LinkWithin

I spent Friday building a new clothes line all by myself, even poured the concrete for the posts and what happens?? It rains....and rains....and rains! I promise pics and a post when I see the sun again! While we are waiting, I thought I would share a little "blog improvement" something I found this weekend.

Maybe I'm way behind but I just found this widget yesterday and I am loving it! It is so easy and simple to install and leads people to other posts like the one they are reading. Just one way to make your blog a more popular place!

It's called LinkWithin and adds clickable thumbnails to the the bottom of your posts. Like this.....



Just follow the steps on the website to add it to your blog. It uses your labels to find related posts.

Oh and I have a new addiction....
Homemade yogurt flavored with pear honey....somebody stop me!

Script Error

I have spent the last 4 hours trying to decipher this script error pop up that locks up Firefox. (Sorry Callie!)

After removing numerous gadgets and trying to decipher several errors, I thought I would try the obvious and deal with the post itself. Since other posts were loading fine, it had to be something with that single post. I hit the edit button and tried the obvious first, I removed the labels, hit publish post and view and it loaded fine. Put the Farm Critters label back and it still loaded fine. Put the Dirt Cat label back and it locked up again.

Wish I had thought to check this before I deleted several of my widgets! So if you start getting a script error on your blog, try removing one or more of the labels you used for that post. I guess there is a glitch somewhere because other posts with this same label load fine.

I'm just glad I finally figured this out because stuff like this keeps me up all night trying to find an answer!

How to Make Printable Pages

Blog Tip #2

Jessica over at Country Whispers asked how I do my printable recipes so I'm doing a little blog tip for printable stuff. I am sure there are a dozen other ways this can be done and some of them are probably easier than my way BUT here's what worked for me.

I started a totally different blog and called it mycountryblogofthisandthatprintable. I keep this blog hidden on my blog list under my profile because I only want it used to store my printable recipes. No comments, no followers, etc. To get this blank blog, here is what you need to do:

Create a new blog.

Once the new blog is created, go to customize then choose page elements. Opened the main blog post box by clicking edit and make sure all the boxes are unchecked so there's no time, comment, posted by stuff at the bottom and save.

Click edit on the other elements and if you see a remove box, click it. You should be able to remove all of them except the header box.

Now to get rid of anything else that's left:
Click on edit html and make a back up of your template by clicking download full template (just in case we goof!)

Download the following file and go to edit html in your new blog. Right click and choose select all and then paste the downloaded code into the html box. (this is easier than trying to tell you what to delete and what to leave behind).

Blank Blog Code.txt

It will ask you if you want to permanently delete the header widget, yes you do so hit confirm and save. View your blog and you should have a blank page white page ready for your first blog post. Post your recipe (or whatever you are making printable) just like you normally would on blogger and then go back to your main blog and link to it in your post.

I made the little Printable Recipe graphic to use as my link button. You can also just type Printable Recipe and make it clickable.

Clickable Links in Comments

I have decided to share a few blogger tips that I have learned along the way. I find this one particularly useful when I am entering giveaways/contests/games on other blogs.

Blogger Tip #1

Do you know how people will ask you to leave a link back in your comment if you blogged or twittered about something but when you copy and paste the link it's never clickable in your comment?
You (or they) always have to go through the hassle of highlighting, copying and pasting into the address bar when it would be much easier to just click the link (and it looks nicer too). Of course, in your main blog posts you have that handy dandy little link symbol that does the work for you but you don't have that in comments so here's how you do it.

Use the following code in your comments.

<a href="HTTP ADDRESS">CLICKABLE WORDING</a>

Put your http address between the quotes. Add your wording where I have CLICKABLE WORDING and you got it!

It looks a little confusing at first but once you learn the code it's simple to do.

Here is an example of how my link to my blog would look...
<a href="http://mycountryblogofthisandthat.blogspot.com/">My Country Blog of This and That</a>

and when I do this in my comments it will look like this...
My Country Blog of This and That

Much nicer than a long unclickable (or is it nonclickable??) http address!

Hope this is helpful to someone!

Use this post to comment and try it out. If it doesn't work the first time....try, try again!!! Plus you can share some links to your blog :)