Grow Your Blog Networking Party #4

Good morning, friends! Thanks for joining us again at GYB Networking Party! Let me first mention that it’s Slow Cooker Week and along with three other bloggers (including our lovely host Paula) we are giving away a really useful Crock Pot!

So how has your week been? Mine’s been pretty good. I got back from training in Atlanta on Thursday evening. Yea, so I really hate flying so I ended up renting a car and driving home. That’s how bad my fear of flying is.

Grow Your Blog

Joining me in hosting GYB is Deb from Cooking on the Front Burner, Tanya from Lemons for Lulu, and Paula from Call Me PMc. We love hosting this networking opportunity each week. We’ll also have four co-hosts join us. Interested in co-hosting? Just email us at growyourblog(at)gmail(dot)com and we will get you scheduled!

What is the Grow Your Blog Networking Party all about? NETWORKING. Meeting new bloggers, finding new content to follow, building your readership. Why is blog networking great for you? Simply put, it increases readership and traffic to your blog. How do you network? Visit. Comment. Invite. Communicate. These are key to growing your blog.

Do you have tips for networking? Leave a comment below! We may feature your idea at a future party!

Let’s meet the hosts and co-hosts of the party!

YOUR HOSTS

Julie from This Gal Cooks (Host)
Paula from Call Me PMc (Host)
Deb from Cooking on the Front Burner (Host)
Tanya from Lemons for Lulu (Host)
Raven True Blue Baking
Kim Enjoy the View
Aniko Place of my Taste
Nancy Bitter Side of Sweet

Each week along with the party we like to offer our collaborated suggestions on different networking opportunitie,s as well as tips on growing your social media following. It’s our weekly tutoring session, if you will.

GYB Networking Party Featuring Link Party Mentoring

Today I want to offer suggestions and tips for growing via link parties! I’ve broken this down for those of you who give parties and for those of you who attend parties!

For the host…

Set up your party!

• First, subscribe to a link service such as Inlinkz or Linky Tools.
• Set the code up each week within this service.
• Write your post and include the HTML text.
• Email it to co-hosts if you have any.

Suggestions for a successful link party.

• Don’t make the rules too complicated.
• Have a theme, this will help set you apart from the other parties such as food, project, crafts or hop link up. But, if you are too specific, you won’t have as many people link up or visit. Paula knows this first hand. She hosts Saturday Dishes party that has a specific theme each week. They’ve had bacon, corn, blueberries, and back to school to mention a few. She doesn’t get near as many links as our Marvelous Mondays party does and she promotes it just as much.
• Have a party button and feature button, this will essentially be advertisement on other blogs
• Have a consistent start time each week so regular followers know when to link up
• Email and post on social media as soon as party starts to remind everyone of the party
• Visit links and thank them for coming, this is important for growing your party and, in turn, growing your blog
• Promote links via all social media, when linkers see you’re promoting their posts and they receive traffic because of it, they are more likely to come back to your party and tell others about it.
• Offer guest hosting spots to promote party and increase traffic
• Feature inspiring posts each week from the last party or create a roundup and feature like shares

For the contributor…

Link to the party

• Enter your post title
• Enter the post URL, not your blog URL
• Enter your email address, this isn’t visible
• Choose the best picture of your post as the thumbnail

Follow the rules

• Follow the rules, if your host is going to take time to promote your post, the least you can do is follow the rules she’s set for the party.
• If it’s a themed party, follow the theme and only post items related to that theme
• Post only new content unless the party rules specifically state you can use older posts
• Do not post content you shared before at the same party
• The standing rule is to post only three posts from your blog, dont be greedy, allow others to have a spot
• Follow the host via RSS so you’ll receive notification when the party goes live
• Link early, if possible, this allows for more visibility of your post.

It’s just good manners! {Basic Etiquette}

• Follow your host
• Visit other links and blogs
• Comment on blog, tell them how you found them
• Leave a message when you follow a blog and tell them how you’re following
• Do not leave a message like this. “I followed you, here’s my page, follow me back.” No! Do you hear me? No! This is no way to get followers. You want followers who will read your blog, that you will interact with you, that you will become friends with. Comments like this will start you off on the wrong foot and possibly get you ‘unliked’.
• I know that likes from pages don’t calculate in the total followers that show. Let people follow you how they want to for goodness sake. Paula interacts with people a lot more from her personal page, Call Me PMc, than she does from her real-life Paula account. Why? Because she’s always on her page, not her personal account. I tend to do both. But honestly, I have been using my Facebook page more than my personal account. I linked Instagram to my Facebook page and I started posting more to Facebook. I use my personal Facebook page to keep up with a few groups I’m in and to keep up with family and friends!
• Now sometimes, even if someone leaves me a not so nice ‘I followed you, now you follow me’ message (btw, doesn’t that sound like in grade school, ‘I invited you to my party, now you have to invite me to your party’?) Ok, I’ve beat that horse enough. I will follow them, just because my page will show up on their timeline and possibly be seen by others. It’s a free ad!

LINK YOUR BLOG

LINK PARTIES THAT YOU HOST OR COHOST