What do I do with all these links?

Q: Andie writes, "I enjoy and learn from the blogs in the Muffin. I am not a techno-whiz, so there is much that I don't understand. What's this stuff at the end of each blog that relates to "subscribe to this feed?", "save to del.icio.us?", "share on Facebook?", and "Digg this!" What am I to do with all of these links? I really want to know....they look like fun. After you all quit laughing, let me know because I am laughing, too. Thanks for your attention, and again you're great women writers site. You all have my vote."

A: Thanks Andie for the kudos! And I'm sure many other writers have the same question -- you just asked it first.

Some of those links (such as Delicious, Digg, Stumble, and Outside In) are to social bookmarking (or tagging) websites. Think of it like you'd bookmark your favorite website in your browser, but you're bookmarking it for the whole world to see. These are great for promoting your blog and I highly recommend that you sign up for them and tag your favorite sites. It works as a news aggregator, and all you have to do is click on the links at the bottom of our posts and sign up! You can add comments, reviews, and discuss posts on these sites as well. Join the fun!

And, if you have a blog yourself, you can easily add these links to the bottom of your posts by getting a line of code (script) from feedburner, a site that burns your feed and allows readers to get posts by email. Instead of going to the blog to read the post, you can read it on your favorite homepage, such as Yahoo! or Google. It makes it easy to keep up with the latest from all of your favorite blogs and read them in one place.

Go explore, promote the Muffin, and we'll promote your blog too! Be sure to tell us when you do, so we know to recip. ;-)

Do you have a question that you want answered on our blog? Send all questions to: wowblog@wow-womenonwriting.com and we'll answer them! (Ann Landers style)