Tag Archives: resource

Fairy Blog Mother

In my research into questions blogging beginners would ask, this question caught my eye. I remember it was a part of a blog that took me ages to work out what it was. I had uploaded the associated widget onto my sidebar and there it stood in its default mode for months. The term ‘blogroll’ was confusing, as it raised other unsuitable connotations within my untechnical brain.

Both kinds of blog

So, what is a blogroll? Basically it is a list of links to recommended websites. Originally it was meant as a list of other blogs the blogger wished to share with his readers (I suppose a ‘roll’ is such a list), but now any kind of website or resource can become part of a blogroll, as long as it has a URL. People usually use their blogroll to link back to their website if the blog is used for business or as an addition to their online visibility.

Links are what makes a blog, as I said in my earlier post The importance of links within blogs. Having a blogroll that links up to many well-rated sites, and to those that return reciprocal links, will raise your status within the bloggosphere. Links are essentially gateways or portals that enable both spiders and humans to travel from site to site, so linking up to a higher-ranking blog may give you necessary credit.

Blogrolls can either be shown as a list of contextual links (the name of the blog with the URL behind it):

(Acknowledgements to Karen Skidmore’s KickAss blog, who definitely knows how to create a good blogroll)

or in image form with each banner or logo of the sites in question:

(Acknowledgements to Success Network blog, in which I regularly contribute)

Obviously the latter is more work, but if you want your blog to be visual, this is an exciting way to do it.

So how do you create a blogroll, both kinds? Well, I have written two visual e-courses on these subjects which I am happy to share with you:

Editing the blogroll or links

Placing images on the blogroll

Enjoy!