It's Party Time! Blog Parties Explained
Have you ever seen the term "blog party?" A blog party may be a good way to gain traffic to your blog.
Photo credit: FidlerJan from morguefile.com
Blog Parties to Boost Website Traffic
What is a blog party? Blog parties, also called link parties, are online link sharing opportunities. They're usually hosted on DIY or "mommy" type blogs but may be on any type of blog.
On a blog party or link party, you'll have the opportunity to share your blog post via a tool called InLinkz. It's a Wordpress Plugin favored by blog party hosts because it offers an easy opportunity for participants to share links.
With InLinkz, the blogs shared on your party are automatically added and updated as participants their blog posts. You can add one post, but some parties allow you to add more than one. You can add any post -- an old post or a new one. I like to add one new post per week and then trot out an old favorite from my blog for other parties.
Whatever post you choose to share, it should feature a good quality photograph that you have permission to share. The more eye-catching the photo, the better. The photos are displayed in a tiny thumbnail, so they should be bright and big. Little details tend to get lost in the smaller pictures.
Once you share your link, what happens? Well, with each blog party, it's different. Some party hosts request you to leave a comment or share other participants' posts. Read the instructions on the blog party itself. Hosts set their own rules. Most ask you to follow the blog party hosts on social media, and comment and share at least 1 or 2 other party posts. Some ask you to add a graphic or code to your sidebar.
Where to Find Link Parties
The best place to find link parties is on your favorite blogs. Start looking for them, because most bloggers in the DIY and "mommy" space (those catering or writing to people who have children, families, craft, garden, etc) participate in at least one or two per week. I'm a co-host for the #HomeMattersParty or Home Matters Link party, by the way, over on my home and gardening blog, Home Garden Joy. You're welcome to add your blog post to this week's party or the new on happening each Friday if you fit the profile of party participants: DIY, crafts, recipes, homemaking, etc.
You can also search for link parties online. There are also groups on Facebook dedicated just to bloggers promoting link parties.
Why Participate in Link Parties?
Link parties are a good way to generate traffic to your blog posts, but they can be a lot of work. There are numerous pros and cons to participating in link parties:
Pros/Advantages
- Can generate traffic
- Network with other bloggers
- Find other parties to participate in
- Share on social media and have your posts shared
Cons/Disadvantages
- If it's not the right niche, it may not generate enough traffic.
- Co-hosting a party is a lot of work and requires time.
- The traffic you get may not be the 'right' kind of traffic. In other words, it may be lookie-lous but not people who are truly interested in reading your blog posts.
- It's useful for consumer blogs...and may not work well for business related blogs.
I have included blog parties in my toolkit this year to boost traffic to my gardening blog, Home Garden Joy. One of my goals for the blog this year has been to boost page views and lower the bounce rate.
I've been participating in a link party as a co-host consistently now for six months and have seen my blog traffic double. More importantly, links are being shared. One link to an old blog post went viral last month, causing my traffic to soar. There's been a continual uptick since then, probably due to the search engines taking more notices of my little blog. At least I hope so.
The bounce rate on my blog, however, remains stubbornly high. I think it's due to poor naming conventions on my blog from years ago when I considered my blog more of a hobby than a true website. I am still revising many of my old blog posts to make them better optimized and more professional.
My participation in the Home Matters Blog party takes about 3-4 hours per week, which is a considerable amount of time to invest. However, the audience for the party of mostly women in their 30s, 40s and 50s is perfect for my blog and I have met and made many new contacts thanks to the party activities. If you're trying to reach a specific DIY demographic, participating in blog parties and link parties may be a great opportunity to boost your blog traffic.
For more information on this topic, see:
- Home Matters Party on Home Garden Joy
- Find Link Parties To Promote
- 5 Things You Must Know About Link Parties
by Jeanne Grunert/Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne is a marketing writer and freelance writer specializing in business, marketing, technology and lifestyle content for clients worldwide. She's the author of several books including Pricing Your Services: 21 Tips and Plan and Build a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden. Learn more about her work or hire her to write for you at Seven Oaks Consulting | Marketing Writer Jeanne Grunert.
