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Tracking Black Bloggers


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I’ve just created a database to track Black Bloggers, and I invite you to submit your Blogs for inclusion: http://huria.org/blogs/

 

The password to enter a new blog is “bloggerweek” (without the quotes).  I’ve already collected data for 107 blogs.  If yours was one of them please email me at info@huria.org, you’ll need to use a different password to update the information I entered.

 

The primary purpose of the site is to showcase Black Blogs (I actually discovered some great ones building the database), and to make them more easily discoverable.

 

I also plan to add these blogs to the Huria Search engine.  Huria Search is a Google search engine whose search results are restricted to Black websites. 

 

I’m not interested in including just any 'ole Black Blog, I’d like to include serious bloggers.  Of course determining who is “serious” is a subjective activity; so I’m interested in coming up with some objective criteria to determine which blogs meet some minimum standard for inclusion.

 

My initial thinking is that the Blog should be at least two years old, hosted on its own domain, with some minimum MOZ page authority.  None of criteria has been determined yet, right now I’m collecting Blogs information. 

 

Again, If you have any feedback please let me know--and add your Blogs.

 

 

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Great way to build the old web ring styled set up. I suggest adding this to the power list in some way. Since my site has the power list logo I'd like a blog list roster of some sort. Thanks for including my site. It says CDP instead of CBP but I'm honored. As far as suggestions I think recent updates would be a necessity.

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Hey man I corrected the typo for you Blog's listing. 

 

Regarding your suggestions

  1. When you say add it to the Power List, I'm not sure what you mean.
  2. When you say recent updates would be a necessity; what do you mean?

I both vases it is not clear to me what you are suggesting that I do-- thanks for the feedback and no problem being included.  I'm speaking at a Blogger conference in two weeks I hope to gain some additional traction on the site then.

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I'm talking about choosing blogs to be accepted into the listing. If the blog hasn't been updated in 3-4 months they aren't actively working on the site so it wouldn't be added to the list. Here is a site I visit daily www.politeconversation.com It's pretty good.

 

In regard to the Power List, I was only talking about a logo for the blogroll that would give the list an identity. I guess Huria is that logo, but can a code be generated to randomize what site is visited when it is clicked? Kind of like the old school webring.  I would add that to the site and write an article about the importance of visiting sites in a heartbeat. I think you may have finally figured out a way to move people back to visiting sites.

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Yes I thought about making that a criteria for inclusion.  The trick is getting that info programmatically.  I think I can pull that through an RSS feed, but that is something I'm going to look into.  The other thing is what should be the cut off be.  I'd image there are some great Blogs that have not been updated in a few months for very good reasons.  I suspect that the other metrics I'm looking at would tease other blogs that are not updating often.  They'll have a low MOZ and Alexa number for example.

 

Yeah the list of Blogs is part of the much larger Huria effort.  I'm also working on publishing a list of Black Book Clubs.

 

Right now when you got to the site all the Blogs are listed.  I will come up with a way to randomize the order in which they are listed.  That way the it will give people a way to randomly discover an interesting Blogger.

 

I added the Blog you suggested: http://aalbc.it/politeconvo it does look pretty good.

 

I set up the homepage to display the blogs in random order.

 

One benefit of doing this is that I've discovered some really cool sites!

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If i go to huria and select best black blogs. It lists all of th blogs. You can select a category. If you look at the blogs Category is blank. So you can't search by category. I know the links work but the category button does not.

So you can't select a category.

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OK fellas thanks!  I fixed the problem.  Having to select the category twice was the clue.  Basically, the first selection was sending the category to the wrong form. The 2nd selection, on the correct form would work.  The visitor could not tell the difference, I only noticed if because the URL were different.

 

If you would both retest the form I'd appreciate it.  You may need to refresh the page first.

 

Thanks when testing the function on my cell phone I noticed a worse problem.  I was sending people to a mobile version of the page that I'd abandoned, but never took out the code.

 

Also all the Blogs have been categorized now.

 

Thanks Del and Chris for taking the time to point out this problem!  

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145 Blogs and counting.  I hope the number of Blogs will increase more dramatically as I add more features and begin more active promotion, starting with a mention in Tuesday's eNewsletter and my sharing my it at the Blogger Week conference I'll be speaking at next week.

 

My next task is to make sorting through the Blogs more easily.  I'm not sure the categories are working well, so I'm going to add a search feature, but I hope to have much more feedback in the coming weeks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for posting here Marc.  

 

The list is up to 168 Blogs.  When I get to 200 I will email the Bloggers in the database folks to solicit ideas including for promotion and get feedback on the "Visit a Black Blog" campaign.  Maybe we can get the bloggers to encourage readers to visit at least on Black Blog a day, read an article, and leave a comment, for say 30 days.   Like a 30 challenge for supporting out own.

 

BTW Marc, how did you find this conversation?  Also take a look at this conversation where I mention my impressions of Blogger Week and let me know what you think.  You were one of the few other men there and probably closer to my age than the average person there, perhaps what I wrote resonates with you.  Either way I'd be interested in reading your impressions.

 

Also I created a profile page for you: http://aalbc.it/mwpolite

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You're welcome Troy. That's awesome. I have informed a few of my blogger friends about Huria. I'm sure you will get to 200 relatively soon. I found this conversation by browsing the forum. I will take a look at that conversation, and jump in on that thread. Thanks for the profile page! I truly appreciate that.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well it is June 12 and I'm short of, what I though was a conservative goal, of 200 bloggers.  Almost a month ago I was at 168 today I'm at 182 and increase of 14 or roughly one new blog added every other day.  The effort is not not dead, but not exactly going #AskRachel viral either.

I'll email everyone on the list and look for ideas, maybe I'll start a secret forum here to exchange ideas and strategies to bolster everyone's efforts.

  

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With the new shoe I've gone back to browsing Facebook in my spare time. Something I really didn't intend on doing, but it is so quick and easy to get lost and away from the norm without thinking too much. Maybe that's the problem. Convenience is killing our browsing habits. It's so unfortunate. In order to stay relevant you have to create content, but if your content isn't sensational no one comes back to read it again, which leads to failed conversions. What exactly is the road here? You've compiled this great list, but it hasn't gone hashtag viral. We need to visit sites, but we really don't take the time to do so. I guess the only real option is to spend our time trying to at least visit one alternative site per day. AALBC is my alternative site, which is a pretty good thing.

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I tried to work with the WordPress account you put in place for me, Troy, but for some convoluted reason I am never able to get past certain steps with it. I had no luck in accessing whatever it was that you set up.  There's always confusion about old or new or temporary passwords or user names or security measures, all complicated by the fact that since I tried before to host a domain at this site all my info is duplicated in some area and different in others and co-mingled to the point where i can't sort it out.  Whatever.   I decided to just go with what I know and what is easy to me.  So, I  ended up simply reinstating my previous web page at the cost of $24.00 for 3 months which I considered reasonable. Then, I  expanded and revised this original web page - for no major reason other than that I just like to fiddle around with it.

http://conniediversbradley.simplesite.com

    

Edited by Cynique
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Yeah I guess that is the appeal of companies like simplesite--it is simple and the price sounds reasonable.  Wordpress has been around for so long and the majority of websites use wordpress I just assume it is relatively easy to use, but I guess it is not really that easy to use--even though it is free.

I added your blog to our directory: http://aalbc.it/cdbblog, so start bloggin' :-) 

You had a problem with the Blogging software here too?  It should be much easier to use now, but simplesite looks more flexible.

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