Just a quick Venomous note to bloggers trying to draw traffic by snagging links from elsewhere without citing their source…

You damn well better start crediting blogs that lead you to sites and news stories you link on your page. Some of us do, indeed, pay attention to the similarities between your blogrolls and how you just happen to link to stories posted by some of the sites you claim to read without giving them credit. Knock it off.

Before you ask, the answer is: No, I was not the blogger from whom a link to a story was clearly lifted. And, no, I’m not going to point out the name of the offended or the offender. What I am going to point out is how self-defeating that little game is. You – the offending blogger – may think that merely linking to a news story or site that you found elsewhere doesn’t harm anyone. You are wrong. It harms you. Not only does it kill your credibility with those who notice this phenomenon, but it harms your traffic and that, presumably, is what you were after in the first place. You see, as counter-intuitive as it is, linking to other blogs brings you more hits and links.

Why? Well, for one thing, bloggers are inherently narcissistic people. We like to see our names in print, ergo, we publish them ourselves. It’s even more fun when we see our names in print somewhere else, so when a link comes in we go and visit it. If we like what we see, we blogroll the site and that translates into: (1) increased blogosphere standings for the blog receiving the blogroll link; (2) increased traffic from the blogger who’s added your blog to his/her roll; and (3) increased traffic from that blogger’s readers who see your blog listed as a “recommended read.”

Now, look what you’re doing to yourself when you fail to cite the source of your link. Let’s say Blogger Joe just happens to read Blogger Josie’s site unbeknown to Jane. Perhaps Joe has Josie on a private “auditioning” blogroll. Or, perhaps Joe follows a link at Jack’s blog over to Josie. Or maybe Joe decided to go check out other blogs listed in the blogosphere rankings just to see what’s happening elsewhere and find new reads. Or – and this happens more than you might suspect – let’s say Joe visits Technorati or checks out his RecipRoll on Blogrolling to find out who is linking his blog and, lo and behold, he finds Josie.

Imagine how Joe feels if he gets to Josie’s site and sees an article posted there just moments after Joe posted it. Imagine that Joe is a curious sort and starts poking around Josie’s site a little more. Imagine that Joe can’t help noticing that Josie rarely posts news stories and rarely has “interesting links,” but suddenly Josie has not just one but several links to obscure news stories or little-known sites that Joe – or one of the other blogs he regularly reads – posted just moments before Josie “found” them.

Think Joe is going to link to Josie after that? Think again.

Do you think Joe is an extreme example? Again I say: think again.

Oh, and one more thing… do you think other bloggers who notice what Josie has been up to will keep Josie on their blogroll?

Think again.

UPDATE: Josie’s name was changed from a name which may have misled folks into believing that I was speaking indirectly about an innocent blogger. I’m not. The blogger(s) in question all happen to be male. Grow up, boys.