Discussions
Where does BlogCatalog go from here?
Posted by NINE • 4/26/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: benifits, blogcatalog, blogging, feedback, future, staff, suggestions
So earlier today the staff here at BlogCatalog were discussing the future of BlogCatalog, why people sign up to be a part of our website, what the benefits are to the users and the visitors who come through the pages and we began getting into a debate over the future direction of the website.
Initially as many of you probably know, BlogCatalog was primarily a listing of blogs and not much more. In the last few months we have added a substantial number of improvements and features to make the website more dynamic and more useful for our visitors and it has really paid off! The addition of social networking has really opened the door for discussion and has benefited not just BlogCatalog but more importantly the visitors and bloggers of our website as well.
The fuel for our debate earlier was revolving around something as simple as giving users the ability to add outbound links in the new Discussions section of the site.
You see, it has always been my understanding that the entire reason for bloggers to join our website was ultimately to drive more traffic to their blogs. Even adding the social networking, as fun as it can be, seems to be propelled by the fact that the more you comment and the more you post on other blogs the more interest people will have in you and what you (as a blogger yourself) have to say. To me, giving people the ability to add outbound links to the discussions forum seems like an even better way for users to speak up and reach new audiences in a way to get more traffic to their blog.
Now the other viewpoint is that now that we have begun implementing these new social networking features we should continue moving in that direction. Distancing ourselves from a simple and typical listing of directories and becoming more of a hub of social interaction between bloggers. A place where bloggers can critique and give suggestions to each other, propelling each other as a group through interaction with one another. Outbound links in the discussion section would take users off of our website and into other places when they could be chatting and socializing together on our website.
Now although I understand the alternate viewpoint I want to make it clear that I dont necessarily disagree, I think that both are valid points and both directions are valid. I think its more of a matter of opinion; I like red, you like blue
neither is necessarily better than the other we just have a difference of opinion.
Anyway so while discussing this I thought, hey this would be a great new discussion for the website. Lets hear what our users have to say!
Of course we all agreed that most of you would probably be more interested in the first route as it will drive more traffic to your website immediately but I think that we have enough intelligent bloggers on our website that will be able to see both viewpoints and give their thoughts on the pros and cons of each.
So what say you bloggers? If you got this far down on this message you must have some opinion. What do you think we should do, not just in adding links to the discussions but also what direction we should move towards in the future. What would benefit you and what would keep you coming back day after day?
We would love to hear what you have to say!
User Comments
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You're right, one of the reasons for peopel to join is to drive more traffic to our blogs, no doubts there, but it's also to meet other bloggers and discover new blogs.
I personaly wouldn't mind if nofollow was added to the outbound links, or if outbound links were not allowed at all, i think it's about networking more than just driving some traffic, we sure all want a little more traffic, but people can still visit our profiles and check out our blog(s), there's no real need to enable outbound links. People can copy-paste i think.
Reason i would keep coming back here is because of the people that visits and leaves comments and start new posts. I'm here to learn, discover and share, of course a little increase in traffic won't bother me, but i think i'm sort of a relationship blogging geek or something like that
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I will try to give 2 opposing points of view
If someone is blogging about things related to blogging, being allowed to use links could be looked on as providing pointers to useful information related to a conversation, saving them having to copy and paste all their existing content, or having to rewrite it.
However that is fairly unbalanced, because the guy who has a blog about... hmm cell phones
wouldn't have much opportunity to drop links unless he was crafty and used a self promotion category, or used it as an example of how something works, such as a monetization plugin.
It should be noted that everyone gets 2 search engine followable links to their profile, and from their profile search engine followable links to their blog profiles, and those of all their friends and neighbours.
Here is a fun alternative for you, not because I think it would be a good idea, but just because I don't know anyone who has done it this way before.
Allow every comment to have tags, not just the first one, and pull up tagged content alongside or below the discussion.
In that way there is no specific linking, and any comment with an external URL should be flagged as spam.
Optional: Add a permalink for articles collected from member sites, so it would be possible to reference an article on Blogcatalog
Not having URLs would prevent some kinds of discussion, such as "is this URL breaking Adsense placement rules"
To get around that you would use a reference box where a URL could be placed and every such reference would automatically go into a moderation queue.
That would then give you articles around the discussion, rather than discussion around the articles.
