How to ... Hot link to something

It's a basic skill and vitally important to make blogs work.

It's also really, really simple.

Let's say you want to link to a really great video games blog at:

http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/videogames/

Here's the code:

<a href="http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/videogames/" target="_new">The greatest video games blog ever.</a>

The target="_new" causes it to open in a new window, by the way.

If you prefer a more stripped-down version:

<a href="http://siteyourelinkingto.com" target="_new">These words will be hotlinked.</a>

DON'T FORGET the "http://" It'll cause an error if you do.

Another common problem is forgetting the closing quotation marks, so check that in case of problems.

UPDATED! If you want to link up your e-mail address, use this code:

<a href="mailto:yourname@express-news.net">yourname@express-news.net</a>

Best practice, by the way, is to always spell out your address on the page (in lieu of <a href="mailto:yourname@express-news.net">e-mail me here</a>!) because some people don't have their computer formatted properly, and clicking on it will just cause an error (or launch a program they don't want to use). Spelling it out leaves open the opportunity to copy-and-paste your address into the e-mail program of their choice.