Blog Tours 101: How to Host Them & Participate In Them

We’re so glad you’re here! This is Maggie with the Living the Blogging Life team, and today I’ve written a guide teaching you all about blog tours. I hope you find something helpful here today! 😍

Blog Tours 101

What is a blog tour?

It is a coordinated event where at least 3 (and up to 15, or even 20!) bloggers share themed posts on their blog for a specified amount of time!

Think of it as a band on tour. Over the course of a year, the band will be playing at concerts in different cities in a country or around the world, sharing their music with fans.

What types of blog tours are there?

Here are some of the themed blog tours I’ve seen:

launching a new blog/website (to spread the word about it)
starting a small business (to teach potential customers about
the mission behind the products)
sharing the release of a new book (to inform readers about
the author and what the book is about)
working together on a creative project (to allow each
participant to share their part in the creativity)

You can host/participate in a blog tour
about anything you’d like!

If the common purpose is to raise awareness, spread the word, and work together, it’s a blog tour.

How do you participate in a blog tour?

You can if a blogger invites you to join a blog tour they’re hosting! If you’re interested, then you guys can discuss your tour date, what your post will be about, and they’ll give you the set list. (I’ll explain more about what that means later on in this post!)

Another way you can join a blog tour is if a blogger shares a post inviting people to join a tour they’ll be hosting soon! You can reach out and see if it will work out for you to join.

How do you host a blog tour?

I’ll show you! It can take a bit to organize your thoughts and plan everything, but the outcome is worth it.

Let’s create a sample blog tour to give you an idea of how you can make one!

How to Host a Blog Tour

⯮ Come up with the purpose of your blog tour.

Mine is going to be for spreading the word about our Living the Blogging Life revamp! Our team is working on content changes and sharing suggested posts right now, so it would be great to let others know what they can look forward to in the upcoming weeks and months.

⯮ Decide on a time frame.

Since we’re already in the middle of January, let’s say our tour will begin in the first week of February and wrap up in the last week of February. Depending on how many people can join the tour, that will determine how many posts there are for each week.

⯮ Reach out to bloggers.

Five of our writers from LTBL would love to participate, and five LTBL readers are joining us too! (Btw I made up all of those names and blogs for the tour pic, which you’ll see in a moment. I’m cracking up over how real they sound. 😂 They’re all blogs I would legitimately check out if they existed haha!!)

⯮ Work with your participants and make a ‘set list.’

Find out which days the bloggers can post, then chat with them and see what topics you can cover for your tour! For this revamp tour, we’re gonna share reader reviews, behind-the-scenes looks, and interviews with our team members.

⯮ Make an image or list for the set list.

This makes it where every blogger can share the list or image on their post! It will help people following along with the tour to know who will be posting next. It also helps to have a list you can copy/paste so everyone can include their blog links. Otherwise, readers are going to have to search Google or WordPress for the bloggers listed.

Here’s our example set list!

like, would you or would you not read every single one of these example posts haha

⯮ Choose a day to announce the tour.

You could make it the first set date of the tour (February 2nd for this one), or have another day to announce it! (February 1st, January 31st, etc)

⯮ Help with coordinating and writing the tour posts.

Usually, the main host or group of hosts will be in contact with writers via email and messaging. I’m the main one coordinating this revamp tour, but since four LTBL writers are joining me, we’ll be discussing writing and helping with getting all the posts written. It can help to make a list for participants explaining what a blog tour is (or link to this post, haha!) to help everyone know exactly how it works!

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know if you have any questions about blog tours. I can update the post to include any info I forgot!

LTBL Socials:

Let’s chat! Have you ever hosted/read a blog tour? If you hosted one, what would it be about? Did you have any blog tour questions?

Maggie is a 21 year old blogger who loves creativity, inspiration, and helping others! She enjoys blogging on Maggie’s Doodles, listening to great music, photography, and trying new things.