Blogging Tips: How to Link Up with a Blog Hop

A few of our members have requested this post, which I think will also be a great read for any new bloggers as well!

Many people might not know what the terms "blog hop" or "link up" mean, especially when they are new to blogging or have never participated in these types of things before!  Both terms refer to generally the same thing- a list of blogs or other websites that you can add your link to as well.  Often times a "hop" refers to a link up where you are supposed to put your link and then hop along to the next persons link on the list, therefore going from blog to blog.

Links ups don't have to just be for a blog post, they can also be for a social media page such as pinterest, twitter or Facebook.  Just be sure to read the directions on the blog where the link up is hosted so you know exactly what to do!

Here is how to link up:

 In this example I am showing our Facebook link up from this past week.  To add your link, scroll down and find where it says "Click here to enter".  Please note that there are several different services bloggers can use to create a link up list, so the screen may look a little different.  Some of them say "Add your link" or "click here to add link" or the like.

 Next you will see a screen similar to this.  Add your title, link, email and name.  Make sure you add the correct link for that link up!  If the link up is for Facebook, for example, be sure to add the URL to your Facebook page.  If the link up is for a specific type of blog post, be sure to add the URL to that blog post, not just your mail blog page.

 You'll notice here that this link up is requiring an email address.  Some link ups require an email AND name, some only email or neither.  We require an email for two reasons: to prevent spam link ups and in case we need to contact you about your link for any reason.  Generally, only the owner of the link up can see your email address, it is not publicly displayed.

Last but not least is Step 4.  Not all link ups have this step, but a lot of them do!  This is the picture step.  You can choose to add a picture from the web link you linked up with or from your computer or use the generic picture provided by the linky tools website.  Above I have selected "Let me crop my own image" just in case I want to crop it after I choose it!  You can also choose auto crop and they will just crop it for you, but it might not look exactly how you'd like.

If you link up with your blog or blog post it is very easy to choose a picture from that blog.  If you link up to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin or Instagram, I would recommend choosing the "File from your computer" option for your picture.  Otherwise the picture options will be slim and/or very blurry!

Either way, you just chose the picture you want to use, crop it if you'd like and then press "Enter your link."

Again, this example is using the Linky Tools service to link up, which is what Northeast Bloggers uses.  However, other blogs may use different link up services, so just be sure to read the directions if the screen looks different!

I hope this helped those of you who were questioning how to join our link ups/hops and will encourage you to participate in more of them in the future!

Connect with us!