Putting Value Into Your Link Lists

January 14, 2008 | By Lorelle VanFossen | Filed Under Blog Relationships, Blogging, Featured, Features

I rarely offer link lists on . I don’t do link lists here on the .

Why?

I like link lists. I think they serve a great purpose in directing your readers to articles and blogs you know would be of interest to them, especially if they are inline with your blogging purpose, the reason your readers keep coming back to you.

I also hate link lists. I find few people put a lot of thought into their link lists. They give them titles like “Links for the week of Nov. 5 - 10″ or “Fun Links For You”. They are just lists. They offer me no reason or incentive to visit, and if the title of the link doesn’t give me a clue, I got nothing.

I like link lists with a purpose, with a focus, that have a central theme that connects each link with each other. “List of top SEO blogs”, “List of my favorite blogs about blogging”, or “Lists of Free Photo Sources”, lists with value as each item in the list is related and of benefit to those looking for those subjects.

I call those types of link posts resources lists. I have a few on my blogs such as HTML, CSS, PHP, and More Cheat Sheets, CSS and Web Page Design List of Resources, Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog, and More Must-Have Bookmarklets Than You Can Swing a Browser At. Their intent is very narrow. I built them based upon research and searching I’ve done to find the resources I need on the subject, and share them with my readers to help them when they are hunting for the same resources. All are inline with my blog subject matter.

The fad of finding stuff once a week to link to is dying. It’s been done. Sure, it’s nice, but is it still working for your readers? Or is it just something easy you do once a week to fill up an empty space in your blog calendar?

When Link Lists Had Value

In the early days of the web, before Google became a household name, such link resource lists were invaluable, acting as a directory for finding related content. Searching was painful. It took forever and didn’t always connect you with what you were really looking for. Creating these link resources helped your readers connect with the sources of information and data you both needed.

Today, when you need to get information, you turn to search engines first. These types of lists are not a replacement for searching.

A friend described how the educational system was changing. She said:

Instead of going to the bookstore and getting a book on plumbing to fix a leak in your sink, you use a search engine to find a plumber near you, email them for an appointment, and by the time they show up, you’ve Googled everything you can find on how to fix the leak in your sink, and greet the plumber at the door armed with the information on how they are going to proceed - and an estimate of how much time and cost it will take to do the job right.

We don’t need those types of link resource lists any more. Oh, the occasional one is a nice resource to have on your site, but random collections of weekly links just don’t do it like they once did.

Make Your Link Lists Have Value

In order to make your link lists work for your blog, bring back their value.

Here are some more articles to help you put a little more thinking into your linking:


About the author: The author of Lorelle on WordPress, as well as several other blogs, Lorelle VanFossen has been blogging in one fashion or another for over 14 years, covering travel, nature and travel photography, web design, web theory and development, blogging, and WordPress extensively as web technologies developed. Lorelle is also the author of the fast-selling book, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging, available in the new Blog Herald Bookstore.

© Copyright 2008 The Blog Herald | Submit post to Blogosphere News | More articles by Lorelle VanFossen


Comments

2 Responses to “Putting Value Into Your Link Lists”

  1. Rob O. on January 14th, 2008 12:23 pm

    I suppose you could consider my monthly Blogtipping posts a link list, but I do like to work each one around a common theme or topic. And as recommended, I give reasons why each of the 3 blogs I’m linking to are well worth checking out. So hopefully, these posts are more helpful that simple linklists or blogrolls.

    By the way, giving credit where it’s rightfully due, I have to mention that I didn’t come up with the Blogtipping concept - it was originated by Easton Ellsworth over at Business BlogWire.

  2. Andrew on January 14th, 2008 7:25 pm

    You’ve noted that link lists had (intrinsic?) value before Google became a household name. For some types of queries, I think that the frustration of search engine results can be the mother of (hand-picked) resource lists.

    For example, I recently wrote about the Public Speaking Blogosphere somewhat in response to the fact that public speaking blogs were difficult for me to find. Sure, a Google search for “public speaking blog” turns up some of the top blogs, but it was difficult finding more through “easy” methods like Google.

    Having created that resource, it is especially interesting to read your tips and use it as a checklist against what I’ve done. It also gives me ideas for future lists. Thanks, Lorelle.

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