Link Parties – Great Way to Improve Your Food Blog Traffic

If you have read my resource page on which, among other things, I spoke about how to increase the traffic of your food blog, then you had the chance to see which are the best ways to increase the traffic on your food blog. Let me remind you

1. Pinterest and Social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter…)
2. Food porn sites
3. Link Parties

Of course, you may have your methods, but through communication with other bloggers and reading different experiences of others, I definetely came to the conclusion that for food bloggers, these are really the three best ways.

Pinterest and food porn sites will be covered some other time, and this time I will talk about Link Parties.

What is Link Party?

If you are a food blogger and like to read blogs like this, you have surely seen many posts with a great number of little photos that link you to recipes on other blogs!

Well if you are, then you have surely found yourself on one of the Link Parties and didn’t even know it. On a post like this, bloggers are called on to post their recipes (or something else depending on the theme of the link party) making, in a way, a gallery of recipes. Usually, the title of a post like this has  next elements: the day of the week when the parties happen, after that, an innovative title and in the end, a number (for instance, Tuesday Talent Show 120). What follows after that in a post like this is a gallery of small photos and different recipes with lots of comments after it.

Ahhhaa, now you remember that you have seen something like this. Well, welcome to a link party ! Now, you may be wondering „Ok, what does all this mean for me?“. Well, that is natural. Here is what it means!

How Can Link Party Help Your Food Blog? 

Increase The Traffic to Your Blog
Hosts of link parties usually are big food blogs with a great number of visitors! Ok, make a little investigation for a moment. Blogs like Chef in Training and Recipe Critic have huge popularity, and sometimes you can find hundreds of comments on their posts. For that reason, the probability that a link party like this will be in front of the eyes of the public! Well, there is a chance to show off your delicious new recipe to the public and make them your followers! Another useful thing is that the public like this really likes to be active on your post in the way of comments, and that can seriously influence your Google rating.

Get Bigger in the Eyes of Google and Other Search Engines (SEO)
Of course, as a food blogger, it is very important to increase your ranking on search engines like Google and Yahoo. If you know anything about SEO, you certainly know that one of the most important factors for good ranking is the number of backlinks to your site. If you don’t know what backlinks are, that is when someone from another blog or another site directs the visitors to your site. Being in a link party is a chance to secure a backlink. It is debatable what the power of this one backlink is, but if you are a part of many different parties, then the number of backlinks will increase and be more meaningful. So why not make good use of it?

Connect Yourself With Other Bloggers and Find Inspiration For New Posts
Since you will be on a link party with many other bloggers, there is a chance to hook up with them. Friends like this are always useful, they often leave comments on your blog and you could possibly get an offer to work together. There is a good probability that , if your blog is full of quality, some of the “big boys” will see it and you can expect your recipe to be shared on some of their social networking profiles, and that can also bring you a lot of new traffic. And if you increase the number of food blogs that you visit, maybe you will find an idea or an inspiration for some of your new posts.

How to Take Part in Link Parties and How to Start?

OK, now that you have seen that it is really worth it to be in link parties, it is time for us to learn how to be in them! The first task in front of you is to find a link party on which you will participate! There are hundreds of them and I advise you to choose some of the biggest for the beginning. On food blogs, you will often find a button to a link party on the main menu. It is most often a page on which the author of the blogs gives out a list of parties of which he is personally a part of. If you do not know where to start, you can start from my link party page.

Now that you have chosen one, scroll down to the last row of the photo gallery. Right behind the last row you will find the button “add your link” or something similar ( check the image belov) , which is a link for making your recipe. If there is no button, or you find the text “link party is closed”, that means that the party is closed and that you are too late for this week. Now that you have found a button, you can start giving out your recipes which is really simple. You need to copy the URL, the name of the post and the email address in the lines that are meant for that. Then, upload your photo. It is really simple and intuitive and you should not have a difficult time with it. In a few moments, your photo will be there with the others and you are at the party. Cheers 🙂

 

A Few Useful Advices

Thank The Host
Many hosts of link parties demand that you emphasize that you were a part of that party. You will usually find a code with a text which should be copied in  your recipe. Even though you don’t have to do that, it is nice to thank the host. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t want to add anything new to your post, then you can make a special page on your blog with a list of Link Parties you are a part of. That is also a great way to thank your hosts.

Do Not Repeat Your Recipe on Different Parties on the Same Blog
It is really not ethical to show up on every party on one blog with the same recipe. If you don’t have new recipes, skip the party and wait for the next one.

Put the Best Photos on the Parties
You will very quickly see that besides you, there are many other bloggers. On some parties, you can find 500-600 other recipes beside your recipe. The visitors will surely not look at all of the recipes so they choose the one that “best fits the eye”. So don’t put just any photo, post the best one. Another good thing is that hosts often single out some of the best recipes and there is the chance to be seen by a great number of visitors.

Comment
Since you will often get a thank you from the host in the shape of comments of your post, give it back, comment on their posts.

Can You Become a Link Party Host?

Of course  you have surely seen that probably the only thing better than taking part in parties is being a host! If all the people who attend your link party make a backlink to your blog, that is a huge number of backlinks in a very short time. Of course, if you are aware that being an organiser demands much effort and some money.

For organising parties like this, you need to register to the InLinkz service which will cost you about 20$ a year. Much more work is inviting the bloggers to your party. In the beginning there will not be many participants. After that comes time for  comments, interaction and all the other. Think about that. Maybe it’s time consuming but maybe worth a try.

It’s Party Time!

Now that you know everything, it is time to take action. Whether you decide to take part or organise some of the parties, I hope to see you there. So, let’s party J