Beyond the Blogroll

It will be nice if RSS feed of recent post is also included.

PS: Infact this gives an idea for viral blogroll building.

This is something I'm looking to get into, as I really hate how dull most blogrolls are. I don't want a huge list of random links that no-one is ever going to click.
What your wife has done with a short description of each site is an excellent idea.

I'm going to try something similar, but go against your advice and clutter up my sidebar with mine, at least to begin with.

Another thing I want to include alongside a short description is a 125x125 image for the site, to splash a bit of colour about the place.

What a great idea. I already have my blogroll on a separate page but that is just beacuse I do not have sidebars. I have however never thought of including my favourites on this list. The pictures will also be a nice touch. As soon as I have a bit of time I will look into this. Thanks.

I like Lauren's method! A blogroll without annotation of some sort is just a list of links, after all, and a bit of description adds real value for a time-crunched reader. I can see where a small screenshot might be handy, too.

Thanks for all the comments. :)

nishu - in theory that would be nice, but it would double the amount of links (two per site), and it could really slow down the page. Maybe it would be OK for a short page, but not if you have a lot of links.

Tam - go for it. Do comment again when you're done so I can see what you did. I'd love to see what you do with the images.

Arnold - as I said above, let me know when you've put your new blogroll up. Maybe I'll write a follow-up post with a blogroll gallery. Who knows, it might get a few other sites doing the same.

Jen - yep, it's all about adding value, and getting people to click those links. I agree, it's great!

I like the idea of favorites rather than a blogroll. I have removed all but the default blogroll from my sidebar anyway, but agree with others that a page for it would be the best choice rather than in the sidebar.


I'm trying to keep my sidebar relatively clean and uncluttered.

ê¿ê

Great minds think alike, but great bloggers blog about it first!
Just today I was thinking of almost exactly the same thing. Putting up a page of links to the blogs I like to read every day.
Good going! I like the idea of the pics too.

From the start, I don't like clutter on my site. The solution I've made is to have my blogroll as dropdown and I don't used plugin to make it work. Instead of using a blogroll widget, I've used the text widget. It works fine.

Margaret - I'm starting to wonder if this will take the web by storm! ;) lol.

CFOtoGo - pipped at the post, eh? :) Thanks for the praise.

glitch - well, I think you're right to reduce the clutter, but a drop down seems like a step too far. I have seen drop down lists on other sites and I always wonder why people use them. They require one click just to open them and if there are a lot of items, an additional click is required to scroll down. Then it's the usual click to open a site.

Hiding the links in this way makes me wonder how many people will actually look at them, and that makes me ask if it's worth having a blogroll at all if the links are so well-hidden. Finally, it goes back to the original issue I have with a blogroll: you only get the name of the site with no description. I'd certainly choose the separate page over the drop down list.

Thanks for all the comments. :)

My blogroll is for me as much as for readers. I like to visit sites rather than to use a reader. I do use a reader, but not very effectively. I think that if I ever decide to do a more focused site, I would have a significantly shorter blogroll. My interests are so varied by subject and geography that I think that what I have works for me.

Hi Colin, thanks for the comment. I think there's still a place for a feed reader as it lets you know when a site is updated. The "old way" of checking for updates - visiting the site every now and again - just stopped me from checking most sites on a regular basis. Especially as so many sites seem to hit a posting drought and don't update for more than a week at a time. At least with a feed reader I will know as soon as each site posts something new.