Is a blogroll worth maintaining?

In the world of blogging (the "blogosphere", a word I love to hate), a blogroll is supposedly a list of blogs you frequently visit or find valuable in some way. Some people change the name to be "Links" or "Other Places" or some such synonym, but its purpose is pretty much the same.

What happens when a blogroll no longer serves the purpose for which it was intended?

My Blogroll

In what seems like eons ago, I moved my blogroll to its own page. There were many reasons behind it, the largest of which was the amount of space it was eating up in the sidebar. Traipsing through the records of several analytics programs that I've used since then, I noticed that no one else is really looking at the page. I saw one or two hits per month and it was obviously due to the curiosity factor.

The worst thing about my blogroll is the fact that even I rarely look at it. I use RSS feeds to keep up with the blogs I'm interested in and not a blogroll of any kind. A few years ago, when RSS feeds weren't supported very well, I think it would've been a different story.

Other People's Blogrolls

I occasionally see referrers in the logs that show people coming from their blogrolls where my blog is listed. By tracking comments, I can see that they're the blog owners, not their visitors. While I appreciate the gesture of being placed on someone else's blogroll, I appreciate the gesture of a visit a whole lot more.

Through various searches, I can find practically all of the blog owners who have my blog in their sidebar as opposed to a solitary link.

Link Juice

I'm not going to name names, but there are few blogs that are juicing up my blog to no end. One blog in particular has hundreds of links coming to my blog. The only problem is that the links are practically worthless for anything other than occasional traffic.

People want to know how to increase their Google PageRanks. Getting a site wide link on someone's sidebar is one way, but only if there aren't a lot of other links on that sidebar. Take a blog with a PageRank of 3 for example. Divide 3 by 50 links and you get the picture. 50 pages like that would equal a single link from a PR 3 page which has no other links on it.

My Plan

I have this permanently embedded desire to do away with things that don't do anyone any good at all. One of those things is my blogroll. I'm not just going to delete the page and be done with it. No, there's something better I have in mind.

I know there are a couple of dead links on my blogroll. Shiitake happens. Of the ones that aren't dead, there are a few that are dying as soon as domains expire.

My plan is to link out to each live blog on my blogroll in multiple future posts and then delete them one by one from the list. Before I do that…

Your Thoughts?

Before I start executing my plan, I want to hear what others think about it in relation to either their own blogs or other blogs they visit. Should I keep my blogroll as is and clean it up or should I continue on with my plan? If you're on my blogroll, wouldn't you be more interested in a potential PR 4 or 5 link as opposed to one that's currently worth less than a PR 1? Do you even care?

I ask these questions because feedback is important to me. Perhaps other blog owners wouldn't have a second thought about it, but I'm always thinking about things like this.

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MrCorey on 2008-05-19 at 7:35 am (Reply)

I've been known to explore, but less and less of that is through a blogroll. I now usually visit sites linked from comments on pages. But, then again, I've been doing a lot less surfing lately.

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-19 at 5:37 pm (Reply)

You could've fooled me. You've been visiting here almost daily.

Link Building Bible on 2008-05-19 at 8:03 am (Reply)

Every link helps…. that's my motto…. it may not help a lot, but as you accumulate links, some will become for valuable, some will become less valuable, some may go away, and you may get random ones you werent expecting. It's the Circle of Links.

I'd appreciate any links from your site!

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-19 at 5:38 pm (Reply)

I don't know… some links never become valuable Especially those with an anchor text of "here" or "there".

Todd from Success with Todd on 2008-05-19 at 10:55 am (Reply)

Hi RT,

I think it was a little over a month ago (or maybe a little longer) I decided to take the top commentators plugin off of my sidebar. Instead, I massively trimmed down my blogroll and put that in the bottom sidebar instead.

For all intents and purposes it's basically the same people … only in this case, I get to choose who I pass my juice to, instead of having to watch people drop by and comment 3 or 4 times the first 5 days of every month, then never come back (I've seen that more on other blogs than my own).

