Setting up BlogRolling.com

BlogRolling is a Blogroll webservice that helps people manage the linklists on their blogs. It is easily set up and allows the user to add, delete, or reives links. You can also change the theme of your linklist to match the theme of your site. It helps to order links alphabetically, randomly, or by date. It is helpful for professional bloggers.

Up until now I'd been maintaining this list in various different ways through the years: hand-updated, various small link directory scripts, and finally Movable Type. However, I usually have around 50 links on my list, and it was getting tiresome to have to click on each link every single day to see if the site had been updated. And this, boys and girls, is the main reason I switched to BlogRolling: it keeps track of when blogs are updated, and newly updated blogs can be distinguished in your list, by adding an image or some HTML to that link automatically. Even better, you can sort the links by last updated date, having the most recently updated site at the top.

Sound good? Read on, because I'll explain in full detail how to use this and customize it to only show the last 10 (or any other random) in your sidebar, and the full list on a separate links page.
And if you're not interested in using blogrolling on your own site, read the tutorial on Pings instead. It will explain how you can make your blogging system notify blogrolling.com whenever your blog has been updated, so that you'll appear at the top of other people's link lists and get more hits. 

This is all quite easy to do, I promise. 

What is a Blogroll?

How Bloggers Use Blogrolls to Boost Traffic to Their Blogs

A blogroll is a list of links to blogs that the blogger likes. A blogroll is usually included in the blog's sidebar. Some bloggers divide their blogrolls into categories. For example, a blogger who writes about cars could divide his blogroll up into categories for links to other blogs he writes, other blogs about cars and other blogs he likes about unrelated topics. The blogroll can be set up based on each blogger's personal preferences, and it can be updated at any time.

Blogroll Etiquette
It's an unwritten rule in the blogosphere that if a blogger puts a link to your blog in his or her blogroll, you should reciprocate and add that blog's link in your own blogroll. Of course, each blogger approaches this with their own blogging goals in mind. Sometimes you may not like a blog that links to you through its blogroll. There are many reasons why you may decide not to reciprocate a blogroll link, but it's good blogging etiquette to at least review each blog that links to you through its blogroll to determine if you'd like to add that blog to your own blogroll or not.

Blogrolls as Blog Traffic Boosters
Blogrolls are great traffic driving tools. With each blogroll that your blog is listed on comes the possibility that readers of that blog will click on your link and visit your blog. Blogrolls equate to publicity and exposure across the blogosphere. Additionally, blogs with many incoming links (particularly those from high quality blogs as rated by Google page rank or Technorati authority), are usually ranked higher by search engines, which can bring additional traffic to your blog.

Simple way to get your Wordpress Blog traffic

Want to get more links to your blog, improve your WordPress SEO, get more traffic and make lots of money? Here are some ways you can do that with little or no money.

