Blogging for Fun and Profit

Blogging expert (and rock star) David Hobby explains why you need a blog, how to start on, and how to build its popularity and financial success. East Columbia Branch Library (a great coworking spot), Wed., April 16th, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Parties

Get to know, IRL, the bloggers whose posts you read. I co-host a BlogTale party with another local blogger each month. The most self-sufficient way to get invited to the parties is to --

• Create a Socializr profile.
• Post a picture.
• Become a fan of HocoBlogs.
• If you blog, link your blog URL to your profile.

That's it.

Blog categories

Did we mess up? Did we put a blog in the wrong category? If you are a regular reader of a particular blog (or the blog owner), and you feel that we should recategorize a blog, let us know. Each blog on the HocoBlogs site is put in one of nine primary categories; they are --

1. Community
2. Arts & Entertainment
   
3. Personal
4. Company
5. Politics
6. Topics
7. Faith
8. Media
9. Tech

If you think we mis-categorized a blog, post your perspective in the comments section below.

Rock on.

BIG Wish List

Here's your chance to throw any Big Thinking our way. Unedited visions. Brainstorming. Grand community-building concepts. Links to other blog-planet-type pages. Think big, big, big here. You never know, and we'll never know, unless you tell us what you want for HocoBlogs. And remember, sometimes small things have big impact.

Suggest a feature

See any little tweaks you'd like us to make over on HocoBlogs? We're certainly not promising that they'll be implemented, but you never know -- and we'll never know -- unless you tell us what you want. Your perspective just might be the missing piece we need to make the site rock. So rock on, and please post your suggested features in the comments section here.

Reporting bugs

Notice anything buggy that we need to know about at HocoBlogs? Kindly take a moment to tell us what you see. We'll get working on it right away, or let you know what action we can take on fixing the bug.

Planet page launched

When describing HocoBlogs to an über-social-media geek and partner in WhyGoSolo, he said, "Oh, you have a planet page." And so it is, I have a planet page. It's hocoblogs.com, an aggregation of blogs by (mostly) Howard County folk, organized by category and offering links to the latest blog posts in town. Well, that's what it is now, in it's launch stage.

Robin Abello and I launched HocoBlogs on March 11, 2008. Expect tweaks. Even better: help us tweak it. You can do this by --

1. Reporting bugs
2. Telling us what you wish we were doing differently
3. Having big dreams and an unedited wishlist from the site
4. Encouraging other bloggers to submit their blog to the HocoBlogs MotherShip
5. Sharing hocoblogs in your social network to expand and diversify the readership of all the local blogs

Thanks to all the bloggers who make HocoBlogs possible. Thanks to all the readers who make blogging more meaningful.

Rock on. Read on.
Jessie