MyBlogLog launched a set of analytics tools about a year ago to help bloggers track activity on their blog. You may have noticed text such as "nth most popular outgoing link" pop up when you mouse over a link on Content Matters. That's MyBlogLog at work. It gives bloggers a better sense of what their readers are reading, where they're coming from and what external links they click on.
Last month, the team at MyBlogLog took that one large step further, adding a community aspect to blogs. On the left pane of Content Matters, you'll see a new section, Content Matters Community, including photos and screen names of the five most recent visitors to the site.
Readers are encouraged to "join" the community for the blogs which they read. These communities then can be used to generate recommendations for other communities to join (blogs to read). Even cooler, MyBlogLog can automatically set you to "join" a community after you've visited that blog X times (default is 10). In much the same way that last.fm can introduce you to music that you may like, MyBlogLog can introduce you to new blog content which is of interest to others in your community.
To learn more, take a moment to set up a free MyBlogLog account and join the Content Matters community.
What's the impact for publishers?
Trade magazine publishers and other content providers who dominate vertical markets should be looking for ways to create a community. There are many ways to increase user interaction; simply having your readers faces appear on your blog can be an easy, yet appealing piece of the community experience. You might showcase community members elsewhere on your site, or even use them as a sounding board for editorial and features.
Eric Marcoullier, Todd Sampson and their team have created an interesting environment catering to the blog community. Right now, it's fairly bare-bones, but it will be interesting to see where users take these communities.
In the meantime, I'd encourage you to sign up and begin to play.
Some of the notable blogs which have adopted MyBlogLog Communities already include:
Fred Wilson's A VC
Brad Feld's Feld Thoughts
Ben Barren's RSS'ing Down Under
Steve Rubel's MicroPersuasion
Valleywag
and hundreds more
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