Adding a signature in Thunderbird

After joining several communities I thought it would be cool if my Thunderbird signature would carry links to my identities in those communities.
This was a much bigger challenge than I anticipated but I will spare you the dead ends I ran into. Here is what finally worked for me:

• Created a file "ThunderbirdSignature.html"
• Put in this code:
  <span ></span>
  Contact me...
  <a href="https://www.xing.com/profile/Joerg_Schumann4">Xing</a>
  <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/jschumann">Linked.in</a>
  <a href="http://jrschumann.blogspot.com/">Blogger</a>
  <a href="http://twitter.com/jrschumann">Twitter</a>
  <a href="http://www.facebook.com/jrschumann">Facebook</a>
  
• Added this file to an account by selecting "Extras / Options" and clicking on the account where this signature applies.

In case you wondered how I got the HTML code into the post: I used a nifty little utility to convert native HTML into a version with escapes HTML characters characters. Unfortunately there is no way to quote or escape a complete block of text in HTML, so you need to escape everything which might look like HTML.

Finding the URL for your profile can be a daunting task, so here are a few hints which might spare you some time:

• For Xing I found no other way than to select "Start / Mein Profil" and copy the URL.
• For Linked.in you can see and edit your profile URL in your profile.
• For Facebook your URL is www.facebook.com/. It can be set under http://www.facebook.com/username/.
• For Twitter just add your account name after twitter.com/
• Blogger puts it before the URL: username.blogspot.com