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Hosting Linky Parties: A Guide to Starting & Hosting Blogger Link-Ups

One of the greatest way to build your followers and meet new bloggy besties is to participate in linky parties. Sometimes, it’s even better to host one! Do you have a fabulous idea for a linky party? Here’s some information to help you get started with one!

How to Get Started with Hosting Linky Parties

Clarify Your Linky Party Idea

The first step in getting started with your linky party, is to clarify your idea before you propose it or share it with the public. Write it down, play with the idea, make sure you have a very clear vision for what you want to do with it. Is this a crafting link-up? Is it a certain type of post? Make sure you know exactly what you will be asking people to do if they link up with you.

Figure Out How Your Linky Party Will Run

Once you’re absolutely sure where you want to go with it, it’s time to get started setting it up. Here are a few things you need to figure out.

Who’s hosting? Are you going to host it all by yourself or are you going to get some co-hosts to host with you? This is entirely up to you-if you want all of the credit go on and do it yourself, but sometimes taking on co-hosts is a great way to get more attention and promotion for your linky.

What will the linky be called? The name should be catchy and should reflect what the posts are about.
What is the schedule? Is it a weekly link-up? Monthly? What day of the week/month will it run on?What are the rules? Most linky have some kind of rule structure. If you don’t want any rules, that’s cool too, but if you do then you’ll need to define them first. Do you want to require they have your button or a link back in the post? Do you require they be on a certain topic? It’s up to you.

Getting Your Linky Party Set Up

Once you have your linky party all planned out, it’s time to put those plans into action and set it up.

Decide which Linky tool you’ll use. Once you’re ready to start posting, you’ll have to decide which tool you want to use for managing your links. There are so many fantastic options out there, but here are the main four I see in usage on a daily basis, and my impression of them.

Linky Tools: This is the tool I’ve been using for years. I’m tempted to try out some others, but since I have been paying for this one I haven’t yet.
- Pros:
  - Easy to use
  - Has both blogger and wordpress code
  - Linky directory so you can get more publicity for your linky party
  - Has lots of options for different types of linkies and settings in your linky
  - Great support.
- Cons:
  - Costs $2 per month to use
  - Requires an extra step to link up (you click on the link up link and go to a new page to link up instead of just linking up right there)
  - No real organization in your dashboard-which can be quite confusing
InLinkz: This is one of the more popular linky tools out there (you’ve probably seen it with the little blue frog) and the one I’ve considered switching to.
- Pros:
  - It’s free
  - Remembers your field data from linky to linky
  - Has different options for what kinds of linkies you can do
  - Has a project manager to keep all of your information organized.
- Cons:
  - An extra step-you have to click on the link for the pop up to enter your info and hit next to select a photo
  - Sometimes it doesn’t find photos on the site easily
Mister Linky: This is one I see a lot when linking up from other blogs. I’ve never used it myself on my own blog, but I have entered my links into it many times.
- Pros:
  - Remembers your field data from linky to linky
  - No extra steps-enter your data right there at the bottom of the post and submit.
- Cons:
  - The website is awful, as it looks pretty old and outdated so I suspect it doesn’t have a lot of features (though I don’t know for sure) and appears to be a little hard to navigate
  - Appears to have a cost associated, but that may just be for upgraded memberships
SimplyLinked: I see this one sometimes, and it’s my least favorite to enter my link in.
- Pros:
  - Very stylish design
  - It’s free
  - Enter your data directly to the post
  - Looks easy to set up.
- Cons:
  - Does not remember form data (so for someone entering the same thing they have to re-type everything every time)

Create a button for your linky. You’ll want an eye-catching button that shows what your linky is about and has the name of your linky party on it. Users will be able to grab this for their posts they link up.

Add HTML code so people can grab your button. You’re going to want to include your linky button in your post with the HTML Code so people can easily grab it. Not sure how to include a code, check out my Basic HTML for Bloggers post under the Add a Text Box heading.

Setting Up Your Linky Party Posts

You’re going to want to figure out a draft structure for your posts and try and stick with it as much as possible each time your linky party goes up. This helps for a sense of stability, and the people linking up will have an easier time joining you each week.

Components of your post:

The Blog Button with an HTML grab box so that they can easily grab your button code to put in their posts. (See above)
An explanation of what the linky party is and when it happens.
The rules, if there are any.
Information about the hosts, if there are other hosts.
Your post that fits within the linky party.
And the Linky tool you’ve chosen where they can link up their posts.

Do you host a linky party or participate in any you love?

The Better Your Blog Series is a series of posts written by myself, Angie of My So-Called Chaos, from my own personal experience as a long-time blogger, small-business owner, and as someone who’s worked with technology and customer service for many many years. They are written with the intent of sharing the knowledge I’ve acquired through years of practice and education (both self-taught and school-taught) with others in the blogging community.

In this collection of posts you’ll not only find tips for maintaining your blog, but also for anything that goes along with being a blogger and/or small business owner-like design tips and tutorials, social media, tools, and more.

The posts in this series are constantly being updated to make sure they stay current, and the series is constantly being added to. Please contact me if there’s something you’d like to learn.

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