Last week I initiated a series on starting and running a RPG blog based on my own experiences. It was supposed to be only one post, but I should know better by now, right?
I started with the ‘Why‘, then I tackled the ‘How‘ and the ‘What‘ of RPG blogging.
Today I’m going to talk about the ‘Who’, meaning who you write for, how to interact with readers and the RPG blogging community and how to advertise your blog.
Target Audience
I made ‘write a RPG blog for you’ a key theme of this series. However, you do post your stuff online so that others can read and comment on it.
I mean it’s the whole raison d’être of a Blog right? Otherwise you might as well just write in your word processor and leave the texts on your computer.
As (relatively) large as the RPG market is, only a small fraction of it actually reads anything about them on the web. What’s more, out of that small fraction, only a part of that population strays outside of their game’s official sites/forum.
A quick discussion with RPG bloggers has established the current potential audience of RPG blog readers at somewhere between 1000 and 2000 and growing slowly (I’m not sure if Email subscription and RSS Reader count double for the same ‘subscriber’).
There are more, but I’m willing to bet that a given blog’s content can hope to reach that number based on regular quality content. That’s not a huge reader base granted, but it also means that you should be able to handle the blog’s growth.
As a starting blogger you should not focus on getting to the top. As we covered in the “Why” part of this series, you write for your own reasons and trust that similar minded people will start reading you.
In fact the best tip I got from the readers of this blog is that you should be your own target audience. Write about things that you find interesting and you’ll eventually get readers who share your tastes.
As you develop your blogging skills, you’ll invariably start drifting in your content and style as you explore the medium. Hopefully that shifting will bring in more readers.
Plus maybe you’ll get lucky and you’ll create a new style of posts that will generate a new audience. My Trope Series did just that.
Bottomline: Write as if you were your own target audience.
Comments
Ahhh comments… How hard we hope for them to start coming in. How frustrated/discouraged we get when we get none. How blown away we are when complete strangers start responding. How panicked we get when they get out of control!
Getting comments, preferably positive ones, is such an addictive feeling. It’s the payoff of all that writing work and a sign that you’ve started to affect people.
Here’s the thing. Readers don’t usually comment. It takes a particular spark to get a reader to want to respond, and that spark must be strong enough to motivate the reader to go through the hoops of commenting on your blog (i.e.: Entering Captchas, email address, naming oneself and sometimes even registering).
My wholly unscientific observations seem to indicate that about one RPG reader in 10 comments on a blog. About 1/2 that do it frequently. So when you get your first comment from a stranger, chances are there are 9 others lurking on your site.
However do remember one thing, readers do not owe you anything. They don’t have to comment and they don’t particularily like behind asked or told to do so repeatedly. They’re being generous enough to actually take some of their time to read what you have to say, don’t press your luck, especially early in your ‘career’.
While I think it’s all right to nudge readers gently for feedback by asking open questions, just please don’t be that blogger that nags and sounds hurt/desperate that no one comments.
That’s why you absolutely must do everything you can to make commenting easy for the readers as I mentionned in my ‘how‘ post.
Lastly, when people do start to comment on your blog, please be cordial and try to answer rapidly. Not necessarily in the following minutes, but please do so in the next few hours. If you have nothing to add to the comment, at least welcome the reader and thank him/her for the comment. You might think that’s unnecessary, the reader won’t.
A blogger’s answers to comments is what makes readers want to comment again. It shows you care about what they have to say. I’ve left many comments on blogs that never answered. Said comments were left on posts where I was the only commenter!
I don’t visit these blogs anymore.
Blog communities are born out of that dialog. Content is the fuel, dialog is the fire that keeps the blog’s steam engine running.
The frequency and penetration of your response to comment depends on your free time and personal comfort discussing with strangers. Some bloggers answer each and every comments, others chime in on those that need a response. Others, especially on very high volume blogs, don’t respond anymore as the community has become self-sustaining and comments go in the hundreds within hours.
