Follow Me Friday - Blog Hops

I thought I'd do something a little different today and do a little post on how to increase your readership and gain more followers. Obviously you've got to have the right content on your blog, so that obviously people have something to read and comment on. Writing interesting posts and including lots of relevant and clear pictures is always good, I know that's what I look for when i'm reading blogs. Blog Hops are a really good way of both sharing your blog with others and gaining a few new followers along the way. 

These are the three I have used previously, and in my opinion they're such a good idea. I recently had to start my blog from scratch due to huge problems and therefore lost absolutely all of my followers. Anyone will know its hard to build up a readership anyway, but having to start again after having quite a few followers is such an awful feeling. You post your link to a blog hop, which has a list including lots of blogs, and its almost a place for all blogs to come together in the same place - which makes it easier to find new ones to read.

I'm quite new to these but I think they are such a good idea. I've used the three I posted above and the people that run them are so lovely too. I've found so many brilliant blogs through these blog hops and met some really lovely people, and I've also had my blog read a lot more. I know some people are dead against using blog hops - I read somewhere that they are almost used to 'force' your blog upon someone, but I don't feel that's the case at all.

So to conclude, I'd strongly recommend using a Blog Hop to everyone, no matter how many followers you may have. It's such a great way to find some amazing blogs that you might not have before, and to also showcase what you have to offer.

Do you use Blog Hops? What are your opinions of them?