If you have noticed over the last week or so we have made some serious changes here at Crenk, and the site has dramatically improved in the process. Today we are announcing that we have just added Mybloglog back onto Crenk. Mybloglog have just launched a new design for their site which has been in the new a lot of late, and I thought it was about time that we really tried here at Crenk to really build a community around our site.If you are on Mybloglog please make sure you head over the join our ever growing community.
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.
MyBlogLog has just implemented a new widget. Since the beginning of MyBlogLog they have had pretty much the same style of widget in which weblog owners could implement into their sites to allow them to see who is visiting their site.
It has been just over a year since MyBlogLog was purchase by Yahoo for $10 million. Since that time they were included into the Yahoo fold with the implementation of Yahoo IDs only 6 months ago, and now this change.
The widget itself has some new features but also lacks a whole lot of customizability, which the old widget offered.
Advantages
The new widget has more of a web 2.0 design to it. This makes the whole widget a lot more aesthetically appealing. Flyout orientations are a new feature which allow you to see more information about the visitor to your site in one simple mouse-over. It also gives you the options to add that user straight to your contacts. Finally, there is a main button towards the bottom of the widget which is for users to add themselves directly to your community. Previously, to do this it would have taken a user at least 3 clicks to get to the community page and sign up.
Disadvantages
There is only one key disadvantage to this new widget. No Customisation Options!! The widget only comes in seven different colors, in which the HEX colours cannot be changed.
Overall
The new MyBlogLog widget has a lot of good new features that were definitely needed, however when they allow the same customizability as the old widget, then they will have the perfect package!
P.S. Make sure you keep up to date with all the happenings on Crenk by joining our community!
