---
title: "MyBlogLog: Adding Community To Blogs"
date: 2006-10-22
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2006"
    url: "/tag/2006.md"
---

# MyBlogLog: Adding Community To Blogs

![mybloglog](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701im_/http://rww.readwriteweb.netdna-cdn.com/images/mybloglog.jpg)I recently signed up to [MyBlogLog](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.mybloglog.com/), which is a kind of instant social networking system for bloggers. It enables you to set up a community around your blog and – optionally – add statistics. More details of MyBlogLog can be found [ at Techcrunch](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/19/mybloglog-readers-network-around-their-favorite-blogs/) and [A VC](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/08/adding_communit.html).

I’ve added a ‘Recent Readers’ widget to R/WW (see sidebar) and I encourage you to add yourself to the [Read/WriteWeb community](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/readwriteweb/) – click [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/readwriteweb/) for more details. Let me know in the comments to this post what you think of the idea. Over the past couple of months there have been many active and enjoyable discussions on R/WW, so it’d be great to extend that community a little more using MyBlogLog. Let’s see how it goes anyway.

I like the idea of an SNS attached to a blog or website – and that blog communities can mix together. For example Techcrunch and A VC readers may well enjoy Read/WriteWeb, and vice versa. I have to admit it takes a while to get used to your avatar showing up on other blogs when you visit their pages – so much for reader privacy! But looking at the big picture, it’s very nice to know that people are visiting your blog – and from the visitor’s perspective it can generate click-throughs to their own blogs/sites.

For example just this morning I visited Fred Wilson’s blog to read [his thoughts](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/10/do_you_have_to_.html) on whether startups need to be located in Silicon Valley, as suggested in [ a NY Times piece](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/22/business/yourmoney/22digi.html?ex=1319169600&en=bc0cc83c6bc39382&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss) (which I saw [via Techmeme](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.techmeme.com/061022/p4#a061022p4) btw). Fred saw that I had visited his site, via MyBlogLog, and so he joined the R/WW community and left this message:

> “richard glad to see your icon on my page just now. i really like mybloglog. it tells me when people like you are visiting my blog. you should try putting the reader roll on your page. it’s really great and my readers seem to like it a lot fred”

So I’m encouraged by this kind of blog community interaction and hope to see more of it. Kudos to MyBlogLog for building a system which enables social networking via blogs.

Here is the link again to the [Read/WriteWeb community](https://web.archive.org/web/20110829074701/http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/readwriteweb/). I’m also interested in your thoughts if you *don’t* like the idea of your face/avatar showing up on blogs.

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mybloglog_adding_community.php))*