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I signed up with MyBlogLog a little over three months ago. Even though MBL has taken some lumps in the blogosphere of late and there are definitely questions on its future now that it is owned by Yahoo; I still am a big fan and supporter of MBL. The founders of MBL created a very simple and easy way for blog owners to promote their own blogs while introducing users to other blogs and writers who you might not of known about otherwise.
During the last three months on MBL, I have had the opportunity to meet and befriend a great many people who for some I communicate with via blog comments, MBL or email on a somewhat daily basis. As MBL grows larger everyday, I thought I might put together an introduction based on what I have learned since joining MyBlogLog. Let’s call it MyBlogLog 101.
1. There ate two things you should immediately do upon joining MBL. First, configure the MBL widget and place it on your blog. The second is to click on the Communities tab. Begin by exploring member blogs and find ones that you are interested in. Don’t judge the blog by how many community members it has or how many contacts the author has. If you find a blog that looks interesting, leave MBL and go to the blog and read it. If this is a blog that you would want to read on a daily basis, click back to MBL and join that blog’s community.
2. After joining some communities, start exploring all the users who are also members of those communities. If you find a blog you like, the members of that community will also have blogs that might interest you. Start surfing around MBL by clicking on members avatars and see and read about their blogs. If they sound interesting, join their communities as well.
3. By completing steps one and two, you have accomplished one part of what MBL has to offer; introducing you to many different kind of communities and authors not to mention finding some great writing. Though there is a second part of MBL, promoting your blog and hopefully introducing others to what you are writing about. But what you don’t realize is you have already begun doing this. You see each time you check out a new community, each time you join a community, that community owner knows who you are by the most recent readers widget. Many owners including myself will always click on a new visitors avatar in their widget to see who and what this person is about.
4. DON’T worry about adding each person as a contact yet. I would say don’t bother with contacts at all. Wait until you begin communicating with people and you can always go back to add them as a contact. As long as you have your profile page set to show messages from everyone, having 2 or 2000 contacts does not play a huge role in MBL.
5. DON’T and I am begging you, please DON’T start going to people profiles and add a message like, “Hey, I love your blog, will you please check out mine!” When I receive one of these messages, I immediately delete the message off of my profile and will absolutely under no circumstances check out your profile, blog, etc.
So that this post does not go on forever, I am breaking this up into two parts. Click here for Part 2.
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Technorati Tags: MyBlogLog, MyBlogLog 101
Hi.
Excellent tips and suggestions, for us newbies!!
Thanks so much and have a wonderful Monday!
Thank you so much for coming by Jacer. Please come back again.
Hi Cord
Great post(s) - right on the mark in my opinion.
I’m with you regarding point 5, it’s a big “no-no” with me too (instant delete).
I’d also add that private messages are a good means of sincere communication, because it shows that you’re not simply trying to spam a member or community…
Thanks Meg, much appreciated. I totally agree and will add to my list that private messages are a great way to begin communicating. I love it when you and I go private. wink wink…
Thanks for stopping by as always… Tell everyone down under I said hello…
Please man read my blog, read my blog, read my blog! Remind me to ask you to read my blog!
You can be sure that as soon as you get one of these that blog will not go far.
Thanks for the time spent outlining an intro to MyBlogLog I will be forwarding this to my list!
Now on to part two!
Mark,
Thank you very much! Can I exchange with you some of MyBlogLog training for your fishing training?
nice post here
covers all of the basic etiquete and things ^^
Cord,
I am an open book on fishing. Anything you would like to know about fishing let me know. Since the first comment I have read every post once again.
Thank you for your time!
Mark
qureyoon - Thank you very much, I hope it was helpful to you and I agree it was basic. My thought was to start with the basics and I was going to come out with a more advanced MBL guide down the road. Thanks for coming by and I hope to see you soon.
Mark - I need to go fishing! I haven’t been since I was a kid and I use to love it, so I will definitely take you up on that as soon as I get a second to breathe from work. Thanks again!
An excellent introduction to MyBlogLog, thanks. I am a fan of MyBlogLog, not only because of the networking but the general standard of blogs and quality writing.
I look forward to reading your more advanced guide too.
Sue,
Thank you very much for your kind words, I am glad it was a help to you. I hope you continue reading and let me know any thoughts or opinions you might have. Thanks again!
I guess I picked up a couple of tips on using MBL. Thanks for taking the time to put this together.
The one thing that really surprises me about MyBlogLog is how few people take advantage of the blog description and personal profile fields. I generally don’t click through on blogs unless the name suggests the content, so unless you have a brilliant name, you might want to fill in the blog description.
Nathan - I guess I am happy to hear that you picked up a couple of tips. Thanks for commenting and hope you come back and see us real soon.
Sott - I think that is a great point, thank you for bringing that up.
Thanks for the insightful info Cord!
Damn! I should have read this first. Live and Learn.
Thanks for the tips cord. This confirms I’m headed in the right direction. Just needed some focus so thanks for that. Got your links from Andy Beard’s blog by the way and featured it on my blog, MartyBLOGs, tonight. Have a great weekend!
Adrienne - Thank you very much for the comment and I am glad this was helpful.
Martin - Thanks for the support, I hope you come back to the Hipster’s soon.
Cord, sorry if my previuos comment came off a bit rude. I guess I was in a really weird mood yesterday when I wrote that.
Nathan - no worries at all my friend. I was just playing. Actually rudeness at times is absolutely needed and welcome here.
Thanks for coming back.
Cord, thank you for pulling together your insightful how-to get the most out of MBL. I will be helping my Dad (a new blogger) become a MBL member later this week. Your words-of-wisdom will certainly come in handy!
Josh - Thank you for your kind comments. When Dad signs up for MBL, let me know and I will try to be first to join his community. Thanks for coming by.
Cord,
Great article and thank you so much for taking the time to write it.
I’m new to MBL but I am very excited about what seems to be a thriving community of entrepreneurs and hipsters all talking about their game. It’s cool and I’m having a great time. I don’t know if I would have found your blog if not for the link in the MBL blog.
I really like your writing style and I will subscribe to your feed.
Thanks again!
Corina,
Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot. I am also pleased you got something out of my article. I totally agree that MBL is an amazing place, I have met so many good authors as well as great people. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if there is something I can help with. Best of luck.
Can we make this compulsory reading for all MBL members? Perhaps as a condition of signing up?
That’s pretty much what I had assumed MBL’s purpose to be, glad I’m not missing something more (which would not be unlike me!)
In my life before kids, I was in corporate marketing - off to check out more of your blog.
I found you via Cre8buzz.
A very informative article. Thank you.
Yes, this article can be interesting but don’t you think that all these blobs are created for situations that you wrote in points 4 and 5. And it is difficult to imagine them without it, sorry))