Community » Moderators & Bloggers
NewWorldView provides opportunities for people who are passionate about the subject of conscious creation. Our Community Forums and Blogs provide the perfect opportunity for anyone who can translate that passion into constructive and energetic dialogs through their writing, communication, and facilitation skills.
Moderators and bloggers agree to volunteer for a three-month stint in one of the Community Forums, or Blogs, and:
- provide feature articles of their own or of other authors, as long as applicable usage permissions have been obtained
- facilitate their own Discussion Forum, or Blog, seeking optimum coupling between articles and discussions.
This is an excellent opportunity for aspiring authors, lecturers, and workshop leaders to develop their own ideas and visions through wider audience exposure and dynamic discussions with a global audience. We invite you to submit a proposal with writing samples, potential articles, and the focus and purpose of your proposed Discussion Forum, or Blog to the webfolk@newworldview.com.
Becoming a Great Blogger
Blog is short for web-log, a term coined in 1997 by Peter Merholz. It is an individual syndicated column that allows for comments by readers. Blogging uses a new family of technologies called RSS, which has two different meanings: 1. Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91, RSS 1.0), and 2. Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0).
The following is an abridged version of the Ten Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers by Darren Rowse.
1. Proactive
Successful bloggers are action oriented, they’re self starters and they’re willing to take their dreams into reality.
2. Strategic
Plan on how to stand out from the crowd, how to find readers, how to sustain the writing of content over the long haul, etc. are all factors worth doing some planning around.
3. Anticipators
Keep an eye on the niches you’re involved in and anticipate where they are headed next. This ranges from writing posts a few weeks ahead of events to capitalize on search engine traffic to anticipating new trends that might be ideal topics for new blogs. They are often veracious consumers of information in many forms and have the ability to keep their minds across many different fields at once. The world we live in is in a state of constant change and unless you’re on top of the changes happening around you a blogger can be quickly left behind.
4. Communicators
There are many different styles of communication, but successful bloggers tend to have a knack of putting across their message in a way that is received well.
5. Creators of Useful Content
Effectively bloggers attract readers because they offer them content that is useful and they meet a need of their readers. This need can be a need for information, a need for someone else’s opinion, a need for entertainment, a need for instruction, a need for community etc. Good bloggers tap into one or more of their readers needs and work hard at being a part of a solution.
Not only is their content useful but in many cases it is looked at by others as being original and something that makes them a ‘thought leader’ in their niche rather than just a recycler of what others are saying. Unless a blogger adds some value to what others are saying then they are less likely to give their readers anything unique or useful that they can’t get elsewhere.
6. Persistence, Consistency and Discipline
Blogs rarely become successful without hard work over a sustained period of time. Much of the work is behind the scenes in reading, networking, researching and looking after readers in a similar way to the many hours of practice a tennis player puts in before the few hours they play in a public forum.
7. Optimists
Good marketers learn to see ‘weaknesses and threats as possible strengths and opportunities’. Many bloggers give up when blogging gets tough - but successful bloggers tend to go forward in leaps and bounds in these times as they find creative ways to flip those things that could crush them into things that bring life.
8. Conversation Conductors
Like the conductor of a symphony, good bloggers take the ideas, experiences and voices of their readers (and other bloggers) and create spaces where these ideas come together in a way to makes ‘music’. They have the ability to draw others into their conversations and guide those conversations in useful directions. In the same way that musical instruments all played out of time can be chaotic and noisy so too can poorly held blog conversations - but an effective blogger often has the ability to bring something of worth out of the babble of noise happening in their niche.
9. Networked
Extending upon the metaphor of a blogger as a conductor comes the observation that many successful seem to go out of their way to work with other bloggers. This happens on a variety of levels ranging from the informal and unorganized linking that bloggers do among themselves through to formal networks and partnerships that many bloggers are now arranging amongst themselves.
10. Good Boundaries
Associated with this strategic nature of many successful bloggers is that they know not only what they do blog about but also what they do not blog about. Most successful blogs that I’m aware of have a range of ‘boundaries’ which associate both with the topic or niche that they cover but also boundaries around how personal they’ll get and what ethics they operate within as they blog.
There are more, but these provide a nice overview of how to develop and maintain a blog.
Becoming a Great Moderator
The ten habits of effective bloggers also apply to moderators. The best Moderators are skilled facilitators who learn how to balance between the roles of a “sage on the stage” to a “guide at the side.” They are able to keep subscribers within the focus and stated purpose of their Forum. In some cases, the purpose is defined with a narrow focus; other times, the focus is wider allowing for the conversations to flow unfettered. It is up to each Moderator to pick a style that suits their personality and allows their passion and enthusiasm for a particular focus to consistently shine through.
Another job of the moderator is to stimulate conversation in the forum. By being proactive 4-5 days each week, you will increase the interest in your Forum. After all, who wants to sit in an empty room? A good Moderator ensures that his/her Forum is inviting, active, and an asset to the Community Forums as a whole.
What does “moderating” really mean?
Generally, Moderators have a threefold responsibility:
- ensure that subscribers are following the Discussion Guidelines
- assist new members
- foster lively discussion
Authority and Responsibilities of the Moderator
Moderators can:
- Post a new topic
- Post replies
- Be notified via email of each new post or topic
- Edit messages
- Delete topics or messages
- Move topics or messages
- Have multiple moderators in one forum
- Make announcements
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