Do you like to participate in Linky Parties? Maybe you don’t know what one is. A Linky Party is where 1 or more bloggers “host” a blog post where you can put a link back to your blog for a specific topic or theme. Many more people will potentially visit your blog thereby possibly increasing your followers. A few months ago was the first I had ever heard of one and had no idea how to do it or what the benefit might be for them or me.
I’m on Facebook and my name is Kalamitykelli. I love to can but have a terrible time cooking. I’m trying to learn to cook this year. As part of that, I “liked” several cooking Facebook (FB) pages. One of them was The Country Cook. At some point, I happened to be home on a Friday morning and she posted that it was time to link up, with her other hosts, for the Weekly Potluck recipe Linky Party! She sounded excited so I clicked on the link, which took me to her blog (didn’t know she had one). I scrolled down, looking at featured recipes from the week before and eventually I made it to the instructions on how to link up. The first instruction said, “we blog, we Facebook, we pin, etc…” you must follow each of us on at least ONE of those and then follow the instructions below to link up!
First – there is Blogger Etiquette and when your host asks you to do something, do it! So, I clicked on the links to each of the FB pages for the hosts and liked them. Then I scrolled on down – and panicked!! What’s button? How do I grab it? What? What? What?
Listen, I’m not a stupid woman – I have 3 college degrees and I work on a computer every single work day. I not only read government policy, I help write that darn stuff – I’m used to complicated stuff! But, I could not figure out what to do. I was also a little afraid of it. So, I didn’t do it. But later that day, I came back and clicked on many recipes and began following several bloggers.
Friday night I talked with my daughter about it. She pulled it up and said, “I can do this in about 5 minutes mom, I’ll do it for you”. I told her that would be great and next weekend we would. I felt no sense of urgency. She said we had several days to post so she would do it then – what recipe did I want to post. I told her to just name it and put the picture on and link it to my home page . Uh, nope – she said that wasn’t following the rules. Oh! Okay – gotta’ follow the rules then. She put it on. The next day I didn’t look at the dashboard of my blog until about noon or so……….I was blown away!! The number of people viewing my blog had more than doubled from the highest number to date AND I had 6 new followers. Boy did I like Linky Parties!!!
Next week, she put it on again and then I found a Linky Party for repurposing and asked her to put one on there too. Sunday afternoon, I found several recipes I liked and then went over to the DIY blog. I would find something I liked, click on it, and it would bring me to something completely off the subject I clicked on. At first, I thought it was me – but it wasn’t. Some people don’t know how to link up and some people think they can just send it to the Home page of their blog and make people root around within, find what they want and then that person will want to follow them. WRONG!!! It ticks me and a million others off!
I tried several other DIY Linky Parties and found the same thing. I finally quit that and someday I may have my own – I really want to do a canning Linky Party – someday. But I do Weekend Potluck every single week.
This past Thursday night, I got a post on my blog from The Country Cook that said she hoped I came over to Weekend Potluck the next day because I would be surprised. I thought to myself, “Isn’t she sweet? She’s never invited me personally before .”
I had learned to link up by then but I had to go to work so my daughter, who is on maternity leave, said she would. About 7:15 Central Time she emailed me and said I had been featured! Really? Me? The Domestically Impaired??? Wow!
When I got home I pulled up the blog and read what it said. I was featured because they liked my recipe, but the most viewed and the most interesting recipes didn’t get to because they didn’t follow the rules. Most likely, it was because they skipped the instructions or just didn’t really understand them. Maybe a few didn’t care – but I’ve only met incredibly nice people on there so I doubt it. Some people, like me, just need to see it done.
Because I was a featured recipe on Weekend Potluck #15 I watched my views on the dashboard pretty closely. You cannot imagine the power that those 5 women have!!
I can’t tell you how they have increased my viewership and the number of people following me. My graph on dashboard became so high over the last few days I hardly see the tops of the graphs for other days now.
