The Bead Peeps Swap and hop is almost here so I just thought that I’ll share 10 Blogging tips for a successful blog hop with newbie bloggers who will be taking part in the hop so as to enable a smooth and pleasant experience for everyone involved. At my place, we tidy up our house when we know guests are visiting, so it is only right that I extend the same courtesy to my friends who would be visiting my blog too.
Even you are not participating in this particular hop, I feel that the tips would still be useful for you as they can be applied to any blog hop. I maybe be guilty of making some of these mistakes, and at times my blogger goes crazy, however I keep correcting them.
10 Blogging tips for a successful blog hop
Before you post – Tidy up your blog
1. Choose the right Font and Font size: Choose simple readable “Sans Serif” for your blog (fonts without the projecting little lines at the top and/or bottom) like Calibri, Verdana, Open sans, Franklin Gothic, Helvetica, Trebuchet, etc. for your blog’s post body. Change the font size of your blog to 14px (for the body) and 16px-18px for the heading. Anything smaller is inconvenient to read on mobile phones and anything bigger hurts the eye.
2. Connectivity: Suppose I come to your blog and I want to stay in touch with you, I need to see Social media icons (with working links) or way to subscribe to your blog, otherwise you just lose me there
3. About Me – when I really like a fellow artist or designer’s work I really want to know more about them and an “About me” page, with your photograph, doesnt exactly that. Even if you a beading robot, I want to know about you. See my About me page here
4. Composition – Just as you spend time composing a beautiful necklace or earrings, take time to compose blog’s various elements. Align them with one another. A blog doesn’t need exotic fonts, 10 different colors or complicated layouts to be good. Often, a simple gray text on a white background design is the best.
When you write the post
5. Post pictures that are big enough – so we can enjoy your beautiful creations. Vertical pics work better for Pinterest, landscape works better for Facebook, twitter and G+ and square is great for Instagram and Linky parties. Put your images in the center of your post instead of Left or right alignment. It makes the post more readable
6. Create a Link list – Instead of writing the blog url as http://www.someblogurl.com, write the participants name and add the url as a link. Better still, list blog names and add links. This way, Google doesn’t think that you are spamming and the participating blog gets a viable link. Always set the participating blogger links to open as a new tab
7. Schedule your post – Post on time or a hour before time (to check for mistakes and correct them), and share your post’s permalink with your partner, so that they can directly link to your post.
8. Post – Post atleast work in progress pics even if you haven’t completed a piece.
After you Post
9. Remove captcha – Oh God, This is one of my pet peeves and I just about tolerate it. If you make it hard for me to comment, why would I comment? Keep comment moderation on if you want but remove all and any sort of captcha or word/image verification for atleast for a week following the hop date
10. Visit other blogs – Start your blog hop by visiting the host/hostess first and thank them in the comments. To quote Sheldon from Big Bang theory “No Ifs, No buts, and no Coconuts”. The second visit must be to your Partner’s blog. Add links to the hostess’s reveal post and your partner’s reveal post in your post. If they have not posted nor shared a permalink with you, check out their blog once a day for week for the post. If there still no activity communicate with them to see if all is well on their side. Visit as many blogs as possible and leave positive comments to encourage them
# Extra Tip – share your post on Social Media and promote the hop
Blog hops are a great way to meet like minded people and get more readership for your blogs. Following the above tips would make you a pro at successful blog hopping. If you have any more tips, please share them in the comments.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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