Posted on July 8, 2008 - by Guest | Visited 928 times, 1 so far today

Blog Catalog: A Directory and Social Features All in One

By: Luis Sandoval

Blog Catalog is a blogger friendly cataloging site. What does this mean? Avoid the spam, avoid the distractions, and focus on marketing your blog and connecting with other bloggers in one of the most well put together communities I’ve seen for bloggers.

Becoming a member is easy, if you actually have a blog, and not an agenda to market your spam across the net. There is an actual waiting process from your submission because your site is viewed by a real human being who determines whether your site is legit or not. This cuts down on the “net trash” that tends to propagate across sites like these. It took a day for mine to be accepted, but the return email was a warm and caring invite welcoming me to the community and sharing with me the possibilities of being a part of their community.

Once you’ve been accepted you’re able to access all of Blog Catalog’s features including the discussion forums, joining neighborhoods, adding individual users to your friend list and exploring other sites.

I was amazed at how quickly this community grew, and while I’m new to the site (about 2 months) I’ve experienced great relationship building in the forums, and have seen increased traffic to my own site due to the camaraderie you are encouraged to build through Blog Catalog.

What makes this site a treat as well is the ease of navigation. There is little confusion on this site, and you get what you need when you need it.

A new addition to Blog Catalog’s services is an area where you can focus your discussion on Politics. Blogs, ideas, and people related to politics are gathered in this new forum to hopefully have a voice that drives change. This social experiment is a step in the right direction, and hopefully other topic dedicated areas open for the greater good of the community.

I actually live in the same city where Blog Catalog is headquartered and I am amazed at how open and friendly they are. Already I have seen one of the founders actively engaged in the community by doing guest speaking engagements and being a part of the Meetup.com experience. A company like Blog Catalog definitely understand what it means to be social, and looks towards the community to help pave it’s future.

Overall Blog Catalog is worth joining, and definitely worth building a community of followers on. Like anything else, it’s only as useful as the user makes it.

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