I have no idea whether it would work, but the article feeds based on tags wouldn't represent that much work, and I suppose if you went really wacky at some stage you could add in some kind of voting for stuff multiple people found really useful to a particular discussion topic. -
I agree with JPhillips. Also to agree with Andy, it would be awesome to see where things would go implementing his idea of allowing tags for every comment. Fun schtuff. -
Yes, I think nofollow tag is a good idea.
I was also informed that google may consider many outbound links from a site as one link (for SEO purpose). If this is true, does this mean that doesn't matter how many outbound links was spammed it would not benefit the spammer much? Just my 2 cents -
Wow this is awesome, I was expecting everyone to say keep the links but I think this is great feedback.
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Well, I would agree that with the many top blog directories around, BlogCatalog has moved a long way from the crowd from just being a directory. It is nice to add all these little social networking features that mean so much to the bloggers themselves.
cin1977, it isn't true on that. Not every outbound links from a site count as a single one, correct me if I'm wrong. -
I like what you've done in respect to adding social features. For me it's not a question of either or, I feel you can continue to be a directory and add on top of that being a social site for bloggers. The question that seems to puzzle you is whether to allow outbound links on the discussion part so I'm going to focus on the subject in my comment.
I'm not scared of putting outbound links on my blog, even if I don't have a link back. I'm simply confident enough with my site. Similarly you should be confident about the Blogcatalog, it's a good site and people will come back. Trust the judgment of your users, allow outbound links. With that said then I don't feel that one should be allowed in the discussion to simply post a link as a reply in the discussion, that I consider spam. Adding links where relevant in your comment is helpful and makes life easy for you and the readers of that comment. There is anyways enough advertisement in having your avatar next to your comment. If people are interested in what you have to say then they'll click that avatar. If you really want to get complicated about this then I guess you could try implementing a system that allows people to post as comments posts from their own site for example by using feeds or something. Those comments would then contain a summary of the comment and a link or a full comment and a link. -
Well this forum is an excellent step in the right direction - it has a really friendly and vibrant feel.
Do you have a Drupal module set up for BC?
My new project is built on this platform and Drupal has a thriving community which you could also tap into - I'd certainly add a widget to www.soulterminal.com
As another small incentive - Drupal has recently evolved into version 5 and the MyBlogLog module doesn't work :-)
Cheers,
Damian -
I love BlogCatalog more than MyBlogLog. I don't know why :).
BlogCatalog = Traffic + Friends + Fun blogging -
MyBlogLog lacks a forum for all the bloggers in the world to comunicate. Hopefully BlogCatalog has an advantage to that by including the forum.
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I just don't like the fact that they are going to charge bloggers if bloggers want to send more messages.
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I mean MyBlogLog need bloggers to upgrade to pro version.
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Well one of the biggest complaints people have about mybloglog right now is spam and part of that is because its open to anyone. We had many a debate over whether or not to let anyone and everyone have a profile and to let any person, with a blog or without, be able to post and leave comments. In the end we concluded that by only letting bloggers comment we have an advantage because each person is basically hand-screened when you submit a blog.
If someone were to spam too much, we could always delete their account and it would be alot of trouble for them to go make a whole new blog with 3-4 posts and make it look good and get past the application process over and over.
I think if nothing else, just by doing that BlogCatalog will have less spam and be more relevant overall.-
Well, I think MyBlogLog has largely fixed the spam problem, but anyways, part of their problem comes from the huge spike in popularity they got when Yahoo acquired them...
WHat I like about BlogCatalog so far is the maturity of its users.. I've just registered today, and I must say that the forum is really making it stand out... Keep up the great work.
Cheers!
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Drupal?
(see above)-
no drupal here.
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BlogCatalog Rocks that is all I have to say. Thanks for allowing me to be a member. Grus. -
Nine, you are right. MyBlogLog sucks. They kept emailed me regarding my free account. I'm not going to paid just to have what pro version features have. I love BlogCatalog more than MyBlogLog.
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MyBlogLog has a bunch of really cool features. -
Where does blogcatalog want to be in 5 years even a years time. Do you intend to make money from this in the end, I may have missed the point, but couldnt you charge for outbound links. What about a feature like the WTF on technorati where anylinks like that go in to a specific place sort of like articles pointing to users specific topics.
