Blogging Communities

A blogging community is a community where your peers enjoy, agree and can relate to the same genre your blog posts are about (eHow, n.d.).

Here are the steps on building a blogging community.

Step #1: Blog hop around to get to know the blog genre that you enjoy.

Step #2: Be visible. Visit other blogs and leave a comment so that people can find you when you leave your URL behind.

Step #3: Write often so that those who follow the blog will have something to read to keep them entertain so that they will stay on your blog.

Step #4: Market your blog. Besides the strategy of visiting and commenting on other blogger's blog, here is an idea provided by eHow.com. Create a signature link to your blog on forums or message boards, another mini idea is that placing a signature link in your email signature can help, too.

Reminder:

1) Always make sure that your posts are entertaining. Come on, who wants to read uninteresting stuff? Not only will your readers stay on your blog longer, other new readers will be attracted, hence the community will be bigger.

There are three types of blogging community. The first type is Blogger Centric Community, it is a blog that is either owned by an individual blogger, or a group. The second type is Central Connecting Topic Community is a network formation that serve as a bridge that links bloggers and with a same passion or interest. The third type of blogging community is Boundaried Communities. It acts as a site where several hosts will act as an admin to the site and also has a collection of blogs. To be a part of the 'community', members can feel free to register, perhaps to receive regular updates notification and being able to leave a comment on the site. That way, readers can communicate and connect together. Global Voices is an example for Boundaried Communities because it is a site that has several bloggers acting as a host and has a variety of blogs collected.

Reference:

1) eHow, n.d., How to Build A Blogging Community, http://www.ehow.com/how_2152382_build-blogging-community.html, viewed 6th May 2011.

2) White, N, 2006, Blogs and Community: Lauching A New Paradigm For Online Community? http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/white.pdf, viewed 6th May 2011.

3) Globalvoices, n.d., Global Voices, http://globalvoicesonline.org/, viewed 6th May 2011.