Monday, December 7, 2009

Does This Blogroll Make Me Look Phat?




When I first started blogging 20 years ago, (okay it’s been like a year and a half but it feels like a lot longer) I longed to be blogrolled more than anything, I mean how else was I going to be all famous and junk? I would spend hours pouring over other wine blogs, longingly looking at the list of recommend sites and wonder what it was going to take to see Samantha Sans Dosage there. I would read, or try to read, (I mean C’mon some of that crap…ugh) upwards of 20 blogs a day, looking for any tiny window for me to stick my head through, make my voice heard and through my, “compelling” comments, inspire the blog host and their readers to read my stoopid blog…brilliant, this was a brilliant, never before thought of plan.

I kept up that pace for about 3 months before I grew weary of reading the same story spit out in a different voice, reviews of Crane Lake Shiraz and basic wine information, that while helpful for some was stuff that I learned 10 years ago….not to mention the fact that the more I read, the more I wrote, I could see the bridge to the ever illusive blogroll getting longer and further away, my blog looking less like a wine blog each step of the way.

I surrendered my dream of being a famous wine blogger, (is there even such a thing?) and just kept writing, both for the few readers I did have and for me, and found that I was more at ease, happier and quite content…free from the constraints of bottling my voice, behavior and feelings in order to keep, “on point”, be a wine blogger. Yammering, I was just yammering, sometimes about wine, a lot of the time about over indulgence, once in awhile about me, my heart, my love and pain, for whatever reason people kept reading, my readership, (damn, don’t that sound fancy) grew and that was when I got the email from Tom Wark. “I love Sans Dosage, would you be willing to do a Bloggerview for me?”…well that made me swell with pride and that was when my, “readership” sailed into the double digits, who the hell needs to be blogrolled, I had arrived!




Been pretty much the same since then, I still read some wine blogs, the ones listed on my very own blogroll, and I truly enjoy reading them, do it daily and find myself compelled to comment from time to time but not for the reason that I used to, not to be noticed, clicked on and discovered…it’s more because I have something to say about the topic or I’m just letting the blogger know that I am in fact reading and appreciate the time they take to write…hopefully making the task less thankless for them just as my regular readers do for me.

A couple of days ago a friend and fellow blogger said, “you’ve got to be on Vinography’s blogroll, that guy has every wine blog there is listed” not in a “you HAVE to be” kind of way, more in a, “that dude has a giant roll” kind of way. I finally got around to checking it out and as I suspected my blog was not listed, makes sense as my blog is not really a traditional wine blog, I was not wounded, didn’t faze me in the least but the thing that struck me? Took me like 30 minutes to even look….why would anyone bother? I mentioned that I was not listed to another blogging friend and he said, “Send him an email, he will link you, he’s a cool guy” but the thing is, why would I want to be a needle in a haystack?

I spent this morning going over some other wine blogs, the big ones, the ones that get the most hits and checked out their rather hefty blogrolls as well, found myself glossing over, just scrolling and not even really looking at the names of my fellow bloggers, this was what I wanted, to be a part of, some long list that people just gloss over? What the hell was I thinking?! Well I can say with all honesty, without one shred of snark, without a doubt that I am thrilled that my silly little blog only shows up on a few other blogs, blogs with manageable blogrolls, (well Tom’s is a tad um…well, long) makes me feel truly selected and very special. I’m perfectly content being an un-famous, un-wine, blogger.

17 comments:

The Wine Whore said...

Blogrolls are cool and everything but by no means determines your worth as a blogger... it's just a means to increasing page rank.

Your blog rocks based on its own merit... kudos to you for that!

Cheers!

Eric V. Orange said...

You would be on my blogroll, if I had one.

EVO

Michael Hughes said...

Go on with your bad self! I love how "non-traditional" your blog is. You inspire me to write more, because sometimes I feel a little lazy in that regard.

Benito said...

Sam,

The best thing about the Vinography list is that it's not about sites he reads or likes, it's just a directory listing of nearly all of the wine blogs out there, and most of them are only on there because someone e-mailed Alder to let him know.

