Discussions
Bloggers Exposed
Posted by TonyB • 4/06/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: blog exposure, blogcatalog, bloggers, web celebs
It's really easy for a well known blogger to get more readers, regardless of their talent, though for lesser known bloggers who may be much more talented than a web celeb it is much more difficult.
What can BlogCatalog do to give more exposure to the many incredibly talented bloggers who belong to this community?
User Comments
-
I agree with you completely - and, since you asked ...
The rich get richer.
The popular blogs get more popular.
The well known bloggers get more subscribers.
It's called leverage.
Most of these "rich" or "popular" bloggers have two things in common:
1) time and experience // I think everybody improves over time
2) full time earning from riches/popularity // this is where it starts.
I really think that bloggers (and blog owners) who do this as a hobby, or during lunch breaks, or just after the kids go to sleep, or before they have to pick up the kids from school or drive them to the community hockey games, and all that - in the hopes of making a living and full-time job ... can't really devote the time that is needed to succeed. People working part-time jobs don't really become successful, they just supplement what else they have.
On the other hand - bloggers (and blog owners) who do spend all day trying to improve their wares, research, promote, socialize, improve and concentrate on their blog topics .. are usually are closer to the action, get the news quicker or look for it as it happens, and have more opportunities. Most of the popular blogs that are successful are the ones that are news related - where people go to read them first - because, well - they were there online at the time anyway and probably will have blogged about it.
The only way (i.m.h.o.) that blog catalog can do to expose these under-acknowledged talented writers of this community is only two sensible options in my mind:
1) Give them more exposure - promote individuals, as much as you could with any of these bloggers unite campaign does ... and give them a chance to reach larger audiences ... (feed the fish concept)
or
2) Give them financial compensation - to be able to take a day off work or so and seriously help them get the tools or time or resources needed to improve their talent even more, send them to courses or conferences etc to learn (teach them how to fish concept)
just a few cents. -
Awards! What else! A Sticky Post about the blogger and Banner with link on the top discussion page for a day.
This will grab the attention of many top world bloggers to BC.-
That sounds like a great idea -
Yeah, I agree this sounds like a good idea.
-
-
I gave an answer on that Win an IPOD thread - that I think would be good: RANDOM SNIPPETS
Random snippets from blogs or blog feeds --- from the discussions - from interviews - from bio's to images, etc.
Posted throughout the site - directing the person who clicks on it to the blog it was taken from.
Just a thought. -
how about a featured blog of the day/week. I know there is already the spotlight...but maybe do a little interview or blurb about a featured blogger and have it featured on the homepage for a day or something... -
Oooooooooooh OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHhhhh -- how about a BLOGGER Banner rotator?
I mean - if bloggers have banners they can submit them to BlogCatalog - and those banners could be rotated.
Ooooh that would be cool --- you could even add a forward or reverse button so that people could scroll through them if they wanted to.-
like entrecard?
-
-
Featured blog of the day or Blog of Note can be displayed on directory
topic/subtopic pages on right hand side(rhs) column.i.e. blog related to Humor will be on rhs of www.blogcatalog.com/directory/humor and
blog related to politics will be on r.h.s of www.blogcatalog.com/directory/politics
Each blog can be there for 24 hours and on rotational basis.
This gives them target audience related to their topic and more exposer and more traffic.And will take around two line space on right hand column of BC page.As there are many category and sub category pages more blogs can be displayed.-
wrong spot
-
arrggghh!
-
Apologies for the first two messed up attempts I had computer problems yesterday but my computer has now been repaired.
I like umesh's idea of the Blogs of the Day in displayed by categories and by subcategories.
I would by far prefer a randomized display of those blog to one that's chosen by either Admin and/or by a group of BC members.
I would also like to see the blogs in the 5 paid sponsored positions in each of the categories and sub-categories left out of the mix. The reason I say that is because the bloggers who have paid to position their blogs in these 5 spaces are already IMHO receiving enough exposure.
-
-
Offer more ways to sort directory results, with age of blog (length of membership?) and "random" and most recent posts perhaps as ways for searchers to find different blogs. Right now, the high-ranking (in BC) blogs in one category also show as high-ranking in others that they have chosen, though those categories may be less relevant to the actual content of the blogs. Thus visitors see the same few dozen blogs on many of the directory pages. Offer visitors more variety in results and thuse smaller blogs will gain more visibility. -
Shouldn't the lesser known bloggers who may be much more talented than a web celeb simply learn what will help them get more readers?
I mean I don't see an answer to the question of BC doing something to give more exposure, other than doing what it is doing already. Unless, of course you have a diverse and knowledgeable panel to determine the talent and feature them prominently somehow.-
What about a diverse and talented group of members who can help select great blogs?
