I have been a member of MyBlogLog since November of last year and I like the service so don’t get me wrong when I say that MyBlogLog doesn’t really do much to help bloggers out.
Sure if you become a paying member you get the real time stats; the same stats that are available free from numerous sources. So that isn’t a valid reason for using it - especially paying for it. The main selling point has always been the display of visiting reader’s avatars in the sidebar area somewhere on your blog.
Here’s the rub though - the vast majority of those avatars belong to other bloggers with a growing preponderance of those being SEO companies on one sort or another. What it doesn’t show you is your readership other than other bloggers.
I know that only one of the avatars that gets displayed here belongs to a friend who doesn’t have a blog but all the rest are bloggers. I like seeing who is visiting WinExtra and the MyBlogLog avatars are a nice representation of those page views but it isn’t the whole picture of my readership though.
Another thing that has become an irritation lately with the service; well not the service itself but in the way it is being used. Several SEO and blogging resource type sites have been suggesting the use of company logos and other such type avatars. Personally I don’t agree and almost to the point that I’m getting ready to set them so they don’t display.
The spirit of MyBlogLog was to help foster a community spirit among bloggers and as such the use of real names and pictures was encouraged as a way to build trust and transparency between bloggers. So this move to depersonalize the MyBlogLog avatar takes away from the community feeling. We might as well as go back to using AIM Buddies and MSN Emoticons.
Blogging has always been about the blogger, their opinions and thoughts; in other words a personalized reading experience. MyBlogLog was a visualization for the blogger and the readers of who was coming to read the words. Over time though the commercialization and depersonalization of blogging has been taking a larger and larger toehold. MyBlogLog in a way is a visual barometer of those two things happening.
MyBlogLog is a nice service for bloggers and I really hope that it doesn’t just become another marketing tool because if it does then it will lose its usefulness to bloggers.
3 Comments
I agree. I enjoy MyBlogLog and try to keep things honest with it. I use an avatar of myself and have no intention of trying so hard to brand my sites that I forget the personal touch.
the personal touch should be part of the branding in my opinion - that is what sets bloggers apart from the online MSM journo’s and commercialized blogs (comblogs)
The web itself has (unfortunately) become a marketing tool. Marketers will also try to use any method they can to get their message across. The Colonel on Google earth?
I wonder how gutenberg felt the first time he heard that one of his presses was being used to do a print run for an ad campaign?
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[...] those of you who may not remember or are new readers I have been a user of the MyBlogLog service for quite along time. It is a service I really liked - when I could log on to it that is and therein lies the problem. [...]