"Swap Followings" Linky Party - 01.31.11

As I visited your blogs, my dear friends, Deepak Chopra's words kept ringing in my head, "Intelligence isn't the only force that wants to express through you. So do creativity, truth, beauty, and love.” Your blogs contain beautiful things to share to the world and all of you have displayed so much intelligence in your posts. I'm glad to meet you all. By the way, I was blown away by the good turn out - 47 participants! How awesome is that? Thank you everyone for making our first linky party a success!


Random.org generated link #4 as our spotlight blog and that is Jen from Life, Crafts, and Whatever. Jen lives in Texas with her hubby and 3 girls. She loves crafting and thrift stores. She had me with her paint chip wall art - just under $10 but made such a huge statement in her kitchen wall. She's new to blogland but one can already tell how much dedication she has in putting quality posts in her blog. Thank you, Jen, for linking up.

I'm happy to share that I'm a new follower of Alicia from Purple Paisely Pinwheels. Her blog caught my eye because she dreams of owning her own Inn or Bed and Breakfast, completely renovated and decorated to a traditional, modern, casual style. Thanks, Alicia! Hope you will invite us all one day in your Inn or Bed and Breakfast grand opening.

Now to our linky party.

To all newcomers, WELCOME, and feel at home! To our veterans, THANK YOU for choosing to join us again. I made some changes to our party guidelines and you can read them again here. I promise that next week, these info will just be linked so as to spare you from long reading. I have fine-tuned it a bit so I'm re-posting it here, in that way everybody will be on the same page.

What is "Swap Following"? The concept is: I follow your blog, please follow mine. The best analogy to illustrate this is during Christmas parties when we join the exchange gifts because we want some fun giving a present and receiving one. This linky party is all about giving the gift of your following and receiving it in return.

How did I come up with this idea of "Swap Following" Linky Party?

As a new blogger, I realized how motivating it is to receive comments and have followers. I got invitations to follow their blog in return for their following me. So I thought, why not just have a linky party all about following bloggers by connecting bloggers and followers?

Each time I visit a blog, I hear the common yearning of having more followers. It's time to take action and take matters into our hands! No more soliciting of someone's following through leaving comments, after comments, after comments; no more waiting for somebody to become your follower after publishing that syndicated post you just made; no more implicit hope that each visitor will become your follower. We have to get the word out there that our blog exists, that we have something valuable to contribute to the blogosphere, that we're worthy of being followed, and that we’re willing to get to know each other, follow blogs and in return, get followed.

So the main rule of this party is to follow 2 or more blogs (preferably the one before you and after you before visiting other blogs) and that already spared you from asking the gut-wrenching question, "Can you follow me?"

But here's the catch - you have to do the same to others in order for it to work. Not only that, leave a comment to the bloggers you just followed letting them know that you're following them. If you're the one being followed, then please be gracious to return the favor to the follower. Come to think of it, if it takes the simple task following 1,000 bloggers in order for you to receive 1,000 followers in return, are you willing to do it? I am.

So here's a summary of the formal housekeeping rules that everyone needs to be aware of. We raised the bar this time because we already have proven and tested that the Swap Followings Linky Party is an effective way of fast and easy gain of followers in a short period of time. All participants deserve a pleasant experience out of this party and we won't settle for anything less.

When you join, you are expected to:
1. Make a post mentioning the blog (or blogs) you're following because of this linky party and why. After you wrote the post, notify the blogger you're spotlighting. This will start goodwill and treasured friendship between you and the one you're following. This newly created post is the one you will link up.

2. Include this party button in your post. This is a must and I explained the reason why in here.


<center><a href="http://www.homemakeronadime.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i971.photobucket.com/albums/ae194/homemakeronadime/button-2.jpg" /></a></center>


(Another alternative is include the party button in your sidebar, create a new post that also make mention you’re joining the linky party, and a link back to the party.)

3. Follow 2 or more blogs, preferably the link before and after you, and leave them a comment that you're following them. That will make it easier for them to find you back and follow you. If you're the one being followed, please be gracious by returning the favor. What would you lose in following somebody anyway, except gain more followers?

4. Party link opens up every Monday at 5:00 pm, PST, and will close Saturday at 11:59 pm.

5. To make it fun, every Monday, I'll spotlight a blog and random.org will choose the lucky blogger.

Take note that when I visit your blog and I see that there's no post about this party, I will definitely send you a gentle reminder to do so. If you're just a new blogger and don't know how to include the party button, read this link. I'm still thinking what to do with repeat offenders but please don't let me go that far.

You may think that the requirements are too cumbersome but here’s the thing. We want to attract quality bloggers and an initial measure of that is if they abide by these requirements. IF they are willing to invest the time to meet these requirements, then they are also willing to invest the time to build meaningful friendship with everybody. We are not a one-night-follower-stand kind of party – we want to foster long-term relationships in which we could learn from one another and influence each other for good.

Beware! Malicious links will be deleted immediately. Malicious links include, but are not limited to porn, gossips, those with racist contents, or anything that are not in harmony with the intent of this party, which, I would like to emphasize again, enduring friendships unmarred by unscrupulous posts.

So go ahead, mingle with one another, follow to be followed, and have fun. The PARTY begins right now!