I do agree with you, from what I've noticed, if I link to a blog from a post, it's much more likely to result in direct traffic than when I put them in my blogroll. But for the time being, used judiciously, I think it can still be a good thing to have … especially when it comes to producing "good will".

If someone puts me in their blog roll, chances are very good that at the very least I'm going to visit their blog on a more regular basis … and if it's someplace I enjoy, I'll more than likely return the favor.

Todd

Todd’s last blog post… Tips for Local Niche Bloggers

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-19 at 5:40 pm (Reply)

Good will is a strong argument for keeping things the way they are. It's hard to gauge which way to go based on usage. It's something I'll have to consider.

Shrinidhi Hande on 2008-05-19 at 11:19 am (Reply)

I agree with your observations but feel it is harmless to leave the blogroll in its place (as you've already moved it to an independent page)

Shrinidhi Hande’s last blog post… Want cheapest air tickets? -book direct on airline website

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-19 at 5:41 pm (Reply)

Right, it doesn't hurt anything where it is. I'm thinking more long term and not for my own benefit. I figure if I'm going to pass juice, why not pass good and strong juice. I can do that too, separately, but I'm waffling on this one.

hari on 2008-05-19 at 11:37 am (Reply)

I don't care either way. I am also thinking of removing some of the "dead" blogs from my blogroll.

There are a few bloggers out there who haven't posted a thing in months on their blogs. There are other blogs which are slowly, but surely petering out into nothingness

hari’s last blog post… Flaky 64-bit support for commercial applications?

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-19 at 5:43 pm (Reply)

I'll definitely be pruning my blogroll. I have to go through the links to find out which ones are which as far as dead or dying.

Land Projects UK on 2008-05-19 at 11:53 am (Reply)

I guess, there's nothing wrong with blog rolls. And I guess it's worth keeping blogs that are updated regularly.
Land Projects UK’s last blog post… More Information About Commercial Property Investment

Barry from Grayhawk Real Estate on 2008-05-19 at 1:41 pm (Reply)

You know, this post is interesting. I've never even considered the positives or negatives regarding removing the blogroll. I've never taken the time to track the hits off the blogroll either. Now that you mention it though, there are probably so many better uses for that space. Hmmmm…. You got the wheels turning.

Ray from Place of Stuff on 2008-05-19 at 6:41 pm (Reply)

I also have my links on a separate page, for the same reason too - they were too long for the sidebar. I have a purely selfish reason for keeping mine where they are - I use them as a mobile set of bookmarks for pages I visit regularly and don't worry overly much whether they bring in or generate traffic.

Ray’s last blog post… Zattoo - Real TV On Your PC

Lin Burress on 2008-05-19 at 10:14 pm (Reply)

I haven't checked my own Blogroll since moving it to another page, but I do find visitors checking it out from time to time (with my Woopra program).

This post reminds me to check out the links on the Blogroll and see if any are dead, of if I should trim it down any. Funny thing is, I get email requests pretty frequently asking to do a link exchange, but when I go check out their blog I don't find much of anything to be interested in.

MrCorey on 2008-05-19 at 11:13 pm (Reply)

That's why they are begging to have you link to them!!!

Stevo on 2008-05-19 at 10:56 pm (Reply)

I'm split. I like having a blog roll on my main page, it shows who I like and support. It's mostly there for my benefit. When you have to surf through a proxy it's best to have all your links in one place.

I may consider a page for links. The BR does take up a lot of room.

That said, strong juice is good juice.

Frank C on 2008-05-20 at 2:18 am (Reply)

I recently started using a random blogroll plugin. On each page load it randomly selects 10 links from my blogroll and displays them. This allows me to have a large list of favorite links, including Untwisted Vortex, that are sort of a PR passing lottery.

