I set up The Blog Link as a blog directory - more to the point, a directory of my favourite postings that could be voted on by friends - a Digg in miniature.
You may find that social voting sites like The Blog Link and Bloggerati can help to expand your blog readership.How will sites like The Blog Link help my blog?
There are a couple of ways that sites like The Blog Link can help your blog:
- providing one more place to leave a posting URL: inbound links make the blogging world go round - and quality links to specific postings are worth more than those from blogroll-type indexes.
- exposing you to new postings and thence new ideas: serendipitous discovery is important
I wanted The Blog Link to be a Digg by bloggers for bloggers - the categories are blog-specific - because I am sick of trying to decide if metablogging should be categorised as business or computers and internet (and let me know if you want more categories added, please).
How do I use The Blog Link?
You can browse through stories/blog postings on The Blog Link without registering - but if you want to add a story or vote on others, you have to register.
Once registered, you can:
- add stories (blog postings) to the list for other BlogLinkers to vote on (it takes two votes to make it to the front page - this helps prevent spammers using The Blog Link). Feel free to add your own stories - I will check them out and vote them up or down (and others will do the same).
- vote on other people’s stories - this is an important part of what makes sites like The Blog Link tick - you decide what you think is worth reading and vote for it. You can also vote down a story by clicking on bury if you really don’t like it.
Adding stories is easy - just click on the Submit a new story link, add the URL of the posting you want to submit, and fill in the details on the second screen:
There is a third screen that asks you to confirm all the details, and you’re done.
Once submitted, stories show up in the Upcoming news page until they have a second vote - this pushes them to the main page.
Can I set something up like The Blog Link myself?
Sure 
There are a lot of voting sites out there - some are shown at PliggSites.com. I used Pligg because it seemed the easiest option and I’ve seen it work well for Laurel at Bloggerati.
Anyhow, to set this in motion, you’ll need a hosting plan that supports php and mysql. Then just:
- download the Pligg platform,
- unzip it,
- upload it to your hosting provider,
- install it, and
- configure.
It is not rocket science, but if you get stuck, leave me a comment and I’ll try and help you get through it.
This is a great idea you have here. There are so many blogs out there it is really hard to find ones with well written posts on the subjects you want to read. So many also fit into more categories than 1 and that only makes it harder to find them when searching for new material.
Thanks for starting this up!
Hi,
thank you for your comment - scary handle you’ve got there
I checked it out prior to approving it - it seems on the level 
I think that the world is big enough for a Digg-like site that just concentrates on blog posts - there are so many others out there that cover general news articles.
Best regards, Andrew
It would be good to use if for deploying a niche topic digg like site instead of covering every topic.
Hi dotservant,
thank you for your comment.
Pligg is just the thing for that - pliggsites.com has hundreds of sites listed in all sorts of different niche areas.
Best regards, Andrew
I signed up but haven’t had a chance to actually do anything over there yet. Once the week from hell is over (or, is it ever over?
) I shall have a good dig around. I agree the categories available at Digg are quite useless for bloggers.
Hi Lani,
you haven’t used a URL as your name for this thread - a first! (and I thank you for it)
You should feed free to post everything you ever write for the rest of your life to The Blog Link - I like your writing so I will probably vote for every single one of them
Best regards, Andrew
Okay. Right now I’m horrified. I’ve never ever intentionally put in a url as my name. It that stupid auto fill putting things in the wrong places. And obviously I move too fast to notice. Please delete any comment I have ever written. Ever. That’s awful!
Really, really awful. I’m so sorry.
Nonono
It was the previous two commenters on this post that did 
Please rest assured that you have never done that
Best regards, Andrew
Thanks for approving me!!
Hi email marketing software,
you are welcome
In the past I haven’t - but like I said, you seem to be representing a legitimate business.
Best regards, Andrew