ON LINK EXCHANGES: Recently a few people have e-mailed to ask me to "exchange links" with them, i.e., put a link to their blog in my links section in exchange for their putting one to mine in their links section. Sorry, and I do appreciate the interest, but I don't do that. If you find PaleoJudaica worth reading and it would be appropriate for your blog roll, by all means please add it. I do keep track, via Technorati, of who is linking to me and I'm glad to have every link. And if you have a site or a blog that you think might interest me, again, please let me know about it and I may add it to my blog roll. For me to do this, the blog or site would have to have something to do with ancient Judaism or at least ancient history in general. But I prefer to add links on the basis of relevance rather than in exchange for getting a link somewhere else.

Also, a suggestion: if you want to get people to notice your blog and to come back, include something more than your name or a cryptic title as introduction. It's very helpful to have a paragraph or a page somewhere easy to find telling readers three things: who you are, what the blog is about, and why you are the right person to be blogging on that subject. "John Smith's Blog," with no explanation, and apparently on whatever John Smith happens to be thinking about, is not likely to be interesting to anyone but John Smith and perhaps his family and friends. And even if the blog has a specific topic, your readers are likely to ask who you are and why they should be reading you on the subject when there's so much competition out there.