As part of my plan to update my blog, I'm going to clean up the sidebar. Step One: dump all of my blogrolls and start over.
Over time, I've found that many bloggers stop posting and some change the focus of their posts. Others were added for a special purpose that no longer is relevant.
I want to create two new lists. One will include blogs I want to visit on a regular basis and the other will feature blogs of interest to writers.
Tell me about your blogrolls. Do you regularly visit the blogs on your list? Why did you originally put them on your blog? Do you ask for a reciprocal listing from the other blogger?
17 comments:
Pat - You've reminded me I need to do the same thing. My blogroll is important to me because all of blogs on it are of interest to me or I think they would be of interest to my readers. I try to be careful about it but it's been a while since I 'combed through' it. Time to do that.
Well, to start with I read your heading as "Bog roll". Once that was cleared up I thought, "As I about to be dumped?" I can see your point - you have 442 followers and ho many of them actually comment? I have 53 followers and am lucky to get 10 comments, Personally I visit every blog on my list each time they post a new blog, and almost always comment. Not everyone is that conscientious.
I had to dump the blog roll off my blog completely - I kept getting viruses and malware through it. Now I use Google Reader to organize the blogs - makes my life a little easier :)
I had to do that when my first blogroll grew so long I could no longer adjust it. I have four smaller ones now (yeah, I know they don't look small) that are my blogger buddies, people I visit on a regular basis, and then a fifth one of movie, book, and other sites. I try to update it once a month. Sometimes I succeed!
Alex and I just had a conversation about this recently! :-) I want to pass on what I learned, as I'm guessing some other blog roll newbies (like me) might be confused.
I assumed the roll consisted of all the blogs I follow via Blogger. Meaning, I added the widget to the blog and thought it was good to go. (That was literally years ago! lol) Alex pointed out to me that you can manage it manually, and in fact need to add the blogs you want (most of them anyway ... some will be automatically added). Anyway, go to your layout, click on the blog roll widget and you'll see all of the edit options.
Here I thought I was giving all of my blog buddies some love, and it was only a few. I'm a doofus, I know...
And I'd never request someone to add me if I added them. Just not how I ROLL. :-)
Margot, as I started checking my list, I found a few blogs that didn't even exist anymore. That convinced me to do the cleanup.
No, Lizy, I'm not dropping you. You're in my Google Reader already, and I'll be adding you to my new improved sidebar blogroll as well.
Hi Jemi. I've only just begun the organization process on my Google Reader. It's loaded with great blogs I only get to visit once in a while.
Alex, that's what I want to do. If I can work my way through the favorites on my blogroll each month, I won't miss as much as I do now.
E.J. -- thanks for the good tips in that comment. And I agree with you. I don't like to ask for the trade and I sometimes say no to others who request a trade.
I dropped my blogroll some time ago. I only have a list of 'Writer Resources'.
The blogs I frequent and enjoy I read on Google Reader. And no, I would never ask for a reciprocal listing from another blogger.
Hi Pat,
I love my blogroll and other blogs, like yours, rolls.
I don't bookmark many blogs, but I regularly visit Chiseled in Rock's blog just for the roll.
I love being able to see the title and instantly decide if I want to look at the blog, that day.
Thank you for your blogroll. I use it regularly.
Wendy, I did think of dropping mine altogether, but decided it was handy to have the best of the best (meaning my favorites) so handy.
Hi Julie. I have been known to cruise through the blogrolls on other lists looking for cool bloggers and posts I might not have found on my own. I'm pleased to find out you have used mine (and the one on Chiseled in Rock which I'm trying my best to maintain).
I don't have a blogroll. I visit my commentators and also click on blogs through Facebook and Twitter. I already have so much on my sidebar, plus I don't want my blog to take too long to load.
Hi Patricia .. I removed my blogroll when Blogger was playing up and my blog was struggling to load ...
I must find out what the link is between Google Reader and a blog roll ... as I use Reader to collect new posts from friends etc ...
Cheers Hilary
Hi Pat!
I confess my blogroll is not as well curated as I'd like. I do use it to keep track of friends' blogs that I visit frequently, and to point to some blogs that I like to read, but I definitely need to spend some time thinking about what to include and why.
I don't request a reciprocal listing - I'm thrilled if someone includes me but I wouldn't want to feel pressured to include someone just because they included me on their blogroll, and since I think I would feel uncomfortable about that I wouldn't ask someone else to do the same. (A convoluted sentence but hopefully it makes sense!)
I love your idea of splitting the blogroll into blogs you visit regularly and those of interest to writers. This gives me some good food for thought about curating my own blogroll a little better!
Medeia, I haven't had any loading problems yet, thank goodness.
Hi Hilary -- I don't think the two are linked, but I know I have a few blogs in both places. That seems like overkill, right?
Hey, Susan. I've ignored my blogrolls for over a year, so cleanup is long past due. I was shocked to see how many bloggers had gone silent and I still had the links on my list.
I recently refined mine. When I first started blogging, I just added willy-nilly, but now I'm more selective so I can see, easily, the posts I want to visit and want others to know about. I also visit my dashboard which has all gazillion of the blogs I try to visit!
Julie, I guess adding willy-nilly is what I did. I'm now noticing I even have the same blog posted in more than one category.
I've never had one. I've always used the list on Blogger's dashboard to see who posts what. :)
You made me look. I have a few blogs, and it seems I have a blogroll on just one of them. The blogroll is small and it is all reciprocal and all blogs that I read at least occasionally and whose bloggers also read mine. On my other blogs, I don't have a blogroll at all, probably more out of laziness (well, being busy doing other things)than anything else.
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