Comments on: Home Away from Home: Building Community OFF Your Blog

By: How to Have a Kickass Blog: Think Like a Movie Lover – For Bloggers, By Bloggers

How to Have a Kickass Blog: Think Like a Movie Lover – For Bloggers, By Bloggers — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 08:15:41 +0000

[...] views on whether blogging is dead (hint: it’s not) to communities and whether Gen Y is driving the blogosphere, there’s never a dull [...]

By: Rose

Rose — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:01:52 +0000

Good advice, but it can become time consuming keeping up with all the networks. Have any advice for time management?

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:47:58 +0000

Scribnia is a great resource for finding bloggers from all different niches – and PS – thanks for the review my friend. Much appreciated!

By: Matt S

Matt S — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:52:26 +0000

Oh, and I’m forever grateful for the tip-off towards Scribnia in this post. What a cool resource that I was completely ignorant of.

And yes, that comment ended with a preposition.

By: Matt S

Matt S — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 18:49:27 +0000

Thanks, Tim. I know that it can certainly FEEL like the blogosphere is dominated by 20sb, but that might just be more due to that network than anything else. Sure, there is a poor excuse for a network called 30sb, but frankly, the majority of actual bloggers I know (and read, with some exception) are NOT twentysomething lifestyle bloggers.

Tech bloggers, health bloggers, sports bloggers, personal finance bloggers, and professional development bloggers, for example, are not skewed into one specific age demographic. I think it’s really important to remember that while 20sb is something AMAZING, it still only represents a small fraction of what is out there as far as blogging goes.

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:03:55 +0000

Right on Scott. Multiple touch points is key – and I do see that scaling cycle taking place around us: People focusing on building community ON their blog, then reaching out in other areas, then coming back to their home-base. Rinse and repeat. Cultivating community elsewhere is about bringing people toward your blog/site but it’s equally, if not more important to manage and engage with that community even more once they are in your neck of the woods. Cheers!

By: Tim Jahn

Tim Jahn — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:28:37 +0000

I think you’re right on, Scott. Having multiple touch points that are each effective in reaching certain groups of people will serve well in the long run.

And I think you bring up an interesting point about scale. I do think that you want to stay anchored to your home base no matter how big your community is. Yes, you want to interact at those multiple touch points, but at the end of the day, you need people at home base with you, buying your product, using your service, etc.

Good stuff!

By: Scott Hale

Scott Hale — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 23:12:27 +0000

Nice post, Matt.

I think it often comes down to one simple thought – multiple touch points. If you give people the option to connect with you, you increase the opportunity for interaction. I think social networking advocates often overlook the power of real life meetings and having the ability to contact somebody at any time (phone, email, Wave, etc.).

Using touch points effectively can get difficult when you scale it up to the community that some of the major bloggers have. At some point, your ability to interact with people away from your blog relies on pulling people back to interaction on your blog.

By: Tim Jahn

Tim Jahn — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:54:14 +0000

“However – the twenty-something networks clearly dominate the “blogging” market.”

How so? Because they’re the two YOU frequent the most?

I think that’s a rapid assumption and I’d love to see supporting evidence…

By: Matt Cheuvront

Matt Cheuvront — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:17:35 +0000

As David said, I know there are many industry-specific niches (ActiveRain.com is a great one for the real-estate industry). So it sort of depends what you are looking to get into. However – the twenty-something networks clearly dominate the “blogging” market.