We are 98,648 and rising!

The Electronic Village reached a milestone today. Technorati ranks our blog as one of the top 100,000 in the world. Today (4/21/07) we ranked: 98,648. Only another 98,639 blogs to pass in order to reach the Top 10! Doesn't seem like much until you realize that we were at about 2.3 million a few weeks ago!

Our rise in rankings on Technorati is result of a number of factors including the increased focus that we place on information that is uplifting for African Americans. My observation is that the traditional media is not fair and balanced when it comes to reporting on issues that impact the Black community. As such, our Electronic Village provides a welcome outlet for positive, proactive and honest dialogue on these issues. We will continue to move in that direction over the coming weeks.

The number of visitors to the Electronic Village continues to grow. Our decision to join social networking communities such as MyBlogLog led to increasing number of bloggers and blog readers coming to visit our village. We have never been a 'hot community' in the MyBlogLog family, however, we do consistency reach out to a growing number of 'contacts' in that venue. Currently, we have over 540 'contacts' from MyBlogLog community ... including most of the African American bloggers that we could locate based on their blog content or avatar photo. MyBlogLog has some useful widgets and statistics as well.

AfroSpear is a new afrocentric community of bloggers. The first AfroSpear action alert came out earlier this week as a result of a tragic police shooting down in the metro Atlanta area. I am interested to see how the focused energy of the AfroSpear is used over the coming weeks and months. I've added a distinct blogroll on the left-hand navigation bar showing those other blogs that participate in the AfroSpear. Of course, you can also tell from the AfroSpear logo when you have landed on a blog that supports the AfroSpear mission.

There are a number of bloggers that support the Electronic Village.

1. Danielle (Modern Musings) - I nominated Danielle for the Thinking Bloggers Award in the past. Most recently, she made me aware of the Wordless Wednesday meme. She took some extra time to walk me through some of the widget set-up for that weekly meme.


2. Keith (The 'D' Spot) - Keith is one of the most creative bloggers that I've come across. His writing skills are outstanding. He paints a picture with his words that is compelling and humorous. He mixes serious topics with not-so-serious topics. I try to visit his blog on a daily basis.


3. Paula (Paula Neal Mooney Blog) - Paula causes me to dream that I can monetize the Electronic Village. I haven't realized any success in making money from my blogging efforts yet! However, I regularly add ideas to this blog based on 'best practices' that I see on Paula's blog. Plus, she willingly shares the details on her efforts to make money.


4. field (The Field Negro) - field is a brother with an intense perspective on life that is forcefully displayed in his blog postings. We recently added Village Hero and Village Movie features that are direct result of 'best practices' that I found on The Field Negro blog. field is also part of the AfroSpear network.

There are many others. I plan to share updates on other blogs and bloggers regularly. In the meantime, you can see my various blogrolls over on the left-side of our village ... each of the bloggers listed in my blogrolls brings something special to the party.

At the end of the day, it comes down to you. You are the villagers that make this place worthwhile. Your village voices on our postings are important part of the flava that we are trying to create. I encourage you to subscribe to the Electronic Village so that you don't miss out on any of the vibe from our village!

I work to keep the Electronic Village relevant and timely. Please let me know if there are features that you've observed on other blogs that you think would work here in our village. Our success is directly tied to your insights, comments and voices. What say u?