Frank C’s last blog post… Phillumney - The Hobby of Collecting Matchbook Covers

RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-20 at 2:25 am (Reply)

Really? What's the plugin?
2. MrCorey on 2008-05-20 at 3:41 am (Reply)
  
  Sounds like the plugin is just making it easier to manipulate the wp_list_bookmarks template tag. You can do that by adding the parameters orderby=rand&limit=10 inside the parentheses.
3. Frank C on 2008-05-20 at 3:42 am (Reply)
  
  Here's a link to the random blogroll plugin I'm using: http://www.goldfries.com/websites-blogging/wordpress-plugin/random-blogroll-plug-in-for-wordpress/
  
  Frank C’s last blog post… Phillumney - The Hobby of Collecting Matchbook Covers
4. RT Cunningham | Untwisted Vortex | Philippines on 2008-05-20 at 12:18 pm (Reply)
  
  Thanks Frank & Corey, I'll check out both methods.

Lin on 2008-05-20 at 5:29 am (Reply)

Yep I know, and that's why the email simply gets deleted.
Lin’s last blog post… Prestonwood Baptist Church Minister in Plano Texas Arrested and Charged With Solicitation of a Minor

Ed on 2008-05-20 at 5:54 am (Reply)

If a blogroll is a list of sites you visit, then keep it. If a blogroll a la list of links to blogs just to generate BS page rank, then proper bloggers like you who arent always on the look out for gaming the system should remove blogrolls and just link to blogs you are interested in via posts. ie You have a good plan I think.

Ed’s last blog post… Of Burma, elephants and teak

DragonLady on 2008-05-20 at 6:53 am (Reply)

I go through my blogroll about 3 times a year checking for dead links and weed those out. Generally, if I visit a blog and like it, I blogroll it. Same with my rss reader, but I've had to remove a few subscriptions because I just don't have that kind of time.

As far as my own PR, I could care less. Well, ok, that's only partially true as there is a part of me that would love to have the top-ranked blog, but I know that is unrealistic as I'm not going to put in that kind of time or effort. Blogging is just a hobby/outlet for me. If I never get any more than the handful of regular readers I have, I'll consider myself blessed.
DragonLady’s last blog post… OTA Monday 84

Justin from Electric Airsoft Guns on 2008-05-20 at 8:25 am (Reply)

I like blogrolls when they link to me, but personally, I don't use it at all. In fact when I got my blog the first thing I deleted (besides the welcome post) was the blogroll. For me, it just eats up space, but for professional bloggers who actually make money from their blog (my blog is in conjunction with my store), I think the blogroll is good because it helps you network with other bloggers.

cyril on 2008-05-21 at 9:14 am (Reply)

Those that I include in my blogroll are sites which I also have subscribed through feeds. Not mainly for the link juice, but it's basically because I really like reading their posts.

cyril’s last blog post… THE CPA LICENSURE EXAMINATIONS RESULTS, MAY 2008

Vic Grace on 2008-05-21 at 11:32 am (Reply)

I had always thought the blogroll was a courtesy to those who commented regularly or who you knew read your stuff. But I see your point and I did not realize that the blogroll wasn't actually doing much good in improving PR.

Vic Grace’s last blog post… Helps in learning more about computers

Posh Post Reviews on 2008-05-21 at 12:23 pm (Reply)

well i like keeping it around my side bar for now. i visit the people listed there regularly. but maybe i will transfer it too.

Posh Post Reviews’s last blog post… 8 Killed in Calamba, Laguna

Rasterbator on 2008-05-21 at 12:23 pm (Reply)

i agree. i don't put a blog roll in my blog as well. i would rather visit other people's blogs and make comments. good day!

freebingo on 2008-05-21 at 3:11 pm (Reply)

Only if the other person never remove our link or else a waste of time and space..

Jo on 2008-05-23 at 5:51 am (Reply)

I have my blogroll on a seperate page as well and the reason I keep my blogroll is because I truly enjoy the blogs on it.

I no longer care about PR ranks. I quit playing that game awhile back and when I did is when companies got interested in me so to me PR is crap.

I think you need to do what's best for you and your blog. What are the people who don't agree going to do? Delete you from their blogroll? Oh the horrorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! lol.

Good luck no matter what you decide.

Jo’s last blog post… PBN Review: Mama Rock's Rules

An American Living in the Philippines

Is a blogroll worth maintaining?