CoffeeShop Blogger UnWrapped: Sharing Your Stuff!

I know there are so many of you that would love to offer your own actions, storyboards, images, etc. for download. I get asked quite often how one goes about sharing things on their blog, so I wanted to put together a small tutorial on how I do it.

I use MediaFire and 4shared as they both have free versions. MediaFire seems to be the one most used out there, but I have had issues with it sometimes not working. 4shared is not as "famous" but it has so far worked 100% and I find it so much easier to navigate. There are many other free file hosting sites, these are just the two I use for my blog. I will use MediaFire for this tutorial as it is used so often by other bloggers. I always upload to two different sites in case one is not working.



If you have a file folder full of files or even a monster large image file, you should zip it first. Every operating system is different, but in Vista on my computer you simply right click on your folder or image, select Send To, and then click on Compressed (zipped) Folder.



Go to MediaFire and either check to select a folder you have already made, or make a new folder you wish to use to upload this file. In this case I checked my CoffeeShop Actions folder. Then I clicked on "Upload to this Folder".



Click where it says to click, then "open" your zipped file, and click on "Begin Uploading Your Files". Once it is finished go back to your folders.



Find your new uploaded file, click on "Share" on the right side, and copy the "Sharing URL". Now on to linking this on your post!



I use the HTML side to write my posts, not Compose (see upper right side menutabs). First type the text you wish your readers to see, then add the link on the next step.



Select the text you want to link (CoffeeShop Vintage Action in this case), and then click on the little "Insert Link" button that looks like a little earth with a link. Paste your Sharing URL here.



This is what the html should resemble. If you are really paying attention you will have noticed that I did not really paste my Sharing URL in the screenshot as I was too lazy to copy it for this tutorial, and instead used my blog address. ;-)



If you preview or look in the Compose mode, you will see your text is now linked.

So if you have some amazing actions, tutorials, cards, images, etc. that you want to share with the world, this is the easy way to offer freeb downloads from your blog. :-)

If you have any questions, please post them them in my CoffeeShop Flickr Group!