Blogroll Conundrum
By leelefever on July 1, 2005 - 2:52pm.
I've had a subscription to Blogrolling.com that has just ran out. I'm not renewing while I figure out what to do instead.
For the past year or so, the old blogroll had stopped being updated. It was just not part of my workflow to manage the constant changes. It ceased to match the movement of my online attention.
What do you think about blogrolls? Should they match RSS subscriptions? Are they useful? Would it remove value from this site to take it off completely?
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Blogroll Conundrum
I view blogrolls as a sort of poor-man's FOAF. If I've come across a new blog, I check out their blogroll to see what kinds of things they're interested in. Occasionally, I find a new blog or two that way.
I keep mine relatively in sync with my RSS subscriptions. I used to just use the NetNewsWire OPML export, and suck that into WordPress' Links database. Now, I export my subscriptions from Safari.
If your blogroll isn't a product of your normal workflow, it will get out of sync, and become meaningless. But, that's just my opinion...
Blogroll Conundrum
How does it effect your Google juice?
Blogroll Conundrum
Good question. I do think the outgoing links help Page Rank and the blogroll has a reciprocative quality that could make a difference in terms of me appearing on others' blogrolls. But, I doubt somehow that it would compare to the ongoing links in blog entries. Anyone know?
Wow, I thought I might be making up "reciprocative", but it is a word. What a nerd.
Blogroll Conundrum
I'd think a link is a link as far as the crawlers are concerned, and having a roll as large as yours was on every single page of the site has to add something. But I would say they would not be as important as H1 and H2 tags, and what not.
Blogroll Conundrum
I go hot and cold on blogrolls. I ignore them for a while, then if I come across some new sources, I scan their blogrolls to see if there's somebody who sounds interesting that I should be checking out. I care less whether the blogroll is identical to your current reading habits, but over time it would be nice if it reflected your long-term reading trends.
Blogroll Conundrum
I ignore blorolls until I find myself exploring some new area of interest... then they become invaluable, because they help me quickly compile a list of subscriptions to try out. I actually find them far more useful than something sexier, like del.icio.us.
Now, do they need to be listed on every page of a blog? For my purposes, no... I'd get just as much use out of a "view my recommendations" link that pointed to a blog post full of links. Then again, good sites probably deserve whatever fraction of PageRank one can bestow.
Blogroll Conundrum
Mine is in line with my BlogLines subscriptions. I just like linking to the people I read. :)
Blogroll Conundrum
I check out blogrolls when they're available and have found several cool sites that way. Like Patrick above, I use the BlogLines online aggregator to manage my feeds and publish my own blogroll on my site.
Blogroll Conundrum
I think a good blogroll can be almost as expressive of the individual as their blog entries. So, you could do a lot with a blogroll—people will "read" it and use it, albeit probably not as frequently.
Personally, I like having a blogroll that is useful to me and also reflects some generally recommended sites. I use my own blogroll all the time (e.g., when I'm at someone else's computer and want to show them a site I've linked from my blogroll).
But, blogrolls that are obviously neglected suck and distract from the site.
I'd say: don't keep a blogroll if it isn't useful to you and/or you aren't interested in updating it. It probably should be better maintained than an RSS subscription list, unless you're way on top of it.