May 4, 2016 / General Advice & Pro Tips

Stay Supported with a Blogging Group

Two heads (or three, or four, or a dozen) are better than one! Find friendship and feedback in a blogging community.

Did you know? Bloggers who participate in group blogs and blogging communities blog for longer periods of time than those who go it completely alone. After analyzing the history of thousands of blogs, our data wizards concluded: “People who write in groups are more likely to keep writing.”

While it’s easy to focus only on our own blogs and what we want to create, paying attention to the social aspects of blogging has myriad benefits — it’s an excellent way to get constructive feedback on your work, technical help, and stretch yourself as a writer (or photographer, or sketcher, or poet, or…). And being social generates friendships and views, which don’t hurt either!

Here are a few of our favorite ways to get involved with a supportive blogging community.

Home-grown help: The Blogging Meetup

blogging_meetup_logo

Folks who participate in Blogging U. often find themselves eager to keep in touch with other bloggers taking the same course. A group of Blogging 101 alums took matters into their own hands and created The Blogging Meetup: a group site for anyone who thinks blogging is more fun when done with friends.

A community chat area gives members a place to ask one another for support, whether creative or technical, and share new posts. Weekly blogging events make it easy for participants to get involved and find new reads and new fans. The community also highlights different members’ blogs each week, which brings a nice readership boost to each blogger.

You can browse the site, follow along on their Facebook page and Twitter feed, or head to their registration page to let them know you’re interested in joining the fun — previous Blogging U. participation isn’t required.

Special interests (the good kind)

If you’re interested in connecting with people around specific topics, there’s no shortage of special interest blogging groups, on WordPress.com and beyond. Some googling will turn up countless groups, and here are a few of our favorites:

If you’d like some peer support but don’t want to join these (or any other) group, the Community Pool — a place to give and get feedback on any aspect of blogging — is here for you! A new thread opens every Monday.

  • Canvas of the Minds: a group of folks blogging about all aspects of mental illness, supporting one another both in blogging and health.
  • Cee’s Photo Challenges: a variety of themed weekly photo challenges, giving an easy in to photographers of all levels.
  • Friday Fictioneers: this micro-fiction challenge — 100 words or less! — has been going strong for four years, and has a dedicated group of supportive participants.
  • Chuck Wendig’s Flash Fiction Challenge: hundreds of writers converge on Chuck’s site for semi-regular writing challenges. Here’s the latest installment.
  • #weekendcoffeeshare: we recently highlighted this fluid community of bloggers who post weekly “coffee dates” — a lovely way to publish more intimate posts and get to know other bloggers more deeply.

And of course, you can take a look at our Community Event Listings to look for groups that are up your alley. We just cleaned ’em up to purge defunct events, so you’re more likely to find active events.

Create your own group

If there’s no existing group that floats your boat, or you already have a group of regular readers and commenters that you’d like to work with, make your own group! Create a new blog, invite your co-bloggers as users, et voilà, you’ve got your own little network.

For group collaboration, we love the P2 theme and its ability to let site members post directly from the home page; it’s what the The Blogging Meetup uses, and what we use to collaborate internally at WordPress.com. But you can create a group blog with any theme you love.

Part of a great group? Please share! Or connect with others in the comments, and create something new.

 

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  1. Hi Michelle,
    Thanks so much for mentioning my blog. It’s a real treat to be mention to you. You also mentioned some other great blogs that people can respond to. I know I have a wonderful community of friends and bloggers because of the challenges. Once again. Thanks.

    Liked by 4 people

  2. Reblogged this on Cee's Photography and commented:
    Michelle, at WordPress, Daily Post, mentioned my blog and its challenges. Needless to say I am honored to have been mentioned.

    Also, thanks to all of your who have responded to my challenges. I have met so many wonderful people and have had so much fun with everyone.

    Hugs
    Cee

    Liked by 2 people

  3. Great information! Thanks for the post and as soon as I settle, I will join a couple other groups. I love the coffee share but I am not sure I am a group participant. I have just been responding to the actual posts from some of my friends. Just need to get back on track with these events.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. I didn’t even know there was such thing as blogging groups! That’s so cool! Someone check out my blog and form one with me lol!

    Liked by 2 people

      1. I couldn’t comment in the comment section. I didn’t know how. I only hit “reply” and replied to the Email. I didn’t leave a comment on your post like the others.
        Janice

        Liked by 2 people

  11. Thanks again Michelle for the shout out and continued support for the Blogging Meetup. We are working hard at continuing to cultivating a community of bloggers that want to discuss/help/assist blogging with other bloggers.

    Liked by 2 people

  13. I love doing these things, seeing all the different kinds of people that club together, the sheer randomness of the blog categories, I love it!

    So, mines about writing, generally I’ll post writing prompts of the larger kind when I can, but occasionally I post thoughts about current situations.
    Course I’m working now so I can’t post as much but I try my best haha.

    I hope to see more of everyone in the future.

    Liked by 4 people

  14. While reading this blog I was feeling like I am being facilitated for joining WordPress. Its really nice to know someone cares for fellow bloggers. It’s great help, this blog post is awesome.

    Liked by 4 people

  16. Hello Michelle,
    Thanks for this article, I am a beginner blogger @ kewanblogs.com
    So appreciate such
    #kewrites

    Liked by 2 people

  18. i’m a beginner and i had no idea there was such a thing as group blogging! doing this alone can get boring! someone check out my blog and form a network with me please!please!please! thanks!

    Liked by 2 people

  20. How do we interact with fellow bloggers now that you’ve done away with The Commons 😦 @michelleweber 😦

    Liked by 2 people

    1. We’re working to create spaces for you to do that here, and encourage you to interact as much as possible directly on other folks’ blogs; if you’re taking a Blogging U. course, each course still has a recommended tag to make it easy to find other folks taking the same course.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. Hello Poorva! Would love to look, I’ll take a look later today and shoot some feedback. I’m not a master or anything, but perspectives never hurt! Feel free to do the same on my page 🙂

      Liked by 2 people

    1. I’m in the same boat as you! I didn’t know where to even turn in order to get help developing my content in general. Community pool has been a huge help for me.

      Liked by 2 people

  28. Perhaps ,this is one of the challenges one encounters while starting out as a new blogger,the urge to stop while one hasn’t done anything yet.I would love to join a group that pens their thoughts daily…Mochadhino.wordpress.com

    Liked by 2 people

  29. Wow! This looks great. I can’t wait to get connected with other like minded and creative minded minds.

    Liked by 1 person