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How do I link back to another site ? I am a total novice !

  1. jciriello
    Member

    I am a total novice and don't even know the proper terminology to explain what I am trying to do, but here it goes.
    I am posting about a new piece of furniture that I bought and want readers to be able to click on the word "furniture" and be directed to the site where they can purchase it.

    1) Is this hotlinking and if so, why is it not recommended ?
    2) What is the best way to direct readers to the site were I bought this piece ?
    3) What are the proper terms I should be using to describe this ?

    Thanks.

    The blog I need help with is not-going-out-like-that.com.

  2. timethief
    Member

    1. In essence that's advertising.
    2. Why provide a link at all? Suppose the place your purchased your bed or whatever furniture you bought was Ikea. You type "Ikea" as anchor text; you don't mask it behind "furniture" Links should always state exactly where they are directing to in the anchor text.

    The guide for creating links in posts and pages is here:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/links/

    This is the general link model:
    <a href="URL HERE">Highlighted anchor text here</a>

    Enter your anchor text you want to link to first. In your case it's the title of the page you want to link to. Then use your mouse to highlight that anchor text. Next click the chain icon in the editor and proceed to create the link to that page.

  3. timethief
    Member

    Hotlinking is directly embedding or linking to a resource on another server, such as an image or video, so that it appears to be part of the linking website — considered a violation of netiquette. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hotlinking

    The reason it's a violation is because you are using someone else's bandwidth without permission and bandwidth costs money. Here's an example: You capture an image from someone else's site without their permission and you link back to it. Thousands of readers click that image on your site which then uses up the bandwidth the other site that the other blogger is paying for.

  4. jciriello
    Member

    Thanks TimeThief. I would not literally use the word furniture. I would say for example, I bought this great console table and I want readers to click on the word and go to the page where they can purchase that particular table. The reason I would not want to link to the word IKEA or in this case BALLARD DESIGNS is because I am referring to one specific product and not the entire store / merchant.

    I want my blog to give people recommendations on where to buy certain items so yes, I guess I am advertising for certain stores. Thanks for the help

  5. timethief
    Member

    You may run into some problems with out Terms of Service and policies here. There is no blogger initiated advertising allowed on free hosted WordPress.com blogs and no sponsored or paid content is allowed either so I suggest you run this by Staff, and I have flagged this thread for their attention.

    Some links:
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/advertising/
    http://en.wordpress.com/types-of-blogs/
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/affiliate-links/
    http://en.support.wordpress.com/suspended-blogs/
    http://en.wordpress.com/tos/

  6. jciriello
    Member

    I am not on a free site. I paid for it and I am not "advertising" because no one is asking me or paying me to write about their product. It is my recommendation for someone who wants acess to the same product that I have.

  7. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    That should be perfectly fine, as long as you aren't using an affiliate link.

  8. raincoaster
    Member

    I don't know why it would be advertising. It's simply recommending, reviewing, and that's allowed.

  9. timethief
    Member

    Thanks macmanx.

  10. macmanx
    Happiness Engineer

    You're welcome!

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