Blogrolls are a retro and radically simple concept:

They’re a list of links on a blog to other blogs. 

Most bloggers use them to refer readers to their favorite blogs. Some use blogrolls to promote one another, i.e. “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”

Many link to other blogs that write about the same things they do. Or to those that have absolutely nuttin’ to do with ‘em.

They could be just a few links or a billion of ’em.

There’s no rule or one right way to use blogrolls.

You don’t need any special software or tools. Really, it’s just a list of links. Simple and easy to maintain.

Why keep a blogroll?

They’re a great way to cross-promote each other and to alert your readers to other cool blogs like yours out there. Often blogrolls are the only way folks find blogs because search engines today are not friendly to small blogs (by shoving ’em where the sun don’t shine).

Personally I love looking over blogrolls — I’m often delighted with what I come across on my browsing adventures thanks to friendly bloggers pointing the way.

List your favorite blogs however you like and post them in your sidebar or on your about page or set up a page just for your blogroll (like I did on my personal blog). You can put it anywhere and in whatever format you like. There’s no particular rule on placement. Just make sure it’s visible for your readers.

Tend to that list like a garden — check on it every couple months by clicking through the links to make sure those blogs are still kickin’. You don’t wanna send your readers to defunct blogs, do you? Plant new seeds by adding new blogs you’ve come to like recently.

Don’t worry about sending readers away. It’s the very nature of the internet for folks roam and explore the wild electric yonder. If they like your blog, they’ll be back (and if not, it wasn’t meant to be in the first place 😜).

Need inspiration for some blogs to link to? Browse our own blogroll!

Get blogrolling, fellow blogger!

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