I am a Party Pooper
A linky party pooper that is. Now before I go in to why I am not the life of the linky party, I do want to say that I enjoy link parties. I think they are a great way to build traffic and followers. Being a part of many, I have definitely found some great bloggers who I now follow religiously.
I have also benefited from increased traffic and being featured. There are many positives from link parties. But I also think that with the parties comes stress.
As a blogger who really embraces the BOTS philosophy, I have come to realize that link parties can sometimes get in the way of keeping blogging on the side. Not only are there too many to count, the more you participate in, the more work there is UNLESS you are a “link and leave” blogger. And just leaving your link and not participating is not in the spirit of the party It is also not fair to the hosts or other bloggers.
So I have become a party pooper. I participate in no more than 5 parties a week. Usually the same ones, but sometimes I switch it up. Some benefits gained since pooping out:
I have…
- visited more blogs
- left more comments
- participated more in social media, resulting in:
- increased my pinterest followers
- increased my G+ followers
So with my new-found strategy, I created some guidelines to hopefully help you navigate the party scene.
- Pick a few hosts you like and stay loyal to them. The more you interact with hosts, the more chance there will be for mentions, guest posts, guest hosting and features.
- Pick a few parties to link up to each week. Depending on your time, I would suggest no more than ten.
- For each linky party, make it a point to make connections. Try to comment on a few.
- And speaking of comments – the more meaningful the better. A “yummy” or “that looks good” is absolutely appreciated (and sometimes the most clever I can get at 6am/10pm), but if you can be more specific, there is a greater chance the blogger will visit you back and maybe comment on your posts as well.
- Share more posts, both yours and others. Whether it be on Facebook or twitter or my personal favorite Google+, the more you use social media, the more it will benefit you.
Remember, if you link up to too many parties, you may be spreading yourself thin. Yes, you will get more exposure, but at the cost of more engagement. By decreasing the number of parties you attend, you will be able to enjoy the ones you go to more.
So will you be a party pooper too?
Suzy is a full-time mommy and part-time blogger. She writes at suzyhomemaker.net about real food, ingredients, nutrition and more. Follow her on Pinterest and Google+.
For a while I got really into linky parties. Then I realized it was SUCH a time-sucker and I was only seeing a few hits a day off of the links I left. I decided it wasn’t worth the time away from my family and started just trusting God with my stats and have been so much better for it.
(Please understand, I’m not saying that if you participate in linky parties you aren’t trusting God with your stats. Not at all. They are a great tool. But for me personally I felt like I was trying to hard to gain a following and needed to surrender my blog’s goals. hope that makes sense because I don’t want someone to feel judged by this comment!)
Aprille- I am the same way. I really go back & forth. At the beginning I was doing them every day (about 4 a day) but I found that I just felt very drained by it, so I just ‘let go’ & trusted~ just as you are saying and my blog has been doing very well. I still jump over to my favorites because I love those bloggers & want to support them,but all in all, I just don’t have the time to designate to them anymore. I always say that if I had an assistant, I would give them that job- linking up can be a full time job in itself! 🙂 LOL.
~Becky
ah yes! an assistant for linky parties would be awesome! when I was doing it I was spending an hour easily each morning. just linking and reading the other posts linked up!
I agree April. It can take up so much time and when you are doing everything yourself it is hard to balance. If I had a VA it might be different, but as a do-it-yourselfer I needed to prioritize.
I’m so glad to read this. It is so easy to spread yourself too thin and I’ve been feeling the pressure of having too many sites to visit and too many comments to leave and too many parties to attend. Sometimes ‘less’ does add more quality to life.
I am glad you liked it Linda. I have felt that doing less has made quality better. I no longer feel the need to wake up early and try to link up which took away from family time.
Good advice. I’ve found that I get more from a party when I stay and participate. That makes it difficult to get to a large number of parties. Thanks for giving us “permission” to work deeper into just a few parties each week.
Thanks Christina. I didn’t know I was giving “permission” lol. But if it helps people to justify less than I am glad.
And my participation has definitely gone up which has resulted in more real connections.
Thanks for posting this! It’s a challenge to carve out time so that you’re not that “link and leave” blogger. I even stayed up late the other night, just so that I could sit & read posts from other bloggers. The link parties have been great, but I’ve seen the impact it’s had on time. Limiting yourself is definitely a plus!
This was very helpful! As a newer blogger, I’ve been adding more and more parties to my link up schedule and it really is very overwhelming. I hadn’t considered the points you made about going deeper with just a few. Thanks for sharing!
So I thought I responded already, but I do not see my replies. Not sure if it was because I was trying to reply on my phone.
@ April – I agree it can be a time suck. I think if you had a VA then it is doable to link up to more parties, but as a do-it-yourself blogger, I just don’t have the time.
@Linda – I have definitely found that “less” has resulted in greater quality.
@Christina – I didn’t intend to grant “permission” :)but I am glad that it helps.
@Caroline – I have done that too (stay up late) and then my next day suffers from being over-tired. Then I don’t get much done. But by limiting myself I have more energy most days.
@Kimberly – I know when you are new you tend to try to add lots on your plate to both learn and to also network. Don’t overdue it though. Blogging can be lots of fun, but you don’t want to get burnt out. Make sure to pace yourself.
Agreed with all of your replies! 🙂 Thanks for sharing today, Suzy!
I needed this post. I have stayed away completely from Linky Parties because of the time commitment. I think I’ll set a Party Pooper Goal of 1-3 a week and see where it takes me. Wish me luck!
Good luck!
That is a great goal. And it will be easy to see if it helps with traffic and if you enjoy it.
Sorry again about the double posting. I guess I will avoid using my phone for those purposes in the future.
I agree with the time suck created by over-doing the parties. I’m happy that I was able to read this post because lately I’ve been feeling bad for not linking to the parties as much! But I agree that keeping your select few parties and only doing those and socializing more at those….will end up being more beneficial in the end.
Jessica – Glad you know you don’t have to feel bad. There are so many avenues for blogging traffic. By pacing yourself with the parties, you can devote more time to other sources.
was nodding my head in total agreement until I got to the “no more than 5” link parties a week! That’s a lot!
I totally understand Joan. 5 would be too much for me as well, but I think for some people who blog full time, they might have the time.
Great idea! I am so torn about link parties because they do take a lot of time, but I know I need to network with other bloggers. Glad to hear you are limiting yourself and you’ve seen results.
Man, I really needed to read this this morning. I have a spreadsheet of link parties and what I’ve linked, but there are so many, some weeks I don’t link up anywhere because I don’t have time! I think it is time to thin out my party plans. 🙂 Awesome advice!