Where should I begin? I’ll start off by saying I’m almost sure that most who see this post won’t read it and not many will leave a comment.
PARTIES
When you go to a local party or get together – whether hosted by your family, neighbors, co-workers, whoever – do you say hello to the host and/or hostess? Does the host and/or hostess say hello or greet you? If you don’t go to parties but did happen to go to one, would you ignore the host? How would you feel if the host ignored you?
WRONG IDEA
I guess I had the wrong idea about link parties. I thought they were to mingle as if at a real party to get to know others and their interests, to learn about new blogs, to build friendships and community. I was definitely WRONG!
When I go to link parties, I always thank the hostess for hosting. Rarely does the hostess ever come over to my blog and leave a comment for me. Ok, maybe my blog isn’t amusing or my posts don’t interest them but what about common courtesy? These same folks rarely even reply to the comment I leave for them on their own blog!
HOSTING MY OWN PARTIES
When I started hosting parties, I visited EVERY link whether the entries interested me or not, even if the blogger didn’t take the time to say hello or thank me for hosting. I also shared the entries like crazy and I left comments!! I have featured plenty of bloggers who probably never even remembered linking up at my parties. So, I no longer do so. If a guest can’t take the time to at least leave me a comment telling me their entry numbers then I don’t visit their entries to comment, nor do I promote their entries by sharing them on social media.
I have put up with bloggers who, for example, link up a recipe, shopping trip, or book review at a craft or décor party. Not only did they not say hello or thank me for hosting, they never took the time to read the simple rules for linking up. That’s called dropping a link and running. Do you think those bloggers visit other guests at the party? No, they don’t, only rarely! The guests obviously don’t realize that those of us who host the parties can see how many clicks each entry gets in the InLinkz dashboard.
PARTY HOSTS AND BLOGGING
I think many of those hosting parties lately don’t even look at their parties and don’t care who is linking up nor what they’re linking to. What has happened to blogging? Where are the budding friendships that I thought would form? Let me state here, I have met people from all over the world via blogging and there are some that I visit regularly, they visit me too, but just a few. I keep reading on this blog or that blog how link parties are going away. There is a loss of community, waning friendship between bloggers.
THE PROBLEM IS $$$
I think a BIG problem with a lot of bloggers today, and why they don’t take time to visit their party guests or even reply to a guest’s comment, is that they are trying to earn money. They’re like busy bees publishing blog posts like an assembly line. As a result, many of their sites look horrible with all the ads popping up and overlapping content. So ridiculous. Do they honestly think their sites look nice? I’m almost positive that many of them NEVER take the time to look at their sites after they hit the publish button for their latest post. If they don’t know how to fix their ugly sites then they should hire a professional to help them. I mean, I’m assuming they can afford someone with expertise since they’re making money with all those stupid ads, right? I don’t watch ads on TV so I’m not going to try to read an article or blog post with annoying ads!
Speaking of making money, I’d LOVE to know how much those horrible looking sites are making, I’m sure they’d never tell anyone. They’re hoping the BIG checks will start rolling in. They heard about so and so who makes such and such and now everyone thinks they can too! I would love to interview some of those bloggers and get them to go online and actually read one of their posts to me. How hilarious would that be? I know one thing, they couldn’t do it, it’s impossible! You have to be able to see the content before you can read it. You can’t read them on an iPhone, not an iPad, not a large screen laptop, and not even on my humongous monitor for my desktop computer!!
INAPPROPRIATE ADS
When you go onto some of these family friendly blog sites, you immediately get hit with ads for toenail fungus! Who wants to see that if you’re looking at a recipe? YUCK! Or how about erectile dysfunction, bladder leakage, big ole oozing pimples, or psoriasis? Hey, I’m a nurse, gross stuff doesn’t bother me but everyone isn’t a nurse. I was on a Christian site yesterday reading about Bible teachings and what pops up right in the middle between two paragraphs? An ad for an alcohol brand saying if you get drunk your ugly girlfriend won’t look ugly! I saw another one on a similar site that said to cheat on your wife, not your workout! Really? On a Christian site!! Then, what about these sites that run the same ad between paragraphs, in popups, or sidebars? Contrary to what some might think, those ads do not reflect my recent searches!
THOUGHTS?
Do you have any thoughts about this post or am I alone on this one? Are you a link party guest, host, or both? Do you think guests should leave a comment for the host as well as follow the party rules? Do you think the host should reply to your comment if you leave one for them? And, last of all, do you think the host should at least visit entries and leave comments if you did so for them?
** DO YOU ATTEND BLOG PARTY LINKUPS?
We’d like to invite you to ours. See current link parties here!
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