On Sunday I posted about BlogCatalog – you may want to read that first. My profile at BlogCatlog is here. So, continuing from that post, in the center column, after “My Profile” and “My Blogs,” is “My Communities.” It took me quite awhile before I figured about what all that meant! OK, call me a slow learner – it gets a little overwhelming to me to learn about all the different formats and ways of being around this blogosphere.

Whimsy, Digital © Diane Clancy

“My Communities” are some of the social networking sites that are around. You can see on the side bar of this blog a list of my communities – BlogCatlog offers lots of cool little widgets that you can put on your blog. This little widget you can see is showing what some of my social networking sites are – like Flikr, and Facebook. Of course, BlogCatalog showcases only a handful of these sites … but they are some of the biggies like YouTube and MySpace. I particularly like that BlogCatalog gives people a place to put these sites into their profile.

If I like someone on BlogCatlog or through blogging like from this site, then I will like them elsewhere too. I find it fun to connect with people in a variety of ways. Sometimes people start these things with a network – like most of the kids at a certain college .. well, they have their initial friends cut out for them. But I am just an artist, in a rural area, and it is very nice for me to be able to connect with others across these different social circles!

Other widgets show who has been viewing your blog, who your neighborhoods (see the other post to see what they are) are, discussions (I haven’t entered into that yet if ever), your groups (which were covered the other day) and communities – which I love and which I have finally put on my blog after seeing it on numerous other blogs. This takes care of the center large column.

Moving to the right hand column … At the top is your name and also links to your profile and your account. A friend called me a few minutes ago and he wanted to know how to get back to his own page from mine. So thank him, Tom, for my telling you this. It took awhile for me to get this piece too. So click profile to get back to you … and account for settings and such.

Under that, is a link to edit your profile (the pencil) and create the widgets we have been talking about. Skipping to “Shoutbox.” Shoutbox allows you to leave messages for people – and they can be either public or private. If you want private, make sure you click the “private” button – I know obvious – but I missed that one the first time.

You can click on the link below an icon (person) in the shoutbox … BUT at the end of the Shoutbox list, is a box that you can put a shout into … so that is good. Took me awhile to find that shoutbox at the bottom too. You would use the shoutbox at the bottom of this part on someone else’s sidebar – when you want to leave them a message.

I just get overwhelmed by all the options!! I am sure I am not the only one. So, Shoutbox is just a way to message someone very easily. The profile is a magical place where you can do many things.

I think I better finish this tomorrow … or else it will go on too too long! If you would like to see the post I did today at World Gallery on Shades of Color, please check it out.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: BlogCatalog, blogosphere, social networking, widgets, Flikr, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, World Gallery