Programmer in training stuck on placeholder adding control. Please help

Question

I am useing the code below for a menu but where the item1, item2.. is I would like to have a linkbutton apear when displayed in the bullets. Any code I place in quotes will show the code on the page and not my intended resoults. Please point me in the right direction.

String[] mainmenuitems = { "item1",
                                       "item2",
                                       "item3"};                
BulletedList MenuBulletedList1 = new BulletedList();
MenuBulletedList1.Items.Add(mainmenuitems[0]);
MenuBulletedList1.Items.Add(mainmenuitems[1]);
MenuBulletedList1.Items.Add(mainmenuitems[2]);
ContentUpperLeftBlock.Controls.Add(MenuBulletedList1);
ContentUpperLeftSmallTextLabel.Text = "Main menu";    

Thanks for any help in advance,

David