The Editor's Desktop: Gather and bloggers - how to coexist

Welcome bloggers, casual writers, and published authors. The Gather community is growing steadily and we are happy that you have joined us and are contributing your content.

Gather is different than the typical blog aggregation site for a number of reasons. It's a single site for both writers and consumers. It is a place for you to form a community or an audience for your content. And it's a starting point for much wider content recognition both across the Internet and with traditional media.

Most blogs are self-contained and exist in a sea of independent sites that do not interact with each other, except by the ubiquitous "blog roll" and links to favorite home pages. Conversely, Gather is a single source for a broad spectrum of content. At any time during the day, new content is being posted on Gather on a wide variety of topics from a large cross-section of professional and independent sources. A reader looking at the "recent articles" list in the View menu will find articles on politics and religion, short fiction and poetry, travelogues and monologues. With so many authors providing so many points of view, the casual reader will find satisfying options, and the surgical surfer can drill down into any category to find new content of interest to them.

Gather also enables you to get to know your audience by name and build a rapport with them. And between them. Many writers on the site have already connected to each other over politics, recipes, even knitting. To get the most out of your Gather experience and stimulate dialogue, comments, and connections, we have noticed that articles containing questions or solicit feedback have been the most well received. Ask your audience for their thoughts. Give them enough content to force them to think about the topic. Early readers have a big impact on your content by rating and commenting on it. When an article poses a question, details an issue, and solicits input, the comments are deep and thoughtful, the ratings are high – even by those who don't agree – and the writer begins to build an audience immediately. Articles with a link to a blog, but with little to no content, have been rated poorly, ignored, or even flagged by the audience since they do not provide value to the reader. Including an image that captures the finished product, the moment in time, or the unseen wilderness adds dimension to your article and captures the audience's attention.

Beyond Gather? Out in the blogosphere, or on multitudes of media sites, readers have to figure out the navigation and editorial bias of each site, which can be a frustrating experience. On Gather, users determine the best content, the menus help in the navigation process, and great public content is searchable using Google. Not a bad place to publish, a place where we deal with the technology. The more you create demand for your content, the more rewards you'll receive. The key is to think of Gather as a publishing site, a place to share your thoughts and perspectives on the world around you.

So use Gather, and use it well. Give your audience, our audience, the best content to read and respond to. The benefits of attracting the Gather audience to your best work will pay off – literally.
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David is VP Content and Editor-in-Chief at Gather Inc. His thoughts on Gather content, and life in general, are at david.gather.com.