In my blogging life, there is something fellow bloggers often tell me. They use different sentences, but usually, it goes like this. “You are everywhere, Marie.”

I will let you on a little secret, today. I don’t know if I am everywhere: physically, it is impossible to be everywhere ; virtually, I try but I can’t do it, either. One thing I am doing, though, is my best to share the love within the book blogging community, and one of the biggest tricks to do this is, for me, blog hopping.

What is blog hopping, exactly?

I don’t know the right definition of blog hopping and I bet everyone has their own interpretation anyway, so instead of checking a blogging dictionnary, I will just tell you what blog hopping means, for me.

Blog-hopping is all about going on blogs, on other blogs, on other blogs, on other blogs, endlessly. It’s all about spending time to visit other bloggers, but it’s not just that: it’s discovering new blogs, commenting on blog posts from them you enjoyed reading, starting a conversation with someone new or someone you already knew before and just, overall, sharing the love.

I spend about an hour a day reading other bloggers’ posts, on average. This obviously depends on the time I have, the bloggers’ frenzy to post new things and my mood / what’s happening in my life at the moment.

Point is: I do make a point of blog hopping very often. Some people do more, others do less. I’m not here to shame people who aren’t into blog hopping, just here to share my point of view on this and why I think it’s both great and important.

Why I blog hop and think that it is overall AMAZING

There are so many reasons why I blog hop and why I think it is pretty amazing. Let me make a list.

You can meet new bloggers!

Potential new friends! People you’ll end up chatting with really late about books and everything! If I’m being honest, if I hadn’t started blog hopping, I probably wouldn’t have had regular conversations with people, turning into genuine bookish and just plain friendship.

You can be inspired!

By discovering new blogs and reading new blog posts, you can be inspired, to read new books, do new things on your own blog and so on. I do not mean that you can copy everything another blogger you admire does – that is NOT good. Just. INSPIRE Yourself.

You can celebrate and recognize someone’s hard work!

Let’s face it: blogging IS work. Even if we love it, even if it’s a hobby, it takes a lot of time to think of blog posts, to type them up and everything else. In that light, I’m not going to lie: getting followers, getting likes on a post, shares on twitter and everything matters. It makes me feel like what I’m saying makes sense and that people are appreciating it. That feeling is 10 000 000 times bigger when I get comments on a blog post. Small or big, they all matter and make me feel like people are looking for a discussion and WANT to interact on what I said. So yeah, that’s why I blog-hop, too. To boost people’s work on blog posts and show my appreciation at their awesomeness, basically.

You can grow your blog!

I wouldn’t be where I am without blog hopping, I will admit it. I started blog-hopping early on as I started blogging and it helped me grow traffic on my own blog. It helped me get comments back. It helped me grow my blog overall.

You can spread the love!

Best reason of all: blog-hopping is just spreading the love over the bookish community. I think that’s pretty amazing and the best reason to do it.

How to organize your blog hopping sessions (without losing your mind)

Blog-hopping doesn’t happen on its own: you have to do it. You are the one needing to find new blogs, to visit them, to read blog posts, to comment on them, to share a post on twitter, and so on. It’s a blogging activity that takes a whole lot of time and energy.

How can you blog hop? WHERE THE HELL DO YOU START with all of these blogs? Let me make a list again. I am very fond of lists, can you tell?

Check out the WordPress Reader (if you are on WordPress)

As I am on WordPress, I have this little something called Reader, where all of my blogs meet and where I get all of the latest blog posts from them. It’s a great place to start, see what’s new, click on the blog post and so on. (Important reminder: if you click to be redirected TO the blog, you will give the blog a visit. If you read on the Reader, you won’t pay the blog an actual visit and won’t even see the right formatting of the blog post. Thanks for the tip, MAY-THE-AMAZING)

Check out your Bloglovin’ list

I have bloglovin’ but rarely use it. That being said, it seems to be a great way to check out all the bloggers you’re following here – might have forgotten you followed here.

Go through your blogs’ bookmarks

Here’s something I do more than often. Whenever I find a blog I like and can’t follow it on WordPress or Bloglovin’, I bookmark it. I have a list of about…. I don’t know, maybe 30 blogs in my browser’s bookmarks ; which makes blog-hopping quite easy and fun.

Get lost on twitter (and probably never come back)

I sort of have a love/hate relationship with twitter. On the one hand, it’s pretty amazing. The community here is fierce, just speaks out, there are so many great books being spotlighted and so on. On the other hand… it is pretty overwhelming and panic-attack-inducing, I’m not going to lie. THAT BEING SAID, it’s also an incredible way to blog hop. Go from twitter to twitter and find blog links there, find new friends and so on. Forget yourself in the way, too. Happens too often.

Use the weekly memes

I am not participating in weekly memes anymore, but they are amazing sources to start your blog-hopping sessions. Top Ten Tuesday, Waiting on Wednesday…. lists of book blogs just WAITING for you to stop by and shower you with love.

Blog-hop within the blog-hopping moments

INCEPTION MOMENT, guys. My title here means nothing, so let me make it a bit clearer. Whenever I am reading a fabulous blog post with thousand comments on it already, or even if there are just five or one comment… I sometimes blog-hop from there, the comments section of other bloggers.

When it comes to blog-hopping, here is what I do.

• Every day, I dedicate a bit of time to go through my WordPress Reader. I don’t and can’t comment on everything. I do my best depending on my mood, the blog posts I find and so on.
• Almost once a week – or once every two weeks, depending as well -, I go through my bookmarks and check out some of the blogs there.
• The rest of my advice before? I do it when I think about it – whenever I want.

Important things to remember about blog hopping

I’m not going to lie: blog-hopping is exhausting, at times. There are so many blogs to follow, so many love we could spread and so on. I follow almost 200 blogs in my wordpress reader. I have about 30 book blogs in my bookmarks and I realize that’s A WHOLE DAMN LOT. At times, blog-hopping can feel like a chore, but IT SHOULD NOT BE. It should be something you do willingly and with love, otherwise… well, it sucks if you’re just forcing yourself to do it.

• It’s all about finding the right rhythm for you.
• How many blogs it’s okay for you to follow.
• How many times a week, a month, a year you can and want to blog hop. Emphasis on WANT.

Also, remember that blog hopping is not a necessity. I said it before, there are incredible advantages to blog hopping and I forever will be spreading the love and importance of blog hopping. FOR ME. It may not be the right thing for you, or maybe you haven’t found the right formula for it just yet. Don’t give up anyway and just have fun while blogging.

Do you blog hop? Why, or why not?

What is your blog-hopping rhythm? How many blogs do you follow? Do you manage to keep up, or does it feel like a chore, at times?

Do you have tips for blog hopping? Let me know!