I know this thread is old and all, but for those that were having problems with the first item not being linked I have solved the problem with the help of my Super Moderator on my website. He noticed that the following line was malformed. I am showing the original and the corrected versions in the hope it helps some of you. Take care!
PHP Code:
$output_bits = '<p align="center"';
And the corrected version:
PHP Code:
$output_bits = '<p align="center">';