5 Surprising Reasons Why Blogs Fail
Do you know the reason why blogs fail? You might think it's lack of interest, or maybe poor writing, but I'm here to share with you the 5 surprising reasons why blogs fail...and how you can turn that frown upside down and get your blog back on track.
5 Reasons Why Most Blogs Fail
One of the goals that I set for my website, Home Garden Joy, is to increase my site traffic and decrease my blog's bounce rate this year. It's not an easy goal. With WordPress reporting 74,652,825 blogs on their site alone, it's tough to crack the blogosphere with zippy content.
I decided to join a link party or blog party this year to help boost traffic to my own blog. A blog party is an online event in which a group of bloggers bands together to share, promote, and help each other with their blogs. As part of the blog party, I visit at least 60 to 100 different blogs each week. That's a lot of blogs!
Because I'm now reading so many blogs, in so many different categories than my own, I've gotten a really good sense about what makes a great blog, a good blog, and a boring blog. These 5 tips are derived from my own experiences reading 100+ blog posts a week.
Ready? Here's why most blogs fail:
- What's the point? Many bloggers have a hazy, unfocused blog that tries to cover everything under the sun. Today they're writing about parenting issues, tomorrow about fashion, and on Friday, home decorating. That's not to say that you can't do this, but if you do decide to cover a multitude of topics, make sure you do in a fresh, fun way. Having your blog structured around particular posts on a certain day of the week, such as Foodie Friday or whatever can give it structure. Keep your blog focused around one major topic and similar related topics. Structure in blogs, as in art of music, is a key to a successful blog.
- Where do I look first? If you have 17 ads blinking and screaming at me, all boldface type, no discernible headlines, and giant blogs of text, I'm skipping your blog and heading elsewhere. Don't try to cram your blog with every advertiser you can to make money. Focus on just a few or even none if you're starting out. Purchase a good blog template if you're not used to designing a blog. My site host, Web Design of Palm Beach, did an excellent job on the original layout of this website. I purchased the template for my blog, Home Garden Joy, on Etsy. Blogs can fail due to poor design. Hire a professional graphic designer to design your blog or purchase a license to a good stock template. Poor blog design turns readers away.
- Nothing new here. When was the last time you updated your blog? While you don't want to be a slave to blog updates and send out several day, you also don't want to let months rush by without at least one blog post. A good rule of thumb is to post 3-5 times per week if you want to grow your blog. Blogs can fail from lack of attention. Frequent updates signals your readers that you've got something to say. Don't neglect your blog.
- Nobody cares about you: Unless your blog is about an experiment you're doing or your life, and you're doing something incredible, I have to say this straight out: nobody really cares about you. If all your posts are about what you want for your birthday, your last pedicure, or the coupons you found online, you're going to bore your reader to death. Many blogs fail because they are written all about the writer and not about the audience reading the writing. Write with your reader in mind. What do your readers want to know? That's what you should write.
- Be original: Even though I don't want to know every detail of your pedicure, I do want you to be yourself. I'd rather read the writings of a truly original person than to read a poorly reproduced carbon copy of someone. Be yourself. You can't be anyone else. If you love puppies and heavy metal music, let your readers know that. Just because Blogger A is famous and Blogger B seems to be making a lot of money doesn't meant that A and B know what they're doing. They may be lucky, they may have good sponsors, or they may just have hit on a hot topic. I know of one writer whose blog gets 30,000+ hits a month. Now, I could copy what she does...or I could continue to be an original and grow my blogs in my own voice, style and tone. She's popular...but I'm not her. Blogs can fail when you try to copy someone else's style or tone, even if they're popular. Be yourself. You can't be anybody else.
Building a successful blog takes time. I know that there are stories out there of people who have managed to build a smashing success in six months, a year, or two. Good for them! Congratulations! For more writers and bloggers, success takes time. It takes practice. It takes blogging, day or night, day in and day out, until finally you hit that sweet spot known as success, however you define success.4
By Jeanne Grunert, President, Seven Oaks Consulting. Jeanne is a freelance writer, blogger and novelist with a background in internet marketing. This post originally appeared on Acorns, the content marketing blog of Seven Oaks Consulting. Feel free to link to it. Reprints by permission only.