Blog design and promoting

[Zhuli]

Hello blogosphere !

Like all bloggers here, I like to promote my blog. I added my blog to a bunch of directories, linked to other bloggers etc.

This post might sounds stupid but... what do you think of all the buttons, links etc. you ended up having on your blog ?

A lot of blog directories are free and require a reciproqual link - which I totally understand. Everyone used to have the same kind of button in the standard "blog button" format. Like Bloggeries, for exemple.

But I recently noticed that quite a few blog directories have their own button, usually pretty big, much bigger than the standard button. I assume it's a way to be noticed among all the standard button.

Same goes for the links. Some bloggers weren't happy cause I link to their blog or website in a dropdown box. Apparently, it doesn't have the same effect for Google..

So how do you do it ? How do you manage to have a "clean" interface and yet links and promotions to other blogs ?

Just curious...