So, in the spirit of lists, today’s list is officially titled 2008’s Link Loved List.  Several months ago I started something called “Link Loved” with the intention of sending out some great big internet ‘thank you’s’.  It worked for a while and then lost it’s steam, but it’s still something that I think is totally important.

The idea behind ‘Link Loved’ was pretty simple.  At the end of the month we would find the top five sites that sent your blog the most traffic, offer your thanks, and write a little something about their blog encouraging your readers to check them out.  Simple enough right?  Well, for the end of the year I’d like to mention the top ten sites of the year sending the most folks to this here blog in the first official 2008 Link Loved List.  Now, these are real people, not Google, Twitter or anything like that.  Here goes.

10.  The Bloggess – 556 – Okay, this lady is a freak.  But a fun freak.  And I secretly love that it probably drives her nuts that she has a handful of Christian readers that appreciate her humor.  If you haven’t check out The Bloggess, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.  

9.  RedCedar (Auburn Annie) - 563 – I grew up with Annie.  I was best friends with her brother and she was the older sister that we probably drove nuts.  Now we are blog friends and probably know more about each other than we ever did growing up.  It’s been great to see her blog take shape and connect with her and her family, even from across the country.  Check out Annie’s blog.

8.  World Wide Refugee – 580 – This is another friend of mine that I knew growing up but it’s been awesome to get to know better through his blog.  Jeff and his wife are now in Colorado and we talk occasionally about marketing, life and the approach of his first baby.  His blog is a little different style, but it’s really entertaining.  Check it out.

7.  Jeff Culmer – 914 – I first met Jeff on tour and we’ve hung out ever since.  Although we have really only hung out in the same town that we live in once in our lives, but we always seem to run into each other everywhere else.  Jeff has been a solid supporter of my blog and SkörInc and continues to encourage others to blog, and he’s a pretty big fellah so I think people listen.

6.  Andira - 935 – I have been amazed by the support of Andira on my blog.  To my knowledge, we have never met, and I am continually blown away by her involvement in Positive Post Tuesday as well as the Music You’ve Never Heard posts.  Check out Andira’s Blog when you get a chance and check out her music too.

5.  My Mom - 1,021 – This is my mom.  She better be on this list.  Kidding.  But seriously, aside from my wife, I don’t know if I have a bigger cheerleader in my life than my mom.  She is willing to give anything that I am involved in a shot, including Twitter and Blogging.  I’m sure most of you have already, but if you haven’t, check out my mom’s blog and tell her hi.

4.  Brian Seay – 1,109 – Brian lives next door to me, but I think we see each other more online than anywhere else, except for maybe the bus stop in the mornings.  It’s been crazy to watch the journey that his family has taken through the adoption process, and to keep up with where he’s at in the world.  

3.  Visual Coma – 1,285 – Yep, this makes sense.  Randy has been more of a help to me and SkörInc than he could ever know.  In fact, without Randy, the company would consist of me saying ‘yes’ to people and then freaking out at how I would accomplish anything.  Randy’s blog, however, cracks me up.  He’s the only person I know that can code for hours and hours but still has a hard time spelling prity pretty.  I’m sure most of you have already, but make sure to stop in on Randy and tell him hello.

2.  Ragamuffin Soul - 2,113 – Again, not a huge surprise here.  Carlos has a massive blog and has created a freak-like following.  I don’t know how he did it, but it’s fascinating to watch.  I’ve met up with Carlos a few times here in Nashville, and in Atlanta, and one time he let me sleep on his couch when I was stranded at the airport.  Someone that I met through blogging and now can call a friend.  That’s a pretty cool thing.

1.  This Is Kristin – 3,101 – It’s only appropriate that my biggest support would be my biggest support online as well.  What can I say?  Kristin has been an amazing support to me and everything that I am doing with this whole weird blog thing.  She’s one of the three people that truly understand the idea and passion behind what I am doing and supports me more than I can understand.  Most of you already know Kristin, but if you haven’t been to her blog, check it out.

So that’s it folks.  My top-ten link loved sites.  I appreciate all of these people and all they have done to create this fun community here.  I’d encourage you to take some time and check out all the sites above and give them a nice ‘hello’.  And if you find time check out your ‘Link Loved’ list and let them know.

It’s the beginning of the month and that means that it’s time again for “Link Loved”.  The time where were celebrate those that are sending the most people to our blogs.  Now for all of you people out there that will inevitably say, “to me it’s not about traffic and I think this is a lame thing”, I say…. neat.  Then don’t play.  I think it’s cool to focus on something other than ourselves a few times a month and this is one of them.  So for those of you that know how, figure out who your top five referring blogs are, that is the five blogs that sent you the most traffic this month and write a post explaining their blog to people and sending people their way.  Make sense?  We’ve done this once before and it seemed to work well, so here goes.

1:  ThisIsKristin:  I think Kristin’s blog will always be somewhere on my list but I think it’s cool that she is number one this month.  We were just talking yesterday about how cool it is that blogging has become something else that we do “together”.  By that I mean, here in this world it is simply an extension of who we already are.  People know that we go together and it’s neat to be able to talk about geek stuff with my wife and have a fun connection that way.  I’m sure most of you have already, but if not, make sure to go to Kristin’s blog.  She’s always got something cool to say.

