Monday, November 14, 2005

Keeping Your BlogRoll Up-To-Date

BlogTipsBasilHere's a situation I've found myself in, and have recently noticed many other bloggers in the same situation.

The BlogRoll here at this little blog is ... well, it's huge. Is it too big? Possibly. But regardless of how big one's BlogRoll is, it's important that it be kept up-to-date.

Why? Read on ...

So Why Have A BlogRoll To Start With?

There are many reason one might have a BlogRoll.


  • Some use it as a place to keep recommended sites.

  • Others use it as a place to keep favorites.

  • Others treat it as a link-exchange.

  • Others use it for "club membership."

  • Some combine these functions.



But if you have a BlogRoll, think about why you have one.

If you don't use it, why don't you drop it from your site? Use the space for something useful. Like selling ads. Or carrying Day By Day. Or something.

So, if you want to keep your BlogRoll, why don't you keep it up to date? If it's not worth maintaining, it's not worth keeping.

So keep it up to date.

Since there are many ways of creating a BlogRoll. And how you maintain it depends on how you created it.

Blogrolling.com

One of the most popular services is Blogrolling.com. If that's how you maintain your BlogRoll, there are a couple of things you need to do.

First, log on to Blogrolling.com

Then, make sure you're on your Blogrolling.com Home Page.


  • From Navigation, click "Home"



Then select the Blogroll you want to update.


  • From Mission Control, find the box that contains the BlogRoll you want to update

  • Click "Preferences"



Now, verify the information/settings are to your liking.


  • Roll name should be something you can use to identify it at a glance. It's probably set correctly, but you can change it if you like.

  • Blog URL should be your current URL. If you've ever moved your blog, you really ought to look at this and make sure it's correct. When other blogs create "Reciprocal BlogRolls" ("RecipRoll") this is what appears. Likewise, when anyone uses the "Search BlogRolls" feature, this URL is what appears. So make sure it's up to date.

  • Sorting your links is pretty self-explanatory.

  • There are other options you can set, but these are most commonly used.



Once your "behind the scenes" data is correct, look at the links themselves.


  • From Navigation, click "Home"

  • From Mission Control, find the box that contains the BlogRoll you want to update

  • Click "Edit/Delete Links"



Now, you have a listing of all your links. This is the really tedious part. Click on each link. Every one of them. And check to make sure the site exists. Or is still in operation.

If it redirects to a new URL, you ought to update that BlogRoll entry.


  • Click on "edit"

  • Make the appropriate change

  • Click on "Save Link"



If it doesn't exist, or if it's sadly out-of-date, you might want to delete it. But keep in mind that the Internet isn't perfect. And blog hosts aren't perfect either. It could be that the site is down temporarily. That happens to all sites. Your blog. My blog. InstaPundit. Everybody. So don't jump the gun. I'd suggest making a note to come back to that blog later. Or contacting the blog. If it is actually gone, you can delete it.

TypePad

TypePad users can use Blogrolling.com BlogRolls as TypeLists. If that's your situation, then follow the Blogrolling.com instructions.

However, if you use a "People" TypeList, you need to go through a different process.


  • Click on TypeLists

  • Find the TypeList that corresponds to the BlogRoll you want to maintain

  • Click on "Edit Items"

  • Click the "Manage" tab

  • Click "All Items."



Now, scroll up to the top of the page, click on VIEW SITE. It should open in a new tab/window. Alternately, manually open a new tab/window and navigate to your blog.

From there, scroll down to your BlogRoll and click on each link.

If a link takes you to an out-of-date site, or if it forwards you to a new site, you'll want to update the entry.

You'll need to go back to the TypeList window to make changes:


  • Scroll down to the corresponding entry. If you don't see it, you'll have to click the "Next 20" button. And, depending on the size of your BlogRoll, you may have to do that many times until you locate the entry

  • Click "Edit."

  • From the pop-up window, make the changes you need to make

  • Click "Save Changes"



If it doesn't exist, or if it's sadly out-of-date, you might want to delete it. But keep in mind that the Internet isn't perfect. And blog hosts aren't perfect either. It could be that the site is down temporarily. That happens to all sites. Your blog. My blog. InstaPundit. Everybody. So don't jump the gun. I'd suggest making a note to come back to that blog later. Or contacting the blog. If it is actually gone, you can delete it.

To delete a TypeList entry:


  • Click the "Delete" checkbox

  • Click the "Delete checked" button



That takes care of one entry. You have to do that for each entry on your BlogRoll.

WordPress

If you have a WordPress blog, you have a couple of options. One is to use Blogrolling.com. And if you use Blogrolling.com for your BlogRoll, follow the Blogrolling.com instructions.

