WashingtonPost.com Forms Blog Network

MediaPost Publications – WashingtonPost.com Forms Blog Network – 08/21/2006

In an effort to promote lesser known blogs, WashingtonPost.com has formed a blog network, Blogroll. Jeff Burkett, head of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive’s sales development team, described the program as an experiment, designed to tout lesser-known bloggers. “Some bloggers are open to putting advertising on their site, so why not strike deals with them and help them do that,” he wrote last week on his own blog, “Media Landscaping.” “The revenue gets shared (in the bloggers favor of course) and we throw in one additional component…A link to their blog on the homepage of washingtonpost.com.”

Now what is this link from the WashingtonPost.com worth to SEOs? Absolutely nothing. During a discussion on Search Engine Watch’s forum, Matt Cutts, Google engineer, stated that WashingtonPost.com’s Blogroll does not increase link popularity, because while it may look like a clean link, the onclick behavior invokes a new page and different behavior from a typical hyperlink…something that Google has already noticed.

However, exposure on WashingtonPost.com does bring it’s own rewards beyond link popularity, so interested bloggers can visit WashingtonPost.com to signup for the blog network.