Back as far as 2005, people were already asking if blogrolls were still relevant .

But at the Blogherald.com, they note that “A blogroll began as a place to recommend your favorite bloggers to others. Understanding the relationship the blogroll plays on your blog, the new Google Blog PageRank Patent puts more emphasis on blogrolls than ever before in determining your PageRank.”

But as pointed on in this conversation on Bloggst : Blogrolls often aren’t helpful, because they don’t really tell you what the site is about. Just a name. So you’re taking your chances, and often don’t get what you thought you would.

One critic (And I’m gutted that I can’t now find the link) said that very little traffic comes from blogrolls anyway, so his conclusion was that it isn’t worth cluttering up your sidebar with one. So in thinking about both sides of the argument I decided to see if my links on OTHER people’s blogrolls actually brings me any traffic.

So without further ado:

Please keep in mind this covers both Bitter Women and this blog, as they’re on the same domain, hence the humor-blogs.com listing.

I was surprised by a couple of things here.

#1 StumbleUpon kicks all other asses as far as my sites are concerned. This is very likely because since Bitter Women is a humor blog, it has the type of content people like to stumble. (I’ve noticed #s of diggs going up since I’ve added this blog.)

#2 Leaving comments IS worthwhile.

#3 Either Technorati sucks, or I have no clue how to use it effectively. (Every time I’ve tried to search for tips on Technorati, I just run into link train recommendations.)

My conclusion, you might think, is to say that if I only get 8.7% of 10% from being on other people’s blogrolls, it isn’t worth it to practice the blogroll love.

But… could it be that those people that have me on their blogrolls very possibly account for quite a few of that 51.7 direct address number?

My conclusion from this little stat delving excersize is that in terms of click-thrus, it’s not worth it, but in terms of building a community, it really is. Those blogrollers are often the ones that comment. Would they comment if they weren’t on my blogroll? Probably. But if it makes them feel more a part of my blogs, then it’s worth it to me.

In short: Stats don’t tell the whole story.

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