As a thank you and to help all the people who want to participate but don’t know how and don’t have a daughter to help them out: My daughter and son-in-law spent last night making a step-by-step video showing you how to link up to any Linky Party you want! She used Weekend Potluck and The Country Cook in particular as the demonstration but it works wherever you want to link. I hope you enjoy and learn from it. If you know someone who wants to link up but doesn’t know how, send them the link to this blog post and we can show them too.
To: The Country Cook, Sunflower Supper Club, 4 Little Fergusons, The Better Baker, and Meet Penny – Thank you from the bottom of my heart and I hope this helps increase the number of people participating and those who do – follow your rules and conduct themselves with the proper blogger etiquette. Love you guys!!!
Ahh! LOVE THIS! You are too sweet! I am going to go send this to the other girls right now! 🙂
I actually sent it to all of you on FB as a thank you gift. It’s being repinned like crazy right now on pintrest. I’m really glad you like it!!
YOU ROCK Girl! Thanks ever soooo much for this very lovely post – and promo!! We – at Weekend Potluck – are all just tickled to pieces that you’re so tickled to pieces over that feature. =) I KNOW very well how that rise in numbers and burst in confidence feel. Congrats to you! You are a star to us 5 hostesses. Looking forward to what you share next weekend!! You may end up having to change the name of your blog. Hugs!
I’m so glad you like it! I heard from 4 little Fergusons as well. She seemed pleased. My daughter is pretty proud that she was able to do something constructive right now – she gave birth 2 weeks ago. I hope this helps so many more people to participate, not just in yours but in everyone’s, but YouTube now has a video of all yours…..so you should hang around a while! 🙂 I’ve already got next week’s in the bag!
Thanks so much! This was very sweet of you! I logged on to my facebook this evening and saw your link. I’m looking forward to watching the video. I started our blog last summer and just about the same thing happened to me. We were not original hosts of the weekend potluck and we had a recipe featured and we just took off as well! So exciting for you! I feel really honored to be a part of this little group and I love that I am getting to meet other bloggers like you! Have a great week and we can’t wait to see what you bring next weekend!
Thanks Kim. I had so idea that the party participation was so important! At my computer mastery level (if you can actually call it mastery) I’m very lucky to have 3 children who can help me out – sort of like I used to set my mom and dad’s VCR I guess. Ha!
Popular woman my friend! I will be participating in my first linking party soon so this post was perfect timing 😀
Thank you!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Yay! I was going to say something to you the last time you posted a recipe because I think your recipes are so great and lots of people would love them! You will do well. Please let me know if the video helped!!
Oh my gracious!!! This is some serious awesomeness!! Your daughter and son in law are so talented. We definitely need to share this. Thank you SO much for taking the time to make this!! I’m kinda giggling right now seeing my page on the video…hee hee.
I am so thrilled that you saw a rise in the hits to your blog. You certainly deserve it. I really can’t tell you how sweet it was of you to do this. So amazing!!
You are so sweet Brandie! I’m glad you like it and Holli has been looking for your approval – she is more relaxed now. You never know how someone will react, even when you do something with the best of intentions. If you will look at the other comments, if you can see them, at least 1 or 2 mention that I brought up blogger etiquette – I’m glad I threw that in! Please feel free to share with any and everyone!
Thanks again! I think this will definitely help. Blogger etiquette is important & I’m glad you mentioned it. We all sometimes make honest mistakes too. Hey, we’re all just a big community so we gotta look out for each other!
Great post! I think you’re right – many bloggers simply don’t know there is a blogger etiquette. It’s always helpful to learn from like-minded individuals. Have a great week!
Thank you so much! Please feel free to share – I think the more we mingle together, using good bloggre etiquette of course, the more we help each other!
Very helpful! I had never heard of a Linky Party…now I know how, if it comes up. Thank you.
Oh, I’m telling you: Go seek them out! I love the one I participate in. I can’t tell you how MUCH it benefits me (and the hosts as well). These ladies practice excellent blogger-host etiquette and my part was just about blogger-participant etiquette. Well, that and actually HOW to do it. LInky is a great way to go! I want to encourage you to do it because you really make some tasty looking items! One day I’m going to have a Canning Linky Party and I’ll invite you first thing! 🙂
I still have to figure out how to host a Linky. Every time I try to figure it out I get distracted by something else. I am willing myself to get it done before June!
