Bloggers live for hits, and if you link to other bloggers they will link to you.
I appreciate each and every link to Peoria Pundit, even the ones who call me an idiot, as long as they spell my URL correctly. As a matter of fact, criticizing a blogger without a link back is considered a petulant thing to so.
The Blogosphere is set up in such a way that there's an accepted and mutually beneficial way to link. First, if you are linking to a specific post, link to that specific post. Don't just link to the main entry page. Bloggers update their sites, and the article you want them to read won't be located on the main page for very long. You want your readers to find the article when they click on the link you gave them.
So, when linking to the other site, link to that post's permalink. Somewhere at the bottom of every post (some bloggers put it at the top) there's a link that says "permalink," or is the date and time of that post. Movable Type blogs like mine also allow permalinking by clicking on the comments link. Some bloggers change these works to something different to confuse spambots. I use "your two cents."
The ability to permalink is one of the things that separates a true blog from an ordinary Web site. So do it.
But any post of yours that refers to an entry on another blog should also include that sites main entry page.
Confused, huh?
The reason is simple. Blogs are ranked in popularity by the number of hits they receive and by the number of links to them. It's considered a matter of courtesy to link to the main site so that services like the Blogosphere Ecosystem will notice, and increase the linked-to blog's ranking.
You will end up with posts that look like this one:
"I don't want Peorians to miss the Daily Herald's multi-part coverage of Gov. Blagojevich's "pay to play" ethics problems. So, I'm linking to Archpundit's excellent post that links to the individual articles."
You see what I did? I linked directly to the main site at http://www.Archpundit.com and to the article in question at http://www.Archpundit.com/archives/012260.html.
Speaking of how to help a site's ranking in the Truth Laid Bear's Blogosphere Ecosystem, every serious blogger should add his or her site. It's easy to do. Doing so guarantees that you site is counted and the sites you link to also counted.
Also, every serious blogger should have s Site Meter button. Site Meter is what the Ecosystem and virtually the entire Blogosphere uses to determine your site's popularity. Between the two of them, they serve as the Blogosphere's ratings system.
