Variations of Blogging Communities and How to Build Them.

(source: www.retailmenot.com, 2010)

Blogging Communities.

If writers have communities based on genres or publishers, bloggers have blogging communities, which is an example of online community. White (2006) referred online community as a community who interacted online within limited set of technologies. Thus, blogging community can be defined as an online community interacting within the blogosphere.

White (2006) has also given a few examples of blogging communities which are Single Blog Community (rely on one blogging platform and a single blog, The features of that platform and blog represent the range of features available to the community), Central Connecting Topic Centric Blogs (linked by common topic/passion) and Boundaried Communities (collection of blogs and readers under one site).

Methods in building Blogging Communities.

To construct a blogging community, the methods are assisted by a variation of web tools. LeMerle (2007) summarized Joe Whyte's 10 step guide to build a blog community and some of the steps are;

• Network with others - comment and give feedback on other blogs.
• Get to know your blog community - read other blogs and their comments.
• Be opinionative and unique with your content - readers are drawn to individuality of content.
• Encourage comments - e.g leave open ended questions.
• Leverage link baiting - be viral and link readers to useful content.
• Join ad networks - generate money and drive traffic.

There is also an alternative to form blog community which is using the micro-blogging tool, Twitter. Creating memes by using hashtags (e.g #FollowFriday), retweeting, and hosting contests and offering goodies are a few ways to empower your blog community (Brkan, 2009). Another effective way is to use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) which is defined as various XML file formats used to syndicate information and and provide news feeds. According to Posey (n.d), RSS is useful to get information or messages across the web instantly to your website and your readers and thus, website is easily exposed.

A Single Blog Community that I am familiar with is Lifehacker.com which is an award-winning daily weblog that offers tutorials, tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help me to get things done faster and more efficiently. This blog community consists of Editor-in-Chief, Contributing Editor, Senior Writer, Contributors, Founding Editor, Intern, and Contributing Copy Editor. To attract and engage a wide range of readers, they use hashtagging technique, allow readers to suggest posts and be in the mailing list.

References

• Brkan, IB 2009, 10 ways to build your blog community with twitter, viewed 18 April 2010, <http://blog.shoutem.com/2009/03/25/build-your-blog-community-with-twitter/>.

• LeMerle, R 2007, 10 step guide to building your blog community, viewed 18 April 2010, <http://www.neodigitalist.com/2007/02/10-step-guide-to-building-your-blog-community/>.

• Posey, C n.d., The advantages of rss (real simple syndication), viewed 18 April 2010, <http://www.webbusinesstoolsonline.com/RSS.html>.

• White, N 2006, 'Blogs and community-launching a new paradigm for online community?', viewed 18 April 2010, <http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-–-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>.