Some of you may or may not have seen or taken part in the recent St.Patrick's Day Blog Hop last week. I know a handful of Brigaders were participating, including myself. Liana Brooks suggested that perhaps the Brigade should host one of its own, and I've kind of volunteered to set it up. :-P
So I thought I'd put it up for a vote. I've suggested a Midsummer one, since this is an astronomical and mystical event that might tie in nicely with speculative fiction as a whole and allow us all a free range on the topic we'd like to post. First up, I'd like to know how many Brigaders are interested in taking part, how many are willing to offer a prize on their own blog and/or contribute to a grand prize, volunteers to help out (begging here!) etc. I've left the poll open so that you can choose as many responses as you need, and add further questions you think are relevant.
So the basic idea is - this blog will host the hop. A linky tool will be set up for all those wanting to participate (about a month in advance), into which you will need to enter your name, email and blog/website URL. All participants will be sent a copy of the code for the linky so we can all publish the list, letting visitors to our blogs hop to the next without having to keep coming back here. On the day, a post will go live here announcing the hop and with the list up so that everyone has somewhere central to come back to. Participants will write a short post on a topic of their choice related to Midsummer's Day (or maybe if you have a similar solar event or festival etc in one of your books, you can post a snippet), including whatever promotional links you'd like to add and listing your prize(s). Visitors will need to comment with their email addy for entry to your contest, and for one entry to the main prize if we have one. The more blogs they comment on, the better their chances of winning the grand prize. I'd like to suggest that it isn't a requirement for guests to sign up to newsletters/follow blogs etc as part of the conditions for entry, but that's entirely up to each participant.
Because of the time differences between some members I'm going to have to figure out some times, and how long the contest will actually run for - I'll have to get back to you on that. But, depending on the number of participants, I may need one or two peeps just to help me check all the links in the linky are up and valid - any that just seem to lead to an advert rather than a post or are broken may be deleted. At the end of the hop, I'll collect up all the entries and chose a grand winner. Each participant will be responsible for choosing and announcing the individual winner on their own blog. For an example of how blog hops work, you can check out Carrie Ann Ryan's recent St.Patrick's Day Hop here.
Now, Midsummer's Day is the 24th June which I know might be an issue for the Six Sentence Sunday peeps. But the actual summer solstice is the 20th June at 23.09. So perhaps Friday the 21st might be the best day to hold it? Or I could set it to start at the moment of solstice if everyone can schedule their blog posts to go live then. Any suggestions, thoughts etc are very welcome!
New Releases in SciFi/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance for NOV 20
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I have not read most of the new releases listed (although I always end up
one-clicking quite a few as I prepare these posts LOL). ‘AB’ denotes
audiobook a...
1 day ago
I've done a couple of blogs - but it would be even more important to get a range of the bigger names involved too.
ReplyDeleteI know that sounds a little funny, but it would certainly get a lot more interest. We could also advertise on our Facebook/Twitter/Triberr and I would be more than happy to spruik it through my publishers reader group.
I'm not sure how to get bigger names involved! Any suggestions?
ReplyDeleteCould our blog hop be featured on some of the big romance sites like Smart Bitches or Dear Author? That might generate more traffic.
ReplyDeleteUm, I don't know - how do we go about that? Maybe someone more knowledgeable should take this over! :(
ReplyDeleteI did a blog hop with I'm a Reader and those hops usually run a week. It seemed like my visits to the blog built slowly, hit a peak about 4-5 days in, then slowly trailed off again. So I'd recommend more than one day for the hop. If we're going to do all the work, might as well get maximum exposure?
ReplyDeletethey also do a button that you promote on the site well in advance of the hop.
Bitten by books might be a good site to connect with. I have a lot of book bloggers on a list, but not quite sure how to loop them in w/o writing extra blog posts for them to post.
The blog hops I've done before have only been a day. If this is going to run for a week, then I'm not going to be able to run it. I've looked at the two site Melisse mentioned, and I can't see anywhere to submit a feature except as part of paid advertising. Pauline, why would you be writing extra posts for them to post? The idea is that each participant writes their own post. Is there more than one kind of blog hop?
ReplyDeleteI've never done a blog hop, so this should be fun. The only problem I have is whether or not I'll be able to get on my blog on that Friday. My work takes me out of towns often and I don't have internet access a lot of the time.:( Is this something that can be done during the course of the day or does everyone have to do it at the exact same time? If I'm limited to an exact time, I can still promote the blog hop on my blog/Facebook/Twitter, but may not be available to hop around with everyone else.
ReplyDeleteKyndra, if you can't schedule your blog post to be live by the deadline (whenever that might be - I'm going to have to work out time differences) then you can post it a day or even two earlier. As long as it's live in time for the hope. :)
ReplyDeleteThe 'hop' even, tsk!
ReplyDeleteA lot of book bloggers like/want guest blog posts if they are going to promote someone else's blog hop. What we might could do is invite them participate in our blog hop? otherwise, I'd say don't worry about trying to get big sites involved. it just adds work....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pippa! That sounds great. :)
ReplyDelete@Pauline - ah, I see what you mean. Well, maybe a couple of us could write guest posts in order to get the promotion from them. Hmmm, don't know about inviting peeps from outside of the Brigade, but then it depends how many Brigaders would definitely take part.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear "blog hop" I do usually think in terms of a multi-day hop. And as Pauline pointed out, there are advantages to building up momentum and allowing enough time for folks to hear about it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Pippa, this is your baby and if you can only do one day, then by all means go for it. If you advertise frequently, in advance, and periodically on the day of the hop (e.g., via Twitter) then that will help folks remember to put aside the time.
Maybe scaling down the event would help make it more manageable.
For example, the participating bloggers could do very short posts, say, 1-3 paragraphs in light of the fact that visitors would be visiting multiple sites in one day. Or they could throw out a topic for discussion rather than an op-ed piece or essay. Or they could post an SF/SFR related video (like that Danger Planet animated short). Or some cool visuals.
Plus, there will always be opportunities for future, more involved hops.
Hope that helps!
Thanks, Heather! Yes, I want to keep this on the smallish side since it's my first attempt. The hops I've been in have only been one day, but I'll set up plenty of tweets etc, and make sure it's well broadcast before the day. Short posts or excerpts would definitely be the aim.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit disappointed I missed this St.Patrick's Day Blog Hop. The way you described made me regret i wasn't able to come and take part. Thanks for the overview!
ReplyDeleteThe last blog hop I did was a one day event, and tripled my traffic for the day.
ReplyDeleteI think we have enough Brigade authors to generate traffic just from tweets and FB links, advertising with a major reviewer would probably cost money and I'd rather see that go towards a grand prize.
BTW, I can donate a prize and will be glad to help advertise the event.
ReplyDelete@Liana, yes, I'm not sure we need to pay out for advertising when so many of us can promote it.
ReplyDelete@Heather - excellent and thank you.