Web Feeds – Use Blog Rolls for Other Websites

Hilary, a handmade seller online at Etsy.com, recently shared a list of her favorite blogs and her thoughts on the use blog rolls.  She is a blogger who shares tips and trick to help handmade sellers sell more online on her site Haptree and Me, as well as on Craft Blog UK.  In this article, Hilary explains how bloggers can get creative with blog rolls.

If you have never heard of a blogroll, the idea is very simple and easy to add to your blog.  Basically, a blog roll is a list of links to blogs that you as a blogger like.  Most of the time, you can see a blogger’s blog roll on the sidebar of the blog.

One way to get creative with blog rolls is to create several blog rolls for different topics.  “There are no limits to the number of times you can use the blog roll gadget,” Hilary writes in her Craft Blog UK article. “You could have a separate blog roll for different areas of your interest, for example one with just cupcake blogs or parental advice blogs.”

Another example of this would be if a blogger who writes about crafting could divide his or her blogroll up into categories.  Maybe this crafter would opt to link to other blogs he or she writes, other blogs about crafting and other blogs about completely unrelated topics.

Another idea is to feed sites other than blogs into your blog roll.  “A blog roll is a list of web feeds (RSS, Atom etc),” Hilary explains.  “The gadget on Blogger is called a ‘Blog List’, but it can be used for any website feed and as such you can create fabulous Flickr updates from all the groups you belong to.”

Pictured here is a screen shot from Hilary’s personal blog where she uses these ideas to create a useful gadget.

“I think this gadget works really nicely,” she writes.  “I’ve chosen just 3 of the social networks I am active in to display on mine but there is no limit to how many you could have. Some applications have better feeds than others in terms of what gets displayed but it is worth experimenting as some providers already have superior gadgets available which may suit you better.”

Hilary lists ideas for feeds that work with a blog roll:

• “Flickr, Picassa, photobucket all have RSS feeds,” she says.  “Display the most recent image from your own sets or photo stream or a groups pool.  Label it with ‘Brand New” or “My Latest Make”.  Let it be a feature that people enjoy, and can quickly link them to your groups or to your other photos.”
• Hilary suggests feeding from your Facebook or MySpace pages.  These feeds could come from groups, pages, or personal pages.  “They all have feeds,” she writes.
• Look to Nings and forums.  “I’m a member of UK Handmade, British Mummy bloggers etc.,” Hilary says.  “All of these sites contain various feeds with all of your social networking activity.”

Keep in mind that a blogroll can be set up based on each blogger’s personal preferences, and it can be updated at any time.  Blogrolls can be more than just a fun way to organize your favorite blogs.  Blogrolls turn out to be great traffic driving tools. Each time your blog is listed in a user’s blogroll comes the possibility readers of the blog will click on your link and stop by your blog. In essence, you can think of blogrolls as publicity and exposure!

How do you make your blog custom for your craft?  Do you have any tips and tricks for Blogger users?  Any ideas to add to Hilary’s thoughts about using blog rolls in a creative way?

Share your ideas with HandmadeMarketing.org!  If we publish your tips, we’ll be sure to include a link to your handmade craft shop and blog as a thank you.  Submit your article here.