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.
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!)
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!
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.
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!
This makes it super easy for someone to type in
gingersnapcrafts.com, & then my blog would pop right up.
{take a look at you} feature post!
Hope to see YOU then!
Great tips! Thank you so much for sharing! I was oblivious to most of those. 🙂
Thanks for sharing your knowledge! You are one of the "big" bloggers now so it is really kind of you to share what you've learned with everyone!
I had never heard of hot linking… good to know:)
Great information! I am encouraged by your photography tips – I feel so inadequate with my simple point & shoot camera. 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
-sara @ applestonedrive.blogspot.com
Thank you so much for this great information.
Great post Ginger! I had no idea what hot linking was : ) That would probably explain why my bandwith went out not too long ago for my photobucket images.
Have a great day!
Thank you so much for sharing this useful info!! btw–you know you're one of those "big bloggers" now, right? 🙂
This is a great post you lay it all out nice and clear….I'd like to place a link to this post on my blog party introduction on friday with your permission of course…..my e-mails on my profile…Thanks:)
Deana @CountryMommaCooks
This is fabulous! I am so glad you shared this with us! Thanks friend!
So lovely. Thanks for teaching us the rops and all the sharing that you do through commenting all the time on all of our blogs.
There are some GREAT tips here! And I had no idea about copy/pasting pics maxing out someone's bandwidth like that. GOOD to know!
Thanks so much for sharing : )
Jaimee @ craftinterrupted.com
Thank you so much for the info on hot links. I had no idea and was always just copying and pasting because it was quicker for me than saving and uploading. I love your blog and try to link up each week. And I agree wit the others.. you are one of those "big blogs".
I found out about hotlinking the hard way… by having to pay for premium services at Photobucket one month if I wanted all my graphics available until my bandwidth usage reset in another week! Since then I don't use Photobucket for everything anymore – but the more bloggers who know about this, the better!! Thanks so much for sharing!
I had never heard of hot linking; thanks for the info! Do you know if it uses the bandwidth when you don't copy the picture, but copy the URL? Thanks for always giving shout outs on your blog! It's always an honor being featured :o)
I agree, you're in the blog "big time". It's so great to see you growing and flourishing! I had been hot linking my features, but use Pinterest embedding now instead. When I post a feature, above the picture I'll link something like "These Cute Mantel Blocks from Gingersnap Crafts", and link to you there. Below that, you'll see the picture of your craft that I pinned directly from your site. Make sense? Great encouragement for us who use a "little" camera :).
Thanks Ginger for spreading the word!! I made a post too, but I think you will get WAY more coverage 🙂 The more people know, the better.
Gen @ colormedomestic.blogspot.com
Thanks so much for the info. I, too, wonder, is hot linking the same for copying the URL of a photo? That's what I do. I'd love to know! Thanks for the great tips!
Thank you everyone for your comments! 🙂 I had several ask if copying the url for the picture is the same as copying & pasting the picture, so thought I'd answer it here, too. I am not sure! So to be safe I'm going to be saving & uploading my feature pictures.
Ginger
ps Annnd for all of you that said my blog was big! Thank you!!! Wow~ 🙂 I really don't feel like that but it does make me feel good to hear! You guys are awesome! Thank you! 🙂
Thanks for all the great tips. I had to laugh because most of my projects on photographed on my kitchen table too. lol
This is another great post! I am new to blogging and trying to build a following too so this was super helpful! Would also love if you could link this post on my site as I have a few other friends who are also trying to build a following. I know they'd find this a great read!
http://teaganstravels.blogspot.com/2012/02/destination-inspiration-linky-party-4.html
Thanks, Michelle
Actually, yes copying the image url is the same as copying the image, because by copying the image, you are essentially copying the url. That sounded redundant didn't it? The difference is just in whether you work with html (hence you copy the url) or if you "compose" your posts (hence you don't see the behind the scenes html and you copy paste the image). I really hope I didn't confuse anyone there, I'm not always the best at explaining :S Hope that helps!
Great info! A lot of good things to think about. I really need to figure out how to watermark my pics! Oh and thanks for mentioning the camera strap! BTW, how do you get the "pin it" button on each post? Did you have it added automatically or do you go in and do it each time?
I popped over using the link on Happy Hour Projects today and I'm so glad I did. I've been a bad hotlinker. I had no idea. Thanks for the tips!!
Thank you so much for sharing! These are great tips, most of which I was clueless about!!
Thanks for all the great advise, I'm new to blogging so need all the help I can get! I had never even heard of hot links so thats really useful to know.
I'm loving you're blog by the way, so fresh and fun 🙂
Wow! I'm glad I read this post! I had NO idea about the "hot links" thing. I will be changing how I do things!