Button, button...Who's got the button? How to make a button to promote your blog.

I am so impressed with myself right now. Seriously...I'm on smug overload! You see, I'm now officially Laura: Creator Of Buttons!

I've been wondering how to go about getting one of the lovely "Follow my Blog" button thingies that I have been seeing on other people's pages. After about an hour of Googling, I had not learned a darn thing! So now that I've pieced things together, I thought I would share my hints and tips with you! Because I'm nice.

Okay. Here goes...

Step One

Find the image that you like. Now you can use any image really. I made mine in Paint! There are packages out there to make this a whole heap more complicated...but who needs "complicated" when you can have "easy"?!

Step Two

Open a Photobucket account (it's easy and free...takes a whole three seconds) and upload the same picture there. (The picture basically has to be available on t'internet and this was the site everyone recommended...)

Step Three

Click on the image in Photobucket and underneath you'll see the HTML code. Click on it to copy. 

Step Four

Add an "HTML/Javascript" gadget to your blog page. 

Step Five

Getting slightly trickier here...

This is the basic code that you need to paste into the box of the gadget you've just added:

<img src="THIS IS WHERE YOU PASTE THE HTML CODE FOR THE PHOTO LOCATION IN PHOTOBUCKET"

<br /><textarea cols="20" rows="3"><a href="THIS IS WHERE YOU TYPE YOUR BLOG HOMEPAGE URL"><img src="THIS IS WHERE YOU TYPE THE HTML CODE FOR THE PHOTO LOCATION IN PHOTOBUCKET...AGAIN" alt="My Blog Button" width="125" height="125" /></a></textarea>




Step Six




Click on the publish button and when you view your blog, you should see the button there, ready to be shared! 




I really hope that this helps people out. I was really confused by the whole thing and found that this was the simplest way of achieving what I wanted! If you're still really stuck then comment/tweet/mail me and I'll do what I can. I can even make a button for you if you have an image available...as long as you spread the word about my Awesomesauce Blog in return! If you use any of my tips, I'd be much obliged if you'd share my button after creating your own. Thanks bunches!




Hope I've been helpful! 

Lx