November 13, 2004What's in a Link?As you may have noticed, I recently took on the gargantuan task (okay, I'm exaggerating, but it was a pain) of updating my links and *gasp!* alphabetizing them. (I still have to do the Pretty Posies section, but that will just have to wait.) Updating my links is something I avoid like the plague. In part, this is because it's a little fiddly and takes some effort, but mostly because I am concerned about what my links may mean to you. I have always admired bloggers who have very short lists of links that are connected exclusively to sites that they read regularly and wholeheartedly endorse. I find these links interesting because they give me a little more insight into the blogger who's linking - their likes and dislikes and what they think is really worth reading. It's kind of like knowing who your favorite songwriter's influences were, and it's an extra glimpse into each blogger's personality. It's also enticingly tidy, which really appeals to me. I am happiest when I am organized, so I think of myself as an organized person. In reality, I am a semi-organized person who occasionally goes berserk and gets really organized, in between long bouts of semi-slovenliness. (Case in point - I've been blogging for nine months now and just set up my comments to go to my site e-mail. Pretty stinking lazy.) These two aspects of the short list really appeal to me, and I've considered cutting my list down to just the twenty or so blogs that I read weekly. There are two problems with this. One, is that I like to have the long list for those days that I want to check in on everyone to see what 's up. Two, is that I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by dropping their name from the list. When I was a new blogger I would regularly check the blogs I read to see if someone had linked to me. I was always so excited when they did. Since then, I've realized that most people don't update their links regularly (I think this was my second big update in nine months), and that most of us read more blogs than we link to. I could no longer tell you who links to me and who doesn't. I don't pay attention because I realize that it doesn't matter. There will be people who link to me who don't read my blog regularly, and people who haven't added me to their links that read my every post. Still, I remember what it was like to care, so I will never cut anyone from my list due to a temporary lack of interest on my part. So, what's in a link? Mine now have two purposes. The first is to have a fairly good representation of the knitting blogs that I read, or have read at one time, for myself, so that when I'm not exclusively using bloglines (which is where I keep my short list), I can have a full array of blogs to check out. Except for a few staples, I rotate what I read every few months, so it's nice to have a reminder of what my choices for the next rotation will be. The second serves as a resource to you. When I first discovered knitblogs about a year ago, I found most of them through links rather than surfing the ring. (I'm not sure why - maybe because I thought of links as recommendations.) My favorite link lists were the really long ones - so much possibility! In both capacities, my ultimate goal is to have as long a list as I have the tolerance to create. (I know it's still pretty short, but I have a low threshold for such endeavors - I could be knitting!) To achieve this, I follow a very random method. When I have a lot of time on my hands, I think of as many knitblogs as I can and I link to them. Inevitably, as soon as I'm done I remember at least five blogs that I've failed to link to. I feel crappy that I've forgotten those people, but there are usually enough of them that I'm deterred from adding more. Generally, if someone is in my knit-alongs I don't bother to add them to my links list, because honestly, I think that's overkill - they're on the page, you can find them. (Though one of my favorite things about knit-alongs is the exposure I get to new bloggers. I'm lazy and end up going to the same sites over and over. Knit-alongs force me to go to new places, and that is kind of fun.) Occasionally, if someone has sent me several nice comments or designed or written about something really neat, I will be driven to add a single link, but that's pretty rare. For the most part, it's a slow process for me. Eventually, I will have a very long list, which I will probably keep on another page. Until that day, if you visit me and don't see your name, please do not take it personally. It doesn't mean that I don't read you. I'm just very slow. *smile.* Anyhoo...that's what's in a link for me. What's in it for you? Any thoughts on link etiquette? Posted by Julia at November 13, 2004 04:53 AMIn main
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I link to blogs I read, and that's about it. I only get about an hour of checking email, updating the blog and reading blogs a day, so I have to economize online time. The short list is for blogs I try to read at least twice a week, and the long list is blogs I like to check in when I can; maybe twice a month? If I don't read a blog I don't put up a link, or I remove it. No need to send over my readers to a site I don't even visit! Posted by: Becky at November 16, 2004 11:30 AMIt's almost always through links on other blogs that I find new ones. I sometimes land on a blog and use their links list as home base, clicking to visit sites new to me -- and I like long lists. I have an obscenely long Bloglines list, myself, and it continues to grow, mainly because I rarely drop any. If I do drop, I don't draw attention to it, or make apologies, or mention it at all in my blog -- something about that doesn't sit right with me. I think it's impossible to keep up with linking-in-kind, though I like (and try) to do that. Mainly, I like to choose from a wide variety of active blogs for my reading and hope that others might find something they like, or use it as home base. my blog is still quite new, but it had only been going a month or so when I realised that my blogroll was totally out of sync with what I was actually reading through bloglines. I object in principle to maintaining multiple lists, i guess it's the ex-web developer in me. So I started using bloglines to automatically generate my blogroll, but it has a bug in it that I still haven't figured out how to fix (there is always an empty space between the first and second blogs on the list). I don't know whether to go back to the old out of sync system or stick with the buggy one. Who would have thought we could all put so much thought and angst into linking? Posted by: jo at November 16, 2004 02:08 AMI so enjoyed your post today because it articulated something that I hadn't really considered before... or at least hadn't put into words. I, too, had felt pangs of guilt for not putting a new blog favorite on my list of links. Bloglines has helped streamline my process, or gathering of blogs to read. Like Easter eggs, I put them into my basket hoping that I can crack them open eventually. If I decide I don't want to read them, at least I have them hanging around to remind me that something must have caught