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I'm thinking about taking mine down. It's getting too hard to link to everyone I read without making my page a foot and a half long. I'm thinking about using my google reader to make sort of a "link log" I can place in the sidebar in lieu of a traditional blogroll. One question: do those links still "count," I mean, in Technorati parlance as incoming links for those bloggers? (I don't want to deny anyone a link.)
Is there another way to do a sideblog with Blogger that doesn't involve getting your hands dirty with code?
I know this might not be a popular idea with the bloggers on your blogroll, but could you trim the blogroll to truly the top-notch blogs?
Or perhaps a "featured this month/week" list where you rotate a list of 5-10 blogs? A rotating list might actually draw more attention to the list, and your blogger friends will get more hits from your blog, making you quite popular and well-liked.
I've seen bloggers put a blog roll link in their sidebar. The link takes you to another blog that is simply a list of links. Might be an idea to think about.
I do that with my blogroll/siteroll. The links all go to one post (if you've got loads of blogs you link to, then you could put them in categories and give each category its own page to improve search engine rankings). The blogroll has a link from my home page, and then there is a list of three sites/blogs (I call it a MiBloRo), which I rotate regularly to keep interest. It works OK for me, though if you want to cycle through all the link-worthy blogs rather than just the "top-notch" ones, nobody is likely to complain.
The catch is that mine had to be hand-coded (I have to change the addresses in the MiBloRo randomly), but if you keep it short, then it is manageable.
I list my links on an entirely separate page so that they don't clutter up my main page, and so that I can include brief descriptions with links to explain why I like them. This technique works pretty well for me.
I've also thought about using Google Reader to share entries I particularly like, but I really loathe cluttered sidebars filled with crap, so I probably won't do it.
I went ahead with the Google reader widget for now, until I can think of a better solution. I actually kind of like it, and it's pretty easy to update.
Someone I have an a book written by Biz Stone that does show how to make a sideblog with Blogger, but it involves starting a second blog, stripping out all the CSS, pasting the rest of the code into your existing blog where it will pick up the style. (Or something like that.) It's from 2002, so I don't know if it would work with the new blogger or not. (And I'm not a fan of coding.)
Sounds like a heck of a lot of trouble. And why not the post idea with the link on your sidebar? I'm finding out that blogrolls are more than just a selection of favorites, they're also a bargaining tool. Now that I've got my eye on my technorati authority rating, I really take notice of who puts me on their blogroll, who doesn't. I was so naive about all that before. But I'm learning. Still, I try to only put blogs that I like and visit regularly myself on there. I might do a post on all this. Maybe.
Gack, how terrible to think of a blogroll as a political tool, rather than a list of links I like. Or to think that people would be offended at my lack of linkage because I'm lazy or I forgot about them when I was updating my links. It's a minefield out there.
How about creating a del.icio.us account and link to it as your links list? I like that personally because you can put multiple tags so visitors who just want to see which sites you like that are art-related or cheese-related or whatever can do so, but you don't have to have a mile-long blogroll or a bunch of them with different headings or whatever. Just a thought. http://del.icio.us/
