Unfortunately, the word “pyramid” has been tarnished by the term “pyramid scheme.” A pyramid scheme refers to an illegal game like a chain letter where people give money to other people, for no other purpose than the hope that more people will come along to give them money. Either no product or service is being sold, or the product or service is ridiculously overpriced and just used as a cover.

But remove the illegal aspects of a pyramid scheme, and pyramids are great. Almost every organization has a pyramid structure. This applies to companies, families, the military, social networks, and certainly blogging as you’ve pointed out.

Blogging without a pyramid would get pretty lonely. I’m working on growing my pyramid mainly with commenting, StumbleUpon, and Twitter.

Hunter Nuttalls last blog post..Washing Dishes Is A Waste Of Life?

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Hi Hunter,

New bloggers usually don’t have a pyramid when they first start blogging, and it can be very lonely. Unfortunately it takes time to build one, so that’s where patience comes in.

I did notice you’re on Twitter. What do you think of that?

Hi Debbie,

I hear you. Last night I looked at my reader and it said I had 86 unread posts. Yikes…… I went through the list, picked a handful to read and comment on, marked the rest as read and went back to zero.

If you have a lot of blogs in your reader, you do have to pick and choose. If on some days you don’t comment on other blogs, it’s not going to kill your readership. Loyal readers understand you have a life outside of blogging. Except for a rare few, the growth of a blog takes time. Getting hung up on the numbers can often stunt your creativity.

Playing with your daughter is much more important than blog stats….Have fun!!!

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oops – sorry for the abundance of typos and bad editing in my above comment! I’m in a rush!

Mark – Creative Journey Cafes last blog post..How to Listen Creatively

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Hi Mark,

Interesting that you should mention a drop in RSS readers. I was on Debbie Yost’s blog yesterday and she saw the same types of problems. It could be a glitch in their system.

Hi Ashish,

Welcome to the community here at BWAB.

I hope to see you here more often. I’m off to check out your blog.

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When in college, I asked my Calculus professor if mathematically he could find any way to transform a pyramid scheme into something legal and ethical.

He indulged me by working out a few scenarios but in the end, they all led to people getting cheated somewhere.

I totally see the connection with blogging and like many others here, I find it hard to keep it up. Blogging isn’t my favorite hobby. I do like it for many reasons, but like Debbie said, sometimes I feel bad because I see my child should be reading and learning but instead he’s watching TV while I read and comment.

Still, I love the social aspect of it and meeting new people. I just wish I could read faster.

John Hoffs last blog post..How To Buy A House Like A Real Estate Investor: Part 4 – Getting Your Closing Costs Covered

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Hi Jennifer and John,

It appears the only way to form community within blogging is by commenting/networking. Although I don’t think it’s necessary to comment on every blog post an author writes, showing up occasionally will keep your blog in front of others, while showing your continued support for the author.

It is tough to keep up, and as our blogs grow, it may become tougher. For that reason, I now Stumble very little, as my efforts are concentrated on my writing, answering my comments, and visiting favorite blogs.

We do have to remember, our blogs are a hobby. Our families/friends and real life should come first. Not reading/commenting may slow down the growth of community building, but if you continue to provide good content, it will grow…it just may grow at a slower pace.

Plus, some blogs do not need comments to grow. My second blog is an example of that. I get very few comments, but the search engines are finding it, and the numbers continue to increase.

Hi Hunter,

Thanks for clearing up the Feedburner issue. I can’t say I truly understand how it works, and try not to get hung up on the numbers.

There is a lot being written about Twitter now. I haven’t even looked into it, as my free time is pretty booked up. It sounds like you’re using it wisely by not being married to it.

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Great point Barbara! I love it when people stop by and say…I saw you on “so and so’s blog” it is really fun. I have been working hard to find like minded individuals creating self help blogs and have noticed that it is really fun working together and we are all learning a great deal! There is so much information out there to offer people and using blogs is a great way to get the word out.

