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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Blogroll Page Reorganized

Earlier this year, I updated my blogroll page by adding a section to identify Dormant Blogs. These are blogs that are no longer being updated because the blogger lost interest or decided to take a break from blogging.

That update was done in response to a reader who shared his frustration about blogrolls that contained links to inactive blogs, or worse, stale links that no longer link to blogs at all. While stale links should most definitely be removed, I don't think removing links to dormant blogs is a good idea.

A blog may become dormant due to unavoidable circumstances, or just because a blogger wants to take a break. Unless the blogger announces his or her intent to stop blogging, either temporarily or permanently, how would I know to remove the link from my blogroll or to move it to the dormant section?

My answer is that I consider blogs to become dormant if the last post is more than 2 months old. If I'm made aware of that, I'll move the link to the dormant section. Conversely, if the owner of a dormant blog resumes blogging, then the blog is no longer dormant and I'll reinstate the block in one the active sections on my blogroll page.

I added more sections to my blogroll page. To distinguish between new blogs and established blogs, I separate links by date of first post. I classify blogs that are less than one year old as New Blogs. While it takes commitment to continue blogging even for a year, we're talking about topics such dividend growth investing, passive income generation, and working towards financial freedom or early retirement. These are not single year endeavors.

Another distinction I like to make is based on the frequency of posts. Blogs that have at least 50 posts in the past year are Active Blogs. By this measure, readers can expect a new post every week or so, on average. While not the greatest measure of activity (and certainly not of quality), I feel it is important to distinguish between the occasional blogger and those that are really committed to blogging frequently. Blogs that have fewer than 50 posts in the past year are Steady Blogs.

I also added a section to my blogroll page to identify blogs with subscription-based or member-only access to material, called Subscription Blogs. While these blogs offer free access to some material, the greatest benefit is obtainable only by paying a fee. Fee-based material include e-books, courses, stock analyses, stock recommendations, or portfolio access.

I've updated the criteria I use for Honor Roll Blogs. These are blogs that have been active for several years and contain high quality or inspirational articles. As explained earlier, active means weekly posts, on average. High quality and inspirational are subjective criteria, of course. The blogs in the Honor Roll are well-known and popular blogs and the owners frequently motivate other bloggers through posts and comments.

Finally, I still highly value blogs that include a public portfolio. I mark blogs with public portfolios with ¶, which links directly to the public portfolio. Seeing the stocks in a public portfolio gives a quick overview of the blogger's investment philosophy, even if no other details are provided.

Of course, I prefer to see details! In my view, full disclosure is best because it is most helpful for learning. My portfolio page shows an up-to-date status of my portfolio, including the market value, dividend details, and annualized profit/loss for individual holdings. It is a little painful to see evidence of the mistakes I've made earlier, but that just enhances my learning. Mistakes are great if you learn from them!

I can appreciate that other bloggers may not be comfortable to divulge detailed information, such as the market size of individual holdings or detailed profit/loss data. In such cases, it would be useful to know the relative size of individual holdings. Though much less informative than full disclosure, at least readers can determine if some holdings are deemed to be more important than others.

My interest in public portfolios stems partly from some research I did on the stock holdings of other DGI bloggers. I published two articles on my findings.

In February 2014, I compiled a spreadsheet combining the holdings of 20 public portfolios and revealed the 31 most popular dividend growth stocks held by these bloggers.

In October 2014, I expanded the spreadsheet to the combined holdings of 61 DGI bloggers and compiled a portfolio of 52 stocks, called The Blogger's Dividend Growth Portfolio. At the time, McDonald's (NYSE:MCD), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), and AT&T (NYSE:T) topped the list of most popular dividend growth stocks held by DGI bloggers on my blogroll.

I'm busy updating the spreadsheet and preparing to write a new article on The Blogger's Dividend Growth Portfolio. Based on initial results, a new number one stock tops the list of most popular dividend growth stocks! I'm looking forward to sharing the results!

Finally, I don't actively look for new blogs to include on my blogroll page. If you read this and you have a blog that is not listed, please nominate it for inclusion. You can do this by providing information (such as a link to your blog) in a comment below this post, or on my blogroll page.