I’ll touch on this in the next post of this series where I’ll discuss the handling of a RPG blog’s success.
Bottomline: Comments are the currency of a blog, you have to earn them, not beg for them. Once you get them, maintain them by interacting with the readers.
Networking…
Here we come with the key points I’ve been wanting to make all along (only 3000 words later… sigh).
The RPG blogging niche is a small one, but with a suprising number of bloggers doing it. Most of these bloggers are friendly, generous and passionate geeks that love to discuss and exchange on new ideas (at least I like to believe they are).
What you need to do to get your name out there is to comment on their blogs and enter, in the comment registration field, the URL of your blog.
Do it often and do it well. By that I mean add something to the discussion at hand don’t just say ‘QFT’ or ‘man that sucks’ or, heaven forbid, ‘First Post!’ and then leave, that’s spamming at best and trolling at worst.
If another’s bloggers post inspires you to write more than 2 or 3 paragraphs, I suggest you make your comment into a post on your blog instead. Make sure to link that post to the original post that triggered your reaction (I mean you have to generate content on your blog, not feed the other’s).
I guarantee this will likely bring the other blogger running to your site to see what you have to say about the original post.
If the points you make in your posts about other bloggers points of view push forward the discussion at hand, chances are that blogger will write a follow up article linking to your post.
Bingo! You just got a door opened to another blogger’s readership!
Just remember that they don’t have to do it. If they do, you should leave a comment thanking them (don’t gush too much) and move on.
Regardless if this happens or not, after a few back and forth, you should add that blog to your blogroll (gaining goodwill points from the other blogger) and possibly ask the other blogger to do the same for yours.
Feel free to send emails to the bloggers asking questions, giving feedback and generally being nice. Just don’t expect a warm and rapid response (if any) if you haven’t made your mark yet.
If you have the time, you may even offer to be a guest poster on another blog. It pays nothing in our niche (trust me, it doesn’t) but it gives you added visibility and authority.
All this is the best possible publicity you can hope to get. It’s free, it’s generated by peers and it fosters your feeling of belonging to a community.
I owe a lot of my current success to other bloggers and online publishers like Critical-Hits, Dungeonemastering.com, Stupid Ranger, Roleplayingtips.com, Gnome Stew (then Treasure Tables), and Twenty Sided and I’m happy to have felt welcome in these communities so early on in my ‘career’.
(See what I just did there? It’s worth the extra 5 minutes!)
… and Advertisement
Before I conclude, a short word on advertising your blog by more ‘traditional means’. I’ve rather little experience with it and I’m still unsure how efficient it really is.
Feel free to chime in if you can add to this (he he he… I’m shameless).
While buying some Google Adsense space, registering a banner with outfits like Project Wonderful and submitting your posts to services like Stumble Upon and Digg will give you page views and traffic spikes, I’m just not sure how many clickers ‘stick’ to the blog.
I’ve found that leaving comments and cross/guest posting is by far a more efficient strategy than advertising with banners and submitting posts to sharing services.
Your Mileage May Vary of course.
I mean I’m always happy to surf on a Stumble Upon wave, but once the wave is passed, the traffic usually isn’t all that higher.
Bottom line: Networking with other bloggers by linking to them (through comments, derivative and guest posts) is the best growth tool a RPG blogger can count on.
Up next will be my final post of the series. I’ll try to tackle how to cope with the slow growth, success or failure of a RPG blog project. Chances are I won’t write it before my vacations and Gen Con as I want to let this series to run around for a bit.
Thank you all for reading!
Some of these points I have had to find out the hard way. Thank you for sharing your nuggets of wisdom! I am one of those readers who doesn’t really comment unless I find something that really sparks my attention – like this blog has.
The current problem I am tackling is the conversion from one blogging platform to another. From what it is looking like, I am going to have to manually import all of my blog posts…
I hope that switching to WordPress will be the last switch I make.
