Domestic Fuel

The very first thing is: Do you have to register to post the blog? If you do, you will lose over half of your bloggers. And you won’t get an eclectic variety of views and ideas, which is what you want. That’s what attracts visitors. A lot of good sites have nobody blogging, because many bloggers don’t want to be subjected to registration. I personally have only registered one time, because I only had to give my email address and city, nothing more. But I have turned down many, many blogging opportunities – because the registration process was too invasive.

On several occasions, my blogs have been blackballed and never published. Not that I violated any rules. It was just that I totally disproved the author’s position. Or, I was a threat to the website’s agenda by posting apposing views. And for that, I was censored. All it takes is one time for that to happen, and I will never return to that site. If you want a great website, then have an open forum where everyone can freely express their views. That’s important.

Another thing I look for in a website is how fast blogs are published after they’re posted. The faster the better, because that facilitates real-time interaction and collaboration, the spontaneous sharing of information and ideas. Believe it or not, bloggers are pushing technology forward, because new associations are being made online. The review process on some websites is too slow. I’ve had blogs published 2 or 3 days after I posted them. That’s way too slow. The spontaneity is gone.

Information is moving fast, and articles are constantly being replaced by new ones. If the review process is too slow, I may not keep posting there, because by the time the blog is finally published, it’s already off the first page. From my vantage point, a blog should be published within 4 hours or less, and that includes weekends, when more people have time to read and respond online. The top website is a rapid response 24-7 enterprise.