Hey y'all! Have you ever notice at the bottom of *some* of my blog posts the little section labeled:
This Post Was Shared! That little place is where I have chosen to take a moment to direct readers to the blogs/blog hops/link parties where I've shown off that particular post. Quite a few parties and blog hops actually ask for a link back to the hop...and all of them that do offer a button to add to that post...but if I've linked to 5 different parties that can start looking a little crazy and distracting at the bottom of my blog post and I really don't want the focus to be on the bottom of the post...nope! I want it to be on what I originally wrote! SO using a simple text-only link I am still able to give credit where credit is due, still have a fabulous looking post without multiple distracting (although fun and colorful!) buttons at the bottom, and the bloggers I connected that post with still have a link back to their site! Win for everyone!
Why Link Back?
The importance of linking back is this: someone is putting together a party or hop where you're linking up...a little, but usually a lot, of traffic is directed right to your blog....it's only fair that you return the favor by adding a link to say, hey, I linked up over here....go check it out! ... Okay, so we don't actually say that, but it's still the point of putting that together, right?!
Use Simple Wording!
I chose to use simple wording which makes it obvious what on earth those links are for. "
This Post Was Shared!" Everyone who reads those four words should pretty much know what I'm talking about (unless they're not a blogger, then they might be confused...but that part takes up so little of the post that it's probably ignored by non-bloggers). I choose to put the top text in bold because it is a new section unrelated to the post itself and should stand out just a bit...underlining, or putting in italics would probably work as well if those things weren't used much in the first part of the blog post. I put the links on a bullet list so that they can easily be distinguished from the one before it. This is especially helpful where I've linked up a post to multiple sites. And I ALWAYS have the title and links on the right of a post, even if the rest of the post is centered!
Direct Link vs. General Link
A Direct Link is where you place a link to the actual post of the blog hop/link party where you linked your post. General Link is where you link to a label or page on the persons blog who hosts the blog hop/link party. Honestly either one is probably fine, but I prefer to link to the direct hop or link post where I shared my stuff. Mostly because I can just copy that URL and slap it onto my post much quicker than figuring out where the general link is for that blog hop/link party. No matter what link you choose to use make sure that EVERY link you add to the bottom of your post will open in a separate page. There's no reason to make it open on the page of your blog where your reader was! I'm not saying direct traffic
away from your blog, I'm saying direct traffic
to the host site...and not by having your blog page being closed either!
Just Do It!
The specifics of linking back to a blogger who is, in a sense, helping your blog out, really doesn't matter! Just do it! It's easy, it takes less than 5 minutes, and if you're sharing a post on multiple link parties/blog hops all you have to do is a bit of copying and pasting to keep that post up to date. Not only that, but sometimes when you're linking to multiple hops, people from those hops will see other hops you link to and probably end up joining them too!
Short Version
So basically what we have is this: use a few simple words to state what the links at the bottom of your post are for, add links with a bullet list for each blog hop or link party where you've shared that post, and save! Three simple steps that take less than 5 minutes of your time!
This Post Was Shared!