Feel free to nominate other blogs, too!

Full DisclosureLong KO, MCD, T

Thanks for reading! Do you have a public portfolio on your blog? Do you share detailed information? Why or why not? Please comment below!

18 comments:

  1. I like the nice, clean blogroll layout. Thanks for including Sure Dividend!

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    1. You're welcome, Ben -- Sure Dividend is a great resource for dividend growth investors!

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  2. I like the new Blogroll layout and think it's a great source when looking for other inspiration/ideas. Pretty amazing to see that my blog is the 5th oldest among your Honor Roll. Speaking of, I've been meaning to get a 4 year blogiversary post written. Have a great rest of the weekend!

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    1. That's amazing, PiP -- 4 years and counting... You've been one of the most faithful commenters here on my blog and that's partly why you're on the Honor Roll! Also, of course, because of the great content you publish...

      Take care and congratulations on nearly 4 years! I'm looking forward to your blogiversary post!

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  3. It would be neat to have their dividend income and net worth next to the blog link. Upkeep would be cumbersome however

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    1. Great suggestion, but entirely impossible to execute well enough -- especially the upkeep part. It took me several hours over 2 days to go through and check each link just to be able to classify them correctly.

      Cheers!
      FerdiS

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  4. Just checked it out. Looks like a nice thorough list of blogs! Many names I haven't seen before. I'm going to come back and add some names to my feed. I know it takes a lot of time to compile this data so thanks!

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    1. Thanks, Adam -- hopefully you get to access some good information among the blogs you haven't seen before. I'd be interested to hear which names you decide to add to your feed.

      Take care!
      FerdiS

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  5. Thank you for adding DivHut to you Honor Roll. I plan to keep blogging regularly and hope that my portfolio, recent buys and other articles can continue to provide education and inspiration to others.

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    1. You're most welcome, DivHut -- I'm sure many readers feel like I do: you're portfolio, articles and positive comments certainly inspire me and I do appreciate the education you provide.

      Cheers
      FerdiS

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  6. Thanks for including me FerdiS! I am trying hard to get my blog to the next level but its tough. I'll keep chugging along though. Your blogroll page is definitely a great source. One of the if not the best blogroll page I have ever seen. Thanks for putting in the effort to put this together!

    ADD

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    1. Just keep at it, ADD! Over time, you'll build something great (and a more secure financial future to boot!)

      Thanks for your kind words. It certainly took some effort and a good portion of the Thanksgiving weekend to reorganize. I'm sure there are still many relevant blogs out there that are not included. I hope, over time, to have a comprehensive list!

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  7. I like the re-org FerdiS. Looks like we follow some of the same bloggers. There were a few that I hadn't discovered yet so thanks for the new blogs to explore. :)

    Also, thanks for the mention and the classification of Honor Roll Blogs. It is a honor to be included with such a distinguish list of bloggers.

    Best wishes and continued success on your journey my friend. AFFJ

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    1. Thanks, AFFJ!

      Your journey is very inspiring and I love your collections of Stock Analyses and Recent Buys. Those are excellent resources for dividend growth investors and bloggers and earns you the honor role spot. Your frequent comments here at DivGro, including the encouraging messages, are much appreciated!

      Take care and enjoy the journey.

      Cheers from a fellow Californian
      FerdiS

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  8. What a complete list once again! Very honored to still be on top! ;-)

    Cheers,

    Mike

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    1. You're welcome, DivGuy! Keep up the great work and you'll retain that spot! :-)

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  9. Good job on keeping your blogroll update FerdiS. I consider it a key page on any bloggers website and yours is by far the best.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words, Mike! It certainly takes a bit of time to update it, when I do!

      Based on public portfolios in my blogroll, I've written an update of the Blogger's Dividend Growth Portfolio for 2015, which will appear soon.

      Take care, Mike!

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Please don't include links in comments. I will mark such comments as spam and the comment won't be published. To make me aware of your blog or website, comment on my Blogrole page instead.