A blog hop (or a link up – they’re synonyms) is sort of like a post party hosted on someone’s website on a certain day every week.

The blog hops usually have a core group of people that attend them regularly and read and comment on the other posts. They’ll often promote them on social media as well.

Blog hops really get exciting when they start to grow a little and you find new blogs full of little gems too! They’re also a great way for new bloggers to get to know others who are interested in the same thing they are.

I’ve noticed that in the personal finance blogosphere, blog hops and link ups aren’t the norm.

Since it’s kind of difficult to find link ups that focus on or feature personal finance, here are some I’ve managed to find:

Mondays

Tuesdays

Wednesday

 Thursdays

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

 A Little Bit of Etiquette 

Lots of blog hops and link ups had a list of rules when you go to link up. Follow them! It’s the polite thing to do. You wouldn’t just crash someone’s party in real life.

If a blog asks that you only submit a certain kind of post, then only submit a certain kind of post. The blogs listed above all accept personal finance posts – some actually ONLY accept personal finance posts.

Don’t submit sponsored posts or posts that are really just advertisements for products. Most link ups also don’t want you submitting posts that feature giveaways (although if you Google giveaway link ups, you’ll find there are some blog hops specifically for that!).

ALWAYS link back to the hosting blog. Most blog hops and link ups will provide you with a little string of code you can paste into the bottom of your post. Even if they don’t, it’s polite to just toss in a line at the bottom of your post saying something like “linked up at Financially Savvy Saturdays over at Femme Frugality.”

Visit a few other posts at the party! Really pressed for time? Just check out the post of the person who submitted before you. Got some free time? Help spread the word about the party. Read a few posts and promote them on social media. Tag the post author and the blog hop post, so they know you stopped by. The idea behind blog hops is to build community!

A Quick “How To”

I’m always a little surprised to meet people who are flummoxed by blog hops because they are really pretty easy to navigate.

Click on the post with the blog hop’s name on the hosts site.

Let the whole post load. If it’s a really popular blog hop, this may take a minute, because it’s loading a thumbnail picture of every post that has already been posted.

Check out any requests from the host under their “rules” section. You can usually do this while the post loads.

Scroll to the bottom of the list of pictures. There will be a button that says something like “add your link.” Click on it.

Now follow the directions on the form and add the link to your post that you want to promote. After you hit submit, you’ve joined the blog hop!

Go back and check out a few posts. There are often feature posts chosen from the previous week as well. If your post is spectacular AND you’ve followed all the hosts rules, you could wind up featured eventually as well.

*Friendly tip – the people who get the most views are the people who join the party the earliest. Some blog hops publish what time they’ll go live and some don’t. The really popular blog hops can send a good bit of traffic to your blog if you manage to catch one of the earliest spots, especially if you are a new blogger. 

Blog Carnivals

More common among personal finance bloggers are carnivals. To be mentioned on a carnival, you submit your recent posts. Then once a week or a month the submissions are collected into a list and posted.

One great resource is the website Blogger Carnivals. There you can check out the requirements of a few different carnivals and submit any of your recent posts that fall within their guidelines. One of my favorites is the Financial Carnival for Young Adults.

An interesting thing about financial carnivals is that they are a little bit at the mercy of the host. The host may chose to post every blog article that came through that week, may opt to do a Top 10, might pick a theme and run with it… it’s always neat to see how the host opts to organize that week’s submissions.

Additionally, once you have some experience submitting to blog carnivals, you can sign up to host a carnival to drive some extra traffic to your site.