This is going to be a fairly dry post about blog etiquette and site management. By way of compensation I do have a link to an amusing video clip at the end.
I get regular emails and comments pointing me to the senders blog or tumblr site. I’m always happy to receive these and discover new material. In some cases, when I think it’s worth sharing, I’ll add the links to an appropriate part of this site. Sometimes I’ll just keep an eye on the link and keep it as an option to add publicly after I’ve had chance to read it over a few weeks. The key criteria is do I think the link will be interesting and useful for any of my readers.
However, please don’t email me and offer to do a link exchange. I think it shows a poor attitude towards your sites readership. If you think my site would be interesting and useful to your readers, then link to it. If you’re right then you’ll be enhancing the value of your own site. If you don’t like it, then don’t link. It’s as easy as that. My criteria for linking always adopts that approach. I think if you concentrate on building the best most useful site you can, the rest will sort itself out.
OK. Minor blog rant over, here’s the video link I promised. It’s a sketch by the comedy group The Whitest Kids U Know, featuring a dominatrix’s first day on the job. It’s not hysterically funny, but it did made me smile. Although I’m pretty certain they’re wrong about the key to being a good dominatrix.
Not a rant- sometimes these things need to be expressed.
In my case, readers know I’ve had issues with inappropriate comments and their authoress’ trying to more or less hijack the topics on my blog.
So I restated my conditions for publishing comments.
Fwiw, I feel as you do, and look to add blogs for my own and my readers’ benefits.
-s
I’m not all that optimistic that the post will make much difference. But as I said in my reply to Tom, I’ll at least have somewhere to point people at now when they ask.
I actually use my blogroll as my list of sites to read on a daily (or at least regular basis). It really is my blog bookmark list. So if I don’t feel the urge to follow their updates regularly then it’s a pretty good clue it shouldn’t be listed.
-paltego
The tit-for-tat mentality cracks me up, and I wonder why some sites continue to do this. It’s not 2005 anymore; blogging has been around for a long time (in internet years) and most of us know how it all works.
However, I did have a link exchange with one large online seller (Eden Fantasys) – or at least, I *thought* I did. They had promised a link exchange, but I had to list their site as “Adult Toys” so as to make it show up on top, alphabetically.
Doing some blog spring cleaning, I discovered that I had never had a single in-click from EF in over a year, so I deleted that link. Within a week they emailed to ask about it, and “threatened” me with removing the link to Edge of Vanilla. I went to their site, and sure enough, there was no link to my blog. Nor to any other blog, for that matter.
I emailed about this, and their response was that the links came from a *different* site that they had set up just for that purpose. Since that site wasn’t listed anywhere that I could find, it didn’t seem to be a fair or reciprocal exchange. Naturally I never replaced the EF link. I’ve since discovered that they we’re especially helpful to a number of other bloggers that linked to them and did toy reviews.
I still get people who ask for link exchanges. If they’re interesting, I put them up. If not, I ignore them. I don’t make money of EoV, and I get a pretty decent amount of traffic without those exchanges, so what the hell, right?
Unfortunately I find it’s often the spammy commercial sites that try and get a link exchange. They’re also the last people who’ll be reading this post. So I probably just wasted my time. But at least I’ll have a link I can send people to when the next ask.
Eden Fantasys are an interesting case. I should probably write a post on them. They have a pretty mixed reputation online, with a fair amount of negative press. They asked me at one point to review stuff, but since I normally play with pro-dommes who have oodles of high end gear, it didn’t seem like something worth pursuing.
Yes, I get the periodic link exchange requests from the commercial sites. Which I always decline.
I only exchange with people one could consider commercial if I’ve at least corresponded with them, e.g., Sardax. Additionally, we have a good friend in common, Marquise.
So uhhh,,, can I get a link then or what, lol.
Sorry, couldn’t resist. 🙂
Hey, you’ve been in my blogroll for ages! The more important question is where’s my backlink in return? I demand restitution! 🙂
My thoughts on linking exactly! Happy to have found your site. I am planning a future blog post about FemDom art and will definitely link to your art page.
You’re doing well with your link page. I tend to link on the spur of the moment and end up with a load of links I don’t check back on often. I’m glad to have a plugin to let me know about broken links but, that only helps if I get in there and do the maintenance.
I feel the same about linking back and following people on Twitter. No one should expect or feel obligated to return links/ follow back.