A “blog button” is a small image that is coded to be a link to your blog.

How do I make a blog button?
You’ll need imaging/photo software on your computer to make the images smaller.

The typical size for a blog button is about 120 pixels wide by 70 pixels high, or smaller.

You can save it as a .jpg or a .gif

Then What?
You will have to upload the image to your blog. If you use Photo Bucket you can upload it there and view the URL for the image. If you have Wordpress or MovableType, use the normal procedure for uploading images and view the URL for the image.

You have the option of just adding the little image to your blog, or you can code it to be a link.

How the heck do I code it to be a link?

1. Copy the URL for the image (button). It will look something like this:

http://www.yourblog.com/images/yourbutton.jpg

2 Add the link to your sidebar. Use the URL of your image and type the code to make a link.

The link code should look something like this:

<a href=”http://www.yourblog.com”><img src=”http://www.yourblog.com/images/yourbutton.jpg” border=”0″></a>

3. That’s it! It’s as easy as adding an image to your blog.

Wondering what that code above means?
The first <a href> and last code </a> are Anchor tags which are used too create links. Anchor tags are used to link to another website,  to another part of your website, another part of your page or an image. The </a> is a closing tag which ends the hyperlink.
If you’ve ever seen a website where an entire paragraph is a link it was probably a case of a forgotten anchor tag.

In the code above the “img src” identifies the image to be shown and links it to the surrounding anchor tags. So in this case the image is visible with a link to your website.
If you had text replacing the button the link would be accessed by clicking on the text. Here’s how it would look – <a href=”http://www.yourblog.com/images/yourbutton.jpg”>my website</a>

What’s a thumbnail?
A thumbnail is simply a smaller version of an image or photo

How do I make a thumbnail?
You’ll need imaging/photo software on your computer to make the images smaller.  The typical size for a thumbnail is 100 pixels wide.

Can’t I just get a little program that does this for me?
yes!  there are a variety of programs to choose from.  Go to cnet.com and search for thumbnails, or, here are a couple links:
1. Express Thumbnail Creator <– very easy to use
2. Easy Thumbnails <– free