Well for me it’s not unless it is used as part of a bigger strategy that puts you in control.
When I talk social blogging I am talking about using social media as your blog. And this is a really dangerous thing to do because with blogging there is one rule that simply must be obeyed and that is “You must be in control of the content and blog articles that you create”
If you are not then you are swimming in dangerous shark-infested waters.
Social Media sites all have their terms of service. And let’s face it who has the time to read pages and pages on what you can and can’t-do. But it is not just networking sites that are dangerous places to post your work. Online blog sites like Blogger and WordPress.com. These are great blogging options for anyone looking to create a blog but again are you in control of what you create?
Inadvertently break a rule and you can find months or even years of work locked and even lost.
Don’t get me wrong. I love social media and the idea of social blogging on social media but what you create has to be part of a bigger strategy where you are in control. You have to be the boss.
Not all social blogging sites are the same
You can just about blog on any social site but they are all different. There are a few social sites that now brand themselves as blogging socials But are you open to one hell of a shark attack by using them.
Niume is a new start-up social that has branded itself as a blogging social but this is probably the most dangerous social blogging site out there.
Niume offers a couple of huge carrots to get members to use their platform.
They pay you $1 for any member that you introduce who then becomes active. And they pay you $1 per 1000 views to a post. Now, this may sound great but
DANGER WILL ROBINSON! …
This is just not sustainable. And if the site does not just vanish when the money runs out then there are sure to be big changes to how you use the site going forward.
This was a good move for them as it just alienated all the posting for dollar members who then left. Something similar will happen on Niume. They recently changed their terms of service that cost me my account. I wasn’t overly active on Niume and was posting there as part of my bigger strategy.
I created 3 or 4 posts about The8App, cut downs of articles on my self-hosted sites. Guess what happened, they closed my account without warning. When I contacted support they stated that my content was in breach of their Terms of Service. Now that’s fine I don’t have a problem with that, I wasn’t up to date with the changes made, but it does show how dangerous these sites are when it comes to putting your life and soul into them.
There are a couple of other things that tell me that big changes are coming to Niume.
An image and 4 or 5 lines count as a blog currently! I think what we have here is a start-up strategy to bring in members. A percentage of which will use the site correctly and actually blog and stick when the changes happen. Last I checked Niume didn’t even have a robot.txt file so anything you post was limited to being seen by members as your content was not indexed. A blogging social that doesn’t want blogs indexed?
UPDATE Niume as we suspected was not sustainable and has closed – Imagine if you had been using Nuime as your blog!
So what is the answer?
Well, the bigger strategy is the answer. Get yourself some web hosting. Buy yourself a cool domain name, grab a template and build YOUR BRAND. FirstSiteGuide.com has a great guide on how to start your own blog.
Then when your all setup use these social sites as tools to build YOU and not THEM.
If one site does shut you out, no big deal. Then if you are going to social blog then use sites that don’t restrict you.
If you are going to start Social Blogging
If you are going to social blog anywhere with any real effort then head to Google Plus. Use Google Plus as a microblogging site. There are huge SERPs benefits with Google Plus. Your content on Google Plus is indexed just about instantly. And this has a knock on effect to getting your self-hosted articles indexed fast. If you link via cut-down posts or sub-posts then Google will find you fast. Or if you are looking for something a little more challenging then you can try Steemit, Medium or the Questions and Answers site Quora. Just make sure that you check the terms of service,
Social Blogging Conclusion
Put yourself in charge. Yes, social blogging on sites like Niume and getting paid may seem attractive. But BE WARNED, Jaws is around the corner. If money is what you are looking for then there is no reason why you can’t add Google Ads to your own blog and earn more anyway.
Let me know what you think in the comments below
Regards
Dexter Roona
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Steve
I’ve not used Niume. We’ve seen the issues when a site relies on investor income and their model struggles to make money. I’m sticking with Steemit for now. They don’t rely on advertisers and users can choose whether they want to invest. I think it’s already self-financing as the founders are making enough to cover the site costs. Their blockchain can keep going even if the site goes down. It can be difficult to understand how it all works, but it can definitely pay. I’ve been able to convert Steem to bitcoin that I can use anywhere, but I’m keeping most of it in the system for now to increase my voting power.
I think people are working on ways to make Steemit voting available for content on your own site. I have run my own blog sites, but it’s extra work and I never made any money that way to pay for hosting etc.For a lot of people it’s just not viable.
Dexter Roona
Steve I’m on Steemit and although I know how to use it I don’t know about what is really under the bonnet with regards to steam and the blockchain, would you be interested in writing a guide for Infobunny? … with regards to making money on your own blog well that is easily achievable but it does take time and effort and knowing a few tricks and some seo.
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Ali Hassan
Social blogging will be the best plate from to rank a website