Everything You Need to Know About Blog Hops
Back in the days when the online space was not so saturated with bloggers, and when social media hadn’t yet had the power they have today, blog hops were all the rage. And, although nowadays many argue about the blog hops’ effectiveness, the fact is, if you do them the right way they can be quite helpful making connections as well as for attracting your target audience.
Maybe you started your blog just to share your passions and hobbies with the world, maybe you love sharing your professional expertise – whatever the reason behind your blog was, at some point you will probably want to grow your following. While digital marketing offers so many effective yet pricey ways to do just that, it is easy to forget all the free tools you have at your disposal for connecting, sharing, and growing your target audience. If you thought using your social media and newsletters for your blog promotion are all that you can do to grow and nurture your audience for free, the great news is blog hops can be just as effective.
Blog hops are also known as link parties and blog link-ups. They are actually a kind of bloggers’ networking event that aims at connecting bloggers in a specific niche. The right connections can take you to great lengths, right?
That’s why in this article we’ll explain what exactly blog hops are, how to organize them, and how to benefit from them. Stay tuned to read more about:
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Blog hops are online networking events hosted by bloggers whose main goal is to connect bloggers under the umbrella of a certain topic or niche. They also aim at sharing readerships with other bloggers. In a way, we could say that a blog hop is like a book club but instead of reading the same book, all members of the club read each other’s blog posts. All sorts of blogging communities can organize blog hops, but there are certain niches where this kind of event may be more productive.
Blog hops are most commonly organized for all types of personal blogs as the original idea behind them is to connect individual bloggers. So, it doesn’t matter whether your blog is about fashion, travel, or WordPress – the only important thing is that it has a personal touch as that is the key to establishing connections in the blogging community. No blogger wants to establish a personal connection with a company’s corporate blog. But, if you run a company and write for a company blog from your personal point of view, you can enter the world of blog hops too.
The first thing to do when setting up a blog hop is to choose a blog hop topic. Usually, it is best to stick to broad topics that allow a lot of different interpretations – like the professional/personal life balance in a specific industry so that all participants feel inspired to write about it, and have indeed something authentic to share. Of course, the topic can also be specific and narrow, characteristic only for your field of expertise if you are organizing a blog hop to gather professionals in one field. It all depends on what you want to achieve, but even in the latter case, the topic should be formulated in such a way to allow everyone to express their personal view on it.
Anyway, after you choose the topic, it is time to select the bloggers you want to connect with and invite them to write an article on the specified topic within a set time frame. Bloggers write the articles, publish them on their own blogs and then send the links to you i.e the blog hop host.
The blog hop host then posts all those links on a static blog hop page or in a single article and all the invited bloggers are required to go to all the other blogs and read all the written articles.
So, every blogger reads every article written on a specific topic and leaves a comment about it.
Many blog hops have their own hashtag and social media graphics which gives them more visibility and recognition. Participating bloggers also often have to post a small blurb about the blog hop at the beginning or at the end of their article.
Since blog hops are focused on a specific topic, many of them propose certain conditions for participating – they may require bloggers to be of a certain profession or to have a certain experience to participate.
When it comes to blog hop authors, the participation is limited to those who are invited by the blog hop host. But, if the blog hop host wishes to, they can decide to make the blog hop available for everyone. It is not rare for blog hops to allow new bloggers to sign up at any time. The authors are typically invited via Google Forms, but there may be other mechanisms for inviting authors too – there are no strict rules to how inviting is done. Whatever works for you is fine. Some blog hops, particularly those developed to overlap with specific events are often invitation only.
The answer is generally yes – but the thing is they typically work best for personal blogs or at least blogs that have a personal touch to them. After all, the original idea behind the blog hops is to connect individual bloggers. This does not mean you can’t use blog hops for business. If your company has a brand ambassador writing for your company blog, or you have a strong online presence as the business owner, you can set up blog hops around the issues that concern your business and invite other bloggers and businesses to participate.
The greatest value of blog hops is that it connects bloggers who are concerned with the same topic, allowing them to share and broaden their interests and knowledge. Many friendships come as a result of successful bog hops and are often followed by booming professional cooperation too. Since all the authors in the blog hop have to write comments, this is also a great way to bring a breath of fresh air to your blog. In general, blog hops are excellent for:
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Building relationships with bloggers (experts and authorities) in your niche
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Create social proof via comments
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Achieving wider reach
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Raising awareness of your blog and the specific topic
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Establishing your position within your blogging niche
The most straightforward way to find a blog hop is to search for it via your browser by entering “blog hops” + “your niche”. It can happen that you get no results and this usually means that blog hops are not particularly popular in your niche. If you are not sure about the status of blog hops in your niche, it is always a good idea to ask a fellow blogger about it.
Regardless of whether you are a blog hop creator or a participant, an event like this is always a great opportunity and you should take maximum advantage of it. To do so, make sure you:
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Choose a valuable topic that resonates with the bloggers in your niche
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Offer only top quality content (edit the articles before publishing)
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Track the posts carefully so you can understand your audience better
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Advertise the blog hop on your social media – sharing is caring
Wrapping It All Up
If you want to build a brand around your personality or around yourself as a professional, you should consider creating blog hops without any doubt. After all, every business was once started by an individual, and sharing the story behind the business is a common practice in storytelling. Nowadays it is not rare for blogs that were started only for fun to eventually turn into lucrative businesses, and vice versa – that successful businesses start blogs focused on the success stories of the business founders. There is surely lots of room for creativity when it comes to blog hops, so we leave it up to you to come up with the idea of how to use a blog hop to your advantage.
