I have been working on my sidebar the last couple of days, removing blogs that are not current, or that I just don't really check out anymore and adding new ones that I enjoy. I have been having a hard time with this because I like to go to so many blogs, but I don't want to have so many links that no one checks out any of them. It is a conundrum to be sure.
So here are my questions to all you bloggers and site owners out there:
1. How do you decide who to link to? Do you have specific criteria?
2. Does the other person need to link you as well?
3. How frequently do you check the blogs you link to?
4. Would you link to someone you don't personally care for if their content was interesting?
5. Any suggestions for new links for me?
Please, please! If you have a spare moment, please respond here as a comment or e-mail me at heididc@aol.com by Saturday, June 30. Thank you so much!
Monday, June 25, 2007
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15 comments:
I link to people that I find interesting. If I find after awhile I'm not visiting them anymore I'll take the link off, but usually it has to be awhile for me not to visit for me to de-link someone. They don't have to link to me for me to link to them. It can be a problem, sometimes I want to just add a bunch of people. I've tried bookmarking some sites and than see how often I visit. If I keep visiting, than I'll link them.
1. This is a tough one. I initially linked to sites I liked and found entertaining. Since then, I've linked to sites that have linked to me (if I like the site, that is). I try to avoid sites that wallow in nasty language or get stuck on too narrow a topic range.
2. It's appreciated, but not required. I see a link as an endorsement, not an obligation.
3. Usually every day or so. If they're not active for awhile, I yank 'em. Nothing more depressing than a dead blog.
4. No, because if I didn't care for them, chances are I wouldn't think their content was all that compelling either. It's a real "nothing to see here" effect.
5. Not really. You've got me beat in that department. I've got some great art and cartooning blogs I love to visit. Go to my blog and check out my links under the category "Cartooning and Illustration" if you're interested.
Great questions. I even have some answers:
1. I don't have any hard and fast rules. If I find myself checking someone's blog frequently I will put them on my sidebar. I list other blogs that I think people who are into my site will also enjoy.
2. Definitely not. People have all kinds of reasons to link to other blogs (hence your questions) so I'm not offended if my links are not returned. I like it, of course, but it's not required.
3. At least once a week. Most of them four or five times a week.
4. No. A blogger's online personality and their content are nearly inseparable to me.
5. I think you know about all the ones I do.
1. How do you decide who to link to? Do you have specific criteria?
In general if it's a comics blog that I go to a lot already I link to the sucker. Other then that first criteria, if they link to me and are interesting blogs, I link to them too, it's only fair.
2. Does the other person need to link you as well?
Naw, it'd be nice but, who has the time, and my blog posts rate somewhere between comic randomness and drunken ramblings
3. How frequently do you check the blogs you link to?
Daily.
4. Would you link to someone you don't personally care for if their content was interesting?
Yes, an interesting opinion is interesting none the less.
5. Any suggestions for new links for me?
Great blog that's name ensures the occasional hilarious blog :)
http://green-lantern-butts-forever.blogspot.com/
Good comic/movie/tv commentary, that's short and to the point.
http://comicbycomic.blogspot.com/
My well-considered strategy is to create a blog-roll time capsule, linking only to the 10 blogs that I happened to be reading the week that I set up my blog, and never changing it, even if "When Fangirls Attack" gets taken over by a webpage that sells only male enhancements supplements.
At present, one of my 10 is inactive, one links to the wrong site, and while I read the other 8, they are not my definitely list of the eight best, or even the eight that I check most frequently.
My goal is to eventually have a blogroll consisting solely of broken links, with the last remaining active link winning a rotted-out 1957 Buick, so I would appreciate it if you would change your url to www.comicfairplay.com or something to speed along the process.
Simple, really.
I list the ones I read and they're usually the ones that update with some form of regularity.
4. Yeah, there's someone I don't agree with 90% of the time but I keep them there because still find their points interesting.
I link to the blogs I read, or at least skim. I don't need a linkback though it's nice to have it. But nicer would be for the other person to actually read my blog. I don't agree with every blog I link to and as long as there's something I find interesting, I like the blog and blogger on some level.
It's nice when people click those links, but I mainly put the blogroll there so people can see who I'm reading. And cuz it looks cool.
Blogs that don't update for 6 months or so, I usually drop. But if I like 'em a lot and I hope the blogger will be back, I move them to private in Bloglines. If the blogger does return (as happened with a non-comics blog last year -- the blogger had, it turned out, been seriously ill), I change the status back to public and it reappeaars in my sidebar.
