Happy Thursday! It is time again for another session of Summer school with me and Tiffany! Today’s topic is link parties. As bloggers we all LOVE to party, don’t we? We love to show off our latest and greatest projects to the world! Or at least the link party audience. I am going to break this up into a couple of sections, one for hosting, and one for partying/linking up. And please remember that these are my own opinions, with commentary from Tiffany as well in orange.
Let’s talk about party hosting first. As you know, I host a weekly link party here, exclusively for furniture projects. As a host here are some things to consider:
1. Wait until you have a substantial readership to start a link party. First of all, it will probably depress you if you have a small readership, and you decide to host a party and no one shows up, right? Secondly, people come to link parties so that they can show off their projects to a vast audience. If you have say 20 readers, then there is not much incentive for people to link up. I waited to start my party until I had 1000 followers. I wanted to make sure that people would show up, because I didn’t want to be at my own party, crying by myself in the bathroom, while everyone left and went over to the better party. 😉
Yes! I hosted my first link party back in February and though I was not the only one that showed up, it was more like a small get together than it was a party! I have plans to have another on that runs monthly, but I am going to wait a bit till I have more readers.
2. Set clear rules. Most hosts will state their rules at the bottom of their party post. We don’t do this to be mean, but to be fair. For instance, my party is for furniture makeovers only. It really pains me to delete all of the people that link up their wreaths and other crafts, but I do it. I believe that if you create rules for your party, you need to abide by them.
I think rules are there for a reason. It takes a lot of effort and time to host a party, make it easier for the host!
3. Decide if you want your party to have a focus, or if it is just a general link party, and make that clear to your readers. There are several awesome parties out there that are pretty general. One of my absolute favorites is Tatertots and Jello‘s weekly wrap up. But, wow, there are like 1000 links every weekend! It’s insane, in an awesome way! I kept mine specific to furniture to keep it from overwhelming me.
4. Visit all of your links. I try to comment on each and every link to my party, as long as the linker followed my rules. I think as a hostess it is simply common courtesy to be gracious and show appreciate that they came. Now I realize if you have over 500 links that commenting on all of them just isn’t going to happen, and that is ok! But try to visit some and leave some comment love!
It is always nice to have a comment from the host of the party! There are so many link parties out there, it is nice to know that the host appreciates your visit!
5. Feature links from your party. I choose favorites from my party and feature them each week. And I know when I link to other parties there is nothing better than getting that pat on the back and seeing my own project featured! As a hostess, it’s nice to reward the people who came, followed the rules, and shared outstanding projects.
Love it when I am featured! I have a whole page for that!
Now let’s move on to some guidelines for the linker.
1. Read the rules of the party host and follow them! I am not going to lie- I made that mistake once and I felt HORRIBLE because I linked something I should not have. Insert red face! I apologized to the host for missing that rule, because I can honestly say I missed it. i felt a pit in my stomach when I realized it! (can you tell I am a general rule follower!) I do read the rules and follow them, but we all make mistakes sometimes!
I have made some mistakes when I first started linking up to parties, but now the rules are the rules! Again, the host is putting a lot of energy into hosting… the kind thing would be to follow the rules!
2. Link back to the host somehow. Often it will be listed as a rule, but even if it is not, it’s common courtesy. Some people create pages of where they party; some people put the buttons or text links in their post; some people place buttons in their sidebar. I am not too picky about where you link back to me as a host, BUT I will say that if you did not provide a link back somehow, I will not feature your project, even if I adored it.
I keep a list of links that I may or may not link to for the week. Once I have the post live, I may decided to add it to link parties. I always link back at the bottom of my post. I also have a separate page for the party link buttons.
3. A polite but definitely not necessary thing to do is to leave a comment just thanking the host for having the party and giving you the opportunity to share. I do not always do this, nor do I expect you to, but it’s just a nice little bonus.
4. Visit links at the party you link to. If you expect to link up and have others visit you, then you should likewise visit the other party goers. It’s rude to show up to a party and leave without talking to anyone! Mingle! Again, some parties will ask that you visit at least two links. I think it is simply polite and you shouldn’t have to be asked, but the point is just do it!
I have acquired so many new readers by linking up and commenting on other projects! I love it when commenters say “I found you from Cassie’s POWW link up!”
