A person needs a support group in order to feel a sense of belongingness and to be successful. A group can define a person, that is why it is important to join a group which shares the same interest and makes us feel comfortable from the start.
I personally like small support groups for a number of reasons:
- I grow with them and its members
- I know the leaders and can communicate with them
- I can participate, be heard and be noticed
- I like the personal approach
Like any other relationships, memberships in support groups are two-way streets: they support you and vice versa.
Actively participating in your support groups make these groups bigger, more active and more influential. In turn, these changes make you proud, make you part of a community, give you more experience and more exposure. Consequently, you grow more as a person you intend to be.
I have plenty of support groups in my whole life: my family, my girlfriend, and a couple of organizations during my education. I will not, however, mention how I support them as it will sound like I am tooting my own horn.
Since we are in the blogging world, I have listed below a select few of my “online” support groups. (If you are a non-blogger reader of mine, don’t worry, the technical terms are minimal). Some of these you might be able to relate to. After reading, if you are interested in learning more about them, I encourage you to click on their links:
SUPPORT GROUP#1 - Readers, Lurkers, and Visitors
Let us differentiate the three first. Visitors are people coming from various sites. They can be from search engines like google looking for something and somehow ended up here. These people probably will visit once then leave. 7% of this site’s traffic are coming from search engines.
Lurkers, on the other hand, are people who visited and decided to come back. However, they prefer to just read and comment only once or twice (sometimes they don’t). There is nothing wrong with that. Some of these people, I know personally.
Readers are people who are regulars of the site. They read, go through the archives, and sometimes comment when appropriate. Most of the readers are fellow bloggers who know the ethics of blogging.
How do I support them?
One of the reasons this site continues to exist is because of them. So I will continue to write useful information to feed their hungry minds. I read my readers’ blogs and comment when I have something genuine to say. I make sure I link to the post I think others will find interesting.
The top commentators are rewarded by displaying their links on the right sidebar. On a similar note, last month, I had moved the “latest comments” high on the sidebar to easily keep track of any responses.
The following 5 readers commented regularly here: Vic the CaribooPonderer, Jeni of Down River Drivel, Marcus Langford, Frank C of OpTempo - Internet Review Magazine, and Cris.
SUPPORT GROUP#2 - BloggingZoom
If you are a blogger who wants your articles and posts get promoted, BloggingZoom.com is the place for you. In other similar social sites, self-promotion is considered a mortal sin. But the creators of BloggingZoom (Vic Franqui of Make Money Online and Court Tuttle of Internet Marketing) made it known that publishing your own posts is what the site wants you to do, and members will “zoom” your submission as a vote of approval if they found your articles worthy.
What I also like about BZ is that making friends is a lot easier and they comment on your submissions. It means one thing: you get a readership that generates quality traffic and might subscribe to your blog.
A BZ power user, Jason Clark of Inner88 - Review of Internet wrote a very good explanation of BloggingZoom. You’ll find it extremely useful if you intend to be a member of BZ.
How do I support BloggingZoom?
I like the community in BZ; the leaders are approachable even though few sensitive people might find Vic a little bit harsh. My way of supporting them is following the rules especially in post submission. Vic and Court don’t like members copy-pasting their posts for one good reason: duplicate contents. Google penalizes sites that copy others’ information. Vic also explained the benefit is mutual. I do not see any harm writing 4 sentences (approximately 350 characters) to describe your submission.
Also, they encourage you to zoom others’ submissions and visit their blogs so they get traffic as well; I have been doing that already since my first day as a member.
SUPPORT GROUP#3 - BlogHology
A blogging friend of mine - Mert Erkal of searchforblogging.com - has a vision, a vision where selected bloggers are grouped together and their best posts are promoted. I am part of that group. He calls it BlogHology. Below is a blurb of what it is:
… Similar to an anthology, a bloghology is a collection of bloggers, their profiles, photos, and links to their best posts. It is a PDF e-book which can be easily circulated throughout the blogosphere for personal branding and marketing of selected good quality bloggers…
How do I support BlogHology?