As for how often I check, I read my blogroll via Bloglines and I'm signed into that all the time I'm online, so I see the posts pop in every hour or so and go read. My public subs in Bloglines form my blogroll.
Let's see...
If I like the site and think others who read my blog would like it, I'll link it. I try to have a mix of sites. I will also link if the site links me and I know about it - we agreed to trade links.
Most of the links I put up I go to at least once per week.
I probably wouldn't find the content interesting on a site if it belonged to someone I didn't care for. I'm biased like that. But, if I did like the info and thought that other visitors to my blog would, then I might link to it.
You already link to so many cool sites - I haven't even had time to check them all out yet. I'd say just make sure that you have links to people that you support and people that you appreciate, sites you find fun and want to share with others, and maybe some useful info sites. With a long list like what you've got, you might want to ad a labels to them like: creator, artist, blog, etc just to make it easier for people on your site to find other sites they want to check out.
For me, it's just a matter of who I find interesting and read regularly. Linkbacks aren't necessary, but always appreciated (btw, thanks for the link! :)
Although I haven't updated it in a little while, I will tend to setup my links as a kind of "portable" bookmark list for myself so I can get to my favorites wherever I am without memorization involved, and those kind of sites are usually sites I hit everyday.
It hasn't happened, but I probably would link to someone I don't care for personally if their content was interesting. As long as they're not outright rude, I would want to read the content. Sometimes great discussion can come from people you don't see eye to eye with.
1. How do you decide who to link to? Do you have specific criteria?
Like others have said, I link to people whose blogs or websites, regardless of type, I find interesting. I try to make it a point to link to people who have linked to me, but as time has gone by (5 years in October) this hasn't always happened, and I'm long overdue to redo my links list.
2. Does the other person need to link you as well?
For a long time, there was a feeling, an unwritten rule if you will, that if someone linked to you, then linking back was done as a common courtesy, if nothing else. However, I've found that there are many out there who don't share this opinion.
3. How frequently do you check the blogs you link to?
Most of the blogs I check these days I check every day via Bloglines. Once in a while I'll click on a link here or there on my actual blog links list.
4. Would you link to someone you don't personally care for if their content was interesting?
Hey, I link to you, don't I? KIDDING! Yes I would and yes I have. But they're the first I drop if I get fed up.
5. Any suggestions for new links for me?
Nah- just explore other people's links lists and see what you can find. There's a ton of good stuff out there.
1. How do you decide who to link to? Do you have specific criteria?
I just link to blogs I like to read, and creators I enjoy.
2. Does the other person need to link you as well?
Not at all. But if I comment on someone's blog at all and they never return the gesture, that makes me wonder.
3. How frequently do you check the blogs you link to?
a few times a week
4. Would you link to someone you don't personally care for if their content was interesting?
I've yanked links because I no longer support the content or personality of the blogger.
keep rockin' the blog world!
It used to be a lot easier! My sidebar is so full of links that I'm usually hard-pressed to add new ones. I hold an open vote every March (which I call "Estrogen Month") on which "new to me" female-run blogs people recommend I add. Other than that, I usually wait until a blog becomes inactive so I can remove it from the sidebar before adding a new one, it's just too unwieldy otherwise. My criteria are usually that it has to be something that grabs me enough to want to read it regularly, and it helps if the person has blogrolled me. :)
1. They’re friends, I like their content, or they make comments on my site.
2. No
3. Some everyday the rest once a week
4. I doubt it
5. http://mercurystudio.blogspot.com/
http://www.stumptowncomics.com/
1. How do you decide who to link to? Do you have specific criteria?
I link to the blogs I tend to read most often. I don't have any specific criteria apart from that, and I read a fairly diverse selection of blogs. That said, I haven't updated my list of links in some time, so I read many more blogs than I actually have linked. One of these days I'll get around to adding them, but I'm not sure when.
2. Does the other person need to link you as well?
Nope. It's nice, but certainly not required, and since I usually read by way of Bloglines (meaning that I don't see the actual blog design, just the text and pics), most of the time I wouldn't even know if they had or not.
3. How frequently do you check the blogs you link to?
Whenever I read my Bloglines. Sometimes that's every day, other times it isn't (I've got a backlog of 1600 posts right now, but we did just get back from a trip out of town).
4. Would you link to someone you don't personally care for if their content was interesting?
Sure, why not? I can't think of anyone I don't personally care for offhand, though. :)
5. Any suggestions for new links for me?
Not at the moment, sorry. :(
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