Script, that asks for username as variable?

English Programming/Scripting
1

I want to write a script, that asks the user for an username.
I think so the script is written:
echo “Please enter your username”
username=

But how can I ask for the username?

2 
echo -n "Please enter your username "
read username
3

But how can I get it as variable?

4 
echo -n "Please enter your username "
read username
echo "Welcome, $username"
5

Thanks.
Now it is working fine!

6

And all in one line (not only the commands, but also what the user sees):

read -p "Enter username: " USERNAME

Of course the username is now in ${USERNAME}.

7

Now I have another problem.
I want a link to /1&1 on the Desktop and I did it so:
ln -s /1&1/ ~/Desktop/1&1SmartDrive\ Verknüpfung

One time it is working but after a restart the filesystem mounted in /1&1 is not available (of course I remounted, too)
Int the /1&1 folder are just more links to the 1&1 link and so on.