Comments on: Do link blogs suck?

By: Why I Write Detailed, In-Depth Posts

Why I Write Detailed, In-Depth Posts — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 14:34:13 +0000

[...] Perhaps you’ve caught on – every post on this blog is a link post. And, instead of providing you a random link post about what I’m reading each week, I manually scour the web for links that relate to the content of each post and include a related links section at the bottom. This way, if you’d like to read further about a topic I have written on, the links are right there, in context. I think it makes more sense to tie each of your posts to other complementary or supplementary posts on other blogs than to do stand-alone link posts. I know some bloggers like to do link posts, but for me, Twitter/FriendFeed/StumbleUpon/Digg/Reddit killed the link blog star. [...]

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:17:14 +0000

You bring up an excellent point about how search engines would evaluate links with little description.

By: TDavid

TDavid — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:30:10 +0000

I don't subscribe to or read any *all* linkdump blogs. Some of the blogs I follow run out lists of unreleated links with a few comments here and there, using that delicious plugin most commonly.

I prefer reading -- and writing -- blog posts with some meat to them. A list of completely unrelated links in a blog post, even with small amount of context added, is usually not very meaty. For readers, the context provided is often too short to be useful. Now a list of related links around a topic is a whole different thing and could be quite useful.

From the author side though, from time to time providing linkdump posts can break up things and provide variety overall to the blog. So these posts are ok here and there. They suck though for SE. How does the SE determine what is relevant on the page in a linkblog post with very little text?

Blogs completely dedicated to linking? I guess maybe if it was something the author wanted for their own use but I don't see many people subscribing. FriendFeed, delicious, et al probably best places these days for that type of regular activity.

By: Chipping the web: December 10th -- Chip’s Quips

Chipping the web: December 10th -- Chip’s Quips — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 03:01:10 +0000

[...] Do link blogs suck?I had to link this, natch.Tags: linkblog markdykeman [...]

By: Links Roundup - December 9th 2008

Links Roundup - December 9th 2008 — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:01:17 +0000

[...] Do link blogs suck? – Do you think that there is still a need for blogs which post about other great sites? [...]

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:28:14 +0000

Context adds value and it is much preferred to a static list of links.

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:26:45 +0000

No. In fact, I don't consider Wikipedia to be a blog.

By: Ari Herzog

Ari Herzog — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:06:38 +0000

Do you consider Wikipedia a link blog?

By: JayCruz

JayCruz — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:46:43 +0000

If you mean using a platform like wordpress or blogger to just putting hypertext, then yes, I agree. If your going to do just that, then something like twitter, digg, or delicious would be a better option. But you could be a good “link blogger”, as in pointing to things you find online, if you offer some context.

By: Mark Dykeman

Mark Dykeman — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:54:26 +0000

Good synopsis.