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Blogging 101: Info for new bloggers

Recently, I’ve had a few new bloggers reach out to me and ask what some of the blog “lingo” means. Let’s face it, we are all “new” bloggers at some point, and I know I was lost when I first started too!

So below you will find a few terms that we bloggers here in Blog Land throw around a lot. I’ve also linked a few examples… feel free to email me or leave me a comment below if you have any questions. I love helping bloggers grow and become accustomed to this little community we have here. Blogging has truly been such a wonderful experience for me and there’s always room for more neighbors 🙂 

Blogging 101

Link up/Blog hop: These terms really mean the same thing . A link up or blog hop is a great way to find new blogs and give others a chance to come find your blog! There are link ups for everything and anything you can think of; for example, I co-host Wild Card Wednesday where you can link up your Bloglovin’ account, Blog link, and Twitter handle. All you do is enter your information and follow any “rules” they blog has. It usually just means following the blog hosting and taking time to really click on some other blogs and look around! 

Button: A button looks like this! You use it to sponsor other blogs, and it links back to your blog. Essentially, it’s an advertisement! This way, people see your button somewhere and click on it to come visit you 🙂 You can make them in Photoshop, Pic Monkey, or any photo editing program. 

Sponsor: Sponsoring a blog means placing your button (advertisement essentially) on another blog’s sidebar or somewhere on their blog. These can be paid or unpaid. To receive it for free, most blogs offer an ad swap (see below). 

Ad swap: Most blogs offer a swap option. This means that you both place each other’s buttons on your blog, so you’re basically canceling out any fee if there is one. When you’re first starting out, this is the BEST way to meet new friends and really make relationships with other bloggers. 

Passion Fruit: Most bloggers use Passion Fruit to monitor the ads on their blogs. Passion Fruit basically does everything for you; they control when the ads switch, take the payment, and place them on your blog. All you need is the code they generate for the space where you’d like the ad to show up. They do take a small fee but once you start taking more ads, it’s totally worth it (in my opinion). 

Media Kit: Once you start gaining an audience and find your “niche”, you’ll want to create a media kit for companies to have all of your information in one place. Usually, they contain all of your contact information, sponsor options, information about you and your blog, etc. It can be something simple in word, or you can design one in Photoshop. You can find mine on my Advertise/PR page if you need a reference. It can be as simple or as complex if you want! Make it about YOU!

Product Reviews/Giveaways: Once you have a solid following base and followers/readers, companies will start to contact you to review their products and host giveaways. This means that they will send you free product in exchange for your honest opinion, a blog post, blasts on social media, etc. They will sometimes offer you two items, one to giveaway to one of your readers. This is in hopes that your readers will visit their site and check out what they have! 

#widn: You’ll see this hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. It means What I’m Doing Now. Someone else tags you (means they put a picture up of what they’re doing) and then say “I’m tagging…” and tag others. Then you put up a picture of what you’re doing, say you were tagged by so and so and tag a few other people! You obviously don’t have to, but it’s fun. 

Twitter Parties: Depending on the type of Twitter party, it basically means from a certain time (ex: 2-3 pm EST) you talk with other people, company, etc using whatever hashtag the party is for. There are usually options for prizes and a chance to find some new followers on Twitter! For example, last week I won a necklace on Neely and Sarah’s Twitter party. You can read more about that here

I’m sure there are a lot more words and things that are specific to bloggers, but these are a few to get you started. If you have any questions or need me to elaborate, please let me know! I’d love to help you grow and learn 🙂 

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” – Proverb

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