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It’s good for an initial start up to pull in some traffic, but it’s allot of effort to maintain the bonds unless you really have time on your hands. 

I think something recently changed because I can no longer log in, it ask for you to log into yahoo.  I don’t think it used to do that?  I can no longer log in for som reason

A bold social experiment, huh?

SR now has a blog called 17 inch canvas. Driven by David Harry, by the look of things. Great!

SR also has membership in MyBlogLog, MBL. Great!

So, a few weeks ago, on Gypsy's advice, I revitalized my MBL account. Haven't done much with it to date. Don't know how to get benefit out of the scheme is the main reason.

So, what have we here at SR learned from the bold social experiment, so far? Same as I learned at BlogCatalog over the past six months or more of striving, I reckon:

1)  The combination of blogging and social networking gets traffic to your profile on the social networking site but not to your blog.

2)  The traffic from a social network is from other bloggers, trying to get traffic to their blog, and so is useless to you. (Some similarity with Elexa Ranking)

One of the indicators of the futility of the blogging and social networking combination is the typical  messages sent:

Messages sent to me

crkian said:

You have been invited to join the group Blog Competition Win Upto $2500 Plus Post Exposure.

bichobambino said:

hey thanks for stopping by

nplbjirel said:

You have been invited to join the group Blog Promotion.

jungl said:

You have been invited to join the group Photography.

crkian said:

You have been invited to join the group Bloggers Choice Awards.

Messages on other blogger's pages

globalgirl said:

Thanks for the add and joining my neighborhood. I'll be backl to see your blogs. Cheers! Kat

kingskid said:

Hello Kat, Thank you for being a friend. Come back to visit anytime! Peace

girlgonefishing said:

Thank you!

rhyandotnet said:

thanks a lot ... for subscribing

andie27 said:

thanks so much my friend...have a great day...thanks for yous support...

So on and on goes the worthless garbage. The social network is a world within the search world, largely insulated from the SEs and so of little to no SEO or traffic value. In most cases it has no value at the level of making online friends.

Now, having upset the apple cart with those provocative, almost inflamitory remarks, I'll make a few disclaimers, if I may:

1)  I'm sure there's more to social networking than what I'm aware of.

2)  Gypsy and WS have found value in social networking and I see soulripper has put his name down under mine in the SR community on MBL. These people just might know something that I don't.

3)  However, the instigation of the new SR social network presence has coincided with an influx of posts from bloggers with nothing much to say. Just a few useless words and a useless backlink. Then they winge at Nic because their trite little "site review" of 45 words isn't sufficient to get them through the algorithm.

So maybe you people can open my eyes to a new way in the blog and social network world and explain how to walk through the mess without being tainted by the garbage.

!!Come in Gypsy!!

Regards,
Laurie.

Last edited by laurie_m (2007-12-01 14:08:27)

Ah! Thanks WS.

Plus Size Scoop has the look of a successful blog with some readership. That's a  great success story.

So, there must be some method for achieving such success on the social networking sites. Sort through the mountain of garbage in search of the odd good bit, perhaps?

Or do you target promising bloggers? Well established blogs, perhaps?

Thanks,
Laurie.

Thanks Gypsy.

Yes, I've read your post on social media in your blog. You may have noticed me there on your widget. That's why I thought the SR post may have been part of a quest to find out the value of SMM.

If you are promoting a blog then there is a high likelihood that you also visit other industry blogs; making insightful comments to gain friends and create (highly targeted) back-links.

I guess that means that you frequently comment on people's blogs. I approach this with a fear of the same rejection that I give to comment spammers. Irrational fear, perhaps.

If you are making insightful comments, people will begin to relate those with your icon as well.

"Insightful comments." Yeah, I can do that.

Perhaps there's more to be gained on the actual blogs than on the social message boards.

I see that on MBL, while there are still quite a lot of junk messages, among them are substantial messages of 100 words or so, that actually say something. I think BlogCatalog cuts the message off at about 25 words, creating a climate of junk only messages.

So I guess among all the garbage there is room for quality. Perhaps there is a higher proportion of quality at MBL.

Regards,
Laurie.

Thanks WS.

So, do you do this in their blog comments or on the social network site?

Regards,
Laurie.

laurie_m wrote:

Thanks WS.

So, do you do this in their blog comments or on the social network site?

Regards,
Laurie.

Well… if done sincerely and tactfully, go for the blog comments. Keep in mind that the more sincere and non-promotional, the better the results. Use the social network sites as a "menu" of what’s available to you, but don’t think that I am advocating or trying to incite Blog spam, I am not. But you should by all means attempt to mingle with people that you really hope to have a “relationship” with.