-
-
The idea about random snippets of the blogger's recent post is interesting. I know that there are so many wonderfully talented bloggers out there and I just don't know about many of them or their sites. By featuring a button or banner with their link and some information about them and their recent posts, it would help expose them to everyone here. -
5 to 10 minutes interview (weekly or twice in a month) about the blogger & his/her blog and then publishing it in Blog Catalog Magazine (assuming) -
Tony,
I appreciate that you're asking this question. It seems like it would be best to find a solution that works both for both BC and individual bloggers.
Is there a way to do a Blog of the Week, to showcase a particularly excellent piece of writing by a less-well-known blogger? BC members could nominate either themselves or others, but to nominate someone or be considered, a blogger would have to place a BC Blog of the Week widget on their blog. The widget would rotate a snippet and link to each week's feature with a link to the winner's blog. The winning post could also get a snippet and link on the main page of BC.
That way, if someone wins for their excellent writing, their reward is broader exposure than they would've been capable of on their own.
A similar weekly feature was started in the fall on BlogHer. As a reader, I have enjoyed the fact that I can read quality writing from blogs I may not have come across before. Many of them are personal blogs without a large readership, but the quality has been excellent.
One caveat: Submissions for Blog of the Week should be appropriate for all audiences, particularly if the widget will bring their content to the front page of other sites.
- Julia -
Maybe a 'boy this blog is ugly, but damn fine writing' category.
Then as others have suggested help them improve it, by getting 'experts' in. -
I agree with umesh. Feature a blog each day, but do it within categories (and maybe limit categories to the four or five most popular). That way a user can avoid a "featured blog" if it's something they don't want to see, such as a blog about somebody's kids.
I think the goal here would be to introduce people to good writing, good original content, not just pretty blogs.
Just my opinion.-
I do think that the way a blog looks is important too, not necessarily pretty, but readable and easy to navigate.
-
True, it's important to be able to find things on a blog. A "clean" and simple layout is my preference.
In my previous post, I was referring mostly to blogs that seem to have a very fancy, professional look but the content is not interesting. I don't believe anyone returns to a blog to look at the template; they go back for interesting, informative, funny, provocative, original material. That's what the goal should be, anyway -- not that we all achieve it all the time. -
Yes thats a very good point, all fur coat and no knickers blogs may look good but are ruddy boring.
If I like/love a blog, I subscribe to the feed and read it through google reader anyways. So again your right, the most important thing is the content.
-
-
I think what BC is already doing... is great. The only thing is how to get the members to be more active in the other areas, other then the discussion boards. Because there are a lot of things that are great promoting tools on BC, but others don't or won't use them either because they don't know how, or etc.. Maybe... some way to reward those who do use the other tools available, in some way.. -
I dunno about this idea or not, It just came to me - but perhaps like a scavenger hunt type competition in which the answers would be within one anothers blogs - it would encourage a purpose to actually read the bloggers content and gain traffic rather than having people who visit, leave a comment such as "great blog, now visit mine" and leave you with the feeling that they didn't read your blog in the first place.
This idea could generate readership from members that normally wouldnt search for certain topics.-
This sounds like fun...though...it's going to be a sloooow scavenger hust if we have to read every blog out there!
-
-
Not if the answer is in the latest post or something like that, all it would take is to read that, and hope in the mean time that that particular post is Interesting enough to encourage readers to return another day
-
If only I knew the secret I would be famous too. -
First of all - popular blogs are NOT always made popular by good writing skill. Sometimes it comes down to simply having content a reader wants to see. Photoblogs and Celeb blogs prove that point well.
But to be constructive - I think BC already has a tool in place to make a difference.
Blog Catalog registered articles are search indexed.... so when a search engine browser clicks on a BC link, I think that link is your opportunity to highlight other blogs that display similar content to the blog that provided the link content.
BC already does this, however the page is so loaded with BC tools and links, a reader will rarely notice the 'similar blogs' links on the right side of the page.
I think below the searched link, BC could provide a screenshot of the contributing blog and two other blogs that display similar content based on keyword.
Then clean up that page a little so those blogs stand out a bit more.
Again, good writing is not the end all and be all of a good blog. I'm a decent writer, but visitors aren't coming to see my writing. They are coming to learn about the story I'm writing about. -
shoot, I thought there was going to be a picture of a maked blogger here. -
TonyB you could go for a "American-Idol" type solution and put a vote button in the profile section of each BC member (or next to each of their blogs).
You could limit each BC member's vote to say one a month. Maybe certain BC members would get more votes or their votes would be weighted to count for more like in Digg.
Whichever blog gets the most votes at the end of each month gets put in the spotlight. -
What do you guys think about us creating a blog post rating widget that we then use to track posts that your readers like and expose them to visitors on BC?
-
widget smidget...I don't like widgets but other people do, so why not...
