7+ Tips On How to Blog Hop

1. Find the hops that fit you best

I seem to get the most hits off of urban homesteading link ups. My projects seem to fit best with urban homesteading, frugality, and sustainability/diy audiences. Once I started doing a lot of blog hops in that area of the blogging world, I saw many more hits than I do with say crafting or ‘mom’ blog hops.

My two favorite, without playing favorites or affiliations, are Frugally Sustainable on Thursdays or The Homestead Barn Hop on Mondays.

2. [Better] Photography or Images

I really want to be careful with this one because I do have a long standing love/hate relationship with this concept and I’ve already talked about this on this blog in the past. However, unfortunately, it’s true. People will click more when they like the image more. Honestly, I do run a lot of photography off of my phone, then through Instagram, then I run it again through Picmonkey. It does make a difference. I do have a Nikon DSLR, but I’m terrible with it. It’s on my goal list for this summer.

3. Track Your Trends

This is another one that I find a little uncomfortable, having been on the receiving end of emails about this. No one likes to hear this.

There are hops that I get absolutely no hits off of. Ever. I might get 1 or 2 hits, max, the entire time I link up. If I have time to link up I might, but this time of year I’m out of the house for work in 12 hour blocks. Sometimes though it’s not even a matter of what hop, but what day. Thursdays are terrible days for me in blog hop land. I have no idea why, but my hits from hops fall off to almost nothing on Thursdays.

If you don’t have a lot of time to hop, spend some time tracking when your highest hits come from and where, and center on those.

4. Try to Link Back

Try and link back to the person holding the hop. It’s generally considered polite. I admit that I’m terrible with doing it the same day that I hop, but I have a blog hop list that I keep in a page on my blog (the bottom of Columns and Parties page) that provides stable links that I try to keep current.

I also keep a Google Doc with links to everything I’ve linked up and where so I can go back and edit the post later.

5. Try to Follow the Rules

Again, this one is as much about being polite than not. There are some blog hops that I don’t link to unless invited because they ask for family friendly material and with the amount of horror content on this blog I err on the side of caution. If the blog hop is asking for sock knitting content, don’t link up cupcakes. If you don’t have sock knitting content, then you’re probably better suited for a different hop.

6. Size Does Matter

I don’t link up to a hop unless there are less than 300 links by the time that I link up. I’m not sure why but I don’t get hits unless I’m on a list before the 300 mark. A lot of bloggers suggest going to larger parties, but I find myself getting lost in the shuffle if there’s too many bloggers. Maybe it’ll be the opposite with your blog and you’ll get a ton of hits off of big hops but none off of little hops, but try to join a bunch of different sized hops and see which is the best fit for you.

7. Have Fun With It

I say this in writing a blog that isn’t monetized, but I don’t think blogging should feel like work. Blogging is a lot of work, but I don’t want to come home and feel like I’m expending the same type of energy that I do when I’m at the multinational that I work at. This blog is about being creative for me and if/when blogging starts feeling like work I back off from it a little.

Blog hopping is the same for me. If I wake up in the morning and think ‘Well. Time for yet another round of link ups.’ I don’t do them that day. This isn’t supposed to be annoying or stressful.

Honorary Point 8-Where to Find Them

So where do you even find hops? There’s several ways to do it.

If you have absolutely no idea, you can google a term like ‘blog hops Saturday’. It’ll give you some hits. Once you’re on a blog, a lot of bloggers have party pages where you can find hops that they participate in.

There are a couple networking sites that I use. I like these two the best:

Mums Make Lists

Networking and Other Linkups

They’re broken down by day so you can easily look up which hops are on the day you have free to hop.

Happy and successful hopping!

Please, stop by this week’s Inspired Weekends!

Linked to-

nifty thrifty things

flamingo toes

titi craft

a pinch of joy

twelve o eight

the chicken chick

this gal cooks

vmg206

the prairie homestead

pursuit of functional home

mamal diane

lady bug blessings

yesterfood

carolyn’s homework

the tasty fork

family home and life

adorned from above