Another great topic from 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog! 
The benefits of forward and backward linking of related blog posts:
- Offers readers an easy way to navigate to posts with a similar theme- and navigation is everything
- Or, in my case, links posts which are parts of a series (e.g. the never ending saga of my beloved Denchfields!)
- Gives a sense of cohesiveness to blogs which cover a wide variety of topics
- It is easier for the reader to click on an embedded link, than to select from tags or categories on a sidebar
Tags and categories are another way I connect related posts. For the most part, a post falls into one category, but often has a number of tags. I think of the category as a chapter heading, and the tags as a sort of index of ideas or themes.
When writing a post, I typically add links back to related posts, but as Tonia pointed out, I rarely take the time to edit old posts and add forward links. So, I am going to follow Tonia’s lead and spend 15 minutes today adding links to my earlier posts – at least those related to the Denchfields 
There are a number of wordpress plug-ins which facilitate linking. I’ve tried several, but finally settled on Related Posts Thumbnails as it seems to be the most accurate of the plug-ins which utilize thumbnail images, at least in my blog.
Thanks for turning me on to the Related Posts Thumbnail plug-in. I switched a couple of days ago and I like it. : )