Linking a picture in your post to a website

/ Tuesday, November 29, 2011 /
This article shows how to change a picture in your blog, so that when it is clicked, it opens another blog post, or even a totally different website.


Clicking pictures in your posts 

Previously I've described how to put a picture into a blog post.

By default, when a picture in your post is clicked, the file that is used to load the picture is opened, in a new window and at its original size.   This can encourage readers to steal photos that don't belong to them, so I've also described how to stop pictures in your blog from being "clickable".

But sometimes you may want to set a picture up so that clicking it opens up a different post, or even a whole different website.

How to change where a picture is linked to:

Add the picture into your post in the usual way.

Note where in the post your picture is - you may want to put some temporary marker-text (text that doesn't appear anywhere else, eg ZZZ) just before or after it, so make it easier to find.

Look at the HTML behind your post
  • Pre-Sept-2011-Blogger:  Click Edit HTML in the top-right of the editor window 
  • Post-Sept-2011-Blogger:  Click HTML in the top-left of the editor window

Find the code for your picture   (Hint - use the find-feature in your browser, eg Ctrl/f in Chrome to look for the marker-text if you used some).   It will look something like this:
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/tkoGx2454hA/s1600-h/Inserting+a+picture.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqd0ORSzsFLw269yIgNpniq9iCBgvm2Ag7tyItpuOTgVK8cMmwxa2myEKw6dB6gM3kHYQCiSwvB90OWCymZeQemXmdi3TlCRduwo2I6kAH29AkkM7Q3YQ3qTkvlCj1quoeI4Z_qB_BeYm/s400/Your-picture-file-name.gif" />&nbsp;</a>

Notice the part in bold, ie the href="CONTENTS"

Replace this with the URL that you would like your readers to go to when they click on the picture.
For example, if you want them to be taken to Google to do a search, the code would look like:
<a href="www.google.com" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqd0ORSzsFLw269yIgNpniq9iCBgvm2Ag7tyItpuOTgVK8cMmwxa2myEKw6dB6gM3kHYQCiSwvB90OWCymZeQemXmdi3TlCRduwo2I6kAH29AkkM7Q3YQ3qTkvlCj1quoeI4Z_qB_BeYm/s400/Your-picture-file-name.gif" />&nbsp;</a>

By default, clicking the picture will take your visitor to the link you give in the same window.   But if you would like it to open in a new window, add target="_blank" to the code too, like this:
<a href="THE URL TO GO TO" target="_blank" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguqd0ORSzsFLw269yIgNpniq9iCBgvm2Ag7tyItpuOTgVK8cMmwxa2myEKw6dB6gM3kHYQCiSwvB90OWCymZeQemXmdi3TlCRduwo2I6kAH29AkkM7Q3YQ3qTkvlCj1quoeI4Z_qB_BeYm/s400/Your-picture-file-name.gif" />&nbsp;</a>

Go back to Compose mode (so you don't get confused next time you edit a post)

Remove the marker text, if you used any.


Some more things to think about:  

Nuvola actions undoWill your readers realise that they should click the picture?   Unless it says "click me", some of them won't - and if they're used to Blogger, they may just expect to see a larger version of your photo.   So it might be a good idea to add a caption, or even some instructions in your blog to tell them to click the picture.

Also while you're editing the code, you might also like to add some alt-text to your picture link too, to make your blog more friendly for readers who use screen-reading tools, and for search engines / SEO.


What you will see:

At some times in the past, when you added a link a picture and then hovered over the picture in the post editor, your would see a double-row of in-post editing options:
  • one row had the usual options for editing pictures (which lets you set the picture size, alignment and caption)
  • one row had the usual options for editing links (with options to go-to, change and remove the link.

Today, as I'm writing this post using the new-interface editor, I can only see one row of options in hyperlinked pictures - so I need to edit the HTML again if I want to change or remove the link.