Or couldnt you have a spam forum for people to post outbound links with each post lasting a specific amount of time, I personally don't usually read spam forums on sites. -
One way maybe to improved users Is sub section or category,May blogger use CMS or free service,Some as was mention earlier Dupral great CMS however above my skill.I use jommla other wordpress Just my penny worth,a communities within a community to talk about our blog and CMS troubles that other may of encounter may be a nice way to go.Let not try to duplicate mybloglog.com However improve on there lack of features. -
ermm , NINE, adding free web stats could be a killer feature. It would certainly pull mybloglog users who have to pay for their premium features. I think you should start thinking how to get extra $$ by introducing premium features -
there is so many freeweb stat like www.statcounter.com/ Plus if you have your own server there more there plus free google stat.
Having another here only would duplicate web sites.
Only my 1 penny though -
I wouldn't count on us adding features that would make certain users have to pay to upgrade anytime soon (but don't give tony any ideas). I guess this post is more about what would YOU as a blogger like to see this website become?
Right now the BlogCatalog team is focused more on the longterm game. We really want to build this community to be a place for bloggers to unite and communicate. Sure, money here and there would be nice but if we get enough traffic and enough users then who knows, maybe some large company will want to sponsor ads on BlogCatalog directly in place of the small ads we have up around the website now.
Sure, stats would be handy but like 'lafrance' just said, there are lots of other places to get stats, is that really going to be a deal breaker for users? I dont think so. Overtime I am sure you will see stuff like stats since we are tracking almost all of that data anyway... We have lots of other ideas and additions that we could easily implement and probably will in time.
Right now we are focusing on the Social aspect of the website as I think that is going to be where our REAL value lies.
I am getting a little off topic now so back to the question at hand. What would you guys like to see here, this is your website so speak up!
No voice is too small, no idea is bad. We love to hear feedback good and bad -
NINE I guess your date didn't last very long. Was it the apple sauce chocolate chip cookies?
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god I hope it wasn't the cake. -
NINE - at least someone will go out for dinner with you.
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Hey now, don't make me 'foil' your desk! haha
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Nine, I just read that. LOL 2 funny.
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Beside what I mention before what would be nice is a section with new features found on the net to make bloggin better I cant think of anything else that would help,except but lot of coding I bet be a possibility to mash up some of the web site here into your own blog ?
No idea if that is even possible.However would be interesting as RSS to grab article is not always the best way. -
As a newer member, I would not like to see outgoing links. The reasoning is simple really: networking or social networking. I like both BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog for the same reason, they allow people to see who is reading my blog. As each of us has our own "sphere of influence," this will eventually generate not only more traffic but more readers to everyone's blog as I pick up from your sphere and you pick up from mine. All this I already see as being in place. Outgoing links are just that, outgoing. They do not aid in the social networking side of things, only in the sales side, and that should be kept to the individual blogs. -
It may be nice to have vista,mac,linux sidebar tool so we can pull discussion to our desktop.
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You want them on your desktop?
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Blogcatalog is a impressive site and I love what it's doing for all of us but if there could be more widget to plug around it may payoff better than mybloglog.What u think?-
Those are in the works, keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks as a variety of new widgets may be rolling out
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How about something similar to googles blog search with a social bookmarking twist, I noticed you track blog posts, not sure how it would work, track the days new posts, track the top 20 visited posts and display them for the day. No bookmarklets, no voting just tracking.
I find google blogsearch to one of the best blogging tools that I use, mainly for keeping up with whats new in the blogosphere. -
Randlet - good insights. Thanks. Top 20 visited posts per day would be interesting and could be turned into a widget.
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re:
Top 20 visited posts per day would be interesting and could be turned into a widget.
I like that idea too.
btw I like the widget that lists the blogcatalogers that visited my blog.
nada -
I think a chat room might be interesting too -
Blog Catalog has been a awesome source of traffic generator for my blog.Well,i wouldnt say its being seen by thousands of people as yet though i would very much like it anytime.But its provided a great platform for me to be able to make new friends,view interesting blogs as well as to market my blog & lastest postings.
Its a great community in here and i do agree with aningeniousname,maybe u guys could think about including a chat room function to the site.It would make for a great addition to an already amazing blogging platform.
Thanks for accepting me as a member of the site.Its an honour.
