Getting More Impact from Blog Communities

Even though there may be better ways to increase traffic today than there were when blog communities were at their “height” of popularity, they are still one of the best ways to introduce your blog to other readers and people who may be interested in discovering new blogs.

Today, I’ll be sharing some of the best ways to introduce yourself to new visitors and continue the discussion elsewhere, although this traffic often comes back to your blog.

Because MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog are regarded as the largest blog communities that remain in operation, I’ll be including them in this post as an example, although you can apply the same principles to nearly any other service.

Traffic Snapshot of MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog

Step 1: Take a Tour of Each Service

You might have a personal preference when you sign up for a service in regards of the site design, layout, and the initial impression that you get before signing up. In my opinion, you should be able to determine what the focus of each service is before signing up. The design should be intuitive and focused on what you are intending to use the service for – sharing your ideas and connecting with other bloggers.

MyBlogLog – You can see that there are Discover, Broadcast, and Connect tabs on the left side, which all lead into a Sign In link that displays “Discover who’s visiting your site, and connect with your readers.”

Blog Catalog – On the homepage, there is an even more clear message, which states: “Welcome blog lovers, you are home.” In addition, it explains why you should be signing up for this service compared to others through this line: BlogCatalog is more than just a social community for bloggers; we are one of the largest blog directories on the Internet. Whether you are looking to search blogs, connect with bloggers, learn more about blogging, or promote your blog, BlogCatalog is for you.

Furthermore, there are other areas of the site’s main page that focus even more on the members, rather than the rather unfocused MyBlogLog homepage, which makes it a more viable and attractive solution for bloggers from the start.

From what I’ve seen from other members, more people like the features and benefits of Blog Catalog than MyBlogLog, but you (and I) cannot assume that individual trials will warrant the same results.

Step 2: Sign Up for One of the Services

Although this post recommends sticking with one of the two major services, you can branch off into one of the thousands of smaller communities, directories, and networks that have been formed over the course of the past decade by people who want to share their ideas and sites with one another. I’d suggest going for sites with more traffic, although the number of members shouldn’t really matter as smaller communities can be more personal.

When signing up, make sure that you use a name that is familiar, whether it is your real name, an Internet name, or the title of your site. Unless your readers can recognize you through a minimum of two search terms, they will probably give up and think that you aren’t a member of the site.

Step 3: Begin Connecting with other Members

This might be one of the most important steps, as it is the one that will determine how long your impact from these services will last. There are many ways to get started connecting with others, but I will simply explain some of the best ways.

1. Add an Avatar – Your avatar, which either represents you or your blog, depending on which you prefer, will usually be connected to your profile of these services. If you choose to leave it blank, it will be more difficult for people to make the match between you and your blog or someone that may have a similarly-named blog.
2. Connect Your Blog – Make sure you have a valid blog connected to your account when joining, or your entire account and any future attempts might be banned for spamming the service or not complying with its terms.
3. Browse the Community – Upon signing up, make sure that you spend a few minutes to browse the most popular communities, tags, and groups on the sites. Upon finding some groups that you are interested in joining and are related to your blog’s niche, continue onto the next steps.
4. Become a Member of a Group or Start a New One (if it doesn’t already exist) – Looking over both of these services, both have a rather easy-to-find link to join the group in the sidebar, near the top. Be sure that you really want to join a group, however, because the community will begin contacting you to get in touch.
5. Begin Contacting Other Members – If you find blogs that you like, graciously send them a message about getting in contact with them or sharing ideas. For example, you can add someone to “My Contacts” from a particular group, leave him or her a message, or subscribe to their blog’s updates all form their profile.
6. Add a Widget to Your Blog – Even though I don’t really like the widgets (as they are generally slower loading than many others), you can add widgets to your site, making it easier for others to join your blog’s group, see recent visitors to your blog, and interact at a higher level. As both of these sites state, you need to have this installed for any tracking to be displayed, although you are still suggested to use Google Analytics or other more complete services.
7. Write a Post – Tell your readers that you are now a part of the service, which will help them (if they aren’t already members) become acquainted with the service. They have to know where your profile is, the benefits for them, and how they should be interacting.
8. Send Out Updates – Make your profile an exclusive place for updates, informing your readers of updates and upcoming news that will be posted to regular visitors of your blog in the upcoming week (or so). This gives your community a better edge than those who aren’t members.

Step 4: Keep in Contact

The only way that these service really work is when you put in a good deal of effort to ensure that your community remains informed of any updates and you don’t desert them. Whenever someone sends you a message or email, it is suggested that you send them a reply in a timely manner and accept most requests from people who may need a little help or want to exchange a favor, such as a blogroll link.

Sending out messages should be done in a manner that isn’t too frequent (perhaps once a week) and just updates your community about what is going on, what your plans are, and any updates concerning your blog. Offer some advice or give them something to look forward to down the road.

Tag other members and sites with specific and relevant keywords. This allows other members to gain access to sites that might not have been tagged properly (with too little tags).

Do everything in moderation when being involved in these communities. Tolerance levels from other members might not be as high as yours, and you have to take into account that there are more members than just you. For example, some groups have nearly ten thousand members on some of these sites, so there are more than just a few updates being sent out to their members.

Step 5: More Advice and Tips to Get More From the Services

Becoming a member of the services and then thinking that you will receive more visitors and readers overnight isn’t true. You have to continually post updates and get your members involved in your community. Even though Twitter is becoming an ever-increasing tool on the web, replacing some of the features that these services offer, you can combine these tools together to produce even better results.

The key here is not to try getting more “friends” or “members” but to grow your audience. You want to focus your efforts on people who have never visited your blog before but may be interested in it for the same reasons they started a blog.

In all your pursuits, make sure you make them worthwhile, not taking advantage of people who helped get you to where you are and not missing out on once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that won’t come around again.

Contribute to the community, joining groups, discussions, visiting others’ blogs, and generally being involved will lead to the most success in the end. This is what these services were set up to do, to bring all bloggers together into one diverse place.

Other Services

It is worth mentioning that the new Google Friend Connect service will allow you to add more social features to your site, allowing a deeper level of engagement with your website, but the service doesn’t have nearly the same level of community and interactivity tools as the services aforementioned.