to leave too many links in their comments take the risk of being considered spam. Remember, you already have one link in your signature. So it’s best to add another in the body of the comment only when it’s going to add something to the conversation – which is really in the eyes of the blog owner.
Jean,
Assume that HTML is okay unless otherwise noted – especially on WordPress blogs.
Dawud,
You say adding links in a comment should only be done when it adds to the conversation, “which is really in the eyes of the blog owner.” That sounds as if you don’t respect the views of the other people reading the comments. Do you really mean that? I personally have gained by following links in comments.
Anyway, great post. It sounds as if several people were annoyed by the naked URLs. You actually did something about it.
Dawud:
As usual, your blog is wonderfully helpful. Thanks so much!!
Chris
Thanks!
Jean,
Somehow I missed you comment here…
With how I interact with those who read my blog, it should go without saying that I have the greatest respect, care and appreciation to each and every person who spends time reading and conversing here.
What I am suggesting is that if you want to develop a relationship with a blogger, have forethought about how and when you link. Everyone wants links back to their site – that goes without saying. But I’ve seen some examples of commenters taking advantage of the comment box to do little more than self-promote. Self-promotion rarely adds to the conversation, rather, it takes from it. And many blog owners will simply start dumping your comments in spam – which is what you don’t want.
Chris,
You’re so welcome, my friend.
Molly,
You’re welcome.
Ok, I presume all those spammers know that by now lol. It really annoys me when I admin my blog comments and I find loads of links in the comment. Maybe they got that idea from your post ? 😉
Coach Ron,
Likely not. Spammers know more than average users – that’s why they’re getting paid. What I’m trying to do is make it possible for the average user to get a little more link love. AND, I wanted to curtail people doing this: https://dmiracle.com so they could create real, live links.
I learned to do this almost six months after I started blogging. Whenever I see comments with links in them, I usually edited them and take the link out of the comment. If they are wanting to link back to their blog or a certain page, they can do this in the correct field that shows up with their name. Most of the comments with links in them will usually end up in my spam folder anyways.
This is a great post for people to learn from. I hope to be able to read more of your post.
Gaje,
I’ve done the same thing since I began blogging. I felt it was something kind I could do for commenters as a thank you.
Getting the title attribute is useful as well – gives some description of the link as well as the main link text.
Am struggling with link generosity on my own blog at the moment. I’ve taken rel nofollow out of the name links but not out of the comment links. I need to get in there and figure out how to do it.
Hi Dawud, thanks for the tips, but somehow I don’t think I managed to get it to work. Here’s what I did fyi-penang
I don’t know why people are so afraid of allowing other peoples links on there sites. Sure Spam, but there is easier ways to eliminate spam than a no or zero tolerance policy on backlinks. Links are what makes the universe go round for us. Spiders love links. So do customers. Even the spammy links to see why such a fool would paste such and irrelavant remark or otherwise spammy comment.
It makes the internet fun for the user in the end with lots of links all over the place to lots of different sites. Even the bad ones. I know this may sound wierd but it is common pyschology that if you give the user what they need without fail every time soon they will get bored of the net. But, if you let them lose a few bets here and there then the wins will keep them coming back over and over again. It is a lot like information gambling.
I think this kind of a strategy works best in conjuction with captchas or sign up procedures on websites like this one or blogs.
I try and remember it is not about the webmaster it is about the user. And, if you have ever looked at a message board some users really do like to post their rants and frivolous writing on the walls. But, they are still the user even if they link to some spammy site.
And, who are we to judge best what the next user might need or even want in a direct link, who knows? But, let the user find out for his/her own.
It is a wierd mindset out there of people who want to deny, deny, deny on some moral high ground called Anti Spam, when really most of it is just amaturish pranks by some one time wonder learning the ropes. I mean the real spammers get caught and get hefty fines upwards of 320 million dollars for really causing someones site damage and disrupting the benefit of the user. But us little guys, we should all be supporting us little guys.
I do this on my site by providing the would be spammer a fool proof way to add their backlink to my site. It’s monotored and regulated and spam free. But, comments and what not I just let go and let the user decide whats appropriate and whats not. I can even see the development of the customer base through sifting through the comments now and again. I don’t even read them. They aren’t for me. They are for the other people.
Anyways, I say let the Damned be Damned and let the Righteuous be Righteuous. Cuz, it ain’t in my rights to judge them myself.
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I Will complete agree with “floren cioomer” here “Design A Shirt designs and sells a wide range of casual and formal shirts and also Men’s Fashion accessories like Jackets, ties, cufflinks & socks.”
I always use the live link as it is more professional and not at all hard to do. I Know that there are many people who are confused by this and so I use a plugin that simplifies things for them, but unfortunately it does not work on my latest blog because of the theme.
Anyway, great post. It sounds as if several people were annoyed by the naked URLs. You actually did something about it.
That is a very good detailed step by step tutorial on how to simply put a link in by not knowing a ton about html. I have used log home builders a lot as a keyword link back to our website.
Thanks for the information.
I feel like with the advent of CMS systems, lots of people can easily bypass learning basic html, since they don’t need it. I believe this is a double edged sword though because the knowledge of basic html can help in so many ways with understanding how web pages lay out and what is behind it. CMS make it easy for anyone to own a website, but these websites sometimes clog the tubes because they are poorly maintained.
CMS really helps out in HTML editing.. Most of the time i forget the tags and this will help me out in any way.
It is a fashion & market leader in its men’s apparel due to its fabric quality and innovative designs. The process of log home maintenance in Ohio starts with a good professional inspection from Jaworski Coatings Inc.
Thank you for the tips. They came in handy for making my new site work even better.
One more tips I got from you. Thanks Dawud.
Hello, I can’t understand how to add your blog ( dmiracle.com ) in my rss reader
dmiracle.com – great domain name for blog like this)))
Dawud, love the blog and use it to improve my site whenever I can. I didn’t even know that you could include HTML in quotes. I will try it the next time. Thanks, Tom
It’s simple html but a very informative post for anyone who don’t already know how to do it. I would also warn people not to get to creative because I’ve seen attempts at changing font size, color, etc.
I am so glad you have touched upon this subject. I have like 1,000 comments to trawl through on my own blog. Thing is people aren’t checking whether it’s nofollow or not or so absolutely wasting there time.
Information, useful comments win everytime. guys.