The business of blogging is changing. A movement that arguably spawned social media and widespread user generated content is no longer ignoring the web 2.0 changes that have followed its rise. Open and sharing have replaced closed and walled, and a new generation that knows nothing other than cross-network platform agnostic networking expects that the sites they visit will embrace 2.0, not ignore it.
I’ve already covered a number of aspects relating to Blogging 2.0 ( the user | professional blogging | advertising ) but a recurring theme I’ve seen, both through emails received, comment threads and discussions elsewhere, is that people perhaps don’t yet know the best ways to embrace the new paradigm of blogging. Here’s what I’d recommend for blog owners.
Please note that the focus is on a blog owners viewpoint while looking at blogging 2.0 in terms of promotion and value adding for a site, so my apologies in advance if the traffic implications and marketing angles upset anyone as I’m not exploring the end user benefits here. Ultimately these recommendations are great for readers/ end users as well, and as I’ve argued previously, blogging 2.0 can be a win/ win for everyone involved.
Comments
Locally hosted walled comment services on blogs are dying. Users are expecting common standards, enhanced layout and unified tracking when visiting blogs. Services such as Disqus and Sezwho deliver this functionality.
There are a number of advantages: these services filter spam, offer user profiles and centralized tracking services, and enhance the comment layout on your blog. They’re all great benefits, but the number one reason you should make the switch: using these services increases the number of comments you get on your blog. Likewise not using them may drive conversations elsewhere. I know personally I’m far more likely to comment on a blog running Disqus now than one without, and it’s a common thing I hear now. Think of it in these terms: a Disqus user is already logged in so doesn’t have to enter personal details to make a comment, ie: the barrier to entry for commenting is lower. They can also track responses from a common page so are more likely to make repeat comments on a post than would otherwise be the case.
The tried and failed argument against these sorts of services is you lose control of your comments and that the search engines can’t see them. This simply isn’t the case. Sezwho hosts the comments locally. Disqus does host the comments on a central server but if you use the API wordpress plugin they can be seen on your site by search engines. Further you can pull your comments out of Disqus at any time and import them back into WordPress.
All up if you’re still thinking about it, you have a lot to gain by trying one of these services, and very little (if anything) to lose.
Everyone accepts RSS, but are you offering your latest blog posts via Twitter? There are two options, you can post your latest posts to Twitter using your personal account (and I do for my personal blogs) or you can set up a dedicated account for your site that allows people who are interested to subscribe to receive the latest updates (which is what I do for The Inquisitr). If you’re not producing a lot of content you can do this manually, or there’s a Twitter plugin for WordPress that will do it all for you.
Take it as a given that you should also be engaging on Twitter as well, as opposed to simply spamming it with your links. Most people will happily accept the occasional link via a personal account, but over do it and you’ll lose followers. Some times it’s best to keep things separate and give people a choice.
FriendFeed
FriendFeed has become a little controversial in some blogging circles with accusations that the site steals conversations from blogs. But I simply ask in return: if this is the case, wouldn’t the same be true of Digg or Reddit, who also have conversations around links to stories on external sites?
Whether you love FriendFeed or hate it, there is one certainty: you can’t stop conversations from occurring there. You can chose to ignore it, but others aren’t, and if numbers are you goal in blogging, your rivals may well be embracing FriendFeed and benefiting from it.
Like Twitter, participation yourself is important, however the lines between self promotion and conversation are blurred as FriendFeed pulls data in from across various services, including your blog. Still, this function is only ever as good as people following you, so being an active and good member (like Twitter) will increase the number of people following you, and potentially the traffic you get from the site. I’ve found that FriendFeed is constantly in the Top 10 referrers list for The Inquisitr for example.
The other way you can embrace FriendFeed is by incorporating FriendFeed actions on your site as I have here at The Inquisitr (if you’re on the full post page you’ll see FriendFeed at the bottom about 15 minutes after this goes live). Glenn Slaven’s excellent FriendFeed Comments WordPress Plugin is highly recommended. The conversation is going to take place with or without you, why not embrace it and make it part of your site as well?
Widgets
Did you know we have widgets for The Inquisitr and they didn’t cost us a cent? The Inquisitr widget to the right was designed in SproutBuilder, arguably the most friendly online widget building platforms there is. If you can write a Word document, you can use this.
The idea with widgets is similar to Twitter and FriendFeed above: you want to give your users as many subscription opportunities as possible (remember Blogging 2.0 is ultimately all about the user). Widgets like this one can be embedded in iGoogle and Netvibes, used on social networking profiles and if your readers are really included can be embedded on their site as well.
I’d recommend giving SproutBuilder a shot, and also take a look at WidgetBox as well.
