Swimming against the tide to help you stand out
October 20, 2010Mistruths are no way to build trust with your customers
October 25, 2010
This post is a little left field today but it is something that I’d like your help with.
Let me start with a question first and then I’ll explain:
Are you a blogger? Do you want to be a blogger? Would you like to be part of a blog commenting group?
Now the explanation.
I’ve been thinking for a while about how to develop this blog, for it to get better, for it to engage more with its readers, for it to develop a bit more of a community feel.
With that in mind, I wanted to share with you an idea that I have had re: developing the blog and getting more ‘social’. One of the ideas was to set up a ‘buddy’ comment group. This was based on an idea that I read about in an article recently on Problogger: Three-problems-that-make-me-leave-your-blog-in-three-seconds.
In that article they talked about:
Create a “buddy” group.
This is something I used to do years and years ago, and it worked quite well. Find a group of blogs in your niche that don’t get many comments, and send them an email explaining that you’ll leave comments on their posts if they’ll do the same for you. It works really well.
One of the central premises of the article is that many people will ‘bounce’ away from a blog if there are no comments on it.
Through my research and experience over the last few months I have learned that:
- Blogging can be lonely
- Posts without comments can be lonely too
- Blogging is good for personal and company brand development, disseminating ideas, connecting, thought leadership etc
- Comments = community = authority = visibility = spread of ideas
- Helping each other tweet things out can help too
- Comments provide social proof that what you are saying is worth paying attention to and that people can and should ‘chip in’
- More comments can equal more traffic, better Alexa rankings etc
- Commenting on each others blogs can mean that we can learn from each other
- Possibly guest post on each others blogs
- May even result in more collaboration opportunities
So, my idea is simple.
Here’s the question a slightly different way?
Who would like to get involved with a group of like-minded bloggers that help each other, comment on each others blogs, learn from each other, develop better relationships, possibly explore collaboration opportunities and network a bit?
All those in favour say ‘Aye’ in the comments area below or drop me an email in the contact page or send me a message via Twitter: @adrianswinscoe
Can you do this by Monday 25th Oct? and I’ll collate results, blog links and then suggest a few guidelines and then we can get started.
Also, if you know of anyone else that would like to get involved, feel free to forward this on. If you do, can you copy me in on the email so I know who is being invited. Thanks.
Finally, just so you know that you are not alone. I’ve already sent this out to a bunch of people via email today and we have 7 people including me already interested 🙂
Thank you to spekulator for the image.
16 Comments
I'm interested in building a blogging comment group community. Are you interested? Check this out http://bit.ly/bB1qP2
@Ali_Davies That's great that you are interested. Absolutely agree with you. Written more about it here http://bit.ly/bB1qP2
I sent you a contact form 😉
Hi Mike,
Got your message. Thanks for getting in touch. Will send you an email with details after the weekend.
Adrian
Building a blogging comment community http://bit.ly/bTfsJv
RT @adrianswinscoe: Building a blogging comment community http://bit.ly/bTfsJv
Excellent idea. Is this the new book club of our age? Interested in building a blogging comment community with you
Great that you are interested Guy.
That’s a really interesting angle about the book club.
I’ll send you details later today.
Adrian
Adrain,,
As I replied elsewhere, count me in
Martin
Excellent news Martin.
I’ll send you more details later today.
Adrian
Hi Adrian
Am embarrassed to admit that I’ve been in the new media/digital industry for almost 20 years and still not started a blog, and would really like to start one, pronto! A ‘buddy’ comment group sounds like a great idea… please add me to your interested list.
Thanks
Lynda
HI Lynda,
That’d be great to have you amongst our group. I am about to send out a list and close off entries this evening so would encourage you to set up your blog as soon as you can and let me know the website address.
Is that ok?
Adrian
Hi Adrian
*Gulp*… well, that’ll focus the mind:-) Have a domain name and was planning to use WordPress so will have a go this evening and let you know how I get on!
Best wishes
Lynda
Brilliant!
I’ll send round more details later on. Let me know if you have any problems.
Adrian
Adrian,
What a fabulous idea, several things came into my mind
1. This will be a great learning opportunity not an easy challenge
2. Am I bright enough in my righting to be able to add any value on other peoples blogs
3. I’m I ready for all that extra reading and righting
On reflection I clearly see the benefits of such a group, by becoming more social this will give me the opportunity to learn from each experience. Therefore naturally allowing me to enhance my writing skills and improve business growth and performance and who knows what other opportunities it will open up.
So I very much welcome your challenge.
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Welcome on board and to the challenge. I am sure that we will be able to learn and push each other on in this endeavour and who knows what other opportunities it will bring.
I, for one, am looking forward to it nd look forward to the journey with all of you.
Adrian