The thing I love the most about blogging is the conversation in the comments. The comments in a blog turn it from a broadcast medium to a community. I think community is where it’s at. Unfortunately, turning a blog into a community is the hardest part of blogging.
One of the best blogging communities on the web today is Fred Wilson’s AVC Blog. Fred gets 100’s of comments a day. They are killer comments from some cool folks. The comments are so good, it’s not uncommon for them to produce a secondary conversation. I’ve had some great conversations with folks in his comment stream. It is truly a community.
I want to build a community like that here. I love the conversation.
With this in mind, I was curious; how long does it take? Assuming the obvious, good content, consistency of posts, links from other blogs, etc, how long does it take to go from being a blog to being a community?
I looked at Fred’s posts starting from day. Like most new bloggers, he had few comments. He averaged less then 10 a day in his first year. In some respect you could say he was doing a little better than most new bloggers, as they avg less than 2 a day. But, after a year his blog was far from a community. He was posting some great stuff. His take on search during Google’s IPO is killer, considering it was over 5 years ago. I looked at year two, a modest increase in the comments and participation, but still no community. His third year, similar results. Then around March of 2008, something changes. AVC becomes a community. It wasn’t like a switch went on, but it was that month when comments on Fred’s blog started to act like a community. It was at that point his comment averaged 20 per post, with some posts having 100’s of comments.
I say Fred’s blog became a community in March of 2008. I don’t know the reason, if there were some event, like Twitter, or something else. What I do know is it took 4 1/2 years. That’s a long time, but worth it.
Fred has a destination blog. It’s a great community, with great readers, who are smart, engaging and not afraid to say what they think.
I want that here and if it takes 4 years so be it. At least now I know.
The Community Blog vs. The Information Blog
There are two types of blogs. There are community blogs, where readers leave lots of comments and the discussion in the comments can be as interesting and informative as the actual blog itself. Then, there are information blogs, where the destination is about the information. Community blogs have lots of comments. The discussion is often happening between those leaving comments rather than with the author. Fred Wilson and Chris Brogan are excellent examples of community blogs. Information blogs are destination blogs, where people visit for the content. They read, they leave. They rarely leave comments and there is little dialog happening on the site.
I like community blogs better. I love the interaction. I dig the dissent and conversation. Community blogs do just that, they create community. Community blogs improve the content and promote interaction through the dialogue. Community is what makes blogs better.
I was talking to a reader of this blog today, and asked him why he doesn’t leave a comment. He couldn’t tell me why. He wasn’t sure. He said he shares the information with his non blogosphere network, but he doesn’t leave comments and he didn’t know why. He committed to think about it and get back to me. I’ll update this post with his thoughts when I hear back from him. Or, maybe he’ll leave them in the comments.
What do you think? What makes a community blog a community blog? What happens, that turns an information blog into a community blog? When do you comment and when don’t you? Why? I’d love your thoughts, you can leave them in the comments.
September 1, 2009 | Filed under: Web 2.0/Social Networking, What I Think! | Comments |