Tenachs last blog post..Roleplaying, DMs and Blogs
This really is an excellent series of posts. I hope you’re planning to put these together into an e-book so new RPG bloggers can have a great place to start that’s focused on our niche. Most of the blogging books, SEO e-books, and advice I’ve seen applies to topics with broader or more focused appeal. RPG blogging is quite a unique experience.
Propagandroids last blog post..4e D&D PHB index
@Tenach: Welcome on the blog, I’ve seen a few of your comments and I think I forgot to welcome your personally… I’m sorry, I’m starting to be in the ‘lost control of comments’ category.
See your blog for the rest of my answer.
@Propagandroid: Thanks for the kudos man. Doing an E-book as long been a project of mine. This series would be a great excuse to start reading on how to do one… I sure could use some help (Editing, layout)…
Anyone want’s to give a hand in exchange for credits in the book… I’d make that one available for free as an exercise in crafting an e-book.
Here’s the thing. Readers don’t usually comment. It takes a particular spark to get a reader to want to respond, and that spark must be strong enough to motivate the reader to go through the hoops of commenting on your blog (i.e.: Entering Captchas, email address, naming oneself and sometimes even registering).
That brings up an interesting point… Whatever you do, make it easy for people to comment! There’s a particularly prominent blog which I’ve went to leave a comment on a few times, but requires you to log in to comment. I decided that what I had to say wasn’t so important to justify the hoops of signing up for an account, confirming it, etc, and didn’t leave the comment. Eventually, I learned not to even bother clicking the link from my RSS reader to post a comment, since I wouldn’t be able to.
If you’re worried about spammers, don’t be. There’s some great stuff out there like Akismet which catches spam, and if you’re still worried about spamers, just install a simple, legible captcha. Even the simplest captcha will weed out 99% of the spam Akismet misses, which is already very tiny. Just as an extreme example, one of my favorite blogs, and a very high-volume one, Jeff Atwood’s Coding Horror has had the exact same CAPTCHA since I started reading it, several years ago: a static image of the word “orange.”
Ahhh comments… How hard we hope for them to start coming in. How frustrated/discouraged we get when we get none. How blown away we are when complete strangers start responding. How panicked we get when they get out of control!
Man, how true. Well, except the last part… I’m still waiting for my comments to get out of control. 😀
@Asmor: Just so you know, I’m convinced that this prominent blog that likes to simmer short humanoids did this consciously to make sure that commenters would need to make an effort to keep comment levels sane.
When I did complain about it, they respectfully pointed out that once I had registered, logging in was about as ‘annoying’ as leaving a captcha.
They were right.
As for leaving the same Captcha, I’m well aware of that and in fact Graham has been pushing me to keep only d20 as a captcha… but the geek in me likes to have the whole gamut of polyhedrals in the list.
Which incidentally blocks about 60 000 spams a day.
I would not mind helping you out with your e-book! I love writing and editing, as well as formatting. I also think that this would be a great tool for for new RPG bloggers, as Propagandroid said earlier. I myself have been thinking of starting one.
Tenachs last blog post..Roleplaying, DMs and Blogs [2]
Great stuff Chatty! Being a computer geek, I went for a more technical post about blogging and search engine rankings for bloggers. Not exactly ground breaking, but my information could be useful to a new blogger.
Trask, The Last Tyromancer
Trasks last blog post..Running an RPG Blog and Search Engines
Wow, right now my all time spam total is 305! Considering you estimate a couple thousand potential readers, and much of that likely syndicated, it makes you wonder how much of your bandwidth is being used by spammers even if they are being caught. o_0
@ChattyDM –
Nah, keep the gamut of polyhedrals. I do the same. I only suggested the one because you were considering removing the captcha completely, and it would have been a good medium.
@Asmor –
Even my tiny site gets over 50,000 comment spam attempts per day. I upgraded recently to WP2.6, and had to shut the comment blocking plugins off for about 20 seconds, during which time I got about 14 comment spam. If this is average, the numbers get huge fast.
I only get about 6-8 trackback spam each day, though.
@Chatty: Good advice. This really is a very useful series (and timely, too, in my case).
