Are Artificially created Links good for Blogs?

Of late, there are a few “List” circulating the Blogosphere started by people wanting to increase their links, their blog ranks and their Technorati presence. Personally I have no complaints about bloggers wanting to enhance their rankings as everyone who is into making money from their blogs knows very well that a high ranking can do wonders to the value of their blog. I too, loves a good ranking and I make no denial about that, but I think this “List” thing is getting a little bit out of hand. It has become a sort of “black hat SEO”. Getting what is not truly yours. Of course I can close one eye and enjoy the ego boosting figures, but deep down, I know for a fact that these figures were generated artificially and the feeling is not a good one.

The MY List alone generated more than 170 incoming links and my technoratic rankings have soared by the day, but one look at those who is linking to all the blogs that I have submitted makes me feel like a cheater, but since I have committed myself, I will go along with all the others to see this thing through. This has been the most successful list by far and it’s all because of Daryl’s untiring effort to update the list each time a new blogger takes part. Even the Z list pales in comparison.

Though links have been forthcoming, that’s about all it does with Lists like these. My readership have remained as it is before the List started. I would be real happy if all those in the list visits my blog and becomes my friends rather than being just a logistic figure pointing to my blogs. That said, I try to make it a point to visit the blogs listed in the list and maybe drop a comment or two. If only I have the time to visit all these blogs daily, I will definitely make 170 more friends. Just imagine. Nearly 200 new friends in the blogosphere. Wouldn’t that be just great?

The latest List is the Fave My Blog in Technorati List, Subscribe to My Feeds list and the latest is the Stumble Me exchange List. Blogging Secrets have added me to the Subcribe Feeds list and Siwwpig has added me to the Technoratic Fave’s List. I thank them for honoring AhPek.com with such felicitations, but I think I will give these latest Lists a pass. I don’t want figures only. I want real life readers who reads my blogs because they like what I wrote. I want readers who truly thinks that I am worthy enough to be their favorite blogger. Figures created artificially may be egoistic, but real life readers are orgasmistic. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that you really have 1000 readers reading your feeds rather than have the 1000 figure showing in your blogs feedcounter but in reality you have less than a hundred readers coming to your blogs?

So to the bloggers who added Ah Pek to the Lists. Thanks, but No Thanks. After this MY List thingy is over, I will go back to the old and proven way of popularising my Blogs, and that is to write good and entertaining articles, go around and makes lots of new friends and of course go learn all the SEO tricks that all the experts have to offer. Maybe I might even start giving out free links again from my PR5 blog!