Before I get into the fun and profit of blogrolls, I will exercise the DailyKos Power of the Little Person to make a statement on The Blogroll Controversy just like the huge and powerful big bloggers. How to govern privately owned public spaces is an issue that rears its head regularly and is not limited to the web.
I don't offer a solution, but instead a question for each of us (including the huge and powerful bloggers) to ask. Are there parts of our lives where our actions do not match our espoused progressive values? George Lakoff writes in Moral Politics that "...not all citizens have coherent ideologies...It is normal for people to operate with multiple models in various domains." While we are liberal in politics, we can be conservative in how we deal with our family, work, or blog lives.
An example can be found in most American universities. Many faculty members espouse a liberal bent in their teaching, research and writing. Yet we sometimes see from these same liberal professors an almost feudal relationship with their students. Isn't it time for a bit of self-introspection to discover if parts of our lives are using conservative models that can be made more liberal?
Finally! Below the fold: Blogrolls for fun and profit!
If democracies allow for power to be shared, then perhaps socialism allows for power and wealth to be shared. If that's true, then blogrolls are a step forward in socializing DailyKos by distributing wealth and power. Instead of a single blogroll on all pages, there are now personal blogrolls that can appear on very high traffic pages. Yes, I'm talking about you recommended diarists! To see what's growing in the blogroll gardens, I took a look at the personal blogrolls on some of the recently recommended diaries.
Blogrolls are fun
Amongst the links on blogrolls we find the predictable pointers to, you guessed it, other blogs. First and foremost, customizable blogrolls are a great way to find an easy link to the diarist's personal blog and other progressive blogs. For every diarist with a personal blog, that should be your number one blogroll entry. There's a multitude of great blogs out there and surfing the blogrolls can lead to hours of fun and enlightenment.
On second thought, maybe this diary is stretching it to say that blogrolls are fun. Looking through the blogrolls of recommended diarists shows most of their links pointing to political discussions and issue advocacy. Nyceve's blogroll has only a single entry pointing to Tortdeform. Imagine the the fun we'd have, and traffic she'd get, with a link pointing to her 24/7 home webcam?
Bill in Portland Maine understands the fun of blogrolls. If you're a fan of Southpark you'll love Bill's blogroll links. They're for those who have an intellectual appreciation of poop and other toilet humour.
I was disappointed to not see links to progressive entertainment in the blogrolls I perused. At the very least you'd have thought someone would have a great Dixie Chicks link. Even the Ghost of Frank Zappa let me down with their empty blogroll. I'm not into sportitics, but I would have been thrilled to see some links to favourite sports or sports teams. Theatre, arts, music, literature, they all hold great promise. Planting links with reviews of your favorite books, political or otherwise, should be a must for any blogroll gardener.
Spirituality can also be found in a blogroll. After visiting some of the sites on Pastordan's blogroll, a Christian believer wouldn't have to go to church for a month.
Come on Kossacks! Share your hearts, minds, and souls with us, your avid readers.
Blogrolls aren't always fun
Some recommended diarist's like BentLiberal don't have a blog roll. Excluding everything Bush, cancer, and anything the Republicans have done, what could be more of a downer than that? Using your own popularity to promote others is called sharing. Who knows, maybe they'll even link back to your DailyKos diary page?
Here is another not so fun thing. It's not possible to add a link to your blogroll with your personal e-mail address. I tried to add "mailto:TommyBlueseed@gmail.com" and the blogroll automatically adds http:// in front of that. When I click that link, Firefox wants to send me to gmail.com.
Blogrolls for Profit
Yes, I said blogrolls for profit. In my blogroll review I didn't come across anyone using their blogrolls for personal profit, apart from linking to their own web sites. This is a sorry state of affairs that I'm going to change right now by offering to sell advertising space on my blogroll. As an advertiser on my blogroll you'll have great position above the DailyKos premium advertisements in any diary I write.
Elected officials and candidates like Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey should be utilizing Kos' gift of free advertising by taking advantage of their blogrolls for fundraising. It's a simple matter to add a link to your official web site, your contact page, your contribution page, and your campaign web site. The blogroll is there for you to use for your candidacy and I recommend you use it!
A third way to personally profit from blogrolls is affiliate programs. For example, if you sign up as an Amazon affiliate you can provide a link to Amazon.com for people who are buying your latest book. As an interesting side note, if you click on my blogroll link for Democratic Books, the related searches line has a surprise. I wonder if that is a paid advertising link on Amazon or if it has something to do with popular searches?
Related Searches: democrat, democratic party, obama.
Finally, you can try panhandling. Ask people to support your life of leisure by making a contribution to your paypal account. Personally, I find this direct way is the best. Who knows, maybe someone will contribute $5 and I can go to lunch! Yes, I'm a cheap date.
Other uses for blogrolls
I'll leave it to everyone to post a comment with their ideas about innovative new ways to use blogrolls for fun and profit. To get you started, here are a few not very creative variations.
Link to other diaries. You can turn into your own diary rescue ranger using your blogroll. Link to past diaries that provide information on issues important to you. In addition to other Kossack's diaries, you can use the blogroll to highlight your own diaries since most people probably don't click through to your diary page.
Public service announcements. Practice safe sex. I think you can figure out the benefits of this.
Fundraising. If you take a gander on the right and look at my blogroll you'll see a link to who I consider the most trusted name in progressive fundraising, Act Blue. If you click through this link you can help plant some blue seeds that will either convince Al Gore to jump into the presidential primary or go to support our party and Howard Dean by giving to the Democratic National Committee. Either way, your action is a win-win proposition for Democratic success in 2008.
Thank you Kos for turning DailyKos into a socialist utopia where we all can share in power and wealth.