If you plan on putting an e-book together, I’d be happy to help with editing. I’m not sure I’d be of much assistance with layout, though.
On another note, I see you’re (possibly) planning a site redesign. I actually really like your layout, for the most part. You could lighten up the background a little, maybe, or change some of the text colors (I’m not a fan of the green, and the blue is hard to read against the darker brown of your footer), but on the whole it seems pretty solid. No reason the new version wouldn’t be, of course, but I don’t think it’s something that needs to be changed.
If you do make changes, one request: Please, please, keep the black text on white background for the main content.
Ninetails last blog post..Seeking the Raven Queen
@Tenach: I’ll get back to you. I’d love to do an honest to goodness E-book.
@Trask: Awesome post you got there. Something I know close to nothing about. I’ll link to it in my last post on the subject.
I am the 1st Google search for Dice Fetish though…
@Ninetail: The site re-design will most likely be very minor. Plugins, RSS button, navigation tools. Color shift would probably touch what you talked about, no more. I too like the site a lot…
Good to hear.
I’m not so sure I’m qualified to give design advice, judging by my own site, but at least I know what I like. The difficulty’s in achieving it. ^_^
Oh, and: “If another’s bloggers post inspires you to write more than 2 or 3 paragraphs, I suggest you make your comment into a post on your blog instead.”
I really need to start bearing this in mind. Have had a couple of cases already where I ended up making a long comment, and then later posting it as an article.
Ninetails last blog post..Seeking the Raven Queen
This series has been really thought provoking and helpful.
I am definitely guilty of fishing for comments and need to curb that comment 🙂
Now. If you’ll excuse me, I have to see what else you’ve got ’round here.
Great series. I would add that the number of comments you get goes up in a non-linear manner in relationship to the number of visitors. On a new site, 1 in 10 people comments is reasonable. Once you have 1,000, you’ll probably see that only 2% or 3% of them comment. Once you have 50,000, you’ll have less than 1% of them commenting.
There are a lot of reasons for this. Partly it’s because as comment threads go on, everything gets said. I’m not going to type up my thoughts if the #10 already said what I was thinking.
Shamuss last blog post..Charisma Penalty
@Ninetail: Some may find it sacrilegious that I keep telling my readers to go comment in their own blog but I see a lot of good material in my comments (for which I’m very lucky to get) that could help a new blogger’s post counts.
Heck, some comments from here have started being bookmarked on some RSS readers!
@Shamus: Thanks for the kudos and thanks for the perspective on the readership to Commenters ratio.
50 000! Hot damn!
This series is really cool. I would really like to see it as e-book. I especially like this last post, because there are quite a few things in there I hadn’t considered before.
For example, I just realized I’m having a problem with comments, since from an American point of view I somewhat live on the other side of the planet (Europe), which makes it hard to answer them on time, if I want to sleep at night.
BTW, thanks a lot for friending me!
@Ninetail: Absolutely, both the designing issue (oh, what troubles did it cause me before I used a pre-made design) and the posting instead of commenting thing. I should do that more often (or at all, for that matter).
More excellent points here, Chatty. I think I fall victim to the overlong commenting sometimes when it could be used as fodder for my own blog. Especially when I struggle to write some days.
As for the commenting for traffic, I am definitely on board with that. I think my traffic has all come from posting here so I thank you for allowing me to sponge off you like a blogger pilotfish! 😉
Deadshots last blog post..Hacking 3.5 – The Philosophy of D&D
@Lex: Thanks so much Lex. Since most English language online RPG readers seem to be based in the States (70% of my readership are), I’d suggest you nudge your posting schedule.
You post in the morning. Most RPG readers read when getting to work or during lunch time, so they comment. You can chime in when you come back from work and have a bit of back and forth until you go to bed.
I postponed taking any blog decision until after Gen Con. If I do an e-book, the first one will be based on this series.
