All about the Z List - An Update!

Remember the Z List? It’s a blog meme that was originally started by Mack Collier of A Viral Garden in December 2006. It’s primary goal was to share blogs that you like with your readers and to help them to get the exposure that they deserve.

I restarted the Z List a few weeks ago on Dosh Dosh after it died down and it has since then spread enormously across a wide variety of blogs.

It first started slowly among the money-making blog fraternity before diving headlong into the category of work-at-home-mums and personal blogs. Along the way, I’ve noticed that the emphasis on the Z list has increasingly been focused on the value of links and rankings.

Some bloggers have only suggested that the Z List was a great way to increase your Technorati ranking, Google Page Rank and incoming links and failed to mention how the Z List can be an effective way to get to discover new blogs or network with other bloggers.

The Z List’s Original Objective

Perhaps this is due to my enthusiastic copy in the original article. While the title of my original article emphasized how the Z List can help to increase blog traffic and links, I would like to reassert what I stated in the body of my post:

I do however, think that the main motivation you should have for this exercise is generosity. You’re trying to share the blogs you find interesting with other bloggers and you’re not primarily linking out to get links back, even though this will be a natural result of participating in the meme.

Note that by linking out, you’ll also alert other bloggers and their readers to your blog’s presence which will lead to more exposure for your blog and possibly, even more readers.

The Z list is initially an exercise to promote blogs outside of any veritable link-based ranking system and is a great way to gain exposure, traffic and readers for blogs that should be read but are not. The explosion in backlinks and increase in future Page Rank should be a side benefit and not the main focus.

Criticisms of the Z List

Some bloggers have either regarded the Z List as ineffective ways of generating traffic or saw it as an inappropriate way to game the Technorati system by artificially increasing one’s ranking. I have made some arguments against these perspectives and I think that comparing the Z List with the recent 2000 blogs project is not a fair argument.

As I’ve mentioned on some other blogs, the 2000 blogs project was banned by Technorati because each blogger could artificially inflate the number of incoming links by simply including a widget with 2000 links to their blog. This is an automated link script and greatly differs from the Z List, which can be seen as a viral recommendation list.

I haven’t seen more than two Z Lists which were exactly similar because each Z List includes different blog links that are recommended by each specific blogger. These links are editorial links with good will and are generally not attempts to derail any ranking system or search engine.

There is however, some degree of automated linking involved because of the list of links to other blogs and I think that this can be a cause of concern. However, I think that situating the Z List in a blog post and offering information as to its background and purpose defuses the potential for them to be seen as simply spam.

The Z List Community or How to Use the Z List

The Z List has grown tremendously and I think we need some new ways of categorizing our experiences with all the blogs we have come across. We need to actively visit the blogs that link to us, even just to read a little about the blog. I think it’s basic courtesy and you might actually discover some blogs that you’ve come to read regularly.

We need to interact with one another or else the Z List will become a bunch of meaningless URLs that anyone can copy and paste onto their blog with only the intention of boosting their PR and backlinks.

Dosh Dosh has been linked by over 100 blogs since I restarted the Z List and I make it a point to visit every blog that puts up the Z List. I discovered over 20 money making blogs which I’ve never read before and I think that the Z List is a very useful way to network within my niche.

If you want a popular blog with lots of loyal readers, try hanging out on other blogs with similar content. This is a great way to gather new readers and interact on specific issues.

The Z List Reborn: Categorizing the Z list

We need a lot less emphasis on link value and rankings and instead, should focus on the potential for blog-based interaction and community behind the Z List. The Z List is a viral seed whose growth is enriched by communication and interactive linking.

Enter Gavin Heaton, Becky Carroll and Sharon Sarmiento , three of the original Z list members.

They have painstakingly taken the time to visit the Z List blogs in order to categorize them according to location and topic while writing 10 word descriptions so you can get a glimpse of what each blog is about. This allows you visit all types of blogs or just blogs in a similar niche or interest.

The Z List is available for download in either an Excel or Word format and you can read about the list or download it from this post on Gavin’s blog. Alternatively, you can get a clearer view of the blogs on the Z List by visiting this post on Becky’s blog.

Note that not all the blogs currently on the Z List are included because the Z list is currently expanding as we speak. Gavin has suggested that the Z List be updated via Wikipedia and he has set up a Wiki page for this purpose.

The Z List page is currently empty but he hopes to put up an editable version of the list soon. I hope that Wikipedia will actually permit a long list of links to blogs because I do think that it’ll be the perfect way to organize all the Z Listers on one page.

Perhaps the entire Z List could also be placed on other webpages, should the Wiki fail. I’ll might try putting it up on a HubPage if that happens.

That’s my update for the Z List. Leave a comment if you have any thoughts!