After a slightly longer than planned Christmas break I’m back.

I did intend to be back to work much sooner . But after one too many comments from friends and family that the best way to get my attention would be to leave a comment on my blog, I got the hint, LOL

It has been great spending sometime away from the PC and catching up with people. The downside is it’s always hard getting started again!

I have taken a quick look round other Alex Jeffreys students blogs and now feel a bit guilty. Some of you have written many posts since Christmas and I need to get back in gear.

Having said that, it has been quite interesting to take a back seat and just read other blogs..

One topic that seems to be hotly debated is the use of the blogroll. The question had been raised during the last webinar by Joe Trueman that our lengthy blogrolls could cause us problems with Google. The reason being it could be viewed that we are trying to artificially increase our page ranks.

It’s not something I had considered but even the possibility should be taken seriously . The last thing any of us want after the all the hard work we have put in is to receive the dreaded Google slap!

In my quick trawl through some of the blogs, a few solutions have been offered.

JT Martin had a post about a ‘no follow’ plugin and this is a quick fix to the problem. This plugin gives you the option to set your outbound blogroll links as a ‘no follow’ link so they will not have an influence on the Google page rank.

Unfortunately for me, I stopped using the blogroll facility and placed all the links into a text widget a few weeks back. Seemed like a good idea at the time, If only I could remember why, lol. So to make use of this widget I will have to enter all the details back into the blogroll, what fun!

Dave Dunn has solution that I also quite like. He has set up a RSS feed that will show subscribed students latest posts. He also has a recent comments widget. The benefit of this solution is that those who are active will still feature on his blog.

I sure you have all read Garry Parkes post about his blogroll dilemma and it is something I can definitely relate to. I have over 150 students listed and it is getting to the unmanageable point. I know Garry is trying to work out some sort of ‘scoring’ system for who should be included, but as I posted in my comment to his thread, this could become time consuming. I don’t know about you but I find there are not enough hours in the day already.

All this debate about blogrolls and who should be on them and where doesn’t surprise me. I think the real question being asked is the value of the blogroll and the community itself. The stage is fast approaching now that our future success lies in how much we are doing outside our community, not just in it. I know that this question is occupying many , I have had many emails on the subject.

Whether you are on someones blogroll or not, that is not going to be the key factor in your success. Part of our traffic generation plan should be to actively engage with other marketers outside the Alex Jeffreys coaching program. Predominately via their blogs and forums. Do we add all of them to the blogroll, should they add us to theirs?

Yes, it’s a silly question but it does make me think that the whole blogroll situation is taking up more of our time and focus than it deserves.

That is of course just my opinion, I maybe wrong, it wouldn’t be the first time! Lol.

What do you feel about the blogroll, it‘s benefits and criteria for being included?

I would love to hear you thoughts.

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