my eye. They're all unique in their way. Having only blogged for six months, I'm still at the stage when I care about who's linked to me, etc. It's shallow, I know, and vain, but I can't help it. Human nature makes us want to know who's watching us and when do we get to hang with the cool kids? Posted by: Rachel at November 15, 2004 01:39 PMI used to care alot more if people linked to me. Now I realize that I don't even keep my own links list up to date. My regular blog reading list is on bloglines now, it makes it easier to keep up and to add new blogs that I like to read. Most of the new blogs that I find come from other peoples links in their posts , or through knitalong lists that I am in. As I am computerless at home these days I don't have a lot of time to get to surf the knitting rings. Posted by: Christina at November 15, 2004 09:03 AMI'm pretty quick to add (because I'll forget the address if I don't add you right away, and then I'll never find you again) but slow to take off. I did a trimming a few months ago in which those who were on more than one of my blogrings (the smaller rings that I can go through regularly) didn't get added to my separate list. I then had to explain to two friends that I still read them daily, I just read them as part of the ring... I like when people link to me, but I understand when they don't - they don't have to read me everyday, nor do they have to update their sites every minute! Posted by: Amie at November 15, 2004 08:19 AMI just link. I'm not sure I have any rhyme or reason to it. I really should do the bloglines thing. I have to collect blogs and then maybe I'll use it :) Posted by: Amy Boogie at November 15, 2004 04:38 AMI started off only linking to the ones I like to read a lot, but now I don't read some of them so much, and I read other ones that I haven't linked to yet a lot more! So I guess I'm really slow too. But I think it's important not to get offended by it if people remove you or dont link to you at all - it doesn't really matter much :) Posted by: jen at November 15, 2004 03:17 AMI laughed at Emily's comment above, because I too can't keep up with your great posts. I'm still thinking about your previous post, what things that I've made that I wear, and what things I don't wear... and now this new "link" question. I hadn't even considered all of the various things that are implied/represented in a link list. Since my blog is really new, though, I will confess that right now, I LOVE people with long lists. I love hopping (snooping?) around and reading all of the new-to-me blogs that I haven't seen before.. Posted by: crystal at November 14, 2004 06:26 AMEveryone - thanks for your thoughts on links - I find this kind of stuff really interesting. Scarily enough, I really agonized over the short list/long list thing. In the end, I like my list the way it is. It's long, but all the blogs are ones that I read on at least a bi-monthly basis and like. For the newer bloggers who are looking to get noticed - do something that I haven't done and sign up for the knitting bloggers ring. That's how most people find new blogs to read. Don't lose heart if people aren't linking to you or commenting. I get about 5 comments for every 600 readers, so that tells you how much bigger your audience is than you may have thought it was. Hang in there! It takes time to build up a readership. Ms. Pink Monkey - I liked your last post on the scarf a lot - very witty. Looks like you are very creative/out of the box, too. Gresik - I, too, think it's a statement not to link, and I also considered doing that. With a blog, there's always the issue of privacy. I try not to let it collide with my *real* life. xox Posted by: Julia at November 14, 2004 04:35 AMI am a new blogger. It was neat for me to have you (Julia) link to me, because I have been reading Mind of Winter ever since I found the honeymoon cami on Knitty. It made me feel connected to the "blogosphere" I don't check to see if others link to me, because I don't think anyone see's my site really- so how would they even know to link to it? I don't have a list of people's blogs I visit on my site. I too enjoy short lists when visiting others blogs, because I feel that people with long lists probably don't read the blogs they list, and therefore aren't reccommending them, as much as creating awareness that they exist. Posted by: Krista at November 13, 2004 08:12 PManother great post! i have a long list of blogs on my (new) site that i read regularly -- some for straight knitting inspiration, others are fun and/or thought-provoking reads, and some are all of the above. i spend quite a bit of time checking out the links on other bloggers' pages, and do think my links tell a bit about me; i love seeing what the links "say" about a blogger. i'm a new blogger, so i'm very excited to see my site on another's links list (thank you!), and feel more comfortable leaving comments on other blogs now. Posted by: mrspilkington at November 13, 2004 06:44 PMI'm very shy when it comes to links. I don't have any lists of links on my writing website (www.gresik.ca), and when I see someone else has linked to me it makes me nervous and embarrassed. Sometimes I run away and don't visit that site for a while, so I won't see my own link! Or I'll slowly work up the courage to email or comment and say thanks (Thanks!) but sometimes it takes a while. I haven't quite figured out why I'm so strange about not wanting overt attention for my blog. I don't have a knitblog yet (okay, I do, but I'm not telling where it is) but I don't think I will have a list of links there either. Bloglines serves my private purposes, and I think not having a list of links is (as you are suggesting in your post) an indication of my blog personality. Posted by: AlisonG at November 13, 2004 06:14 PMWell! I clicked over to your blog because I finally had enough time to write about my most-worn knits and here you have another interesting and thoughtful question to pose us! This really is the thinking person's knitblog. I'm still in that stage where I check around to see who has linked to me. This is part because I'm a relatively new blogger and getting links to me feels like I'm building up some readership. It's also, for better or worse, a kind of validation: wow, people like what I write and post, they find it worthwhile and entertaining, to the degree that they refer others to me. Comments are the same way. It reflects on my sense of if I should keep doing this or not. Maybe I take it all a little too seriously! Posted by: Jenna at November 13, 2004 12:45 PMRose-kim - I do a short list. In fact, I do a short list of my favorite, favorite blogs and only those that that have really great buttons. I didn't want an endless clutter or to endorse blogs that I don't really love. However, I still find myself disappointed when I don't find my blog on other people's blogrolls (especially when it seems like they've listed every other blog ever written). :) There's also the link management issue. If I only list my 20 absolute favorites, I will know immediately if the link needs to be updated. (Probably more than you wanted to know. :) ) Posted by: Jessica at November 13, 2004 08:15 AM |