To blogroll or not to blogroll

I was chatting with Kyle James last night and he asked when I was going to do a blogroll so we could trade links.  I kind of went "ehhhhhhh....."  I'm not the hugest fan of blogrolls.  I've been blogging on various topics since 1999 and use to do them as a matter of course.  But then people asked to be included and if they weren't, they got offended.  Of course, it's less about the blogs I actually like to read and more about promoting people that I may or may not like so they'll promote me in return.  So I say bag the whole thing entirely.  I've got a decent amount of readers and am not thrilled with the idea of whoring myself in an attempt to get a few more.

But just in case people are actually interested in the things I read, then here is my list.  It's short and sweet (I'm not crazy like Matt and read like 9 billion blogs a day).  Hope you find something useful!

Higher Ed Blogs
I actually read very few higher ed blogs.  By and large, I just feel like I hear the same topics covered time and time again with very few unique perspectives.  Plus I think most of them are incredibly boring (sorry guys!). That's why I started using the cartoons and screenshots in this one - I just think its more interesting and readable that way. Anyway, I do read a few fairly regularly and here they are:

MattHerzberger.com: So apparently people think that Matt and I have this rivalry going on but the reality is that we've been friends since SXSW 2006 when we met and the uwebd meetup and hung out together for the rest of the event. We were actually suppose to present together last year at HighEdWebDev but I dropped out due to leaving the job from hell. I wish Matt would blog more but when he does, I think he has a lot of great insights.

.eduGuru: Yes, I do actually read Kyle's blog lol. I really like all the info he gives on analytics. It's one of those subjects that isn't really that sexy but is so necessary to what we do.

Tales from Redesignland: Just dead on cartoons from Tony Dunn parodying what its like to live in our world.

mStoner: mStoner is the only vendor blog I read with any sort of regularity. I have a huge problem with people promoting vendor blogs because I think that a lot of them are just fronts to sell colleges things they really don't need and that most people that work in higher ed just don't know any better. But with mStoner, I don't feel like he's trying to sell me something and I think the information is great.

I read some others but these are the ones that really stand out in my head as something I will also click through on when I see it pop up in my RSS feed.

Non-Higher Ed Blogs

I think we can all agree that higher ed tends to be way behind the times. That's why I find the majority of my inspiration from non-higher ed related blogs. Here are some of my favorites:

Creating Passionate Users: Although there hasn't been a post to this one in over a year, I still find myself referencing it all the time. It's just full of really great information that is extremely applicable to what we do. Plus it has pictures and that's never a bad thing.

A List Apart: Kind of a standard for anyone doing web work. I'll be live blogging from their event in Boston in a few weeks.

Laws of Simplicity: Super cool blog by John Maeda that is an extension of the book he wrote of the same title.

Edward Tufte: I got turned on to Tufte when my boss suggested that I go to a presentation he was doing in Boston a while back. It absolutely blew my mind. Well not so much a blog as a message board, I do think it has a ton of great information that is very applicable to what we do (though I don't think Tufte understands the web nearly as well as he thinks he does).

Head First Labs: The blog that accompanies the awesome series of Head First books.

MarketingProfs: This website has so much good information I it, I don't even know where to begin. Very readable and applicable across the board.

Conversation Marketing: A really great, well-written and entertaining blog about internet marketing.

THINKing: Great blog for marketing, advertising and branding.

Those of my favs of the moment but I'm always on the lookout for more. Suggest your favorites in the comments and I'll definitely check them out!