@Deadshot: Hey thanks man. One of the things I will discuss in the last part is not to feel threatened by other bloggers ‘trying to steal’ your readers, I think that’s just another form of the inner demon.
I just wish I could read all my reader’s blogs, but until I find a formula to live off my writing (apart from, you know, writing laboratory SOPs) I’ll have to accept that skimming once in a while is enough.
Good idea. I’m gonna try that. Thanks!
Hey chattyDM,
Thanks for this great source of information for aspiring RPG bloggers such as myself! I’ve always wanted to turn my hobby into a bigger part of my life and I think you’ve given me some of the beginning steps to do this.
I have a question, perhaps that you can answer in your next segment in case others are interested in it. Do you know some of the finer points of copyright law for purposes of publishing things on a blog? Specifically – if I were to, say, write up house rules, homebrewed RPG prestige classes, or even my own game setting – posting such things on my blog – would those ideas be protected from others coming along and claiming authorship?
Thanks in advance!
the current potential audience of RPG blog readers at somewhere between 1000 and 2000 and growing slowly
God, that is minuscule! For a hobby like this, with a nerd fanbase like this? No wonder I had trouble finding any D&D blogs until I happened onto you. But does that make sense? Does it cross-reference with how many people read Order of the Stick and comment on enworld.org?
I have read several articles about “how to be a blogger,” and this has stuff I’ve never seen. I especially like the stuff about commenting.
I declare Asmor’s comments about registering and the spam word “orange” an honorary part of this post.
@Storyteller: Welcome to the blog! BTW, registering on the blog is not necessary to leave comments… Although it will eventually save you having to enter your name each time you want to comment.
I’m really not up to speed on Copyright issues and would love to have a fellow blogger/reader tackle this issue. From my understanding everything you post online is ‘protected’ by your country’s local Copyright laws.
If you intend to publish house rules and material specific for a RPG you should check if there are licenses available, like the Open gaming Licence.
For D&D/d20 3.5 I suggest that you post the entire Open Gaming license on one of your blog’s pages.
If you want to use ‘Open Content’ from someone else’s work, do remember that you still have to ask permission as only part of any material is full open.
I have a Copyrights and OGL notice somewhere on this blog but I think I lost it somewhere.
As for D&D 4e, we’re all waiting for the Fan Site policies from Wizard of the Coast.
I’m seriously considering “applying ” for a Creative Commons license for the blog’s content. SInce I don’t sell my past posts per say (but I may do it in the future) I want to clarify how others can use it in their own published works/sites.
@Others: Feel free to chime in on this.
@Noumenon: I think that the online RPG fan community is empirically much larger than 2000. Johnn Four sends out more than 10 000 copies of Roleplaying Tips every week.
However said population is likely fractionated with a large part on their games’ sites, then EnWorld, then forums like RPG.net and theRPGsite and then the smallest part is reading blogs.
I plan on making that last part bigger, along with the help of the current and next generation of RPG bloggers 🙂
Yeah, I’ve some Megalomaniac genes… but many big thing started with a crazy unrealistic vision.
Some of tomorrow’s biggest names in game design will emerge from the RPG blogger community, I’m sure of it.
That’s very high praise. Thanks! I’m glad the reception has been so positive!
Publicize it please! Tell your friends.
On networking: There’s no harm in shooting another RPG blogger a polite email asking for a link. We encourage this on Gnome Stew, and I always enjoy getting those emails. If I don’t think your link will appeal to our readers, I’ll tell you that straight out; if I do, up it goes. Easy.
@Asmor #4 and Chatty #5: I’m not sure you were talking about Gnome Stew, Asmor, but I’ll follow Chatty’s lead and assume you were. There are actually several reasons we opted for registration — spam is a big factor, and the easiest reason to cite.
Investment: If I’m motivated enough to register for an account on a site, I usually come back — not always, but usually. And I feel like more of a part of the community. We hoped that would be true for GS readers as well.