Dr. Nicole Sundenes last blog post..The 3 Day Depression Walk?

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Hi Shilpan,

You’re making great progress.

StumbleUpon is a good social network. What I found is that it’s addicting. There are so many fabulous sites to read and beautiful pictures, I get carried away and before I know it, an hour has passed. Posts that get stumbled are great for spikes in traffic.

Hi Dr. Nicole,

Blogs are the greatest, aren’t they. It is fun finding new ones and being able to learn new things. I know every time I read one of your posts, you teach me something new.

Hi J.D.

That is true – like minds do come together on the web. If you land on a new blog, you can usually tell quite quickly if you want to stick around or not.

That’s an interesting concept-your experiment. It does come down to community, doesn’t it?

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Hi Natural,

I found the chart on Wikipedia (there’s a link to it at the bottom of the post).

A comment doesn’t necessarily spark a return one, but in most instances, blog authors are curious to see who showed up, and from where. Often I find read gems (of blogs) by following new comments back to their origin.

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Hi J.D.

I think you hit a nail on the head by saying “if it’s by design”. We do need to know why we do, what we do…and enjoy it.

By the sounds of it, you have a full plate, and your priorities in order.

Will you be sharing more about your next book on your blog? Care to share what your other one(s) were?

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Hi JEMi,

Glad you made it.

With you being in the middles of finals/college/life, you are one busy girl.

I’m happy that you do take time to drop by and leave a comment. If you always can’t, I certainly understand why.

Good luck on those finals, and thank you for being such a loyal reader.

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Hey Barbara

Good question — and I don’t have a great answer … yet

So far my books have been technical –security, performance and building software. You can see them listed on my sidebar of my work blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/jmeier/ ) They vary in size from 250 pages to 900 pages. They’re on Amazon, but they’re also free in HTML and PDF. Even though they’re books, the methodology has been baked into tools. I’ve also refactored a big hunk of the guides into a Wiki to test building a large-scale KB (http://www.guidanceshare.com)

I’ll be shifting gears. I want to help unleash everybody’s potential and increase their effectiveness at work and life. I’ve learned a lot from great mentors and the school of hard knocks, so I want to share what I’ve learned. I help real people turn around some gnarly situations and get their life back and then some. I need to scale that know-how (and books are great for that.)

I have two more tech books I’m committed to, before I can start “THE” book. I’m not yet sure whether I’ll blog as I go, or write the book, then make a splash.

Here’s the irony – I have a work blog and some hobby blogs (like the bookshare), but I don’t have a “life” blog … a place where I can spout about my extra curricular activities. I’m very tempted to just put “THE” book on hold and start a blog instead and start flowing my lessons learned. It could be a good experiment, regardless of the book and it will give me a chance to spread my wings beyond my work blog. Very tempting indeed …

J.D. Meiers last blog post..3 Interview Questions for Picking the Right People

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Barbara–I have been doing this religiously since I started and I’ve gain valuable readers. While my page views has consistently increased, my feedburner subscription hasn’t. But I try not to sweat it.

Eventually as my community grows, everything will follow. my goal is to maintain and gain loyal readership and not a one time spike on traffic. Your system is what will bring the increase in readership and loyalty.

What we need to keep reminding ourselves is that we must practice patience when it comes to increasing readership. If we are patient and do the right thing, eventually we will be rewarded.

Chriss last blog post..Growing Old

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Hi Barbara – the pyramid idea is an interesting one. I’ve always believed that commenters bring only a small amount of traffic to your blog – but many others read and come back, because they like reading the conversation as well as the post.

People do find us through reading other blogs but the longer you’re around – the more that just becomes a tiny fraction.

@ Debbie – you are assuming that only the people commenting read – but I’m guessing that’s because you have no way of knowing who is reading your blog. The longer you’re around, there’ll be thousands of people reading who aren’t commenting. There’s probably far more people reading your blog than you expect.

Cath Lawsons last blog post..Is StumbleUpon Going Down The Tubes?

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