Blogging can be lonely sometimes. Your relationships in real life don’t always understand what it is and therefore probably find it difficult to support you in your blogging endeavors. That’s where blog communities come in. There are all kinds of blogging communities that are out there, with varying levels of exclusivity, and in varying formats. I’ve found that the most valuable community is one that you have a lot in common with the other members and is specialized in some way. But a lot of times you can discover those niches within larger communities. Here are some of the public communities that I have been involved in, and that I have found helpful to me.
20 Something Bloggers was the first blog community I ever joined. Nowadays it’s not doing much for me, but right when I started trying to break out of my 10-follower rut I found some bloggers who have turned out to be good blog friends, which is really more valuable than getting you loads of hits from the site itself. Obviously you have to be a 20-something to join, but otherwise it’s pretty open to whoever! There are also groups that help you find bloggers that have similar interests than you.
SITS Girls is a community that I joined that never really resulted in anything. I really just joined… and then never went back. I would say that their group is maybe geared more towards mommy bloggers, so if that sounds like you, I would look in to it! They also feature a lot of content on how to build your site, which is always helpful.
iBlog4me, formerly For the Love of Blogs, is a great community of bloggers looking to spread the word about their blogs and find other blogs to read. This community is actually a blog that features interviews from other bloggers rather than a forum like the first two. I had more success with this one compared to the first two also because their membership is not as big but more focused, i.e. mostly young female lifestyle bloggers, which is how I would describe myself in terms of my first blog. But there are a lot of great groups, contests, and weekly features that help expose your blog. If you click over, you can even see a KBD ad in their sidebar, which I won in one of their giveaways! Awesome, right?
Blog Brunch is by far the community that I have had the most success with in terms of finding other blogs that I want to read, and forming relationship with those bloggers. It takes place in the form of a Twitter party, and as a result has totally transformed Twitter for me, which I really felt like I didn’t “get” for the longest time. There are a few reasons why I feel like this is the community that I have benefited from the most. It’s partly because it is arguably the smallest community that I’ve discussed. It’s also partly because Blog Brunch is something you partake in, not just a community that you join. But I think the main reason is that the community is fairly specialized. It is full of creative bloggers interested in design or blogging or social media, all trying to increase their knowledge about blogging.
Have you found any blog communities that work for you? Tell us about your experiences in the comments!
I haven’t really been involved with too many blog communities, but I’ve been wanting to try Blog Brunch for a while. Maybe I’ll join in with the next one!
Blog Brunch is awesome! I learn so much every time!
Kate – Thanks for the recommendations! I’ve joined the last two you’ve noted here and am eager to get involved. I’ve not been as involved with 20SomethingBloggers, but do have a guest post coming out on their site in a few weeks about creating a community (informally) through blogs and Social Media.
Thanks again for your tips and getting the most out of being a member of blog communities!
Awesome! That’s so exciting about your guest post! Glad you found this helpful
Thanks for the sites to check out. I used to think they should have a 30 Something Blogger site, but I finally figured out that’s probably what all the mom bloggers are. I’m in my 30s but don’t have kids, so it seems like there’s no good community for that really. Anyways, I’m definitely going to check out Blog Brunch. I’ve never heard of it, but do you think it is also for bloggers who aren’t designers?
Sure! I think it can be helpful either way- the topics are usually pretty broad, and there are some really big bloggers who participate. Last month we talked about sponsorship and monentizing, I believe March is personal projects… I learn a lot each time! And their is a pretty wide range in terms of the interests of the bloggers.