Meddle turns commentary into content that drives traffic to your blog and sovn is happy to welcome them as a publishing partner.
The following blog is authored by Audrey Bellis, VP of Marketing at Meddle and an avid blogger for The Times of Israel and Huffington Post Women.
I remember when I published my very first blog post. Like many other newbie bloggers, I took a chance, let down my guard and prayed that it wasn’t the dumbest thing ever.
It turned out not to be. In fact, it was highly read and shared. It went on to become a top 10 blog post for the publication that year. But you know what comes with a shared blog post? Comments. The comment section. Reddit threads. Strangers that start to follow you on Twitter and send you Facebook friend requests. All of these are mind blowing to a first-time blogger still shell shocked and humbled that anyone cared enough to read it, much less take the time to comment or reach out.
Humility gave way to partial humiliation though once I started reading the comment section of my article. My religion, my faith had come into question. A debate even started over “how Jewish” I was or wasn’t.
But not all of it was bad — some of it was incredible. Some threads had taught me about Jewish traditions I didn’t even know existed. Some of the messages were warm and supportive like a neighbor bringing you matzo ball soup when you’re sick. Some were private and told tales of empathy, sympathy, and compassion. Telling my story gave strangers permission to find strength and tell theirs. I was building a community!
In reality — this is exactly why we blog.
We seek to build communities with people who share our experiences, values, and common interests. As a blogger we have to resonate with our audience to build that following and the only true litmus test of whether we have succeeded (good or bad) is in the comment section. It’s their feedback. It’s their voices. It’s their engagement.
As a writer, I want to amplify those voices. I used to envision a day when I could take the stories shared with me in the comment section and feature them as part of my ongoing blog post. The posts wouldn’t be singular — the life of the content would become an ongoing story, co-created by my community. My people. My tribe.
Thankfully that’s no longer just hope and a wish. One year ago I joined the Meddle team and today that’s a reality. A reality I want to build with a new community of fellow bloggers that want to connect on a deeper level with their people. With their tribe. I invite you to join me and be one of the first bloggers/publishers to return to our original
purpose of why we blog: to create communities.
You can sign up here for one or both of our publisher pilot programs. One lets you invite your community to contribute to your content as a way to supplement or replace your comment section (your choice) and the other allows you to contribute to published articles that you already read anyways and drive traffic back to you while supplementing your long form content. Let’s change how we build communities together — let’s turn our tribe into co-creators.
