Jul
24
Bloggers Circle: week one assessment
Filed Under Technology | 6 Comments
The Bloggers Circle launched on Monday. I had very few expectations. This time last week it was a group of 30 blogs, all of which I read regularly and mostly I’d met the bloggers in person (a rare form of intimacy online!). Whilst I was intrigued so see how it would turn out, I did not have any expectations and worried that we would struggle to meet members’ expectations.
By the day of the launch we had reached over 50 members, and the circle was widening to include a wider range of people, skills and experiences. Now, at the end of week one, there are 91 members with a good range of perspectives on life. And I’m excited by what’s happened.
Some key stats
- A third of all members have submitted posts for debate
- A third of those posts have been debated on another blog
- The most debated post was this one – debated on four other blogs (and so currently winning the race for ‘most debated July’ prize: £100
I made some mistakes early on. I failed to welcome a few new applicants, which meant they were confused as to whether they were members. And I missed a couple of blogposts which had joined in the debates. Some people are missing the daily email digest because of spam filters blocking the email due to the large number of hyperlinks.
But I’ve really enjoyed it because:
- It’s got me blogging regularly and about a greater range of issues
- When I’ve written about other posts, it’s increased traffic to my blog significantly
- I’ve learnt things about how and why posts are debated
- Bloggers who don’t usually get their posts debated are now doing so
- A number of members are developing relationships with each other and chatting on Twitter.
- People have said nice things about what we’re doing and they’ve accepted it for what it is
But even in this first week, it’s highlighted a number of areas where we we need to keep moving forward:
- Increasing our search engine profile
- Making it easier for members to alert us that they’ve written a post for debate or a post debating another
- Increasing the range of members: women make up just over 10% and there are few non-white voices. We’re also light on right wing libertarians (oddly)
- Developing bloggerscircle.net as a hub for posts – but only doing it in such a way that it can generate traffic to members’ sites
- Nudging quieter members to submit posts
But, as ever, we will be guided by the members of the circle. I appreciate that there may be members who’ve not had such a positive experience and will happily take criticism here (or in private via email matthew DOT cain AT newscounter DOT com). So it’s over to you:
UPDATE: A couple of people didn’t seem to receive the email digest on Thursday. I will change email providers over the weekend to ensure a consistent delivery next week.
Related posts:
- bloggers circle: month 1 assessment
- Bloggers Circle 2 months on
- 3 changes to the Bloggers Circle
- Launching the Bloggers Circle
- New joiners to the Bloggers Circle
How do I post that I’ve debated another blog?
I hope to automate this in the near future but for now, it would really help if you could drop me an email.
Matthew
This is great initative – sorry to be late joining in
Have dome my first comment, will link and send my own post
well done
It’s been noticeably quieter this week, but that’s to be expected.
I’m still very enthusiastic. This is a really excellent initiative.
Well, perhaps Ii have missed something obvious, but I have no idea how to submit an article, nor can I find that info easily.
Perhaps other are having the same problem, or perhaps I am uniquely stupid?
[...] 7 posts were debated more than once but none were debated 3 times, compared with the lively competition in the first month [...]