Last month I wrote a post about the best social communities for bloggers and I mentioned that Blog Engage tops the list in my opinion. Yesterday, Blog Engage made a major announcement that they are limiting new registrations to invitation only. This is a bold move as most social communities by nature are inclusive and I must admit when I first heard the news I was a bit perplexed and was wondering what the deal was. I wasn’t sure if Brian (the owner) was doing a publicity stunt or what. I have since learned that the major reason behind this move was to control and combat spam. Every single blogger and webmaster has to deal with spam daily and we all know how much it sucks. Imagine running a social community and forum as popular as BE and you can only imagine how much time it takes to rid the site of spam. I used to run several forums but I have since abandoned them as it was impossible for me to keep on top of all the spam.
If you are not a member of Blog Engage yet, do not worry. You can still register but you will have to know a current member to receive an invitation code. You can also visit the the forum area and I am sure if you prove that you are not a spambot and a real human blogger, you can request and receive an invite that way as well.
[stextbox id="info"]If you need an invite, drop me a comment and let me know. I will email you back and invite code and see over at Blog Engage.[/stextbox]
Thanks for the write up Dan. Just so you know going invitation only has saved me about 3 hours a day of cleaning spam and deleting comment spam.
As you mentioned I’m always around. You can get an invite from me using the contact us forum on the register page, our blog forums or any other members within the community.
We have 14 new members since we closed. I approved all members ensuring the blog quality.
A few were denied access but I’m very fair. I simply requested either more unique content or simply more content in general.
I do this to ensure what is submitted is what people want to read. Good bloggers will respect this and they will have no issues asking for an invitation.
Also if a member doesn’t have to time simply e-mail for registration we don’t want or need a member like that.
We have an amazing community and one look at our front page people will see this.
.-= bbrian017´s last blog ..Being Productive When Your Blog Site is Down =-.
Hey, we saw you were a dofollow blog and commend your efforts towards the dofollow movement – we invite you to check out the free list and submit your site for free at nofollowlist(.)com – keep the link love flowing!
.-= Jeff@ultimate dofollow list´s last blog ..dofollow v. nofollow debate – the nofollow side =-.
@Jeff@ultimate dofollow list, cool stuff. I will check it out
Well, this is one way to combat spam and we will have to wait and see how it goes. I personally think it better as there is more control and one can manage things better.
At first, I wasn’t sure this was a good idea either, but after thinking about all the time Brian has to put in catching spammers and other junk on BE, I think this is a good way to control. Anything to slow the spammer is a good thing.
.-= element321´s last blog ..Daily Delicious Posts Feb 4th 2010 =-.
A little backwards (late) but a good move all in all.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Welcome Aboard Part 2! All The Info You’ve Been Waiting For… =-.
That is a very good move to fight spam. This also makes the users feel more special in a way
-Kai Lo
Twitter @lomak1985
Dan:
What about Blog Engage do you prefer over some of the other communities like BlogCatalog or MyBlogLog?
Trish
http://www.yourhomebusinessroadmap.com
.-= Trish´s last blog ..Entrepreneurial Traits – Start Thinking On A Bigger Scale =-.
@Trish, I think Blog Engage has a much tighter community and the bloggers support each other. I also get traffic from BE and do follow backlinks, which I do not get from the others.
What about Blog Engage do you prefer over some of the other communities like blog catalog or My blog log? I personally think it better as there is more control and one can manage things better.
Select the communities options on the top of the page.then on the right hand side bottom there is a “create “tab.click on it.then specify all the community details….it is really simple.
What are some other seo techniques besides blogging and social bookmarking to help me get traffic to my site?
What method would be best for creating a complex social community website?