Librarian by Day

Bobbi L. Newman

How Useful Are the Top Ten Link Posts?

Published

January 28, 2012

This year has brought many changes, one of them is less blogging. It is hard to believe there was a point when I blogged everyday, now I spend my 5am-6am time studying. At the beginning of 2010 I decide to try something new and each week pick the top ten, the best of the best of the links I’d shared on Twitter that week. I still share a lot on Twitter (though not as much) and I still think that those links are important, so I’m torn about the Top Ten Links posts. I think there is still value in them, though I guess the more important question is – Do you?

If I do continue posting them I’m left with a dilemma, if I don’t post anything else for a month that is all people will see when they visit the blog. While I do the links are valuable I would like to think that the meat and potatoes of the blog is my actual writing, so I need to figure out a way, be it a plug-in or a theme change to keep my “real” writing front and center.

Thoughts? Suggestions? How valuable do you find the Top Ten posts each week?

8 responses to “How Useful Are the Top Ten Link Posts?”

Nicholas Schiller

January 28, 2012

If nothing else, top 10 posts from respected sites serve to increase PageRank ranking for the sites you choose to highlight. I don’t know how much you value this, but by writing good anchor link text and creating links to worthy sites, you are making good information on the web more findable.

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1. Bobbi Newman
  
  February 10, 2012
  
  well as a librarian I like making information more findable. 🙂
  
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Susie

January 28, 2012

As noted by Nick, your posts have value for the reasons he gives. That said, perhaps, a shorter list (top 5 perhaps?) would be valuable too. What I’ve found most useful are your perceptive comments on issues — including those brought to mind by posts in your lists.

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1. Bobbi Newman
  
  February 10, 2012
  
  Top 5 might be possible, but sometimes I have a really hard time with 10 🙂
  
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Coral

January 29, 2012

I’m not someone who gets anything out of lists of links. It’s not that they necessarily lack value–they just don’t benefit me, personally. I don’t read them, or enjoy having them in my RSS reader.

Here’s how I look at it: Either I saw the links on Twitter when they happened, or I didn’t; it doesn’t matter too much, because there will always be more links to follow from Twitter. On the other hand, I follow blogs because I respect their authors and am interested in their thoughts; I find value in their viewpoints on whatever issues they’ve chosen to discuss. … Value that I don’t get from lists of links.

(This isn’t a personal thing, or a library-land thing; I *hate* when the Not Exactly Rocket Science guy does his “I’ve Got Your Missing Links” posts, even though he adds a little commentary. I scroll right past them. ThinkGeek’s, too.)

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Amelia (@LitJrzyGrl)

January 30, 2012

I used to do a weekly roundup on tweets/links for Jane Austen Society group that I’m webmaters/social media developer for but it got to be too much. Did people care what I thought were the top posts, did they like other things, and what about all the posts that I had read but didn’t share that week, would they have liked to read them?

I noticed a few people I followed were using a site called paper.li and I really liked the idea. It tracks either your twitter or facebook feed and then puts together a paper of your tweets or a hashtag or a the tweets of a designated twitter list. I use it as a weekly paper and it features my tweets but also those of a list of people that I find the most interesting. I can go in and edit what gets posted to the paper but for the most part I just let it do its thing and I’ve gotten some great feedback. Our paper is the CNJ-JASNA Weekly (Central New Jersey regional chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America). http://paper.li/JASNA_CNJ/1319294249

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woodsiegirl

February 9, 2012

I’m probably a bit late to this discussion, but here’s my tuppence worth:

Personally, I really value your top 10 posts. I don’t have as much time to spend on Twitter these days as I’d like, and although I do find that the most interesting/useful stuff tends to surface again and again so I usually pick up on it, I’m conscious that I do miss a lot (I think my current approach means the links I do see from Twitter tend towards obvious linkbait). I like the commentary you add to links – easy to scroll through and see if there’s anything that catches my interest. I also tend to think that if people really don’t like reading them, they don’t have to – it’s easy enough to scroll past posts you’re not interested in!

Would also agree with Nicholas’ post above, about how your posts are beneficial to the bloggers you link to.

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1. Bobbi Newman
  
  February 10, 2012
  
  Thanks Woodsie! I think if I can figure out a way to make the 10 ten links not be the top post on the site when people visit I’ll start doing it again. One of my biggest concerns is now that I’m writing less that a top 10 post may stay at the first post for weeks or more. I don’t want visitors to the site to get the impression that is all there is here. I need to find a theme that allows me to feature that category as a sidebar or something.
  
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