Linky 101 | How to Join | Where we Link | Twinkly Tuesday

If you’re new to blogging, linkies can be a little daunting. It doesn’t help that the same thing can go by different names:

Linky
Blog hop
Link up or linkup
Blog party
Link party

Link Up 101

A linky is a collection of blog posts from different blogs and authors submitted by those authors. It’s an opportunity for bloggers to showcase their own content and explore posts from others that they might not otherwise come across

The primary purpose of a linkup is to encourage interaction. “Linking and running” — the act of adding your blog post with the expectation that others will read and comment on it, but not taking the time to treat others’ posts with the same courtesy — is generally frowned upon.

How to Join

Linkups are generally hosted by one or more bloggers as part of one of their blog posts and run for a defined period of time. Some linkies run weekly or monthly, while others are one-off topical collections.

The three tools I’ve seen used the most often for creating blog hops are Inlinkz, Linky Tools, and Mister Linky. They all work the same way. From your perspective, as a participant, you just go to the bottom of the list of posts that are already linked, click a link to add a post, and paste in the URL of a blog post of your choice to add it.