With regard to promotional widgets, yeah, it does diminish my opinion of a blog when I wander across a site that’s just dripping with gizmos from all of those sites like BlogRush, BlogCatalog, MyBlogLog, BlogSoc, etc. Nothing wrong with some of that, but many bloggers go way overboard.

There seems to be little thought given to the kind of traffic that these widgets are (maybe) going to bring in. Are those visitors going to convert to loyal regulars or subscribers or are they more likely to take one obligatory glance around your site and then bail, never to grace your door again?

I’m equally suspicious of linkbait things that are designed solely for the purpose of getting a link to your site under as many noses as possible. Are the scant few seconds on your site that the visitors that those links draw worth the potential hits to your rep? More often than not, I say, “Respectfully, no thanks.”