No MoreMore
Posted By Teeni on January 12, 2009
In an effort to make my blogging time more enjoyable, I will be eliminating a couple of blogging elements.
For those who haven’t already noticed, one of those things is my blogroll. I no longer have what is technically known as a blogroll (or “globroll,” as my friend, Birdpress puts it at her blog). Also, I don’t like reinventing the wheel. So, instead, I am taking a page from Memarie Lane, who took the page from VE, of VE’s Fantastical Nonsense, whose blogroll idea seemed to make a lot of sense to me (see his sidebar for an explanation).
I had found I was spending a lot of time visiting and commenting on people’s sites who don’t necessarily spend as much energy on me. I don’t necessarily believe that I should only visit and comment on blogs of bloggers who visit me and comment here, but I must be more realistic about the time I spend blogging. I think the most realistic and fair way to do that is to spend less time on those who spend less on me. I do realize that some people only read through a reader and don’t always click through to comment. That’s okay. I still have my reader too. All my regular commenting buds, and then some, are all already in my reader. I’ll be checking that and still reading things that way, as I can. But my commenting priority will be the people in the list you see of the Talkingest Tater-Tots This Year on the lower right sidebar. The people with the highest numbers after their names are the ones with the highest priority for me to visit and comment on when my time is limited. If this method does not seem to be working out well, or if a better method comes to me, then I will change it. That’s the good thing about a blog - you can always change it! 
In addition, I’m always open for suggestions and if you think you’ve seen or written a post that you think will be of interest to me, then go ahead and comment to let me know or leave me a link, regardless of whether you are high on the priority list. My buddy, Rummy, of Ramana’s Musings - Wisdom by Hindsight, has done this before and I am grateful because it brought my attention to some interesting writings and information I may have otherwise missed.
The next thing on the chopping block is memes, which interestingly enough, I found I am finally justified in my pronunciation of (the word meme rhymes with theme - see Wikipedia pronunciation key). I think this may be a temporary change but I’m not sure. I still appreciate memes for all the great bloggers they introduced me to and I think they are a great way to grow your blog. However, I spend a lot of time on them, choosing and inserting links and answering all the questons in my normal conversational (read chatty) way, when sometimes I would rather be posting about other subjects. So I will be retiring from them at least for now. I WILL complete the few that I owe to people before I completely retire though.
I realize that this sounds like there will be less linky love going on at the Tea Room but that hopefully will NOT be the case. Rather, it may open things up for a lot more love because I like to work my buddy’s names into the conversation like I did with Birdpress and Memarie Lane two paragraphs above. So rather than having one stagnant list of blogroll links, I will be using more frequent links to relevant posts or blogs written by my buddies and more often, most likely raising their technorati rating (if I understand how that works correctly). Also, I will be making more use of the StumbleUpon stumble toolbar. If you write a post I think is worthy of sharing with others, I will definitely be Stumbling it. If you don’t know how to Stumble, but would like to learn how you can raise awareness of well-written posts in the blogosphere, and thereby increasing traffic, then definitely check out Bobby Revell’s easy instructions and suggestions here. Oh, see that there? I just did it again! FYI - I don’t use MyBlogLog like Bobby does so you don’t need to in order to use StumbleUpon. I may look more into that myself though.
So those are a couple of changes that I’m implementing immediately in order to make my blogging time more efficient and more enjoyable.
Popularity: 7% [?]
I’ve had to do the same lately. Only so many hours in a day…
Exactly!
… I all of a sudden feel like makin video!
Teeni, the link list of commenters is REALLY cool. This is probably a dumb question, but is there any way to utilize this method in a Blogger format?? I think I might just code in my own.
I wish I knew more about blogger but I hardly understand WordPress. I’m using the top commentator widget to do it so if there is something like that for blogger then it should work for you.
I tend not to comment much on people’s blogs who don’t take the time to comment on mine ever. There are a few superstar bloggers like that.
Sometimes though, I have to catch up on commenting. I have 800+ unread items in my reader because we had to go out of town for a funeral. So, I mean to comment but sometimes I can’t!
Oh, I know that overloaded reader feeling-it stresses me out and sometimes you just have to hit the “mark all as read” button. I still think I’ll be able to visit most of my regulars frequently but this new method will help show me where I’m expending more effort than I should.
Haha, you are so efficient and organised Teeni. As long as you’re happy, keep doing what your doing
I just have to keep trying different things. Or how will I ever find the best way?