[...] often, the most relevant bloggers in your field will be your competition. [...] blogging and refusing to link out to other lawyers reflects a similar lack of understanding about the medium. [...] The marketplace is going to sort things out on its own whether you like it or not. If you’re blogging and not linking due to fear of competition, you may be surprised to find that you’re not even in the running.

In the ensuing discussion, I pointed out how ironic it was marketing bloggers seemed to be really enthusiastic about Copyblogger's point, but most of them did not have blogrolls.

Subsequently, Jim Logan explained that he is "a marketer that doesn’t have one. [...] The reason I removed it is because I view it as blog 1.0 kinda thing. I’m not sure a blogroll serves a reader. Links in context are valuable." The Copyblogger himself concurred, saying "I’ve struggled with that one myself, but ultimately, it’s citations within the content that provide value to the reader."

To Jim Logan's credit, there is doubt about the value of links in context. They provide a transparency that is hitherto unrivalled by more conventional forms of media. However, it seems questionable that a blogroll wouldn't serve the reader's interests.

First, readers are looking for information, and a blogroll provides them with a portal to more of it. They can then go and discover the world of your industry for themselves. Secondly, it offers additional transparency. It shows that you really don't have anything to hide from. Not only are you tapped in to what your peers and competition are saying, but you're willing to stand amongst them and be measured on your merits.

Because it offers your readers a way of finding more information and, perhaps, determining your share of the greater discussion, it is anything but Blog 1.0. In fact, having a blogroll helps you remain truer to the spirit of what a blog is supposed to be: an organic part of a larger conversation.

Bear in mind, here, that the blogsphere (I hate that word, but know when I'm out-voted) has been around much longer than its marketing components. Indeed, Copyblogger's oldest post is dated January 9th.

Conversely, many of the blogs that are operating in so-called 1.0 spirit of blogging all post extensive blogrolls. These are blogs that are largely socially or politically active, but they appreciate and respect the medium for what it really is: freedom of information. And when it comes to free information, competitiveness is determined by the quality of the content, not by being able to monopolize traffic.

For example, Feministing, Jewlicious, Majikthise, and Pandagon all feature extensive blogrolls. Many of the blogs on those rolls can be construed as competitors. However, each of those blogs understand that their modus operandi is free information. Part of the information they provide is where readers can get more information. Consequently, each of them are willing to rest on their laurels, and have done quite well for themselves doing so.

On the more business/private sector side of things, Hip Mojo is an online business blog that features an extensive blogroll. In fact, it is divided into a variety of both favourable and unfavourable categories.

It's understandable how many so-called private-sector bloggers might have trouble adapting to this way of thinking at first, but the primary purpose of a company blog is as a marketing tool, not a source of revenue. Consequently, a blogroll would not only not hurt that corporate blog, but bolster its image which, in turn, helps build the company's presence and profile in the marketplace.

What is more curious, however, is that in just over one year, Copyblogger has earned an incredibly high amount of traffic because the content on his blog is of such a high quality. Indeed, the Copyblogger is an indisputable leader in the online marketing blog community. If anyone need not fear losing traffic to a blogroll, it would be the Copyblogger. Conversely, because his content has proven to be of such a high quality, if anyone doesn't need to seduce readers with teleologically ethical concessions, it is the Copyblogger.

Of course, Copyblogger has effectively made a case how a blogroll is not a necessary ingredient for blog success. However, because of the Copyblogger's exceptional talent for high-quality (and therefore marketable) content that is always in high demand, I suspect that he is more of an exception that proves the rule. As Lee Odden pointed out at Online Marketing Blog, most bloggers will need to rely on a mixture of quality content and marketing to be noticed.

As for the marketing end of things, there are generally two approaches: linkbaiting and link-building. While one of many linkbaiting tactics consists in linking other blogs in your posts, link-building is the more traditional practice of getting linked from authority websites. Many seasoned blog experts understand this and use a blogroll as part of both tactics.

On the one hand, if visitors to your blog see your blogroll they might (1) see themselves there and reciprocate the gesture; (2) add you to their own in hopes of the gesture being reciprocated; or (3) start their own blogroll with you in mind. On the other hand, blogrolls are extremely useful in link-building enterprises: they are high profile links that can be bartered for similarly high-profile links.

For example, Jack Humphrey not only provides some compelling reasons to link your competition, but offers his readers a link to his Bloglines page where his readers could (theoretically) cut him (the middle man) out of the picutre altogether. Humphrey, of course, doesn't need to worry about this happening because (as the Copyblogger) he relies primarily on his laurels as an e-marketing professional.

In the final analysis, it is both disappointing and surprising that more marketing bloggers aren't using a blogroll. On the one hand, the oversight seems to be at odds with the very viral spirit of the medium that makes blogs a worthwhile enterprise from a marketing standpoint. On the other hand, the are rather compatible with so many of the marketing tactics that have been at the centre of the buzz in the marketing blogsphere lately.

Further Reading
Link Bait Alone Won't Do It. You Need Link Ninjas @ Jim Boykin.
Link Building Can Be Fun @ Jim Boykin
What is Linkbait? @ ProBlogger (great list of links here).
What is Linkbait? @ Modern LIfe Rubbish.
Linkbaiting for Fun and Profit @ Search Engine Journal.
Leveraging Linkbait @ Yahoo Publisher Network.
SEO Advice: Linkbait and Linkbaiting @ Matt Cutts.