Is there anywhere in the site that acts as an RSS for blogs that are managed by members?  It would be interesting to see what professional and enthusiastic bloggers are blogging about without having to visit each individual’s profile (does anyone really have time for that?).

Ideally, any member who posts a new blog would have their headline show up somewhere within the site so that members could scan the headlines and decide which were interesting.  Such a facility is likely to help me figure out which members I want to ‘friend’ and follow.

It would also arguably allow those of us who write blogs to view stats showing which headlines generated the best results.

I’ve had a look through the ‘how to’ stuff and couldn’t find anything like this, but it’s entirely possible I’ve missed it.

I guess what I’m hoping for is that there is a members carnival somewhere…..?

Any observations appreciated.

Thanks all – enjoy your weekend.

Nothing that I’m aware of.  Suspect with the number of bloggers here you’d need it segmented by topic rather than just one big feed containing everything.

@adigaskell  Good point.  Assuming only half the members in this group had blogs, that would still be over 600 feeds!

@adigaskell  Yes, that is a good point.  I was thinking that it ought to be possible to categorize them by tags, but maybe that wouldn’t work and it would increase the likelihood of people adding tags just to get exposure across multiple categories, which wasn’t exactly the point of my suggestion.  Get enough spam on a daily basis already.

Maybe make members responsible for whether they want their posts included or not?  Set up a dozen or so categories, make each member responsible for selecting a single category under which each particular post is listed.  Some categories would be self evident (SM, Writing, Marketing), others might be more broad ranging (Healthcare, Sport, Entertainment).  Would be hesitant about including either ‘Politics’ or ‘Religion’ headings though – always seems to end badly!

The reason i like the idea is simply because I love looking at and studying headlines.  Inevitably, the headline is the main thing that determines whether I open something in Newsfire or not.

And you’re right about the number of feeds, though I guess the number of blog posts will come down to how many and how often people write.  I, for example, write a personal blog about once a week.  I’m sure some members blog once a day, possibly even more, or run several blogs.

Would be interesting to see the output of the group though.

Oh, how upper crust of you, in a blurting sort of way, tee hee. And, yes, I do get those “what was your mother thinking when she named you” kind of responses when traveling in Europe, especially in the Republic of Georgia where gender issues are distinctly not mix and match. I’m very relieved they didn’t name me Bubba.

On the RSS blog feed issue, great idea, but I know Mike likes to keep reader’s eyes on his pages in the Clubs and on Social Media Examiner, as would any publisher. But the idea has great merit and is very well worth mulling over a compromise, if a solution could be found that provided a win-win for all.

The win-win, though, is key. I mean as a publisher dealing with those ever-changing Google updates, the goal is to eyes on your page as long as possible with low bounce rates, etc. So what would be the incentive for Mike to do this? I assume we’d be reading the feed ON pages within the Clubs/SME’s, but enticed to leave the site. Just brainstorming here, but worth thinking about the incentives and coming up with a win-win for all, regardless of the techy challenges involved.

Just blurting…

Robin

” way for members to be able to read each other and offer some feedback / constructive criticism”
I really like this idea of finding a way to help each other by offering feedback and critiques.  Hearing what others think of your design, content, headlines, etc from an objective standpoint can be so helpful.