The newest entries go on the top of the list, so for instance if some wine bloggers have quit or I've gotten bored of a site, I can go there to see some of the new and interesting voices. Unless someone comments on your site, or a friend points you directly at someone, it can be very hard to notice new blogs.

Blogrolls can be tricky things. I've gone on and off a few, had my name misspelled on several, and lately have been showing up in odd places like on a planetary science blog that's mostly concerned with the moons of the solar system.

But the Vinography list isn't really a blogroll, it's more like a phone book. Mostly just a record of "my site actually exists" rather than anything else, but wine marketers and PR firms do glance at it from time to time to pursue new contacts.

Cheers,
Benito

Samantha Dugan said...

The Wine Whore,
Thank you so much and I think you saw where I was going with this, page ranking does not mean much if anything to me...I just enjoy meeting all these cool people and entertaining them when and if I can.

Eric,
Okay that was cute and thank you so much for reading and posting...this type of interaction is why I do this. Like I said, people commenting just makes it less thankless.

Michael,
Awe thanks sweetheart, my two "southern boys" have been around for a long time, that kind of support trumps page ranking every day of the week.

Benito,
Speaking of my southern boys...I get what you're saying and I did see that blogroll as a listing much like the white pages, (hence the first picture) so I was not knocking it, not at all. I was more talking about how what I wanted to get from this blog has changed over the past year. It has become so much more about talking to the people that do read rather than searching for more readers...I have a wicked cool group of very supportive readers, like yourself and I adore them. Think that was more what I was getting at.

Alder Yarrow said...

Ah yes, but Samantha, I have been reading your blog for almost a year. The fact that you're not on the list is purely an oversight and (as Benito pointed out) you never sent me a note asking (not that you should have).

But hey, look, you're on there now !

The Wine Whore said...

Hey Alder!

I've noticed you have The Food Whore listed but not my site The Wine Whore!?!

What gives? :)

Samantha Dugan said...

Alder,
Well see that proves it, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, I just yammer.

Ron Washam said...

My Gorgeous Samantha,

How many times have you been asked to put a blog on your blogroll in exchange for them putting you on theirs? I've been asked that a lot, but I usually decline. I only put blogs on my list that I read and who post regularly. I have 5 on my blogroll--and really that's four too many. It should just be You, Love.

I am on a lot of blogrolls, to my surprise, but I get hits from about four of them. And I only comment on about four blogs. I'm a hermit and a curmudgeon and I have blog halitosis.

But I love you, Samantha. And I love how your blog is always fresh and interesting.

Your HoseMaster

Samantha Dugan said...

My HoseMaster Sir,

Dunno My Love, you smell pretty sweet from here....

k2 said...

Just keep doing what you do Samantha. You rock no matter what anyone says or whose blogroll you are or aren't on.

Thomas said...

Well, you made it on Vinography.

Hell, Sam. I don;t even get blogrolled on blogs where I comment, which makes me believe that a number of bloggers either don't read other blogs (at least not all of the people who comment on theirs) or they want to list certain blogs.

In m case, since I'm always taking someone to task, I don't blame them...

Samantha Dugan said...

k2,
I plan on it and thank you so much for the kind words. Did not mean for this thing to be a "Love on me" fest but I'll take it that's for damn sure!

Thomas,
Ha Ha you know I got rolled becuase someone has a Google alert. Thought about leaving the name of that blog out just so it wouldn't look like that was what I was going for...but like the point I was trying to make, I won't likely stand out there. I'm quite content with my band of merry readers, I adore you guys. As far as you not being rolled, as someone that sees you on othr blogs...taking to "task" could be the issue darlin' (got it right that time).

Thomas said...

Sam,

If I stop taking to task, I stop!

It has something to do with my self importance, but unlike other wine writers, I admit it... ;)

Samantha Dugan said...

Thomas,
And I adore you for it.

John M. Kelly said...

Sam - I have eight blogs listed on my roll and yours is one of them. Just don't tease me about how tiny my roll is.

- John

Samantha Dugan said...

John,
You know what they say, "it's not the size of the roll but how you use it" I am grateful you use yours one me.