~ Cheers ~ =)
Regards,
Maverick
spiritus-maverick.blogspot.com/ -
Perhaps I'm just resistant to change (amazing, considering I work on a project at work that purports to "revolutionize" our business) - but the idea of links in comments seems to me it may get a bit messy. Perhaps I'm just not envisioning it properly? Then again, I'm in the minority here as I really don't come here for increased traffic. I come here for laughs, good times, and friendly discussion. I get bored just surfing the web and like to talk with folks. If I had to guess, I'd say I've probably visited more other peoples blogs than have visited mine - I'm just curious by nature.
As far as the future...very interesting. I'd like to be able to post video. I wish our IM comments could be more than 300 characters, and I still think an "ignore" button would help stop some of the spats where we all feel that honor demands we reply to he latest mud slinging.
Those are minor though - you're talking big picture. How about ways to connect with your BC friends when you're not on BC? LIke having twitter, facebook, msypace groups? Just a thought. -
Color me confused, but I'm not sure what you are talking about when you say "outbound links"? I thought we already used links in comments/threads if the content was relevant or helpful? (OK, if you had doubts before you should now be 100% certain that I am a techno-idiot extraordinare )
I, like Kdawg, come here for the socialization aspect, uniting with bloggers, bouncing ideas off of them and only a little bit of actual "promotion" to my blog. I've found BC to be massively helpful in the area of increasing writing skills, feedback, and real readership growth as opposed to spurts of high traffic and then nada until your next promotional post or thread.
I doubt my blog or my book would be where it is now with the help of BC and it's members.
I guess, what I'm trying to say is that I think BC should move forward with the social aspect of the site, keep the listing (because it rocks) and just move slowly and with the conscious movement in the general direction of what your members seem to want, or use the most.
In other words, no big changes overnight. Keep doing what you've been doing and BC will become a force to be reckoned with.-
I think it may have been before they were allowed - the original date on this is 4/07. ? -
Ack!
Maybe one suggestion they might take into consideration is enlarging the DATE of the original post!
I thought this was a new one LOL. -
I thought so, too! I read the whole thing and then realized after that it was old.
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crap - I fell for the necro-post as well.
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You know, it's not a bad topic to revisit, though. Particularly since we've been using all of the new features, and can get a firmer grasp on what is needed, or not needed.
My how Blogcatalog has grown! -
So....ummm....I wonder how Nine's date went back on 5/1/07?
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I think she's his girlfriend now, isn't she?
Musta went well
(Or, we've just stomped into uncomfortable memory time ) -
There have been more recent posts on this www.blogcatalog.com/discuss/entry/what-do-you-want-out-of-blogcatalog
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There should really be a pop up that says "umm..dorkus, this is from April 2007, are you certain THIS is the thread you want to comment on?"
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@anniepooh
Agreed. This is an old post from 4/26/07 -
ZOMG I can't wait for 2008! -
Now that this thread has been revived, though, I'd be interested to hear from Nine (or other admins) about how they feel about the way this has played out so far and what it means for the future. -
What I would love to see is Blogcatalog featuring it's bloggers on video.
There should be a section for bloggers to send in whatever ads they could cook up on video
and present it on Blogcatalog.
It's a nice way to feature our blogs and get some interest in our blogs or websites.
Current.com offers a contest and offers some cash money too for those who are really creative doing HpVcam. I realized not all of us would want to be recognized on camera but some of us would love the idea. This is just a suggestion. Heck make it more fun and interesting. -
I would love to see a feature that shows us who is online. -
I like to be able to link to this forum. Some of the threads affect issues inside my website. Outbound links are good.
I also would like to see a category map based on 125 x 125 pictures like on fuelmyblog.
I want to see more partnerships. Maybe you could partner with youtube. I don't really know.
Or even have some kind of relationship with twitter or Facebook. -
I'd like to log into bc and see that most of the same threads from more than 48 hours ago are not still on the front page... -
The date on this post is April 2007, when these forums were new. Gotta watch the dates on these threads that people dig out of the past.
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What's wrong with the past Mark? When you get to be my age you, too, will revere the past. I say BC's direction is only up. -
To me today blog catalog seems removed from my actual blog. Yes I have the blog catalog widgets showing there and do check who from blog catalog visited me. But more importantly blogcatalog discussion forum has become a place to hang out. And I notice that discussions do not necessarily result in more traffic for my blog.
It would indeed be nice if some way to connect the two is found.
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