Growing your blog through reciprocal links

[Paul Hancox]

Hi Folks

I thought I'd throw this out for discussion.

First off, what is everyone doing with their blogroll? I can understand why you'd want to link to your favourite ultra-popular blogs, like Seth Godin or Darren Rowse... but, do Seth and Darren really need more publicity?

Why not link to your fellow blogger who you enjoy reading but who "needs" the publicity a bit more than Seth?

Wouldn't it be better to use your blogroll to mutually grow each other's blogs?

Second, let's say we were to do that, how would you handle the problem of growing inequality?

Here's what I mean:

Blogs A and B start out at the same time, and they make an agreement to link to each other - Blog A links to Blog B, and in return Blog B links back to Blog A.

The problem is, things change over time - what if Blog A grows to 10,000 readers, while Blog B grows to 50 readers.

There is now an unequal exchange. Blog A is probably going to send many more visitors to Blog B than B will ever do for A.

So how do you handle this? If you were Blog A, would you just drop B?

Let's talk about the blogroll, folks...

[mrstoneman]

I take your point about linking to blogs that could use the boost, but I don't think direct reciprocity is necessary. Link to blogs you like. Comment on them too. I think you'll see people linking to you too, if your blog comports with their interests.

I've run into some blogrolls that made no sense at all. They were just a wild collection of links for the sake of creating backlinks. Such blogrolls are unusable.

I've also heard talk of Google discounting the value of link-for-link. That wouldn't affect mutual promotion, but it would decrease the potential impact of such links on your page rank.

Lastly, I've seen the quality of some forums hurt by a ton of requests for links, diggs, stumbles, etc. I'm new here, but I was hoping that that would not be the case here.

[glblbuy]

Within the first 2 weeks blogging, I quickly realized the problems related to blogrolls. Many of them you mentioned. I also realized that as I grew my blog, my blogroll could potentially become very large. Couple these concerns with me being pretty selective about who I link to (no bad language, no dirty jokes, sexual references, etc.) I decided to not include a blogroll.

What I will do instead is link within my articles to bloggers I enjoy reading or to articles they wrote that I enjoyed. This gives a more specific link and allows me to not only link to them but put comments around it as well further encouraging people to visit the blog. I also implement a "do-follow" link policy.

I like nice clean blogs that focus on content, not tons of shiny widgets or links. Removing the blogroll made my site cleaner looking, and removed one additional hassle and stress point I would need to manage. I'm all for less stress :-)

[Arjun Muralidharan]

I find blogrolls irrelevant. While the link is always nice, I think there are two flaws with this:

One, the link just sits there with no contextual relevance, so a click is unlikely.
Two, the link is pushed away with a few others, further dampening it's importance.

For my readers, I don't think a blogroll helps.

One, I want the readers to be interested in my site, not in the sites I'm interest in myself.

Two, if I want to share link love, I'll do so in a dedicated post. The return value is much higher.

This solves the problem of "unequal exchange" to some extent: You don't have to commit the link to your sidebar forever, and the post with the link will have long-term value, without populating your landing page.

[mrstoneman]

@ Arjun, who writes, "I find blogrolls irrelevant."

I agree that many blog rolls are irrelevant, but they don't have to be. I link blogs that are related to my content, and I keep a relatively small number of them.

I've also seen a blogger with a short blogroll entitled "I'm also Reading . . .", and her list is relatively short. That seemed like a nice solution to me.

None of this precludes talking about other blogs in your posts.

[ink slinger]

I don't use my blogroll for any sort of reciprocal linking. I use it to link to blogs that are relevant to my niche, and that I think will be of use to my readers. Whether that is a blog with 100,000 readers, or only 10 readers, my basis for including the link is: "Does it provide value to my readers?"

Sure, it would be nice if the people I linked to are linking back to me, but that's more of a nice bonus than anything else. As far as link building campaigns go, I don't think a blogroll is really the way to go.

[DazzlinDonna]

I don't use my blogroll for any sort of reciprocal linking. I use it to link to blogs that are relevant to my niche, and that I think will be of use to my readers. Whether that is a blog with 100,000 readers, or only 10 readers, my basis for including the link is: "Does it provide value to my readers?"

Sure, it would be nice if the people I linked to are linking back to me, but that's more of a nice bonus than anything else. As far as link building campaigns go, I don't think a blogroll is really the way to go.

[clapping hands] What ink slinger said!

[Paul Hancox]

Thanks, folks.

I think that kind of settles it for me - I'll probably just keep the blogroll between my own blogs - that way, I know they'll always be 100% relevant and 100% fair

[mrstoneman]

I think Ink Slinger's point bears repeating. He handles his blogrolls like I do mine, but he points out something I had not consciously thought of. Sure we're maybe doing someone a favor by providing a link to them, but really a good blogroll adds value to our own blog. It's already win-win, even if people to whom we link don't link back to us.

[Arjun Muralidharan]

None of this precludes talking about other blogs in your posts.

I'm not saying that. While a blogroll may be absolutely fine and is admittedly a great way for linking around, I think I like to present my links on silver platters with an explanation what's behind the blog. This kind of link will get more clicks, you have to agree on that.

I'm just saying my sidebar space can be used for other things :-) And my list of blogs I read *slightly* exceeds what might be comfortable for the reader's eyes.

Just my practice :-)