The Art Link Letter was originally an idea I had to start a blog that would be just a link cloud of art sites. However, in researching ways to increase my Technorati authority, I came across what may be a path for doing my links program, and for giving a boost to my (and your) blog. The authority of TheColorist has gone from @32 to 21 in the past month, and although 21 is nothing to sneeze at, I for some reason want it to improve. Call me an overachiever wannabe.
Here is the way it would work. If you elect to participate, you simply cut and paste into your posts the "Art Link Letter" that I have created at the bottom of this post. Then, change the name of the host to your own link, which will contain your URL and anchor text (Three words or less, please). Replace a Viral Tag with your link in the same way, and you're in business. When you get a ping somehow that someone has you in their ViraLink, reciprocate by pasting them in your matrix.
You can place this viral link "cloud" in a post, after your footer, or anywhere you like. It is suggested that within posts would create less clutter, and according to the techies increase hits to your blog. This is known as a ViraLink, and the idea is referenced here and here.
It may be effective to just do this once a week, or every few days, if you don't wish to clutter up your blog pages with this "Link Cloud" on every post. Here are the simple rules:
- No Porn
- Don't change other peoples URLs in the link text
- Keep the links to the Arts. I will be culling out ones that I copy from your posts which stray from the subject of art, but I will stay broad.
- One link per person
Cut & Paste Below This Line:
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I removed the link cloud due to the phenomenon of "Link Farming" being a red flag at Google. Although I consider my blogroll to be a targeted link tool, and because it is hand generated, I felt "on-topic" with putting it within the post structure. But, you can't fight city hall.
Art Link Letter
Posts
9 comments:
Interesting idea. I check my technorati for my blog every so often - mostly to see what others say about me in their blogs. It's interesting to watch the rating - when a link hits 90 days old it is no longer counted, so my rating goes up and down quite a bit over time.
I'm more interested in is my google pagerank and over the last few months my pagerank sadly went down. From what I can gather it did because of all the linking between art blogs. Crazy. But google is trying to penalize people from building link farms and for paid text links - and this type of link cloud could end up hurting the participants google pagerank.
Big sigh....
What a cool idea ;)
Lisa, I did just recently learn about the 90 day Technorati rule, which is the clue to their rankings. I just barely prefer Technorati over Google ranks, perhaps because it seems more categorized (art). I may be way off the mark, there, though.
I appreciate your input. You are one of the very well ranked art/craft blogs, and so I value your insight.
How and why would they "gig" one for linking within one's community? "Linkfarm" is a new term to me - but it fits the Art Link Letter tool.
I do believe that exposure outside of one's category or community is a desired thing. I try to accomplish that, although not in any focused way.
As regards other categories, I have the following thoughts. The problem with social sites, to me, is the very different quality of discourse there. At Jafabrit's blog, I recently commented on how I want my blog to be more about art ideas than me.
Another category that I shun is politics. Why divide my audience? I also reject the thought that art has any authority in certain offices of society. I mean, art is of an order a little higher than most of our political discourse.
So, that rules out much of the blog community, huh? What others to reach out to? Religion? Possibly. Family? Certainly.
Anyway, for those of you interested in the Art Link Letter, I will be trying it to see what it does for Technorati. Perhaps I'll have to add the Google tools to my study, as well.
Thanks, too, for the comments and for reading, "Lyrically Yours". I guess you may be an example of my blog pushing some category boundaries, as you are a writer. Which makes me want to ask how you found me?
BTW, I just went to check out my Google footprint, and I see that the illustrious Weblog Awards have given me a "Karma" score of minus 1. Cooolll...
hi there Casey...
you can count me in....
I will post this next week on my blog laketrees
regards Kim
Casey it sounds interesting, will have to ponder on it for a bit.
forgot to mention how I got these LUVERly cards in the mail :) thankyou, I have them up on my wall in the studio (will take a pic and post on my blog in the near future). The colours are just magnificent.
Hey, Corrine. I look forward to seeing that post!
Thanks, Kim. So far, the Art Link Letter has caused "Blog Reaction" links at Technorati for a few of the blogs. I am going to experiment with getting it in a little bit smaller text size for today's post.
Casey,
I was planning on posting this, but then I saw my blog was already on there. Weird??
Also, "viral" sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? And is this some sort of parody about Art Linkletter?
Meg, thanks for the thumbs up. Your blog is in there because it is just a copy of my own blogroll. When you post the ALL, put your own keyword linked to your URL at the top as "host".
You can edit it, of course, to reflect your own tastes, or if you just plain hate one of the sites in my "cloud".
Who is "Art Linkletter"?
Kidding, of course. I used to watch him on TV in my youth. I didn't think any one younger than a Boomer would remember him!
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