Happy New Year: I Zapped Your Link!

You can tell who greeted the New Year in last night and who did not. Some blogs are silent today as bloggers recover from a night of revelry. Others had the presence of mind to “drip” their article by writing it while their sobriety was still with them.

As for me, I hit the pillow around 10:30 on New Year’s Eve and woke up as the firework’s were being set off in my neighborhood. I’ve been online since 7:30 a.m. updating the main HTML pages for this site, checking to make sure that all nine blogs I manage have flipped over for 2008, and updating links.

Not bad for a guy who will reach the Big 5-Oh in 2008, eh?

Speaking of links, I may have zapped your link today. Back in December 2006, I worked feverishly to exchange links with lots of folks with the arrangement that some would be permanent while others would expire at the stroke of midnight on December 31, 2007. Not to waste a moment, I logged on this morning and tossed a bunch of links and then checked the remaining links to this blog to see if “reciprocity” was still in effect.

What I learned today was ugly.

Most of my writing friends are still blogging away and our linking agreements are in place. I understand that Georganna Hancock will be moving links to a special page in the near future (I may do the same here) while two other writing blogs have since gone dark.

The ugly part was all of the links I made with Digital Point (DP) members — only two of what was probably two dozen links still remained. So, if you think your link is still good here you better check your site as I could not find any sign that The Article Writer is still receiving link juice from you.

Regardless, my linking strategies have changed since my DP link-a-thon. Effective immediately, I will only allow other writers to have a link on this site under Reciprocity, but I am grandfathering in a few other links as the benefit to both parties outweighs everything else.

If you are a writer with a blog and are interested in exchanging links with me, then please drop me a note and we’ll take it from there. For everyone else, I have five other blogs where linking is allowed, therefore we might be able to work something out elsewhere. Again, feel free to contact me.

That’s enough work for today. I’m taking advantage of the legal holiday and my advanced age to get some rest.

Have a Happy and Productive 2008!

Get Your Last Share Of Link Love For 2007

I had the idea of developing a brilliant post for today but a couple of deadlines and an uncooperative internet connection scotched those plans rather quickly. Instead, as I plan on making myself scarce over the next ten days or so, I thought I’d share with my brilliant and faithful readers some link love, the final dispensation from me for 2007:

Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame shared information about a free ebook he read for us creative types. Time Management for Creative People was written by Mark McGuinness a writer and creativity coach who shares with his readers tips on how to manage your time and increase your productivity. I’ll be downloading my copy and reading it first thing in 2008.

Speaking of writers, Laura Spencer recently shared her frustrations when visiting a slow-loading website (I hope that it wasn’t this one); Georganna Hancock discussed the differences between published and unpublished work (with a surprise for me that blogging isn’t considered as published by some); Lillie Ammann posted some of her blogging goals for 2008; and Chris Bibey shared the struggles every freelance writer has this time of the year — trying to get it all done to allow for some much needed time off.

I’m a frequent visitor over at SEOmoz (gotta keep tabs on page strength, right?) and routinely read what Randfish and others have to say. No surprise there, but SEOmoz reports that technology sites receive the lion’s share of Google search traffic. If only I could convert this blog into a full blown, techno site. Nah, I think I’ll stay the course for 2008!

Seeing that I’m having some difficulty getting this blog article done, I’ll reserve my next batch of helpful links for early 2008. In the meantime, I want to thank each of my readers for stopping by and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!