That is my question.
I remember 3 years ago when I started blogging. I was “inundated” with requests to join blogrolls, to link up, to get in touch, to cross-populate, blah, blah, blah.
Now, nothing. I don’t think I’ve had more than ten people ask me to link to them in my blogroll or that they’ve linked to me in theirs.
SA Rocks is another example. Go and check out the supporters list on the site.
So when was the last time you edited or added anyone to your blogroll? In fact, when was the last time you actually looked at someone’s blogroll?
Melissa 1:24 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
Good question Nic – I still like blogrolls for link and relationship building and more importantly for discovery of other related blogs. It’s also interesting to get an idea of who is reading who….I list you and SA Rocks on my blogroll as I enjoy the content and your opinion
Nic 1:28 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
Why thank you!!
Yes I see your point, however I think that today with the likes of GoogleReader sharing and discover, the blogroll might just be dead and wasted space?!
justBcoz 1:35 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
I always have a look at who’s listed on a blogroll – like Melissa, I think it’s interesting to see who’s reading who. I am quite new to the Blogosphere and could easily be paralysed by feed choices. Checking out blogrolls helps me decide what’s worth looking at and sometimes it also gives me a bit more info about the blogger themselves.
JBagley 2:48 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
Blogrolls these days are more of a SEO benefit than anything else I guess. backlinks and more backlinks!
Cape Town's Favourite Son 3:30 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
Nic,
I don’t have a blogroll, but if it’s any consolation, you can add me to yours.
Marcel 7:51 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
Hmmm… I’ve added SA Rocks to my blogroll but I’m not listed as a supporter. While this may seem like veiled disappointment, it makes me wonder if there’s a way to automate this.
Is there a Wordpress Plugin that detects when your blog has been added to someone else’s blogroll, and gives you an option to reciprocate the link?
Or how about button, say on my blog, that you can click and it automatically adds my link to your blogroll?
Anyone know of something like this?
Nic 8:04 pm on June 24, 2008 Permalink
Hey Marcel,
hmmmm…if you look very closely at the SA Rocks supporters list on SA Rocks you’ll notice that your blog is actually listed in the supporters list!!
But you are on to a great idea methinks. I think we should tweet the idea and see if any php/wp magicians can whip something up.
Stii 12:38 am on June 25, 2008 Permalink
Gosh, ppl, have you not been listening?! Yes, blogrolls NOT in XFN format are dead. With XFN it is going to prove itself useful again one of these pretty days! If you have not looked at the video I made with much sweat, go have a look.
http://www.zoopy.com/video/detail/id/9688/
Marcel 1:07 am on June 25, 2008 Permalink
Aha … found it Nic, wasn’t expecting the link title to be my company name!
So what WordPress needs is a XFN-based blogroll-network that allows you to add a “cling-on” link on your ‘roll with one “wipe”! (Groan, terrible puns).
I imagine this would look similar to the “follow” grid on the Twitter sidebar. Then when you login to the Admin of WP, a dashboard message asks if you would like to reciprocate the link. Surely this must be possible already.
Stii 12:52 pm on June 25, 2008 Permalink
Thanks Nic for posting the vid!
Marcel, thats not a bad idea! I’ll look into it when time allows…