Mert is a hard-working person who is dedicated in achieving his goals, and at the same time in helping others. As a result, he inspires others using the “lead by example” technique. Seeing these characteristics in him, it is easy to follow suit. He only wants one thing from the participants: to promote BlogHology to their own readers by putting up a download link on their blogs.
I encourage you to download (by clicking on the BlogHology image above) the BlogHology E-Book, where I was also featured. Find out which of my posts were included in the first edition.
SUMMARY
I believe in the old adage “No man is an island.“. No one should be. Whether we like it or not, we need others to be successful.
In choosing the right support groups for me, I see to it they have the following characteristics:
-They should have a vision-mission
-The leaders support their members
-The members voluntarily reach out to others
How about you? Do you have support groups that you would like to share?
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Very good post. Interesting and highly informative too. OH, and thanks for the plug for my blog as well -nice touch!
“I do not see any harm writing 4 sentences (approximately 350 words) to describe your submission”
— 350 characters, not 350 words —
Jeni - Thanks for the kind words! As for the plug, no problem. It’s my pleasure.
Mick - Nice catch! Thanks for the correction. I edited the post already.
For finding or starting your own community mutual help support group, there’s the keyword-searchable group database and the “how-to” suggestions at the non-profitAmerican Self-Help Group Clearinghouse for most any specific illness, disability, addiction, bereavement situation, parenting, caregiver concern, abuse, or other stressful life situation.
Take care and hope, - Ed
“Alone we can do so little;
together we can do so much.”
- Helen Keller
I think your advice is right on target. I’m obviously a fan of BloggingZoom, but it really is a great community of bloggers who help each other. And the more people who participate, the more everyone benefits.
Thanks for the mention and the link!
Saedel,
As usual, your posts are synonymous with great advice. It’s always good to come by and read what you share and I want to thank you for the shout out. I always enjoy coming by and seeing what you gotta say; it’s good stuff, so I come by regularly.
I am going to check out BloggingZoom and see what it can do for me.
Thanks again brother.
Marcus LANGFORD
I really enjoy Blogging Zoom as well. It is a great community and is growing very quickly. Other members are great about helping you and commenting.
“No man is an island”. So true. Sometimes when working online it can feel like you are alone. It’s really important to get involved in community to have a sense of belonging.
Good explanation of your support groups. I really like BZ too and it has been a lot of help for me, as well as finding a lot of good blogs through it. I’m probably one of your ‘lurkers’
I would have to say my support group is mostly my online friends, and my husband of course. I have not found a friend with like interests in the village although there are great people here. I have not been able to be more than an attendee every other Sunday at the church I fellowship with, so although I know they love me and value me there has not been the opportunity to really get to know anyone.
Actually I have not realized the need for support most of my life being very much a loner, but that is probably my loss.
I like BZ too although I don’t think lately I have had any posts worth promoting. I enjoyed your article and have learned some tips about BZ that I was not using correctly.
BTW I think I probably have cabin fever, that is why I am not too inspired lately, it happens a lot in the north, I only have a mild case, some people go quite crazy.
Great post Saedel! Thank you so much for mentioning my name here. It is a pleasure when you blog about me
Wish you all the best!
Cheers,
Mert
Thanks everyone for your wonderful thoughts and comments. It’s my pleasure to feature my support groups here in this “planet”.
Btw, Vic, thanks for the stumble!
Well, I’m a bit of a lurker on your site as well as quite a few others…but one of my goals which I’m putting into action is to comment more actively.
BloggingZoom is great, and I’ve been very active with using BZ as well as supporting the community there. Another great post
Great post! that’s all I can say! you did a great job!
What a nice explanations. Your advice is really great. Keep it up!
I have been reading your blog for a little bit now. Great post will be checking these sites out now!!!
Your post is really highly informative. Thank you so much for this and for the nice explanation.
Blgogging Zoom rocks, great for new bloggers and veteran bloggers.
Your post is very interesting and helpful. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the intro to Bloghology, it seems like a great idea. As for supporting ‘groups’, it is definitely a must for bloggers. Your #1 is a perfect example of how we must be social and support our visitors.
Excellent! Thank’s for the post and for the information.