When I first started blogging, I knew that the #1 thing I needed to do was learn how to network. Its vital, when doing anything online, to be part of some form of community. Through doing all of that, I quickly learned some shocking truths.
A large percentage of blogs all about “Making Money Blogging.” Its truly astounding how man ‘experts’ there are with ‘expert advice’ on how to blog ‘correctly.’ The first community I joined, ended up failing for many reasons, but the fact that it was inundated with those types of bloggers who were not talking, but spamming their blogs, didn’t help it survive.
I don’t know about you, but when I started blogging, I did it for the art of writing. The joy of sharing thoughts, ideas, art, beauty...my writing with the general public for whomever may enjoy it. I wanted to have debates over interesting subjects, and learn new things about topics that I know quite a bit about.
The first thing those marketing people say, if you find a really interesting, good one, is that you have to visit blogs and comment to get traffic to your own blog. But where is a good place to go to find like minded people who like blogging? Especially with the fall of Bloggers.com?
Awhile back I did a blog on the social media outlets that I was subscribed to. At that time, I mentioned BlogCatalog.com as one of the places I had signed up to. Now that I have been doing this well over a year, I’m here to tell you some important truths I’ve learned along the way.
Bloggers.com fell because of one key thing, lack of moderation. They had posted rules on the site, but no one would enforce them. I would openly joke that the website was mainly on autopilot, not cared for by anyone at the helm. When they overhauled it, the obviously did not understand why people were there in the first place, because the key feature of the site was down for over a month, which led to hoards of people leaving the site never to come back.
BlogCatalog.com has a dedicated staff, and I mean highly dedicated. The site itself is more of a ‘freemium’ setup, and the absolute best part of the site is completely free, the discussion boards. Don’t let the odd interface scare you, its easy to learn, though it takes some getting used to, and when you’ve got it down, you’ll have several interesting friends.
You got into blogging because you liked writing, don’t deny it. Head over to the discussion boards on BC (as its affectionately referred to by its patrons) because there you’ll find some of the most interesting, intelligent discussions on the internet. People from all walks of life participate and completely enjoy tackling all sorts of subjects.
That might be what I find best about the site, but the fact is, there is so much more. If you take the plunge and pay a bit of money, the benefits of membership are unique to any site I’ve ever visited. Money doesn’t give you just more access to the site, but help outside of the site. You will suddenly find your tweets being retweeted, your Facebook and Google+ posts being shared, or even a staff member talking about one of your posts in a discussion out of the blue.
The fact is, these guys want to work for you. They’ve created a great website for bloggers to come together and be social, they moderate the heck out of the boards and Trolls are non-existent, and they join in the discussions adding their own quirky thoughts to the overall fun.
I started writing my blog well over a year before this post, and I’m writing this post for one reason only. BlogCatalog is the ONLY social blogging site I currently go to at all and I’ve tried quite a few. It’s the only one I know I can go to and have intelligent discussions with people that either are, or could easily be friends. When I think of the site, I think of a collection of my peers in the field and not the traffic I can get from joining in.
The fact is, like most people there, I started blogging for the sheer joy of writing. The benefits of being a member are worth it, but don’t sign up and pay right away. Join the site, meet people, make friends, join discussions. See the quality first, then decide to support them how you want to. I chose to support them this way because honestly I just don’t have it in my budget to help them financially, but I believe in the site enough to see it have more members. Why? Because I love a good discussion as much as I love a good read, and I can find both at BlogCatalog.com
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