But it's quite possible that this is a mistake and that you can see the two rows of options in the old-interface editor, and that it will be added back to the new one too.    Fingers crossed.


What your readers will see:

When you readers look at a picture that you have linked to somewhere, it will seem just the same as any other picture.

For example, the picture to the right of this paragraph looks just like the one one at the top of the article.  But when someone clicks on it ...

Go on, click this one yourself, to see what happens!


(Acknowledgement: public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)



Related Articles:



Adding a picture to your blog

Making your blog friendly for search engines and screen-reader software

Stopping pictures from being able to be clicked

Aligning text and pictures in blog-posts

Integrating Picasa and Blogger

Changing the tracking ID for an Amazon Associates widget

/ Sunday, November 13, 2011 /
You can change the tracking ID for an Amazon associates widget, even after the widget is created and in use on your site.

Tracking Amazon widget performance

Widgets (aka gadgets) from Amazon Associates can be used to display certain content from Amazon on your blog / website.   Some of them are fixed format, while others (eg the MP3 widget) let you select a range of items from Amazon's stock to display.

In two of my blogsites, I use Amazon MP3 widgets to include snippets of songs that my readers might be interested in, without breaking any copyright laws.

If Amazon sells more than one version of a song, then I put in quite a bit of time choosing which specific version to include, so that a variety of styles are shown - this makes it more likely that my readers will see something that they like.

Because there are two sites, I set up two tracking-ids within my Amazon Associates account, one for each site, and use these to know how many of my Amazon visitors have come from each site.  This will let me analyse the performance of each site as they grow.




Problem:  assigning the tracking ID

When you create a new widget on Amazon, the tracking ID that is assigned to the widget is the one that is selected when you start the widget-creation process. There is no way to change the tracking ID part way through the process.

Changing it on the left sidebar resets the widget-creation process back to the beginning, so you have to start again.  This isn't much of a problem if you're just getting the Amazon code for a simple gadget with no selection or maybe a context sensitive one.  But it's extremely frustrating if you've spent 15 mintues carefully choosing exactly which versions to a song to include.


Editing the tracking ID after the widget is created:

Recently I discovered that it is possible to change the tracking-id, and other features too, after the widget has been created.   To do this:

1  Log in to Amazon  (either .com, or whichever one you are working with) and go into the Associates section

2  Choose Widgets from the top menu.  This changes the contents of the left-sidebar to show items relating to widgets.

3  Choose My Widgets.  This opens a screen where you can change of the details of the widget, including the name and the tracking ID - and has a button that you can use to Edit the widget contents, and one where you can get the the code for the widget.

4  Choose the item(s) that you want to update, change them

5  Save the change.



There is no need to change the code that is on your blog or website:  the tracking ID, name, etc are stored in Amazon, not in the code.


What you and your readers see:

The tracking ID has no effect of what your reader see - unless they're beign particularly eagle-eyed when they look at the URL that is generated when they click on the widget.

But it means that when someone visits Amazon, as a result of clicking on the play or buy buttons, the visit and the credit for any qualifiying purchased that they make are given to you using the tracking-ID that you chose.



Related Articles:




Getting product and widget link code from Amazon

Amazon Associates and blogger - an overview

Copyright, blogs and bloggers

Amazon integration is with Amazon.com only

Stop malicious use of your Google AdSense id

Google+ now has Pages, letting us set up and link with things that aren't brands

/ Monday, November 7, 2011 /
Google+ have launched Pages - so far looking pretty similar to Facebook pages with circles attached.  Potentially a way to link your business, sports club or hobby blog to this social network, without totally entwining the blog into your own life.

"Old" Analytics interface will end in January 2012.

/ Tuesday, November 1, 2011 /
The "old" Google Analytics interface is going to be "sunset" in January 2012. fyi, "sunset" usually means "turned off".

(These days, I use a netbook quite often, so I really hope they have the problems with small screen sizes not displaying properly sorted out by then.)

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