Trouble creating a link that will open category archive

I know this has to be SO EASY to do but I just can’t figure it out.

The theme I am using displays two columns of blog posts on the main blog page – the left column is Cagtegory A and the right column is Cagtegory B. The page shows the most recent 5 posts in each category.

The theme developer, however, did not create a “Read Older Posts” link at the bottom of each column, so there’s no way to get to the archive page displaying just that category’s posts, unless you use the sidebar archive widget.

I would like to add navigation code at the bottom of each column that says “Read Older Posts” and have that link or button open my archive page for the category. This should be simple, but I cannot get it to work.

I tried using the following code, however, it does not want to open the archive page, it just keeps re-opening the main blog page (and does not display any older posts).

‘<?php next_posts_link(‘« Older Entries’) ?>’

I put that code just outside of the loop as the Codex instructs, which doesn’t make sense to me… and didn’t work.

This has to be a simple thing to do, I just can’t figure it out. Help, please. Thanks!