I used to dread friends and family days at my sister’s church and my mom’s. Since I’m family, I was automatically on the invite list and I got dragged to church with a whole bunch of other people’s friends and family who hadn’t been to church since the last friends and family day. Particularly cocky preachers would take the opportunity to lecture their visitors for never going to church. I would only half-listen since I was chasing a then-toddler Jon Alex up and down the aisles as he was on the hunt for snacks and juice. Man, I’m glad that’s over. I’d never do that to anybody.
Except, er, um: today is friends and family day at lovelinks!
Invite a friend who’s been on the outskirts of lovelinks, kinda curious what it’s all about, but too preoccupied with other things to care that much about it. Who cares? We care. We’ve seen firsthand the community that springs up around regular lovelinkers. More than a couple of you had that one friend visiting your blog for months when no one else even knew about it. You linked with lovelinks and—bam—you’re hanging out at the water cooler on Twitter looking all cool and in the know.
Share that today with someone who needs it.
They don’t need to follow me on Twitter, but they need to follow somebody who tweets the lovelinks. How about this: make sure the friends you bring are following you. That should do it.
Tell them that it’s also a good idea to comment on the participating blogs. Just linking up will get their blogs a few extra hits, but the goal is to turn hits into community. That’s my main problem with Stumble Upon, I’ve figured out. Receiving 50 hits at 10 seconds each isn’t really my thing. Five visitors who stick around for 10 minutes, that’s more like it. Anyway, making a day of it on the various lovelinks blogs is like a seaside picnic without having to wait 25 years to inherit your favorite aunt’s cottage. We’re available for immediate move in.
I’ll have a useful, fun surprise for whoever brings in the most lovelinks virgins with a minimum of three by Friday. Ask them to leave a note in comments letting me know who invited them. Snacks and juice for the antsy ones.
Lovelinks #28 is open for submissions.
I just popped my lovelinks cherry. I hope y’all like my post!
Erika, this week’s lovelinks closed last night. I’ll add you to the mailing list so you’ll know when next week is open.
Alison from Mama Wants This suggested this to me 🙂
No one invited me per se. I just figured it everyone (mamawantsthis, chosenchaos, mamamash, freefringes, etc) on twitter is doing it, I should check it out.
That’s what I’m talking about: initiative! —signed, @freefringes
Total lovelinks virgin here! Alison sent me an email telling me I should check it out. I’m so glad she did. This is so fun!!
Jamie from Chosen Chaos also tweeted me about this fabulous linky of yours. So I’m getting it from a few fantastic chicas!!
Yay! I love Alison and Jamie. Thanks for listening to them 🙂
Okay, okay, trying this….I hope you will tell me if I fucked something up in the submission.
You did great! I hope you have fun visiting all the blogs. I love yours.
I’m here today because of an invite from Alison… and because I dig you! 🙂 I can always use a little more love. Ahh, what a happy place this is!
Aw, I dig you, too. Glad we finally met through Stasha and Alison. Thanks for linking up!
Linked up thanks to Ado @ The Momalog! Love your blog.
Aw, thanks, January. I’m still working out a few kinks, but everyone is having a good time. Thanks for linking up!
Lovelinks virgin here! You could say that Erin from abookformydaughter.com “brought” me, although she doesn’t know it. But I discovered this cool linky when Erin won that spot on The Blogess’s sidebar a week or two ago. Yeay for lovelinks! Looking forward to reading the other linked-up posts. Thanks!
Yay Erin! Have fun while you’re here. Get comfy. We’re good people.
You’ve really built up quite the community here! Nice work, Erica. If I knew how to tweet or twitter or whatever it is, I’d follow you there. But all really really know how to do is come here and say “hey”!
You would love Twitter! I found your Twitter account. We’re gonna teach you how to have fun with it!
Giving you a shout out on our fb page in a few…hopefully will attract more bloggers! 🙂
Thanks, Bitches!
I saw a tweet from Mannahattamamma about linking up with lovelinks for virgins, so I clicked! Thanks so much!
I love MannaHatta Mamma! Thanks!
I’m linking up for the first time because of Alison and her sweet email! Fun 🙂
I wanna see this email. So sweet I probably wanna lick it. Thanks for linking up!
Yooohoo…Alison invited me here! Thanks Alison. And Erica for hosting this! =)
Thanks for coming! Your babies are adorable.
Haha! And thanks to June for inviting MEEEEE! 😉
Hi Erica,
Alison from Mama Wants This told me about Lovelinks.
I’m excited to try this.
Mirjam
We’re excited to have you! Thanks for trying us out.
Hi! Linking up for the first time. Although she didn’t tell me to say this, Alison encouraged me to do it. I was only to happy to follow her suggestion. I also enjoyed your 25 suggestions for small blogs post. I’m always looking for ways to improve. Off to read the other linkers!
Welcome, Christine! Alison is awesome. Thanks for joining us!
A few months ago, I sent out an email inviting some lovely bloggers to link up with lovelinks – I hope it worked, I didn’t keep track!
So with pleasure, I did the same this week. I hope at least a couple respond 🙂 I did forget to ask them to say who invited them to link up, but I’m doing it all out of love!
You’re awesome, Alison. I bet you smell yummy, too.
Well, it worked for me when you emailed me : )
Wherever did you get all these ideas from? (chuckle, chuckle, chuckle).
Speaking of followers… I agreed with you and Mommy2¢.
Did you have the same idea? Weird. And small world!
I’m with you girl! I know my blog isn’t for everyone; 99.9% of the time it’s just a fun/humor blog(that can be a wee bit crude at times)but I’d still much rather attract visitors who will stick around & get to know me beyond just one post.
You’re really good at communicating with your readers. That helps a great deal.