back to basics | sharing permalinks

Permalink? What's that? And why do I need to know how to share it?

A permalink is the link that will take someone directly to a post on your blog, rather than just linking them to your blog. For example, if I wanted to share my post from Friday on Facebook, then I could link to my blog on Friday, and it will be the first post they see. But what if I want to share the post again next week? A whole week of posting has gone by, a link to my blog won't bring up that post first.

So, how do you find the permalink? Click on the title of your post. You'll see a link similar to the one circled above. See how the title of the post follows my blog URL? If you share this link, people will be able to go straight to your post.

This is especially helpful in these days of Pinterest. How many times have you checked a pin weeks later, and not been able to find the article you pinned? Because the blog has shared posts, and the one you want is lost (unless you're really patient, and can find it again.)

Have a question to ask? Fill out this form.

blogging from the heart | 10 things you don't know about me

In five years, I've probably written lots about me. But if I think carefully, I can probably find something you know nothing about.

Like the fact that I have a tattoo. It's a butterfly. Yes, nice girls do have tattoos.

stretch marks and all

And I haven't visited the dentist for a long time. Because once-upon-a-time, a dentist said to me "the reason you don't like needles in your mouth is because it's so close to your brain." Without even considering that I didn't like needles, because I didn't like needles.

I was involved in student politics when I was at university. And I fiercely believed in feminist mothering (and I met Andrea O'Reilly at a conference in 2005)

I was going to leave Steve about six months ago. I was fed-up with the constant excuses for not-doing-stuff and the constant you-fix-it attitude. The not-doing and attitude is still there, I just deal with it differently.

I don't like peas. In any form. Because when I was a kid, I watched my cousins squeeze the guts out and leave the skins on the side. The idea that peas have an inside and outside just makes me gag. Silly, I know.

I don't like spiders. But I'm the resident spider-catcher in our house. I have an aunt who is so deathly afraid of spiders that she gets the pest control man to remove the carcasses after he sprays.

Families-of-origin are hard work. I'd love to be able to spend time with my sister in a way that nourishes us both, but I'm lucky if I can spend an hour with her once a year without losing my patience and yelling at her. And I don't know how to change that, because we live so far apart that we never get the chance.

On the other hand, my brother lives around the corner. Literally. On the same street as me. He used to live downstairs!

I used to be a waitress. And I loved it! But I loved working functions best; one-off events where I could help make it successful by providing a service that every one enjoyed. But I hated working at the footy.

My not-quite-finished university degree was a Bachelor of Arts. I had finished one major, in ethics, and was working on two minors, in counselling and family services. My GPA was a pretty average 4.8. I don't have any plans to return and finish in the foreseeable future (in fact, I think they phased the degree out in 2008, so I'd have to start from scratch somewhere else.)

back to basics | how to create a hyperlink

Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows everything about blogging, and that it can be intimidating to ask questions if something looks easy enough that you "should" know how to do it. With that in mind, I asked classmates from Blogging from the Heart if there was anything they would like to learn, and this series was born.

on blogger blogs

• highlight the word you want to hyperlink
• click the word "link" (circled above)
• when the box pops up, the top line will have the word you've highlighted, the second line will have "http://" in the box, type or paste your link here (you can highlight "http://" if you've copied a link and paste)
• if you want the link to open in a new window, click the box 
• if it's a paid link, click "no-follow"
• click ok. Now the word you highlighted will look like "Blogging from the Heart" in the picture above

 on wordpress blogs

The steps are the same as for blogger blogs, but you click on a picture, not a word.

Keeping it real - I didn't learn to create hyperlinks until I had been blogging for six months!

If you have a question, you can use this google document to ask me.

blogging from the heart

I've whined shared a little bit that September is a busy month for me. Mostly because of the number of online classes that I've signed up for (but also because I'm juggling scouts, scouts training, a special project, and life). One of the courses I've signed up for is Blogging from the Heart with Susannah Conway.

I've wanted to do the course since I first heard about it over a year ago, but the time was never right until now (and I'm still not totally convinced the timing is right) We're on day 3 of course material (sometimes, time zone differences are a curse!), and I'm struggling already. (surprise, surprise!)

But not for the reasons you might think.

At the moment, it's slow paced - identify some blogs that inspire you, write a mission statement, think about your page design. All stuff that I've been thinking about lately with my journey into blogging.

But the bit that I'm struggling with is that I feel like I'm the only one who has been blogging for a long time.

There's a facebook group for class participants to chat in, and there's been lots of discussion from students who are scared to post. Who can't get past the perfectionism of their thoughts. Or who want to figure out the balance before they put fingers to keys and start typing.

I'm struggling with that.

Because if I had ever stopped to think about the title of my blog, the words I shared, the quality of my photos, I may never have started.

And I'm so grateful I did start blogging all those years ago.

I hear it said over and over again in my life that to get anything done you have to begin. And I find that is never truer than when I'm procrastinating, putting off something, afraid to press publish. (I've actually never been afraid to press publish, and some of the posts I'm proudest of have been written through the haze of tears.)

How do you push yourself to begin?