The other way to maintain a BlogRoll is to use WordPress Lists.


  • Log on to your blog

  • Click "Links"



Now, click on each link. I'd suggest right-clicking and opening in a new tab/window. If a link takes you to an out-of-date site, or if it forwards you to a new site, you'll want to update the entry.

To edit an entry:


  • Click "Edit"

  • Make the changes that are needed

  • Click "Save Changes"



If it doesn't exist, or if it's sadly out-of-date, you might want to delete it. But keep in mind that the Internet isn't perfect. And blog hosts aren't perfect either. It could be that the site is down temporarily. That happens to all sites. Your blog. My blog. InstaPundit. Everybody. So don't jump the gun. I'd suggest making a note to come back to that blog later. Or contacting the blog. If it is actually gone, you can delete it.


  • Click "Delete"

  • An alert box pops up.

  • Click "OK" if you are certain you want to delete the link. Otherwise, click cancel.



That takes care of one entry. You have to do that for each entry on your BlogRoll.

But That's A Lot Of Work!

Yes, that's a lot to do. But you have to decide if you want to have an updated BlogRoll or not. If you don't, why not drop it all together?

If your BlogRoll is too big to maintain, start over. Create a new one then delete the old one. Or just go down the list and remove those blogs you don't want on there.

BlogRolls can come in handy. We'll talk more about BlogRolls in the future. And we'll talk about Blogrolling.com and some of the features they have there.

You certainly don't have to use Blogrolling.com to have a BlogRoll. But for Blogger blogs, it's probably the easiest way to maintain a BlogRoll.

Speaking of Blogger...

As long as we're talking about Blogger, I have some questions for you.


  • What do you dislike about Blogger?

  • If you used to have a Blogger blog and moved, why?

  • If you looked at several options and rejected Blogger, why?

  • If you are currently on Blogger and want to move, why?



Tell me what you don't like about Blogger. I've been asked about alternatives to Blogger, but the answer depends on what about Blogger is disliked. I know what I don't like about it, but I'm very curious what you don't like about it.

Drop me a line at basil.thinks.he.is.so.smart@gmail.com and vent about Blogger. And we'll come up with some good alternatives that address those problems. Soon. I promise.

10 comments:

  1. Hmpf. I can take a hint. I'll update my blogroll... soon. GRIN

    ReplyDelete
  2. I keep mine for links although since June I have not asked for reciprocals
    Good point on the ads.

    ReplyDelete
  3. vw bug:
    Don't be upset. But this post was directed at one blog in particular.

    Poca Dot:
    I should have asked for thoughts on the different ways BlogRolls are used. I guess I'm going to do that now.

    Gentle Reader:
    How do you use your BlogRoll differently from the ways I listed?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I prune mine from time to time. I export it to OPML. Delete all of the rolls. Edit the OPML files and then reimport to WordPress. It is a lot simpler than clicking delete on hundreds of links.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I moved off blogger because it was always down or slow. Also, they had stopped offering domain name hosting, and it was tedious to give out my website address. Now it's easy.

    I stopped using BlogRolling for similar reasons: it was always slow to load. Now I just do it manually myself. It is a pain though. Of course, using MT is a pain. I really liked having a WYSIWYG editor.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Another option for keeping a blogroll is to use bloglines.com for one-stop shopping to read and maintain your blogroll. You can keep multiple folders in which you organize your subscriptions. The atom or rss feeds of each site are read by bloglines, so you can always see when that blog has been updated and keep up-to-date on your reading. Simple code allows you to capture that folder on your website as a blogroll. Adding and removing blogs is as easy as subscribing and unsubscribing, or moving a subscription to another folder.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kimberly:
    Yes indeed, the OPML editing is much faster. Have you written anything on editing that so that beginners would be comfortable? If so, I'd like to refer/link to it in a follow-up post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pluto's Dad:
    Thanks. I can definitely use that info!

    Oregano:
    Excellent point. I see a follow-up post coming. Did you ever post on that?

    Oh, and great to hear from you. Hope all is going well. You know you are missed. But like you said, priorities.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hey Basil. I sent you an email as per your request above (about Blogger). I happened upon Blogger when I started blogging last summer. I have found a way to add categories by topic to Blogger (in a round-about way) through FreshBlog. I posted about it, and linked to his site to give him credit and share the good news. Blogger doesn't have trackback capability as far as I've noticed, and I have not figured that out yet. Thanks for posting about this.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks! I appreciate your input, and the input of everyone that's offered information about Blogger

    ReplyDelete

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