We’re all probably aware of the fact that most bloggers utilize valuable online tools such as newsletters, paid to advertise, and social media to spike up their blog reach. But have you heard of blog hops? This is yet another powerful tool to use in and around the blogging world, and it is completely free.
To save you the trouble of researching all on your own, we’re here to provide the 101 detailing on blog hops. So, stay tuned if you’re interested to know what it is, the benefits attached to it, and some of the tools associated with blog hopping.
Let’s get started!
What are Blog Hops & How Does it Work?
A Blog Hop is basically nothing but an online meet-up comprised of bloggers with the purpose of networking, meaning sharing readers. Since it’s not easy to find/gain new blog visitors, these networking events or “blog hops” serve as a helpful platform to identify other bloggers to partner with.
One main reason for participating in such an event is to increase blog traffic. Blog hopping is also when readers interact with a blog post through reading, leaving comments, or sharing blog links via social media.
Blog hops come in different variations, such as a one-time event or the opposite, such as monthly blog hops. But no matter how frequent or not, all blog similarly hops pretty much work – bloggers sign up for a post related to a particular topic within a specific duration.
Bloggers then proceed to write and publish their posts, which are then shared with the event organizer. The organizer then posts the post links on a static blog or single article, allowing every participant of the blog hop to read and leave comments on the blog/article.
Blog hops are generally organized via their own social media posts or hashtag. Organizers may also require you to mention the blog hop in your own article to serve as a means of promotion for the event as well as yourself.
Are There Any Benefits to Blog Hop?
As mentioned before, blog-hopping is an important and powerful tool for any blogger. There are plenty of benefits attached to seeking out and interacting with fellow bloggers instead of simply waiting around for engagement. As such, here are some key advantages to blog hopping:
Great Exposure
Exposure is a precious component for every blogger, and blog hopping is a highly beneficial gateway to gaining more exposure from not just regular readers but fellow bloggers as well. Interacting with other blogs can instantly boost your engagement as even a comment from a single blogger can open up to exposure from that blogger’s readers.
Just remember that genuineness is essential, which means that other bloggers won’t be too keen to interact with someone that constantly spam with “great post” simply for the sake of commenting with the hope of increased exposure. Make sure you’re leaving behind comments that actually mirror what you read.
New Connections & Ideas
Sure it’s important to drive traffic on your blog, but stats & numbers aren’t always everything. One crucial benefit of blog hopping is the chance to form new connections with fellow bloggers. It promotes your blog at the end of the day, but it also helps you as a blogger to gain new ideas.
Surrounding yourself with different bloggers may even inspire you to create a new type of blog, which can again help gain more readers.
Essential Blog Hops Tools to Help Engage More Traffic
As mentioned earlier, blog hop goes beyond simply interacting with fellow bloggers. The success of blog hopping largely depends on how you’re cashing out the opportunity, meaning you’ll have to use every resource available to ensure a successful operation.
So, to help ensure your blog hopping success, we have listed some essential tools to help engage, drive traffic and work on your blog. Let’s get started!
Feed Aggregators
These are simply known as websites that integrate content from the internet and allow people to view them from one place. If you’re using WordPress for blogging, then it means you already have an accessible feed aggregator, i.e., WordPress reader.
There are also other sites, such as Feedly, which slightly differ from WordPress. For instance, in Feedly, you can instantly see the posts you’ve clicked as well as the ones you haven’t. It also allows you to categorize different blogs & websites, which is extremely useful for browsing through other blogs.
Twitter & Instagram
Social media is undoubtedly a golden spot for blog hopping. As platforms that primarily runs on shares, comments, and tags, they serve as an extremely useful tool to help discover different blogs.
When featured banners or photos of blog posts are posted on Twitter or Instagram, it provides more exposure since more people are bound to use social media. This can be even more beneficial if you have tons of mutuals. Think of the mutuals of your mutuals as potential readers and use that to drive traffic.
Social media also allows you to discover and explore more as you can gain access to new and different blogs for inspiration or to form new connections.
Take Twitter, for instance, you can tweet about going on a blog hopping spree and ask mutuals to leave links to the most recent or even favorite posts to catch up on. This also provides an opportunity to entirely claim the retweet button so that the number of shares and comments goes beyond the mutuals list.
Rounding up behind feed aggregators and social media is Pinterest – one of the most evident and well know media platforms bloggers use globally. Pinterest plays a huge role in not just finding new posts but also generating views.
With over 400 million active users, Pinterest is still a strong player in driving traffic if and when utilized in the right way. Some of the guidelines you can use to drive blog traffic through Pinterest include:
- Pinning your posts daily
- Creating & scheduling new and fresh pins
- Pinning other blog posts
- Joining pinning groups
