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Why would MySpace users subscribe to my blog?

I am a new myspace user. I know what a blog is and how to create one. What I don't know is what the implications of "subscribing to the blog". What does this mean exactly, for the subscriber and subscribee. Thanks!!

Dave's Answer:

What an interesting question! I've never really dug into the MySpace Blog capability from that perspective before. So let's have a look!

If you're only interested in keeping track of what one of your friends is blogging about, there's really no point in using this feature as you can just as easily pop over to their profile and catch up on the latest. Subscribe to more than one, however, and the value will become immediately obvious.

First off, you subscribe to a blog by finding the MySpace profile of a friend or new friend who is actively blogging and click on "Subscribe to this Blog":

You'll then be asked to confirm your subscription:

Do this for a half-dozen of your best pals and now you'll have a single spot where you can keep track of what everyone's blogging about on MySpace. Simply click on Blog on the top navigational bar:

and here's what you'll see:

Slick, isn't it? You can see that Shawn's the most prolific of the bloggers I track, but there are also postings from Tara and Kate Bush mingled in there too.

So that's the benefit for subscribing. The benefit for having subscribers is that you know that you have a readership for your writing, an audience. Anyone who is writing or blogging for their audience definitely wants to know that they're not writing to a void, so knowing you have a few, a dozen, or even hundreds of subscribers is a great feeling!

You can check to see if you have any subscribers to your own blog (you are blogging on MySpace, aren't you?) by scrolling up and looking on the blog page for your "Blogging Control Center":

Click on "My Readers" and you'll get a nifty list of whatever subscribers you may have:

So it's not hundreds of people, but even a dozen is a nice little starting audience for MySpace, and I can see that my pal Sherman Hu is a faithful reader too. Nice!

Anyway, I hope that helps you understand the benefits of both subscribing to a MySpace blog or two and the benefits of having subscribers (readers) if you're blogging on MySpace.

Two extra bonus links: Dave's MySpace Profile and my extensive list of MySpace articles, at MySpace Help.

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Categorized: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and Social Network Help (Article 6915)
Tagged: blogging, myspace, myspace blogging, myspace blogs
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Comments

For added exposure, you can also register your MySpace blog at blog feed aggregators such as Technorati and Feedster. Registering your MySpace blog with Technorati is especially easy.

Registering your MySpace blog with these sites makes it so your posts become visible to a much wider audience, essentially the entire community of world-wide bloggers, rather than being limited primarily to MySpace members.

Posted by: Kevin Farnham at November 1, 2006 1:27 PM

Dave:

Good info on blogs, but I have another question. I just signed up on myspace recently, and I have four friends, one of which is Tom. None of them have subscribed to my blog, but they are being read, and almost immediately whenever I write them. So who is reading my blogs if nobody is subscribed. And how do they know I have written one? Very few people know I am even on here. Also, how can my blogs be read without my profile view count increasing?

Posted by: Lisa at February 22, 2007 9:27 AM

Thanks for the useful information on Blogs, but I have the same query as Dave, and I would appreciate it a lot if you could answer us. If all these people are not my readers, how can they know when I send a new blog and read it almost immediately.

maria

Posted by: maria at March 15, 2007 4:43 AM

Yeah.....I'd like to know that too. I just posted a blog - with no subscribers - and it had 17 hits in less than 10 minutes. My profile count did not increase either.

Thanks!

Posted by: Misa at May 7, 2007 10:04 PM

What if we don't subscribers? How can we delete them, and keep them off?

Posted by: Jen at July 11, 2007 11:36 PM

HOW CAN I PREVENT PEOPLE FROM STEALING MY BLOGS AND MAKING IT THERE OWN AS IF THEY WROTE IT!!

Posted by: SHARON at February 4, 2008 9:08 AM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!