Bartle (2007) states that a community is defined by a group of people with a similar interest. Put blogging into that context, you get a blogging community, which means a group of people who share a common interest on subject matters through blogging. White (2006) explains with example of groups of people who start to blog in niches, exchanging comments and views on each other’s posts.
So how do we start a blogging community? Well the first step would be to read, read, read. White (2006) adds that there are 3 types of communities in the blogging world: one blog centric community; where the community derives from many readers circulating around a single blog, topic centric community; where different blogs with the same subject matter that inter-communicate with each other, and a boundaried community; where blogs of the same genre are gathered together in a single website.
Mueller (2009) states that to start a blogging community, one has to get ‘personal’ with other bloggers. The easiest way to do so would be to comment or reply comments. To get in touch with readers and posters starts a networking community that constantly exchanges information and opinions with each other. Discussion amongst readers and bloggers builds a community (Mueller 2009). Networking and knowing your community would be essential, followed by retaining visitors with good content and using links and titles to pull visitors to your blog (LeMerle 2007).
Taking the single blog centric community as an example, the structure of the community arises from a single blog. The author of a blog starts a blog, attracting various readers. These readers then start commenting, playing an active role in building up the blog’s community. The blogger would be considered as the ‘king’ of the community, where as the commentors and readers – the peasants. A very good example of a blog that falls into this category would be www.xiaxue.blogspot.com. This Singaporean blogger has exposed her private life into written form online and her community (readers and commentors) rage over the thousands. She blogs about a particular topic and her community grow around it. She receives to over more than 300 comments each post she posts up.
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| Single Blog Centric Community Source : Nancy White 2006 |
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| Single Blog Centric Blogger Xiaxue, Source : www.xiaxue.blogspot.com |
White (2006) instills that the blogger has the ultimate control over the community. If she/he were to shut down the blog, the community will likely shatter and disintegrate (White 2009).
References
Bartle, P n.d., 'What is community? A sociological perspective', Community Empowerment, viewed 26 September 2010 <http://www.scn.org/cmp/whatcom.htm>
LeMerle, R 2007, '10 Step Guide to Building Your Blog Community', Neodigitalist.com viewed 26 September 2010 <http://www.neodigitalist.com/2007/02/10-step-guide-to-building-your-blog-community/>
Mueller, E 2009, 'How to create community for your blog?', Blissfully Domestic, viewed 26 September 2010 <http://blissfullydomestic.com/2009/how-to-create-community-on-your-blog-for-wordpress-users>
White, N 2006, 'Blogs and community-launching a new paradigm for online community?', Going Communial Edition 11, viewed 26 September 2010, <kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2006/edition-11-editorial/blogs-and-community-%E2%80%93-launching-a-new-paradigm-for-online-community>
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