Something I think many have noticed about blogging is there occasionally is a "Blog Jam" at the top.

Sometimes we end up seeing the same names over and over, which is a testament to good and frequent blogging...but what of the unsung bloggers?

We all know there are excellent blogs that never seem to make it past the second page (past what I refer to as the "FTL barrier"...what yon sailors of olde called "Ye Grayt Footloose! Reefe" where thar be monsters and such, arrr..).

I think its reasonable to assume that its a sort of chain reaction. We get used to clicking on our favorites, and therefore they are always in a position to be seen. It's how popular blogs become even more popular, but its also how less seen, or perhaps new bloggers on the scene, have to work harder to develop a readership.

And that's rather like how this whole enterprise works. The analogy has been made more than a few times, often by yours truly, that wrtining your blog can be sort of like publishing your own magazine. Sometimes that magazine is all about you, sometimes its about Star Wars, sometimes its about your job or your pet, or something completely different no one has thought of. And part of the joy and challenge of publishing yourself is developing that core readership, identifying your demographic appeal, or at the very least, finding and holding the attention of folks that "get" your certain point of view.

In the real world, that's a highly competitive process, I'd imagine. Here, it doesn't need to be. I think we should help each other highlight those bloggers we don't often see, or those blogs that are "up and coming" new additions.

Part of that can be done with our own blog rolls.

I have a theory about blog rolls, and it differs a little from some, but mirrors common sense on the subject, too. Blog rolls are the reflection of our tastes, I'll agree. They are the result of our nature to flock together with birds of a feather, and may also demonstrate our admiration for who we aspire to emulate. Nothing wrong there...it is, after all, our blog roll, our own avenue of appreciation and expression of taste.

But one thing about blog rolls: they aren't as allowing for the reality of our diversity. There's 10 slots to our standard blog rolls, and I'd imagine most of us have more than 10 facets to our personal interests. This makes us have to be particularly picky, and likewise, I think it makes our Blog Rolls particularly sticky. They don't change much.

Why? Because people know how hard it is to pick folks for your blog roll. Once they've made the spot, its almost like an obligation.

Have you ever wanted to change your blog roll, but thought "oh wow, if I remove this blogger, they'll notice and think I don't like their blog any more...or worse yet, they'll think I don't like them anymore."

I'd imagine that mindset replicates itself many times over - I know I've thought exactly the same thing. I've been reluctant to change my blog roll sometimes, although I try to change a couple of spots every few months.

I think that, until such time as our blog rolls are given more slots, we can still make them reflect a broader spectrum of our interests, and likewise help each of us highlight new or less known bloggers we really enjoy.

My proposal, then, is for all of us to understand that we'll devote half, 5 spots, to the people we always want on our blog rolls. That can be anyone - favorite VIP's, friends, family, mods, meese, and other myriad mammalia, whathaveyou.

The other 5, which as we know will appear in no particular order, we can resolve to change as often as we like - daily, monthly, hourly - to highlight someone we'd like to bring to the forefront.

That's a positive way to use your blog roll not only to show your personal tastes, but to broaden everyone's horizons as to the many different and intriguing blogs.

On the other side of that, we can start actually paying attention to people's blog rolls. How many times have you looked at someone's blog roll and said "Eh...its the same people, all the time. Who cares." Or worse, we've fallen into that same pattern of name recognition and said "I don't know any of these people...so I'll just ignore it."

Every once in a while, click on a name you don't recognize. If you like their blog, add it to your roll for a little while.

So that's my proposal, and it is in no way mandatory, of course. It's just a suggestion on how to optimize your own blog roll, and increase the interest in others. If they can change, if they can show you blogs you've never seen before, we can all learn about someone new in the Star Wars blog community.

And if we all understand that occasionally our blog rolls will change in this fashion, we don't have to worry about "hurting someone else's feelings". Blog rolls, I think, ideally are not static. They should change, and it doesn't have to do with familiarity or friendships all the time. If we know that going in, fewer would feel slighted by seeing a change in your blog roll. It's what blog rolls do - they roll. If they wanted to call it something that didn't change, they'd call it a blog rock.

But now it can rock, and roll. All day long.


Five for favorites and friends,
Five for finding friends.

Try it out. Pimp the unsung bloggers that you like. Make that stale and sticky blog roll something hot and fresh again. Lemme know what you think.

DM out