If you run a blog or web site with any sort of Chicago-related content, here are some tools to help spread the word about your material via the Citizen.

• Add a Windy Citizen link to your site, blog or profile
• Add a "Send to the Windy" button to your blog posts
• Add a Windy Citizen bookmarker to your browser
• Add today's top stories to your sit, blog or profile
• Add today's top stories to your iGoogle home page

Add a Windy Citizen link to your site, blog or profile

Here are four easy ways for bloggers and web publishers to add a link to the Windy Citizen to their sites.  Simply choose the method you want, copy the code and paste it into your site or HTML template where you want it to appear and voila, instant Citizen!

<a href="http://www.windycitizen.com" target="_new"><img src="http://www.windycitizen.com/windybuttonlight.png" title="The Windy Citizen" alt="The Windy Citizen" width="160" height="93" /></a> 160px x 93px - Use on white	<a href="http://www.windycitizen.com" target="_new"><img src="http://www.windycitizen.com/windybuttondark.png" title="The Windy Citizen" alt="The Windy Citizen" width="160" height="93" /></a> 160px x 93px - Use on dark/colored
<a href="http://www.windycitizen.com.com" target="_new"><img src="http://www.windycitizen.com/citizenbutton.png" title="The Windy Citizen" alt="The Windy Citizen" width="80" height="15" /></a> 80px x 15px	The Windy Citizen <a href="http://www.windycitizen.com.com" target="_new">The Windy Citizen</a> Text Link

Add "Send to the Windy" buttons to your blog post

You can make it easy for your readers to submit your content to the Windy Citizen by adding a submission button below posts.  Below are three flavors of button you can add to your blog or web site template to encourage readers to share your content with Chicago.

Image: <a href="http://www.windycitizen.com/submit?url=LINK TO YOUR CONTENT" title="Add this story to the Windy Citizen." style="text-decoration:none;"><img src="http://www.windycitizen.com/sendto.png" align="absmiddle" border="0" /></a>

Text Link: Send to the Windy <a href="http://www.windycitizen.com/submit?url=LINK TO YOUR CONTENT" title="Add this story to the Windy Citizen." style="text-decoration:none;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Send to the Windy</span></a>

Img/Txt: Send to the Windy <a href="http://www.windycitizen.com/submit?url=LINK TO YOUR CONTENT" title="Add this story to the Windy Citizen." style="text-decoration:none;"><img src="http://www.windycitizen.com/lilbutton.png" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><span style="font-size:10pt;">Send to the Windy</span></a>

Depending on what publishing platform you use (Wordpress, Movable Type, Blogger etc.) you'll need to fill in the "LINK TO YOUR CONTENT" differently.

For Wordpress: <?php the_permalink() ?>

For Movable Type: <$MTEntryPermalink$>

For Blogger: <$BlogItemPermalinkUrl$>

If you have questions about adding these links to your blog, post them to the Help Forum.

Windy Citizen Browser Bookmarklet

The Citizen's browser bookmarklet makes sharing stories on the site easier than ever.

• Add the bookmarklet to your browser shortcuts by dragging the following link to it:  Citizen Share
• When you find a web page you want to share on the Citizen, just click the bookmarklet while on the page.
• The TItle and URL fields will fill in automatically (you might need to edit them down)
• The summary field will fill up with any text you've highlighted with your mouse at the moment you click the bookmarklet.
• Enjoy!

Add today's top stories to your site

To embed a widget of the day's top stories (like the "Today's Top Stories" box over to the right) to your blog, site or social networking profile, copy and paste the code below.  You can change the color values to better fit your design.

Adding current front page stories to your iGoogle

To add a widget of today's top stories to your iGoogle home page, click this link and follow the instructions.

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If there's another format or tool out there that I've overlooked, post your request to the help forum and we'll get to it.

-Brad