Linky's look fun and easy!

Over the last few weeks I have seen a few people starting up Linky’s which is always great to see.

For some of you who are still unsure about Linky’s then there is a really good ‘How to Guide’ by Al over on The Dad Network.

For me, I love joining in with Linky’s and there are so many good ones out there; something that I hope to cover in a couple of posts next week.

Each Linky will have a theme of its own; you might see ones that celebrate the Best and the Worst of the week, Funny things that children say, highlight the lows of the week or just, like ours, allow you to share a post that you are particularly proud of.

One thing stands out though: Each Linky is there to draw traffic to your blog.

We all want this from every post we write but joining up to Linky’s helps you do two things:

1: Explore other blogs and join in with the theme

2: Have hope that others will click on your link within the hub and bring another source of traffic to that post.

I am not ashamed to say that it is for these two reasons that I link up to a Linky; or why I co-host one. I love my Blog, I enjoy writing what I write about and I especially enjoy seeing others voice their opinions about what I have written.

(Although I will add that not everyone plays by the rules and some just add a link and go without reading or commenting on the post, so you don't always even get viewing figures)

Egotistical I know but we all enjoy that aspect of it.

Yes, I do write because I want to write and I really wouldn’t mind if people didn’t read my blog. I didn’t start it for that reason, I wrote because I wanted a place to write; something that is still true.

For some reason I have had a lot of people approach me the last few weeks to discuss different aspects of blogging which I really don’t mind; I might not always know the answer but I am always happy to send them in the direction of someone who would know.

Part of this has been from other Bloggers wanting to know about Hosting a Linky and if I have any tips.

I don’t have a list of Do’s and Don’ts or even much advice on doing one. I am not even sure if there is one? (Maybe Al and I should write one)

But I wanted to take a moment to say how hard it can be to be part of the Linky circuit; I am not saying this to put people off but if you do too much then it can be quite tough going.

I love hosting the Big Fat Linky but I love even more so that I do it with Al. We have weeks where we have 80+ posts linked up and maybe if I didn’t do so much I would be happy to scroll through them and read and comment but it isn’t always that easy. Real Life gets in the way and quite often it’s difficult to read what you can. Even if, like Al and I, you split the posts you read half each (which I’ll add am truly grateful to be sharing a lot of it with Al I think I might have given up on doing it a while ago without him.)

But there is more to it:

You can’t just decide on a Wednesday that you are going to host one the following week and expect that it will be a sudden hit.

You have to network amongst other bloggers, talk about the Linky, and interact with them throughout the week. Then adding to that once the Linky is Live you end up having to Retweet the posts that have linked up. (Again, if the people that are linking up are pleased with comments and traffic input then they’re more than likely to link up again)

So by this point you are spending a lot of the time reading and commenting, Retweeting and sharing and then spending the rest of your time on social media promoting.

But before every Linky is going live you have to go to you chosen user (We use Inlinkz) and generate the code that embeds your badge. (Not forgetting the communication that happens through the week with your co-host)

Linky’s are fun and I know that I really enjoy joining in with them but since co-hosting one I never realised how much work goes into them. If you’re committed and want to do one then great, do it! (Let me know what it is so I can join in)

But also know that if you do and it does well then it can be hard work and not just a way to boost your viewing figures. Like most things, there is always more going on in the background.

Although I do say all this, I do so to share that there is more going on to help anyone thinking about doing it. That doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy it because I really do, I’m just glad that I share it with Al!