-
A problem for wordpress.com bloggers arises when any widget that isn't purely HTML is introduced. We cannot use javascript widgets on that WP multiuser platform as the software strips the code out to preserve security.
-
Yep. The above issue is important. -
What if it was designed specifically for WP
-
-
There are an endless amount of ways to display stuff all over the place. That's not the issue I don't think.
It really does come down to effort, skill and talent. Of all the books never published, many were great masterpieces I'm sure - but the author simply didn't put the effort into getting published.
It's a lot easier on the web but the principle remains, that, simply being talented is not enough, if your object is to make a living at it. You have to beat your head against the virtual world every bit as much as you do that other world. -
@TonyB
I like the way AllTop is structured and the fact that a member can create their own unique magazine page is way cool. I'm wondering if a similar thing couldn't be done here.
"Alltop is an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. We update the stories every hour. Pick a topic by searching, news category, or name, and we’ll deliver it to you 24 x 7. All the topics, all the time." video link blogging.alltop.com/-
yes me too
-
-
It's really easy for a well known blogger to get more readers, regardless of their talent, though for lesser known bloggers who may be much more talented than a web celeb it is much more difficult.
I refer you to McCain daughter during the McCain campaign - she now writes for Dailybeast.
I have has 35 hits from BC - so that's cool. -
I don't know why - but reading the GOOGLE ads -- on the side this is what I see:
#
Ads by Google
* Exposed Nipples
Save on Lingerie & Underwear
Compare & Buy from 1000s of Stores
www.Shopping.com
* Unleash Your Inner Rebel
Rebel Software Philosophy
Code * Vigilante
www.codevigilante.com
* Become Part Of The News
The Knight Pulse Journalism Blog.
Discuss, Debate, Share Thoughts.
KnightPulse.org
The Exposed nipples part was very eye catching - like a deer in the headlights kind of way.-
Im going to report the ads to google. Eye catching and for some unfortunately misleading.
-
-
Whenever a blog is updated with a new post the blogger pings the link or sometimes there happens to be auto pinging. The blogger opens his twitter page and in which way again submit the link for all to browse and read. But in Bc this thing is very dismal. The auto discovery tag does not work to satisfaction. And as a result the hit from BC is too dismal and even nil. I am sticking to the BC for its discussion feature but as i am not able to participate like others full time bloggers (for the nature of job) i lag behind in terms of hits. In terms of hits i am getting nothing and wants my blog out of BC.
Bc will do a service for all bloggers to change accordingly and show the latest post as soon as possible before the dust is settled to the ground and the post goes to the second page. As BC is mulling changes i would like BC directs its attention to this aspect. Why a code snippet when the same thing is done automatically. Tony take note. -
-
I think gathered together, al the ideas are great. However all creative writers, will have less exposure than news, and commercial bloggers, due to the adsense and google word feauture. The difference is, some write for the art of it, some write for money and art rearely earns you money immediately.
-
-
I don't blog to accumulate visitors. Blogging is my way of sharing my thoughts, feelings, pix with the world.-
Exactly my point. I have a few adds on my blog just because it's to do with the topic, but I do not expect to earn from them. My blog although topical is very personal and what the adds do is just give some more info or reccomend reading.
-
-
I am a dummie blogger, so all the widgets in the world won't help me. I put them on my site, and they don't work half the time. Not just from here,, any thing I join..widgets aren't updating right.
I had 36 visitors yesterday, but it didn't show up on any of the visitor widgets.. so.. that kind of stuff helps the computer savvy person,, but not the ditzes like me.
I've found that if I spend one evening a week hoping through blog rolls and leaving comments on other lesser known blogs.. I get traffic...
What I really want to know, is how do you get them to comment? -
Let the people vote on the top blogs!
Not the Google PR rank....
Open source is the way to GO!-
I thought BC rank was based on your ratings and other interaction from the site rather than on PR.
-
-
I can't think of anything more BC could do. We can broadcast but you can opt out of that. So, who knows if anyone actually sees them. -
I think it's all about creativity and wording. So many discussions have the same meaning behind them, but some don't even get a single view or reply. Its all about the wording of the title and engaging the reader at first glance.
Also, when you contribute to a lot of discussions and people see you name around a few times, you'll probably get some viewers.-
This isn't so much about the discussions as it is about how we can make BlogCatalog a more valuable place for bloggers to get more readers.
-
-
Perhaps create a banner or banners to header BC that run like an advert but flips through all the blogs on BC at perhaps 30 second intervals - it could display a thumbshot and a brief discription, and possibly a star rating on it or something like that.
Or the banner could be applied to discussions posted on BC and a blog is added to the banner automatically for every poster to that discussion - however the only issue with that would be to monitor relevant posts, but it could do away with the need for some to link drop
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