Quoting rights: Who knows what we’ll do with GS in the future, but if it involves publication in other forms we know we’ll be able to include the awesome things our readers have to say about GMing. Our comment policy spells out being able to quote reader comments in published work (with attribution, of course), which I don’t think we could do without registration being required.
Interestingly, comparing TT and GS both get around the same number of comments per post on average, even though GS requires registration and TT didn’t. I was worried about that at first.
I’m sorry needing an account on GS frustrates you (assuming, again, you’re talking about us!) — frustrating readers is never what we’re aiming for!
This page is rapidly becoming a nexus of gaming bloggers…or is it just me? I think you are all on my daily reading list, how…COOL! This community is definitely one of the best small worlds around. The conversation is excellent, and the content is always useful.
I vote we chain Graham to his computer until he updates his page ; )
Excellent tips chatty, I’ve been attempting to bring them from text to life, with mixed results. I would strongly suggest adding one other little tidbit:
Never post immediately after writing an article…take a break, drink a pop, play with the kids, THEN come back and re-read it.
Seriously, I have 12 drafts that seemed SO COOL! when I wrote them, only to come back the next day and laugh myself comatose at how silly and poorly organized they were.
Then again, I am all about the rambling exposition (some say pontification) in real life, so I guess we just stick with what we know eh?
donnys last blog post..Constructing a campaign…top down.
Hey Chatty!
I stumbled upon this series just as I was starting to go through the process of starting my own blog, and your articles have been a big help. I’m hoping to use my blog to focus my writing and work especially on my interest in mechanics. Thanks again!
–Nick
Nicks last blog post..Quick Fix: Adding Aspects to D&D
This post has a ton of great information, even for non-RPG blogs.
SeiferTims last blog post..Zounds! Update
Seriously, I have 12 drafts that seemed SO COOL! when I wrote them, only to come back the next day and laugh myself comatose at how silly and poorly organized they were.
I think you deprived yourself of 12 blog posts there. It’s a well known phenomenon of blogging that what you think is the big interesting stuff never gets written, while the stuff that just drives you to your keyboard to pound out a post right now takes over the blog.
Noumenons last blog post..I talk funny one day
I agree with Noumenon. Do take a short break, do edit your post once or twice, and then POST!
Early posts will suck, I guarantee it, mine did.
Once posted though, there out there, so it becomes an incentive get better.
Don’t let the inner demons take an oblique route to prevent you from posting. You’ve shown potential in our comments and your post on TPK shows the same promise.
It IS rough around the edges… but who cares!
Keep paragraphs short, one core idea per paragraphs and move on.
If you post is a bunch of disorganized ideas, make them into lists… after some time and practice, your mind will get better organized and the words should flow better.
My unasked for 2 cents
@ chatty – Apreciate the feedback, I rest assured that they will improve as I get practice. I am a pretty undisciplined writer, I just like writing, and rules be damned!
I’m just happy to finally have my “own” place to absord, digest, and regurgitate my own take on all of the great ideas all of you folks throw out there. If you haven’t seen it yet, stupidranger has a gem this morning too!
One quick question for you experienced folks out there. It’s even on-topic! How do you deal with flamers? Where do you draw the line? I don’t mind a few bad words or some heated discussion, but when is it “acceptable” to jump in with a bucket of water? I ask because I have engaged in some douchebaggery of my own on several boards in the past, and it was VERY inconsistent as to what was ok/not ok.
donnys last blog post..The circle of dice…of the Elton John variety
That’s a contentious issue… Here’s my take on it, and I invite others who think differently to chime in.
Online Conflict resolution/aversion is an art more than a science. I say go with the approach that suits you.
A blog is not a Forum. It is like the porch of your front house. It is out in the public, but it’s still your turf, so you’re allowed to make your own rules.
I’m a pretty conflict adverse person, mostly because I HATE getting mad because I just fucking lose it and I almost always regret it.
I therefore tend to always assume that when a commenter is a bit, shall we say, snarky, there’s a good reason I might not know about/understand.
In such cases I’ll inquire politely about the issue and question the necessity of the snarkiness.
