How to Add Your Post to a Blog Party (Blog Tips)

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Today brings post #10 in my How to Blog Party series, which is written for new and experienced bloggers...lots of tips and tricks for joining and hosting a blog/link party. You can click here to start at the beginning of the series and see a round-up of all the posts so far. I promise that how-tos and suggestions for hosting a link party will begin soon! Last time, we talked about how to choose a photo for your thumbnail.

This week's topic is: How to Add Your Post to a Blog Party

If you've been blogging for awhile, adding links to blog parties is old news, but you'd be surprised by how many emails I get from bloggers who want to know how they can join in the fun too.

Today, I'll walk you through the process in a simple step-by-step. You'll be ready to link up in no time!

We'll use my post on updating vintage patio furniture as an example. Let's pretend that I want to link it up to a blog party this week.

The first step is knowing the difference between your blog's main URL and your post's permalink!

1. Your blog's main URL (pictured below) is your homepage. Your blog's main address!

2. Each one of your posts has a permalink, which is a specific address just for that post. Here's what it looks like:

In Blogger, you can show the permalink of your post by clicking on the title...the homepage address disappears and the address for your single post will pop up!

Why do I need to use the permalink to my post when I join a blog party? Why can't I just add my homepage?


1. Blog party hostesses ask you to link to your permalink (instead of your homepage) so that you can direct readers straight to the post you want them to check out. It also saves hostesses time in choosing features.

2. If the party has a specific theme, readers do not want to scroll through pages of your blog looking for a post about a birthday party. Readers are busy. Rather than search through your blog, they will click away to another site.

3. Months after the party, readers will still be clicking on blog party links. If they're looking for a specific post that you've "advertised" in your thumbnail photo, they won't want to scroll through months of posts to find it.

Here's how to add a Permalink to a blog party!

Now that I have my permalink ready, I just right click and copy the address and hit the blue "Add Your Link Here" button.

Next, I paste in my permalink where the box says "URL." I also type in the title of my project in the "Name" section, and I add my email address before hitting "Next Step!"

After I hit "Next Step!" I always choose the option to have the photo selected from my blog post. I scroll down to where the photos are located and I choose the best one and hit "Crop."

When my photo is selected, I choose the area I want to crop and then hit the "crop the selected area" button:

Inlinkz will redirect you back to the blog party and sometimes you'll see a little "we're still processing your image" message like this one:

If you refresh your screen once or twice, it goes away and you'll see your thumbnail!

Now you're all linked up...wasn't that easy?!

I hope you found these tips helpful! I haven't had a great response from this series, but I'll continue to post for now because I feel like it's information that may be useful to new bloggers down the line. If it's helped you out, please let me know. Comments are so encouraging!

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I'd love for you to click the "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or +1 me for Google+. 

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