Yay! Can’t wait to see it and even participate!
Thank you so much for posting this! I’m new to blogging but have read so many blogs with linky parties & had no idea how to join now that I have a blog. This was so helpful. Thanks again!
You are more than welcome! My daughter and her husband actually did it – I would have never figured it out on my own! Please share with whomever you like. Please come back and visit anytime!
I cannot thank you enough for this info! I have been trying to figure this out and have been so frustrated! Thank you!
Lindsey Turner
http://thriftandshout.blogspot.com
Isn’t it confusing?!?! My daughter and her husband are the ones who did the video for me because had it not been for them, I would have never been able to link up for the first time. I will pass on your good words to them. I promise – after you do it a couple of times you will be able to breeze through it quickly. So glad you stopped by and hope you come back again. I must go visit your blog as I love a good bargain! KK
Thank you so much for posting this explanation! I have wanted to link up wo Weekend Potluck for ages, and like you just didn’t bother because the rules weren’t clear.
ha! I’m so glad – please start with the pimento cheese recipe!! I love it. I also left you a comment in your “about” setion……….I must follow yoU!
Will do! Next Friday it is 🙂 And I’m definitely following you, too!
thank you so much for this very clear tutorial.
You are very welcome and you can use this to link back to for others anytime you want! I generally have at least 2-3 link party blogs that use it each week. And, if you forget – it’s a nice refresher! 🙂 I’ve used it myself.
Thank you so much for this post! I found it when I was trying to figure out how to correctly participate in linky parties today! I couldn’t figure out what to do with the button or text provided – and it made me feel a LOT better when you admitted that you had trouble with this concept too! Your video was helpful, and I’m going to go try it now. I really like your blog!
Susan – I’m so glad you found the post helpful! It’s been so long ago that I forget about the post until every so often I get a comment! If you know anyone who needs help, please feel free to share it. Thanks for dropping by and please come back again!
I found your blog through Pinterest and was intrigued with your about section. I learned to preserve fruits and veggies with my Grandma, too. She would come to my house at the end of every summer and we would preserve all kinds of things – it was so much fun. She’s gone now, and I miss her a ton, but you brought back super happy memories! Thanks.
I was checking out your tutorial page and had just been thinking to myself that I need to figure out how to join some “linky parties” and came upon your tutorial! It was awesome and so on the money.
I’ve been blogging since Feb. 2014 and am starting to get a little traffic to my site. This seems like a perfect way – plus it gives me the chance to meet other people like me! Who blog, and have a life, and take pictures at the weirdest times. 🙂
Thanks for the video – I’m off to check it out.
Shannon
You are more than welcome and yes, you are correct – linky parties are a great way to get exposure. I want to recommend Weekend Potluck over at The Country Cook.net. Brandie along with 4 other women have a great one every Friday morning. I always get tons of traffic from that one. Thank you for your compliments – now I’m off to check out your blog!
Oh Wow! I am blown away by this. I have had to take a sabbatical for awhile, but getting back into growing my blog and learning something new everyday. This is so awesome and I thank you for taking time to help people like me who are so completely and severely challenged when it comes to learning new things on the computer. Yes, like you, Kelli, I am not stupid and have a college degree and can do SO MUCH, but when it comes to troubleshooting and figuring stuff out like this on my own…..well, let’s just say it totally stumps me. So seeing this tutorial is HUGE. I will be participating soon. Thank you again.
Thank you Carol, for taking the time to drop me a note – I hope it helps you out and you can grow your blog! I own another website called http://www.yumgoggle.com – where you submit your recipes and if approved, we will promote them for you. There’s no charge (lot’s of people think there’s a charge for the service) so I hope you will go over and submit a few of your Vegan recipes! Vegans are big on Instagram and we have a platform over there.
Thanx for your tutorial. It helped me a lot.