If you take a look in our right-hand sidebar, you’ll notice that we’ve added a little widget called “Recent Readers.” This is courtesy of MyBlogLog, which combines some key community building features with site statistics.
Basically, MyBlogLog has three parts. The first is the widget you embed in your blog’s sidebar. This tells you and your readers about the people who have come to your blog. Anyone who has a MyBlogLog account registers as having visited. The second part is the cookie they embed in your computer that tells other blogs when you’ve stopped by. The third part is the internal community that allows you to message with your fellow MyBlogLoggers and find new and interesting content to peruse. I’ve found some of my favorite blogs this way.
Why is this a good tool for business? Because if you’re looking to build a community online, MyBlogLog facilitates that organically. People know that you’ve been looking at their blog simply because they see that you’ve come by. This drives traffic back to your blog. If you pay attention to your visitors, you can click through to see where they blog and what they write about. This helps you find great new content that you can link to, and that helps solidify community even further.
In the interests of self-promotion, I should add that community building techniques and tools are going to play a huge roll in our conference this year.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Eric Marcoullier 04.12.07 at 12:46 pm
Thanks you for the very kind words. While I’m prone to going on and on (and on), you’ve summed up what we’re about — get a little traffic, connect with your readers and discover some new stuff on the web. Now that we’re back in development mode, please let me know if you have ideas on how to make MyBlogLog more useful.
Albert Klamt 04.13.07 at 2:31 am
No doubt that MyBloglog is one of the most relevant places for Blog Communication in the web. MBL facilitates enormous synergies in the Blogosphere.
No matter whether its about community building, viral marketing or simply conversations that matter.
Best,
Albert
Jamdo 06.08.07 at 9:29 pm
Nice wrap up - I use MBL a LOT for the reasons you mentioned - in fact I would probably say it is by far the best way to find blogs about the things you are interested in!