2:  The Bloggess:  This lady is funny.  Ever since Kristin showed me this blog a few months back, I have followed it.  It’s become something that we talk about probably more than any other blog in our real life.  Not to mention I am very aware of my sentence spacing now.  I think it’s funny that her blog keeps showing up in Christian circles and I’m sure deep down she really likes her new audience.  Okay maybe she doesn’t but I think it’s fun to pretend she does. If you haven’t go there and laugh at things you never thought you would.

3:  Visual Coma:  Randy just moved out there two weeks ago and hasn’t stopped working on different things since he’s been here.  Quite literally everything that I am able to do online is because of something Randy has figured out how to do.  It’s been really cool working with him more and hopefully later this month we will be able to focus on some things even more.  Randy’s blog is one of the most entertaining things I have seen if not for the spelling alone.  We have been friends since we were in second grade and very little has changed since then.  Check out Randy’s blog and hop in on some of the conversation there.  It’s a pretty cool place.

4:  Ragamuffin Soul:  Carlos was number one last month, but hasn’t talked about me at all this month so he’s slipped to number four.  See, that’s what you get Carlos.  Ragamuffin Soul is one of those blogs that leaves me scratching my head thinking, “how does he have time to do all of that?”.  Carlos has done some really cool things recently using time lapse video stuff, which I tried and screwed up and just got annoyed.  There’s always something new and cool on his blog and even if it’s something that you have seen before the seven hundred comments that he gets makes it worth reading through.  One of these days we’ll get Carlos to participate in some of the things going on here like Positive Post Tuesday or even Link Loved.  And one of these days he will realize that I specifically call him out on purpose.

5:  A Simple Journey:  I haven’t seen Brian for a while because it seems like he has been out of the country more than he has been home for the past year.  Brian is my next door neighbor and works for Compassion International helping artists communicate the mission behind Compassion to their audience.  Because Brian travels so much his blog is always full of cool photos, travel stories and hotel tips.  Brian and his wife are also in the process of adopting from Ethiopia, so it’s cool to watch that process unfold through his writing.  I don’t know if I have ever met someone so dedicated to their job as Brian is and it’s awesome to read about everything that he is passionate about.  Check out Brian’s blog and say hey.

So, that’ it.  These are the five blogs that have sent me the most traffic this month.  I think it’s amazing to see such a diverse group of people here in this community and I hope that you all go check their blogs out and get involved there.  Now it’s your turn.  What five blogs are creating your community?  

Ready?  Go.

I had this thought the other day.  I wanted to come up with a way that we, as a community here, can encourage the people that are encouraging us in the blog world.  Here’s what I propose.  Remember when I told you all to to figure out how to find your “top referrers” for the past month?  

Here’s the deal. I say once a month we find out our “Top Five Referrers” for that month, those that showed us the most “link love” and show our appreciation by writing a little something up about their blog encouraging your readers to check them out.  It doesn’t have to be anything extensive, but just something reviewing their blog, or maybe how you found their blog, or what you like about it.  Make sure it’s actual people though. If Google is sending you more than skip it and go to the next actual person. How’s that sound?  Does that make sense?  Expressing our gratitude to those that are sending us the most traffic once a month?  Then come back here and tell all of us about it.  Ready to give it a shot?  Here’s mine.

1.  RagamuffinSoul.com - I met Carlos about a year ago in Southern California but had been reading his blog for a few months before that.  Since then Carlos and I have run into each other in different parts of the country for short periods of time.  Carlos strives to keep his blog as real as he is, almost to a fault at times, but it’s amazing to watch.  His creativity and love for something new and better is pretty amazing.  I’m sure most of you here have seen Carlos’ blog but if you haven’t, check it out.

2.  ThisIsKristin.com - What can I say?  This is my hot wife.  We are best friends and continue to learn more and more about each other the longer we are married.  We are coming up on eight years being married and there is no one that I would rather spend my life with.  I also love that Kristin has gotten in to blogging.  At first she thought it was dumb, but after me bugging her for months, she decided that it would be a cool way to support what I was doing.  Turns out she is really good at it.  I love checking out the things she has to say.

3.  Andira’s Blog - I’ve never met Andira before and I’m not sure how she found me, but I know that she is one of the most faithful blog participants on my blog.  Quite literally every week she is one of the first to post on “Positive Post Tuesday” and every week I read them and am encouraged by the nice things she has to say about people.  Andira is a great writer and has a pretty entertaining blog.  Check it out.

4.  Chad Jarnagin - The Blogstar himself.  The first time I “met” Chad online was when I was when I was being sarcastic in a post that sort of was connected to Chad.  He was leading worship at our church and after I made fun of stuff we became friends.  Chad’s ultra connected in the music scene and has an amazing voice.  Numerous times we have gotten coffee and run out of time to talk about everything that we wanted to talk about.  Chad is one of those guys that whether it’s online or in person, you can relate to on some level.  Go Read.

5.  Culmer’s Thoughts - Jeff is a friend I met on the road and even though we live about fifteen minutes from each other, we have never hung out here.  Jeff’s blog is one of the most entertaining things to me.  I love spelling errors and funny pictures, which by the way Jeff is an amazing photographer.  He’s one of those guys you can’t help but like and his personality is translated perfectly through his blog.  Go say hi.

Simple enough eh?  So there it is.  Once a month I will do this thanking people for sending the love my way.  I encourage you all (not y’all) to do the same.  Let’s let people know that we appreciate being “Link Loved” by them and “love” them right back.  Write the post on your blog and link to it here. Ready?  Go.

**added to Creative Chaos**

Are you excited?  This week figure out how to find your top five referrers.  You will need that information later.