1. Leave Blog Comments – Yes, this still works. Jus find related blogs and participate in the comments. Make sure your comments are relevant or it will probably be deleted. Although most blogs have the "no-follow" tag attached to a commenter's URL, it still helps you in terms of direct traffic, more exposure and other stuff.
2. Do Trackbacks – Trackbacks, just like leaving a comment, can get you more traffic and links to your blog. If you and the blog you're linking to is using WordPress, a trackback should happen naturally. Otherwise you may want to manually use the "Trackback" feature in WP.
3. Link Exchange – Start a small link exchange with your WordPress blog, choosing a handful of high-quality partners to begin with. Use a 3-way link exchange if you have more than one blog.
4. Trade Blogrolls – You may also want to manually look for blogroll partners. Linking up with several high-quality blogs may help in your SEO cause more than you can imagine.
5. Use Forum Signatures – Participate in any forum regularly? Make sure you take advantage of forums that allow you to leave a signature. Choose the correct anchor words for your blog, and create a simple but powerful signature to your blog or website.
6. Use Email Signatures – Although email signatures don't help with SEP, it can get you a lot of real-world fans and loyal readers. Just enter a good signature in your Gmail or Yahoo Mail. If your blog appeals to a mass market, this can sometimes be one of your best marketing methods, and it's so easy to do there's almost no excuse if you're not already doing it.
7. Submit Articles – Submitting articles is an classic, text-book method of getting more links to your blog. However, dues to concerns on duplicate content, you perhaps need a better solution. Try JetSubmiter or Article Marketing Automation to make sure every article you submit is unique, therefore you get more recognized back links with just a little extra effort.
8. Submit Blog Content – You can also use FirePow or 1 Way Links to submit the same article as blog content, and have thousands of blogs out there link back to yours. This strategy is very powerful for niche blogs.
9. Be a Guest Blogger – Sign-up as a guest blogger for a real, authoritative blog, and with every post you submit you should also be getting a link back to your site. Many sites including WordPress Hacks, Blogging Tips etc openly advertise for guest bloggers. Some don't, but you can always ask the blog owner.
10. 3 Way Links – Use Jonathan Leger's service; it works and I can prove it. I've had a few sites link first page in Google for smaller keyword terms using just this one tool. You can get a few hundred back links worth it.
11. Publish Videos – Publish videos in YouTube, but make sure you include your website URL (example http://profitblogger.com) in the description field of each video. See this video of mine for example. Although the links are no-follow, its still recognized as a back link by Yahoo and MSN, and hopefully Google too. You can automate videos submissions too if you want using Traffic Geyser.
12. Post A (Fake) Classified Ad – Go to USFreeAds.com and post a fake classifieds, syndicate to all their partner sites if possible. Although you have nothing to sell, you can always sell "advertising" on your blog if you get what I mean. Good opportunity to link back to your blog so your potential "advertisers" can see where their money will be spent. What is someone actually contacts you for an ad spot? Take it!
13. Submit Press Release – Submit a press release using PrWeb.com and syndicate to as many sites as you can afford.
14. Publish a Book – A book? Although it has nothing to do with online marketing, it can establish you as an expert in your field and people would start linking to your pages spontaneously.
15. Write an e-book – Similar to writing a book, this time write an e-book or information product. If you think it's going to be hard work you can also use theaudio interview product creation method.
16. Recruit Affiliates – When you have an ebook or digital products, you can start to recruit affiliates to promote for you. In comes the back links from thousands of different websites, and you'll probably be making a lot of money in the process too.
17. Hold a Contest – Hold a blog contest, a Christmas giveaway of anything where you can give something to your readers for very little effort on their part.
18. Join A Blog Carnival – A blog "carnival" is simply a collection of conversations on the same topic. If someone has written a post, he can start a carnival and invite other bloggers to post their own ideas and arguments, while linking to all the other posts in that particular carnival.
19. Start a Blog Meme – A blog "meme" is more like a game of "tag", and while I used to see this quite often it doesn't seem so popular anymore. Basically you can just start a post like "10 Things About Myself You Didn't Know" or "How I Started Blogging" – anything that is personal – and then at the bottom of your post you "tag" a few people, linking to their blogs. These people then have to write their version of the same post, linking both to you (the person who tagged them) and a few other people they want to tag. Dome properly it can get you a lot of back links, but it all depends on the availability and willingness of the people you tag to play along.
20. Content Thieves – Let people steal your content. Actually I say that because there's not much you can do about it. But the good news is that in almost 90% of the cases the copied article will link back to your original version. Plus, make sure each article you write has several "deep links" pointing to previous posts (like what I'm doing here), so even if the assholes steal one article from you they end up linking back to a few of your articles. Google will recognize your article as the original with all these links pointing back to it.
21. Buy Text Links – Got some cash? Head on over to Text Link Ads and buy some links on popular blogs. Expect to pay a lot of money monthly for a single site-wide link, but you can also show for post-level links which are cheaper and more targeted.
22. Buy a Sponsored Review – Similar to buying a link with Text Link Ads, but this time the links are permanent. You can signup as an advertiser withSponsoredReviews.com and order a review. A few bloggers may take up your opportunity depending on how much you want to pay. They then write a review about your blog, linking back to it. Very powerful for non-competitive markets.
23. Buy a Sponsored Post – Similar to sponsored reviews, but this time is can be any post instead of a "review". You can announce a good post, a new resource, or a new product. Signup as an advertiser with Pay Per Post and post your opportunity. I think you can still get links as low as $5 / blog. (note: you can alsomake money from PPP and other paid blogging services as a blogger)
24. Add a Web Directory – Get a software like PHP Link Directory or PHP Pro Bidand add a web directory to your existing blog. You can initially let webmasters submit their links for free, and when you have enough bulk you can start charging a low fee for each link they submit.
25. Use Yahoo Answers – It's like a forum, but not quite. People go here to get help and directions for their problems. Search for questions related to your market, and give honest solutions, including links to other people's blogs and most importantly, yours too!
26. Build Squidoo Lenses – A "Squidoo Lens" is a one-page comprehensive resource about a topic. The trick is to make each lens as good as possible in just one page. Create a new lens based on a keyword suitable to your blog, and list the best resources for that keyword including links to your affiliate programs and your blog.
27. Build Free Satellite Blogs – This is a concept used more often in autopilot blogs than in normal blogs, but it's still useful. Build "satellite" blogs usingBlogSpot or on WordPress.com and link keywords in articles back to your main blogs
28. Links in Your Flickr Account – If you have an active Flickr account, you make also want to include links to your blog in the photo descriptions. You can also comment on other people's photos, similar to commenting on a blog.
29. Start a "group writing project" – Darren Rowse does this a lot, and by starting one you can get a lot of good links to your blog. In fact, you can also just participate in one and can still get a fair amount of "goodwill" links.
30. Join a blog network – This is going for top-quality links. Attach your blog to a network like 9 Rules, WebLogs Inc or other similar networks, and watch as your blog gets linked form almost every other blog in their network. Of course this is one of the hardest ways to get your blog linked, as only the best blogs are every accepted. Besides, the idea of "blog networks" isn't as popular now as it used to be a few years back.
31. Create free WordPress themes – Works like magic, and if you create a really good WordPress theme you can have thousands of links not only from new sites, but from established ones as well. A link back to the theme creator at the bottom of each theme is pretty much widely accepted and tolerated, but keep it to just one link to be professional. You can get a theme created in RentACoder or Elance for less than $200, and make sure you list it in the WordPress themes directory after you comply to their terms.
32. Create free website / blog templates – Just like WordPress themes, you can also create PHP Link directory skins, BlogSpot templates, normal website templates, Joomla Templates, and much more. Just look for any CMS / website building solution out there that allows changing themes and allows third-party themes.
33. Get a Twitter account – Twitter, use it. Get an account and make sure you install the WordPress plugin for Twitter which posts all your latest post automatically.
34. Social bookmarking – Old, but still relevant. Not a hot topic anymore these days but as long as people use services like Delicious and Digg, getting a link from them are also important. Use Auto Social Poster to automate your bookmarking, or do it manually. Also make sure you have some good social bookmarking plugins to encourage others to save your pages. You can also outsource your social bookmarking.
35. Write a link bait article – Spend some time writing an article that other people would be too lazy to duplicate, and as a result they would just link to yours. Do a "Top X" post link this, or even a great tutorial series. This works much, much better if your readers have their own blogs 

Any more to add? Do leave a comment below.