Ampers & Dot

You might not have noticed, but I recently trimmed a bit of the fat from my blogroll (that little list over there- available about halfway down on the right there… for those who haven’t checked it out yet) in an initial phase of overall “blogroll rehabilitation”. This came about because it seemed hypocritical to have any blogs on there that I’m not passionately reading on a regular basis and as it turned out there were a few on there that I didn’t even read at all anymore.

What I realized was that in the first stab at creating my blogroll I reached a little too far and tried to include something for everyone. This is obviously silly because this blog isn’t for everyone, so why should I try to please those jerks who aren’t even reading this (obviously, I’m not talking about you).

Part of my day job is helping companies build better blogs, so it’s only fair that I have a good one of my own. In the coming weeks I’m going to spend some time redoing my blogroll and thought I’d turn this into a post about how to actually make one.

First off: what’s the blogroll all about? The way I teach the blogroll, is it should be links to other blogs that your readers will enjoy. If they like what they read on your site, they’ll like the content on the other sites too. It’s like Amazon’s suggestion feature- where they match up relevant purchases with the one you’ve already bought- “we see you just bought a Celine Dion CD; would you also like this handgun and bottle of booze combo?”

I use blogrolls every day to find new things to read. It’s a great way to learn more about an industry and it’s a perfect way find networks around topics you find interesting. So let’s just dive into it- tips to building a better blogroll:

• Relevance is bliss: The blogs you link to should first and foremost be relevant to the content you are publishing
• Relevant blogs, not relevant websites. A blogroll is a collection of blogs, who would have guessed. If you have a number of links you think your readers would also enjoy, create a “Links” section too
• Organize! Categorize the blogroll (or even links) into sections to give readers a better understanding. Boston blogger Scott Kirsner does the best job of this of any blog I know
• Use titles with descriptions help guide your readers. Hover works too, but give your audience a clue to what they’ll find in each link. A blog with a crappy name, like AmpersandDot.com means nothing- add a hover to explain the content
• Yes, we all think LOL Cats are hilarious, but unless your blog is about LOL Dogs or straight humor related, your readers are gaining nothing by linking to it. Same goes for StuffWhitePeopleLike.com
• Quality and relevance over quantity. If you have too many links then the relevance is drowned out by all the noise. Todd Defren and Josh Hallet, your blogroll reads like Con Von Hoffman’s category list (Important note: I love all three of these blogs and read everything that any of these guys writes. And you should too.)
• A mix of mainstream and lesser-known blogs (assuming they are relevant and you read them) will add a better variety. I’ve seen a number of blogrolls that only link Engadget, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, and Valleywag. This is lame (and I’m half guilty of it)
• Keep it current. A standard role in blog maintaince is to check dead links. A dead link on a blogroll is one that hasn’t been updated in a week
• Make sure the blogs on your blogroll are ones you read regularly. This sounds straightforward, but I think that once you link to a blog in your blogroll you should be accountable for knowing its content. Linking a blog in your roll is a compliment to the author that you want to give them traffic from every reader
• Hell, you should even be active on the blogs you list- comment on them and engage the author. Because a blogroll link creates a connection- on each page- not just a link in a post, but a static link for all to enjoy. And hey, if you comment on more blogs then you’ll be much more likely to get links back.

Blogrolls are an integral element to every blog. And sadly I haven’t been appropriately respecting the importance. Things I need to work on: a) more blogs b) categories (I’m thinking: Boston, Web “2.0″, Social Media, Tech Nerdery… but we’ll see what pans out) and c) better variety, not just Mashable and Engadet Mobile… ugh.

This weekend I’ll take my own advice and start working on revamping my blogroll. What else should be considered when blogrolling? What are your tips?