I will say this. I think the perfect mist on traffic stats is coming from links from other blogs, hits from the search engines and people typing in the URL directly. Anytime I get too many hits from any one of those sources I can tell. that being said, I am not a commercial blogger so whether two or ten thousand folks read the blog, I’m good.

the focus for those struggling after blogroll purges might be to find another derivative product to make money.

Occasionally i will get linked to by a diary of one of the big blogs, but I don’t even operate in their world to a certain extent, I think you should focus on your niche. I was once featured in a major magazine and for months I had to deal with emails from people who didn’t read the blog, had no clue what it was about and felt the need to comment. My motto is more page click more problems. I have stopped looking at my traffic numbers.

it occurred to me recently that the difference between those that bemoan the blogroll purges and those that think it’s much ado about nothing is that the former believe(d) that blogging can help coalesce progressives into a viable and tangible political force in this country, and the latter pretty much think blogging is about sitting around and shooting the breeze.

Not really. At least in my case: I -do- think blogging is a real tool for activism; it’s just that i don’t necessarily see that in the same way the folks at the “top” do. Building real change takes time and starts from the ground up. Kicking recalcitrant politicians is all very well, but frankly it’s only a very small, albeit probably the most visible, certainly the most “glamorous,” part of what we think of as “politics.”

Those who follow the political blogs more closely than I do were probably aware eons ago that some of the A-list political bloggers significantly trimmed their blogrolls (while dubbing it, strangely enough, a blogroll “amnesty”). Others, like Terranc…

Will that suffice in order for me to offer observations on the general subjects of blogrolls and links?

Nothing wrong with your observations. If I didn’t think they were insightful I wouldn’t have bothered to comment.

It remains the case, however, that I would be astonished if a non-standard blogroll like you have doesn’t drive less traffic than a standard one. Certainly I could be wrong, and having more blogs on it, plus a faster load time, apparently outweights that disadvantage for you.

I do like your “what I’m reading” feature. Very nice.

The only thing wrong with it, from what I gather, is that it’s a drop-down list instead of a regular list of links. One of the reasons I chose that format, actually, was so that I could have a longer blogroll than I would otherwise. But if a regular list of links is the only right way to do it then perhaps I’ll have to return to that format, or put a random list of links from the blogroll on the sidebar that updates automatically.

But I’ve also added a “What I’m Reading” list to the sidebar, that promotes posts from the blogs in my regular reading rotation.

Will that suffice in order for me to offer observations on the general subjects of blogrolls and links?

I will also note, that with the decline of trackbacks, you often don’t realize who’s linking to you – especially links that don’t give a rush of traffic.

Anyway, I think middle ranked blogs can benefit from high ranked blogs, but it requires building a relationship or someone falling in love with your posts, and one is work (that often won’t pay off) and the other is serendipity.

However, in general I tend to agree with you – I give the same advice to my clients – build relations with the small and medium bloggers and in time the big boys may, or may not, notice you.

Dislike for the A-list isn’t just part of the liberal blogosphere, it exists in the business and tech blogosphere’s too, and even for a big client, that dislike is something I want to avoid. Linking down is smart – it isn’t just about traffic, it’s about relationships, community and who has your back. And every blogger is eventually going to need people to have his or her back.

I will also note that there are a few liberal blogospheres even at the a-list level. The old boys (DeLong/TPM/Yglesias/etc…) are quite distinct from the activists, for example – the linkage between the two spheres is minimal.

As for not getting credit – happens all the time. I write about things long before they break and someone else who writes about it when it breaks big somehow becomes the expert on it. I’ve come to accept that if you’re too far ahead of the curve (and that means, ahead of the curve pretty much at all) you aren’t going to get the credit.

One thing – I understand the reasoning behind having your blogroll on a seperate page for loading reasons, but honestly, a blogroll that isn’t on the front page will give a lot less traffic to those on it.

Interesting conversation Terrance and not a bad summary. From my perspective from a low level A-list blog, I’d say that the simplest thing going on is this:

you can’t read everything.

That’s something that I’ve actually acknowledged in previous posts that people either don’t remember of haven’t read. I read about follow about 200 to 300 blog & news feeds every day, and I can’t read everything either.

Human nature is one part of the equation, and human limitations are another.

And perhaps, just perhaps, you might consider how many messages that blogger is getting. The really high ranked ones are getting piles.

I know. I’m somewhere in the middle and I get a lot myself. But not so much that I can’t respond to it. As I tell the people I talk to in blog trainings, bloggers that are somewhere in the middle may actually be more responsive.

Remember – asking for a link from someone is like any other ask.

What’s in it for the person you’re making the request from?

Tell them that first.

I long ago stopped asking for links. It never really did any good. Besides, I’ve had at least one experience where I’ve posted about a story and sent it to one such blogger, only to have them explain why they weren’t going to cover it. So, I kept covering it along with several other blogs nobody’d heard of, until we managed to get it in the media. Then the previously mentioned blogger covered it, without linking to any of us as far as I could tell. The icing on the cake came much later, when that same blogger was credited with “breaking” the the story in the blogosphere. Of course it’s not important who gets “credit” as long as the story gets out….

Plus, the bottom line is that there isn’t much in it for them. Linking to me an other mid-level bloggers isn’t going to increase their traffic, their ranking, or much else.

By the same token, though, linking to them doesn’t benefit me much either. It doesn’t increase my traffic, ranking or much else, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to link to or read my blog.

Linking to other blogs somewhere in the “Magic Middle” does have more potential for mutual benefit. We’re more likely to read each other, exchange links, and share traffic.

It makes much more sense than linking to blogs that aren’t going to reciprocate.