Update: The word “Blogroll” was replaced with the word “links” in wordpress.com 2.5 upgrade.
Understanding the relationship between blogrolls, links widgets and categories widgets is a must for mastering wordpress blogging.
All wordpress.com blogs have only one Blogroll located in the Admin area where you enter all links and assign each link to one or more Categories.
The links you enter into your Blogroll are displayed only after the Links widget is placed in your sidebar. Also note that there must be at least one link assigned to a Category before it will appear in your sidebar.
Likewise, the Category widget must be placed in the sidebar for posts to display. And just like links when it comes to posts there must be at least one published post in a Category before the Category will be displayed in your sidebar.
Once your Links widget and Categories widget are positioned in your sidebar, the manner in which the links you entered into your Blogroll will be displayed is alphabetically in accord with the Categories you created and assigned to those links when you entered them into your Blogroll.
Therefore as you will have multiple Categories it may look like you have multiple Blogrolls when you view your links in your sidebar. But in truth, you only have only one Blogroll, which is displays links as separate alphabetically ordered groups, in accord with the Categories that you assigned to those links when you entered them into your Blogroll.
To learn how to set up and configure your blog’s widgets please see: WordPress Widgets (the post immediately preceding this post).
* Note that the foregoing does not apply to the Blix theme which is coded to display all links in one alphabetically organized row and has some other quirks too.
I hope you still come back to this blog, because it’s awesome. Can you please tell me why only some of my blogs are showing up on Blogs I Follow, while others aren’t? When I add them as a link widget, I make sure they are marked as visible, but still they don’t show up if they are new blogs I have added after my original blogroll. I have tried refreshing the page and all. Nothing works. Sometimes, if I go on the page itself, as HookerWithYarnStringsAttached, and follow it, THEN the blog will show up in Blogs I Follow, but even then, only if it is a WordPress blog. Does this make any sense, and can you help me?
Of course, I will come back. However, your issues are ones that need to be posted to the support forums and you already posted there. I tagged the thread for Staff intervention http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/only-some-of-my-blogs-show-up-in-blogs-i-follow?replies=2#post-1191441
Hi! Hope you can help me =o) I am searching high and low for a blogrol widget for wordpress similar to the standard one in blogspot, that is a list of blogs where the most recently updated blog is placed first in the list with the post title, a picture if there is one and mayby 3 rows of the text, some space and then the second most recently updated blog…and so on. I have not found anything like the blogspot one that I find perfect but I hope I´m missing something since I cannot believe wordpress is lacking this =o)
I’m sorry but there is no such widget for WordPress.com blogs.
Thank you so much! I’m new to wordpress and was regretting signing up because blogger seems so much easier. Thanks to the wordpress community, the users of wordpress have been very helpful with all the tips and advice.
I’m happy to hear you are enjoying your move to wordpress.com. The blogging community here is very supportive. May I suggest a tutorial? The Learn WordPress.com tutorial is divided into progressive levels and presented as a series http://learn.wordpress.com/
its great….
Thanks :)
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Thankyou!
Awesome article ! Finally see the light at the end of the tunnel … i´m getting there slowly :)
Thanks alot timethief.
You’re welcome :)
@Andrew
I’m glad my post helped you find the problem and correct it.
Thanks! It was not working for me because I had not assigned any to a category yet! found you via google!
YAY! Another happy camper. :)
Thanks for the article. Links/Blogroll makes much more sense to me now.
You’re welcome Steve. :)
After some research I came to your site and your info helped me understand why my blogroll wasn’t showing up. I appreciate the help!
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