blogging tips {featuring & being featured}

One of my favorite things about blogging is featuring YOU!
I remember when I got my first feature in May of last year!
I was soooooooooooooo excited! 
(I still get excited when I get featured!!  Yay!)
During the first six months of this blog
just about all my traffic came from
link parties & being featured by YOU!
I really appreciate all of YOU who featured me
& gave my little blog a chance to grow!

I don’t really do many blogging tip post!
I still feel like I am still sooooo new at this blogging thing!
Buuut something was brought to my attention
last week from a fellow blogger,
so I thought I’d better share what I learned.

Up until last week I had no idea what a “hot link” was…
but apparently I’d been “hot linking” in my feature posts.
(If you were like me & don’t know what a “hot link” is it just means
you copy & paste a picture into your blog post from another blog.)
Sounds harmless enough…but when you do this the
picture is still actually hosted on the blog you copied it from.

Most of the time this isn’t a problem,
but if the blog you copied the picture from doesn’t have
unlimited bandwidth or if their pictures are
hosted by Photobucket or another photo service
this can cause their blog to exceed it’s bandwidth limit,
& then all the pictures on their blog turn to something like this:

Yikes!  Noooot good!

So how do you feature other bloggers?

Simple. 
When you right click on the picture,
instead of “copy image” click on “save image as…”.
Then save the picture on your computer. 
(I made a file folder called “features” to save my feature pictures in.)
Then upload them to your blog as you normally do.
This way your blog is hosting the picture,
& you won’t be “taking” bandwidth from another blog.

TIP:  When you save the pictures (& ANY other pictures for your blog)
rename them using descriptive words.  This will help boost your SEO. 

Annnd of course, always link back when you are featuring another blogger
and never post an entire tutorial.  Use one or two pictures & link back to the source.
………………………………………………….

Being featured is an important part of blogging!
When you are first starting out this is the
BEST way to get your name out there!

So how do you get featured???

1.  Link up!!!!

When I first started blogging I linked up
to as many link parties as I could each week.
I really appreciate each of YOU who host link parties each week. 

I’d link up to the big ones like
TT& J, Someday Crafts & Tip Junkie.
I’d also link up to smaller blogs. 
Sometimes I’d get more traffic
from the smaller blogs than the larger ones.
(Buuuuut if you do get featured by a huge blog…
watch out here comes the traffic! Yay!)

2. Add blogs with {link parties} to your blog roll.

When I found a link party I liked
I’d add that blog to my blog roll right on the front of my blog. 
Each morning I’d check my blog, & see what parties were posted. 
This made it lots easier not to miss a party.
Plus it’s important to link back to those blogs that host the parties.
It’s a lot of work hosting parties!  So be polite & always link back.

3. Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

Take nice, clear, BIG pictures!
You don’t have to have a fancy camera.
This is the camera that I use to take pictures on my blog.
It’s a simple Canon point & shoot camera….nothing fancy at all.
(It does have a fancy camera strap though! 
Thank you Tracy from The Crafty Polkadot!)

For my blog pictures I take pictures by a window…with lots of natural light.
Usually in the morning before lunch is the best time to take pictures at my house.
I don’t use a flash. I get as close as I can to what I’m taking a picture of.
Learn how your camera works & find the best spot to take your pictures.
For me my kitchen table is the best spot in the house…lots of windows.
That’s why you see my table in most of my craft post.

TIP:  Taking pictures outside works great, too!

You don’t want fuzzy out of focus pictures,
if you do your chances of being featured aren’t good.

4. Watermark your pictures!!!!

When you start linking up your projects to link parties
make sure your pictures are watermarked
with your blog name.

Chances are if your project is featured
someone is going to pin it straight from the feature post
instead of going back to your blog & pinning it from there. 
(Remember lots of “pinners’ aren’t bloggers
& don’t realize the importance of linking back.)
So make sure there is way to find you!

For my watermark I use my whole blog name with the .com.
This makes it super easy for someone to type in
gingersnapcrafts.com, & then my blog would pop right up.

So do you have in tips on featuring or being featured??

I’ll be back this afternoon with my
{take a look at you} feature post!

Hope to see YOU then!