5 Ways to Support The Blogosphere (And Why You Should)

Image (cc) Ivy Dawned, on Flickr

Way back when, round about 2010, there was something called the RPG blogosphere.  It was awesome. It was like some kind of interconnected network of blogs, a web that went worldwide. Then with the increasing uptake of "social media" the blogosphere dwindled - but now it's back I think it's important that we keep it running.

Comment
We like comments, that's why we have them enabled.  These blogs are public spaces to share thoughts, ideas, and resources where feedback is always welcome; nobody likes to think they're just shouting into The Void.  As a bonus, comments on blogs add links back to the author's blog and links mean a) more curious traffic shuttles between them and b) better SEO because it counts as a word of mouth recommendation as far as search engine spiders are concerned. It was part of the original design philosophy and it's why spammers spam and why some blogs have limitations on who can comment, or require moderation.

This is a social medium, so lets be social.  And it only starts there...

Post links and link posts
Talking of word of mouth; if you see a post you like then post about it.  There's a lot of inspiring work out there.  If you're inspired then fire up a new post saying "I was reading [this linked post] over at [this blog] and it got me thinking..." because it's supporting (or promoting discussion of) that great idea in exactly the same way as the above.

If you see a load of good stuff but don't really have much to say on any of it then why not put together a digest post with a list of great posts?  It's telling your readers (and the search engines) where to find good stuff and if we all scratch each others' backs the good stuff bubbles to the top.

Share buttons are built into the blogging platforms; why not share stuff you like on your social media instead of / as well as your own stuff? No blog is an island.

Use your blogrolls
One thing I noticed that seems to have fallen my the wayside is the blogroll; a widget of blogs that updates from their feeds to automate this cross-linking word-of-mouth social networking and again it's part of the point of the platform, for exactly the same reasons.

When I created this blog its main purpose was as a landing page so I could check out the blogs in my blogroll, and the blogs in theirs, and the blogs in theirs … I found all sorts of awesome things down the rabbit hole and it's definitely something I miss now.  So let's get it fired back up.  Check mine out and add one to yours - there are definitely widgets in Blogger and in WordPress for it, it's core functionality.  I want to add all blogs I find with a blogroll to my blogroll, impractical though that may be, and I hope you might do the same.

Support and create networks
Networks are the mother-blogrolls, sometimes containing thousands of blogs.  Check them out in the sidebar.  They're a labour of love for the people who maintain them, and that deserves our respect and support. 

Join in with the Blog Carnival
Talking of labours of love, we're lucky in our niche to have the RPG Blog Carnival, a movable feast hosted by a different blog each month with a different topic for discussion.  Join in the festivities, or offer to host a month, but please show your support even if it's just visiting the contributors!

If there's an awesome blog you think should be on my roll, or a network, or anything then please comment (for reasons that should be apparent!) and if you agree with this post then share it, link it, spread it, remix or reimplement it and do all the stuff blogging was designed for.