Membership Has Its Privileges

This is kind of a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" type of thing. As bloggers and/or website owners/administrators we, at the very least, want people to read and appreciate at least some of the content we create. Return traffic, comments, and other feedback from visitors are ways to know what content is being read and appreciated, and an effective way to let readers get involved and add a different perspective to the site.

Google friend connect has provided a few really cool ways to do this that I've tried to incorporate on this site. Most are probably aware of the "following" feature that allows visitors to publicly or privately "follow" a blogger blog. This allows people to stay updated on their favorite blogs very easily by placing a snippet of the post on their blogger dashboard. All followed blogs are also added to google reader, which is my preferred way to easily follow blogs and websites. It also lets everyone know that they are a fan if the owner decides to incorporate this into the site. This in itself is really cool, but there's a lot more little things to play with too. I found this top ten members widget that rates members by # of visits to the site. The only catch is, you have to be signed in to google friend connect for the visit to be counted. It lists each member and the # of visits to the site and links back to the members profile. This way the top ten members can be assured of more traffic to their own site. ALL current members can always be viewed by clicking the link at the bottom right corner of the page. This is another way to help build a community as well, letting bloggers link together and share traffic, ad clicks, comments, whatever.

Another really cool feature is the ability for members to "like" a post. Under each post is a box that asks the question "did you enjoy this post?". By clicking the "like" button, you essentially are recommending this post to other visitors. This is done by adding this recommendation to the sidebar under "popular posts". This benefits me by letting me know what people like to read most, and benefits you by putting your stamp on the post, again with a link back to your site, and gets the best content of the site within easy reach whenever you visit. You can see an example of either of these by searching through the site, or click on the pictures to zoom directly to each section.

These features are fairly new to this site, so many of you may not have seen them before. This may be a little bit of an incentive for you that read the blog through a reader to drop by and check us out! I gotta be honest, I'm not that into the facebooks, twitters, or the like. Facebook is a great way to connect, but beyond that, blooger seems as good or better at doing most other things. Having a blog or website seems much more fulfilling to me as well, especially when we get the ad revenue instead of facebook! Having the ability to "like" posts, and chat is something many people find appealing with facebook and something that I like as well. As I've already mentioned, most of this can be added to a blog or website by using google friend connect and/or feed readers. The final piece to this puzzle that I have used on this site is the "chat box". This is a way for members to post comments not related to a specific post, share a video, connect with other members, or just say hi. Of course this also leaves your mark with a link back to your site as well. Below is a preview of what this looks like. Click anywhere on the picture to see this in action on the site! I also find this helpful to post videos, notes, things that are going on etc. instead of having to do an entire post when an entire post may not be warranted, so check back often for new stuff. The "social bar" on along the bottom of the page alerts readers to new posts to this area and gives a "comments" link on the bar that pops up a window to view the content quickly when clicked. I think it's a good way to enhance the site and maybe the only way for members to post up something original or really connect with each other on the site. Another use of this is to ask a question that can be seen by everyone. That way, you can ask a question that may not be related to a specific post and/or poll everyone that visits. Of course the normal commenting is still the best way to converse about a post topic, and top commenters are listed in the sidebar. If you have a non-blogger blog or website, this is a perfect way to make your presence known and leave a link back to your site. There are many different options including adding a name and a direct link back to your site, and if you do it often enough you'll be listed as a top commenter with a direct link to your website.



So, if you haven't joined through google friend connect, be sure to do so! Click the "Sign in/Follow" link at the top of the site. This button sometimes says "join" or "follow" or something else, but they all do the same thing essentially. You can sign up with google, yahoo, or open ID. Every time you sign in to "like" a post, "chat", or just drop by you'll also automatically be ranked higher in the top members! Of course if you just want to "follow" then that's OK too, just don't sign in when you visit. Even if you don't have a blog or website of your own, you can still have a google account or sign in with another id, make comments receive updates in your reader, whatever. Ain't this stuff cool!