Links aplenty!

Charlie Morris

July 5, 1999

Carefully selected links to related resources can greatly enhance the value of an article. In fact, many writers get paid for material that is little more than lists of links. Some Web publishers allow few or no off-site links, reasoning that they cause visitors to leave the site, instead of sticking around a while and racking up a few more ad impressions. It's up to the publisher to decide where they stand on this delicate issue, but as a writer, well-selected links can make your work more valuable in several ways.

Including links to related content shows readers that you've done some research, and that you are willing to let them check out other viewpoints. Most importantly, it simply makes your article a more extensive resource. An article that includes lots of appropriate links can be like a mini-cyclopedia of a particular topic.

Don't overdo it, though. Too many links, or links to topics that are only marginally related to your topic, are distracting and annoying. For example, you don't need to include a link to Microsoft's site every time you mention Microsoft in an article. Many writers don't like the idea of readers clicking away in the middle of an article, perhaps never to return, so they choose to group all the links for a particular article at the end. Others prefer to include the links in the body of an article, in context.

Any time you include a link, make it clear where the link actually leads. Consider the following sentence:

" Photoshop is my favorite graphics editor."

This is better:

Photoshop is my favorite graphics editor. For additional information, you can read my review of the product, or you can visit the vendor's Web site.

Links aplenty!

Further Reading