How to Participate in a Link-Up or Linky Party

What is a Link-Up / Linky Party / Meme / Blog Hop?

There are many words for link parties (link-up, linkup, linky party, blog hop, blog meme, etc.) but the basic idea is the same: a site or group of sites hosts a regular event where other bloggers get together to share posts - often around a given topic or theme.

Interested bloggers will visit the main post, share their link in a linkup widget or a post comment, and visit other linked up blogs. These parties can be a great way to grow your blogging community, by finding like-minded bloggers with similar interests. Book-themed memes are also an incredible way to find out about new books or old favorites you might have missed!

Quick Tips for How to Participate

How to Share a Link

The most important thing about sharing with a link-up is making sure that you share a permanent link to the specific post you are sharing - not just a general link to your blog. For example, http://www.thelogonauts.com/ is the main URL for this blog, while http://www.thelogonauts.com/2016/03/linky.html is the permanent link for this post. If you only share a link to your blog, people are going to be confused or disappointed and are far less likely to go looking around for your posts.

To find the permanent link for a post, click on the title of your post, and then copy and paste that URL into the link-up.

When sharing, please be sure that your post fits any theme or guidelines established by the hosts. Others will not click on spammy, off-topic posts or advertisements without any content. Don't post your favorite recipe to a photography link up, and don't post your review of a racy adult book on a children's book meme.

After Sharing: Be Social

Link parties are a great way to drive traffic to your blog, but even more importantly, they are a wonderful way to find new resources and network with other bloggers! Put the time and effort in to read and comment on other posts in the linkup. Most linkups recommend commenting on at least three posts, but the more, the merrier. Follow up with folks who leave you comments too.

Hosts appreciate it when you follow them on social media, as well as when you share about the linkup as well. Tweet out about it, let your followers know you are sharing.

If the linkup has a button or logo, consider sharing it on your blog too. Some bloggers maintain a page for links to all the linkups they participate in, while others share the logo on every post that they write for a given meme. It's good practice to help others find these great communities too.

Ready to Share?

Take me back to the Diverse Children's Book Link-Up! (First and third Saturdays)

Take me back to the Kid Lit Blog Hop! (Third Wednesday of the month)

Other places I link up:

#IMWAYR - It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a blog meme where folks share about the books that they are reading. Jen of Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee of Unleashing Readers host a kidlit version every Monday.

#nfpbchallenge - The Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge is hosted by Alyson of Kid Lit Frenzy. Every Wednesday she shares great nonfiction resources for kids and invites other bloggers to share their favorite nonfiction posts too.

#PoetryFriday - Poetry Friday is a weekly roundup of great poetry and posts about poetry books and resources for teaching kids poetry. The host changes weekly, and you can find a full list of upcoming hosts here.

Other great teaching/children's book linkup communities include Marvelous Middle Grade Monday hosted by Shannon Messenger, Top Ten Tuesday hosted by the Broke and the Bookish, the Slice of Life Story Challenge (also on Tuesdays) hosted by Two Writing Teachers, and Celebrate This Week (Saturdays) hosted by Ruth Ayres. There are also many, many linkups open to bloggers more generally, but I have found that niche-specific linkups tend to generate more active communities and comments.

What are your favorite linkups?