One of the social networks that I feel is very underutilized and spoken for is MyBlogLog. I’ve been a fan of this network since I started out in the blogosphere back in 2006. MyBlogLog was acquired by Yahoo! Inc. and it allows you to create a profile, join communities (blogs), share your social feed (much like FriendFeed), and have your avatar appear when you go to a blog that uses a MyBlogLog widget. From a personal branding perspective, it’s an extremely powerful social network because you get to see what your readers look like, which establishes more of an emotional connection.
Stand out with MyBlogLog
I’m not Indiana Jones or Sherlock Holmes by any means, but if you look at the picture to the right (at the top right hand corner), you’ll see something very interesting. There is an avatar of a man named Robert Saric with a white border around it. This is pure genius if you think about it. I’ve actually never seen this done before, but what it does is allow Robert to stand out amongst all of my visitors (20) and for it to catch my eye and write about it. With millions of people on this social network, this is certainly the ultimate way to stand out, especially because your avatar is your “personal ID” in MyBlogLog. It’s like your passport when you travel from blog to blog.
Now that you know of this secret strategy (you can use a photoshop program to create the border around your picture), not only will Robert hate me for writing this, but if everyone ends up doing this, we’ll go back to no one standing out again!
Other MyBlogLog tips
1. Get a MyBlogLog widget for your blog right now. You can customize it if you’re using a self-hosted version of Wordpress by going here.
2. Join communities where you share common interests. Communities on MyBlogLog are blogs of people you may know or not know. By joining them, you can network with other bloggers who may help promote your message down the road. It’s one more thing you would have in common with them.
3. Pick an avatar that is consistent with the avatar you use on other social networks, such as Twitter. The avatar has to best represent you and cannot be a picture of a make-believe character or cartoon.
4. Add people to your community. If you want to grow your blog network, then click on the profiles of those who visit your blog on your MyBlogLog widget and add them. This is a good technique to keep in touch with your readers.
5. Use tags so that people know to go to you for specific resources. I use marketing, personal branding and web 2.0.
6. Fill out your profile completely just like you would do on other social networks.
7. Add your social network accounts to your feed, such as Twitter or Delicious. It’s an automatic feed, meaning that you don’t have to keep posting content, yet reap the benefit of being an active contributor to the conversation.
Feel free to join my community on MyBlogLog 
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I <3 highlighting small changes that make a big diff like this, Dan!
What an elegant, simple way to stand out, Robert! Good stuff — now it’ll be intriguing to see who else copies it, and if it eventually becomes so commonplace that it’s no longer visually distinctive.
I haven’t made a lot of use of MyBlogLog yet.
Great Article Dan!
I used MyBlogLog quite a bit last year, but it seems like it’s lost steam to Twitter, Google Connect & Facebook Connect. Do you have any info on it’s traffic?
Julie
Follow me on twitter @juliemarg
Not much traffic. It’s more for branding Julie.
I’ve also slacked off on this service, but I think I will log back in to add my auto feed from Twitter. Also, that white border in the avatar was pure genius! Good find.
Thanks Peter. It deserves another look, but you should spend more time on the services you’ve already had success with. This means you should play to your strengths.
Great post that got me to finally join MyBlogLog. Horribly designed site, IMO, but very rich. How much boost can you get from this service? And how much maintenance does it need? I read blog posts I’m interested in (including yours, Dan) in Google Reader. Do you find that you spend much time here as compared with Reader?
Walter, your output is equal to the time invested in your input. Twitter is a much better service, but I think MyBlogLog does have value to any blogger.
Dan, I’m with you on the value of MyBlogLog. Just the analytics it offers, which is different from what you get with Google, make it worth having. Beautiful catch on the white border. I’m sure we’ll see some interesting variations of that start appearing on avatars now.