PDA

View Full Version : Joining a Blogging Organization



KristineS
12-26-2008, 01:28 PM
O.k. gang, I'm using you guys for a bit of market research.

I run an organization called the Outdoor Bloggers Summit (http://www.outdoorbloggerssummit.blogspot.com/). It is an organization of bloggers who write about the outdoors and outdoor related subjects like hunting, fishing, hiking etc.

I'm trying to ramp up the membership in the organization and I'm looking for ideas about what I can do to make the OBS more enticing. Since many of you blog I thought I'd pick your brains about what might make you join a blogging organization.

Just do you know, joining is free, and there are no dues. We will also be moving the blog off of Blogger soon and building a web site around it.

Anyone have any ideas about how I can increase membership?

greenoak
12-26-2008, 03:58 PM
what do other blogging organizations do? i never heard of them....how about good content like calendars , trade shows, links to the national parks, regional reports..as in what to do in winter in the northeast, and pick up posts from blogs in that area...maybe a big map...

mainly for me would be if there were anything going on that would attract my potential customers .....then i would gladly join...
i sell store displays so if it was anything around independant stores or store design or green design , i would like it...

vangogh
12-26-2008, 04:04 PM
All the usual ideas about bringing more traffic to the site would apply. SEO, networking through social media, blog commenting, etc.

To increase people actually signing up and becoming members I think you need to make it worth their while. What's in it for them. What does someone get for signing up and becoming a member that they won't get by reading the blog?

I know that letting someone else write a post on your blog has advantages for them in the form of links and exposure. Do your readers know that? I'm thinking many won't really understand the connection. You might need to make it more clear by writing posts giving out that kind of advice.

Can members gain access to something readers can't? A private forum? Special deals? Content that's not available publicly on the blog? There should be something members get that readers don't.

Harold Mansfield
12-26-2008, 11:07 PM
I don't run a blogging organization, but I do look for contributing bloggers to help out with some of my content.
Since the main reason for any of my blogs is for the bigger picture, the store or product associated with them, I offer contributors 100% of their adsense or affiliate earnings on their content.

This may not work for most, but my overall goal is traffic to the site, or product that actually sells and makes money per sale.

If you want people to write, you have to give them something. Most sites with a lot of contributors offer a percentage of the overall take, site wide, or an opportunity to push a book, product, or something else that the author is selling.

Letting them monetize their content gives them an opportunity to make residual income as long as the blog is online, instead of writing for peanuts or selling articles for $5., and I don't care about the adsense as much as the affiliate income.

Any experienced blogger that knows how to write for search engines and do the bookmarking rounds will know that a well written researched article can generate some traffic no matter what blog it is posted on.

I am still putting together the particulars, but I have a general page set up on my "company" blog,
4thinternet.com/bloggers (http://www.4thinternet.com/bloggers)

Maybe it will give you a few ideas.