Vos Virtual Network

It appears to me that some people do not manage their blog roll at all — they simple add a few junky links and that is the end of it.

Let’s start off with a few questions…

How do you manage your blog roll? Do you use your blog roll as a daily reading list? Do you call it “Blog Roll” Blogroll, or BlogRoll? What is a blog roll, and how or why should you manage it? [Note: Here is a Wikipedia article on the blogroll concept.]

Definition: A “blog roll” is list of links on your blog that refers to other blogs (weblogs by bloggers you know); a list of other people that write interesting blogs; or a list of blogs you enjoy reading each day; or a list of well known or popular authors (or editors) of a blog.

Etymology of the word or phrase? Who ever thought of the word “blogroll” anyway? Seems to draw up some images of middle school or the military “morning roll call”. For instance: Did you ever have a “roll call” in school where the teacker takes attendance records? Or have you ever seen a “roll call” in the military (Marines, Navy, etc.) — where everyone has to wake up early in the morning, polish their shoes, look sharp, stand up straight, and pay attention while the officer in charge calls out the names and you say “yes sir”. The military analogy is actually a pretty good one — if you want to keep your blog roll looking spit-polished.

But if someone really wanted to really be good about managing their blog roll, what would they do? Basically you add links, delete links, and change or revise links. But what links should you add? How often should you add new links, and when should you delete old links? Start by asking yourself these questions:

• What is the purpose of blog roll?
• Why is a blog roll important?
• What is a blog roll good for?
• Why bother messing with a blog roll?
• What authors should I add to my blog roll?

If you understand the purpose for a blog roll — then you are half-way to understanding how to “manage your blog roll”.

Perhaps you can start by talking to your self about what you want your blog roll be like:

• I want my blog roll to be full of interesting blogs and blog writers who write cool and interesting articles every week (or day).
• I want my blog roll to be focused on a couple topics that I am interested in
• My blog roll will have links only to other bloggers who write about my niche-market of java-widgets.
• I will review (check the links) the blogs in my blog roll every month or week.
• I will only add active blogs to my blog roll - from experienced and active writers — and dead blogs will be deleted quickly.
• Or to be cautious — I will only add blogs to my blog roll that I have read for several months.

Or maybe you want to state the negative things about blogs you don’t like and blogs to eliminate from your blog roll.

• I will delete all blogs from my blog roll — from blogs that appear to be dead for more than 2 months.
• I will delete blogs from my blog roll that spew hateful ideas, profanity and promote un-godly philosophies and/or pornography.
• Or something as simple as deleting links when you get more than 49 links in your blog roll

Getting started. This is how I do it — but you may have a better way. Please add your comments if you have some better ideas.

1. Add new links to your blog roll as you encounter great new blogs.
2. Read the blogs in your blog roll once a day, or week, or once a month — but at least once a month. Click on the links and see what the other guy or gal wrote about recently.
3. If the person gets boring, they stop writing and the blog goes dead, or you get tired of them — delete the link.
4. Prioritize the list of blogs you are reading frequently — Who is the best? Who is red hot? Is someone writing great material consistently or did they write only 3 great articles and then everything fizzeled out…

A few words about the physical steps — which may vary depending on what type of blogging software or blogging service you use…

Since I use WordPress 2.0 for my blog - the physical steps to adding links in my “blog roll” is as simple as this:

1. Login as admin.
2. Click on “links”.
3. Add a link with author’s name or name of the blog — and the URL for the blog.
4. Make sure the link type is “blog roll”.

Other blogging tools have other tools for maintaining your links.