Technorati...An Unlikely Blogger Community?

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch wrote recently about Technorati's shift in direction back to focusing on its core blogging audience. Says the sage one "That change foreshadows the upcoming shift - which places the Technorati site itself as an anchor in a new blog advertising network." Arrington goes on to suggest that Technorati's ad service will be more akin to Ad Brite than Glam or FM.

Of course, Technorati has an amazing edge on other ad services due to its site rankings and well-established tag system. Considering that many bloggers already have a profile at Technorati, it's not a stretch to think that they might add social networking features in addition to their proposed ad services. The internet can be an overwhelmingly large and lonely place to dwell and many companies have created successful enterprises by sizing the web down to neighborhoods and communities that allow people to conceptually put their arms around their own space.

I suppose the big question is does a community feel enhance advertising or detract from it? If the former, then expect to see Technorati integrate their core services, ad services and an improved social element in the future.

MyBlogLog - Updated Widget

The web tentacles continue to reach out and tie thing together. I went ahead and grabbed the code for the new MyBlogLog widget due to seeing it on someone else's site. It's cool. The flyaway feature allows for more info on the people who have recently visited the site. I suppose I could list all 20+ blogs on my profile, but for now I'm still concentrating on Entrecard. It's a nice move on MyBlogLog's part to stay relevant in the blogger community, and if I had just one blog that I was trying to build readership to I suppose I would be more active in their community.

The Entrecard Community

If you have arrived at this post with absolutely no knowledge of what an Entrecard is, my suggestion is that you go to Entrecard.com and watch the video. Entrecard is creating a lot of buzz and thousands of bloggers are joining and participating in the adventure. And as there are hundreds, if not thousands, of posts about Entrecard that can be googled, my intent with this post is to give you my 2ECs worth.

1) Entrecarding can become addictive and you might find yourself spending more time managing your account (ads, comments, and dropping cards) than you do actually writing content for your blog. Depending on the stage of your blog that might be a plus or a minus. I bring it up here because I have to constantly remind myself that Entrecard is a tool and that even though I have a good time messing with my Entrecard accounts, the main reason I participate isn't to have fun.

2) The Entrecard community is experiencing rapid growth and it is likely that there will be more members that join Entrecard in the next 6 weeks than have Entrecard accounts today. The site continues to change and evolve and that will suit some people more than others. Imagine what things might have been like way back in November when one would have had to visit a good percentage of the active sites in order to reach 300 Entrecard drops a day. I joined in the last week of December and could sense a camaraderie that existed amongst some of the "older" Entrecarders that will be impossible to replicate when there are 5000+ accounts.

3) The Entrecard opportunity can result in lots of new traffic to your site and that can be pretty thrilling to many newer bloggers. No, chaindropping does not result in "quality" traffic right away, but most quality blogs will increase their readership over time. Not everyone stays active with Entrecard, as there are likely many folks who decide that the results they got did not justify the time and effort spent on Entrecard.

4) It's about community. There are numerous methods to increase traffic to and readership of your blog. If you don't like belonging to a "community" then my guess is that you will tire of Entrecard within a month or so. Human nature seems to be we get out of things what we put into them. If you like reading other blogs and interacting with other bloggers, then you'll have a good time with Entrecard. If not, maybe you should focus your efforts on SEO.

Noman Isa Nisland...Join Some Blog Communities!

By now you have seen them...widgets full of miniature faces representing visitors to someone's blog. MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog seem to appear the most on blogs that I visit, and there are dozens more sprouting up here and there. Is it worth joining these communities? I guess it depends on what you are trying to achieve. And what I'm trying to achieve with this blog is to highlight the Top Blog Communities in one place so that the reader can easily sign up for the ones that appeal the most. Also, I'll provide my two cents about my experiences with these various communities. Feel free to let me know if I'm missing a good blog community that should be included here. And I might just cover some more socnets, too, if they have some specific appeal to bloggers.