If the ‘douchebaggery’, as you so beautifully put it, continues, I’ll either ignore the commenter and/or delete the comments.
Plus, I’m sure I’ve readers who would likely join in the fun and jump on the jerk… while I’d appreciate the chivalry, I’d rather have civility.
Fortunately I never had to go that far, I hope I never do.
As Shamus Young once pointed out… ” If you don’t like it here, feel free to hit the ‘back’ button’
Dear donny,
Nyah!
Sincerely,
Graham
😛
Additionally, I disagree with your “never post immediately” part.
None of my stuff has ever been saved in draft form. I don’t work that way. I write it and post it (or, if I wrote a couple things at once, set it to post the next day).
Keeping it around doesn’t help me, and my blog is stream-of-consciousness based anyways.
@Lex: Yeah, I highly advise starting with a pre-created design. There are a ton of themes for WordPress, for instance.
My problem in this regard lies in the fact that I just have to tinker with everything to get it to work the way I want to.
The advantage to this is that I learn some new stuff, like CSS.
The disadvantage to this is that I have to get all that new stuff to work the way I want it to, which is not necessarily easy.
I started with a downloaded theme on my new blog, and have been editing it in stages to bring it closer to what I want the design to be. At this point, I’m just starting to become happy with my basic layout. My large-scale tinkering is, I hope, mostly finished, but I couldn’t call it easy.
Fun, yes, but not easy. ^_^
Thank you chatty, That was actually pretty darned informative. I had never thought to seperate forums with blogs (DUH!)…showing my age a bit or something!
@graham – Consider me officially Nyahed…wow…gonna call webster for that one ; ) Rest assured that when you do update, I will be there reading it!
As to style, I kinda have to draft. My writing comes in big messy chunks, and usually requires at least one or two revisions…I wish blogger would let me cut and paste!
Man, I get prolific wheb the boss is out of town…it is getting easier too. It helps having great material to analyze, luckily this community is rife with it. From Trask’s Tyromancing, to Jeff’s old school glory. It’s a good place to be.
donnys last blog post..The circle of dice…of the Elton John variety
Fully agree with the comment-hopping. It’s where more than half of my audience comes from (…along with 20% from BlogCatalog, 10% from signature advertisements in gaming forums, and the rest from… people I know, mostly).
Keep posts relatively short, about 600-800 words on average. If you get over a thousand words on one post, you might want to consider sub-dividing it. Not only does being concise like that keep the reader from glaze-eyed skimming, but it makes the idea last longer (particularly useful if you write a daily) and the fact that you’re doing a series means that people who’ve come in for one of the earlier posts are likelier to stick around to see what you say next. Just make it clear it’s a series.
Ravyns last blog post..Conversational Exposition: Execution
Chatty, I really love these meta posts. (Even if I’ve read the same basic information in metaposts from webcomic bloggers in the past. Yay best practices!.)
Michael Phillipss last blog post..Fish: The Michael Style Cat Post
Thanks for the welcome!
Again Chatty, thanks for this series. I’ve found similar numbers in commenting to what you’ve said (mine seem about 20 views to 1 comment…roughly). Each comment strokes that ego just a bit, especially knowing how rare these comments can be.
And, for the record, YOU were the first commenter at The Geek Emporium, so congratulations!
I have made it a point to respond to every post, and hope to continue to do so. I just can’t always do it as timely as I’d like. I can’t access wordpress worth a damn at work 🙁
I’m thinking of putting something to that effect on my site so people know I’m not ignoring them. Who knows.
Toms last blog post..I Got Skillz
@Ninetail: Yeah, I’ve been designing XHTML/CSS websites long before I had a blog, and it often drove me nuts. I won’t do that again if I can have cool themes for free.
I don’t know the ones for WordPress though, IJ uses a different software as far as I know.
@Noumenon: Absolutely. Spontaneously posted entries are usually the best ones (or at least the funniest ones).
I, on the other hand, need ages to write a single comment, and then usually still have to edit it.