Ok maybe it's just me but it feels like my little blog is starting to slip behind some other blogs out there.
What started as a pet project to document my army progress and return to 40k has now become a desire to be recognised amongst my peers and also strong interest in tournament play. (Something I never previously considered) Looking at my blog though I'm not actually doing anything to be noticed or making any decent contributions to the Greater Tau Blogsphere. (other than a nice looking blog that anyone can copy the template!)
I'm guessing I need to post more tactical ideas and theory on units, but then every other Tau blog has already done this and I've still not got 10 games under my belt! Will my thoughts be any different that what people can already find on other blogs? Perhaps it's just because my blog is starting out and I'm getting a bit of subscriber envy.
To the people that are current subscribers, what would you like to see more off? What needs improving on and what do I need to do less of? Am I worrying over nothing? I don't feel like quiting i'm just worried i'm talking nonsense haha!
24 Sept 2010
Wait for me!
20:15
Gredus
9 comments:
When did you start? It took me 9 months to get my first 40 followers and I popped the cork on some champaigne (lol). In nearly two years I got to where I am now in terms of followers and comments, but blogging is a marathon not a race. Take down the names of the blogs that came out when you did now and then revisit those blogs in a year ... many of them are vacant wasteland blogs, or zombie blogs as dead blogs are sometimes called.
January 2010 was when the blog started. I only started playing games and blogging frquently in August 2010.
You'll always have me Gredus, whenever you need a Tankshock here or there ;)
Alright, so take into account when you REALLY started - I started in a January, but really started in a may - so I was in the same boat. What got my confidence up was getting a counter on the blog so I could see traffic stack up during the day and know people were reading it. Then I went to Google Analytics and it breaks down your traffic to the IP Address, so I started to see that I was being watched all over the world. It is exiting and helps you get motivated ... with motivation comes frequent posting, with that comes visibility and with that comes followers! I 5think I'm going to write an article on getting the blog ball rolling. Thanks for the idea!
One thing you could also try is including more of the secondary parts of the hobby in your blog. Lots of blogs as you mentioned include tactics etc. What if yours had that as well as angling advise towards people collecting or looking at collecting tau. You could have stuff like a monthly unit, where on the first week you give a basis of what it does how it works etc. second week you go over what you get in the box, building it, issues you found, possible easy conversions etc. to make yours look more unique. 3rd week go over your painting of it in addition to some army lists designed around it etc. and finally in the 4th week you can have some battle reports and analysis of how the unit works in play testing.
This wouldn't be the sole thing on the blog or anything, but it would be bringing the whole hobby together on one blog. You can always choose the unit in advance so you can get some use of it and some notes etc. from your weekly games. You could have votes for "what unit next". And with the basework of it in place, you will likely find as tau get closer and closer to a new release, that this sort of all around information will pull in more people who are considering picking up the new book.
Your forgeworld broadsides are a good example of the stuff to do with the rest of the hobby. You went through how they were to build, problems you encountered, stuff you would do differently etc. Thats all great info for someone. And at the end of the day, as long as you also include the tactics type stuff, you are opening your blog up to more people by including multiple subjects within the broader spectrum of the tau universe
GiR has a really good idea there. I think that could be a really great way to look at Tau in a multi-spectrum focus.
You have a great blog man. Don't stop now.
And don't feel bad about not having as much views or followers as OSH or Fritz. Thats like trying to get more followers than god.
What helps keep me motivated is looking at my blog stats. It tells me how many people have view my blog, each post and from what country.
Another thing which helped me is by putting a page break in my post to see what my viewers are reading. They have to click on READ MORE to read the whole post which means the machine counts the view and the person is more likely to leave a comment in the comment box at the bottom of the page.
I've only just started this month but thats what helps me.
The page break is a great idea, I'll be doing that more often. I added the Web Counter in about August and need to follow Google Analytics more. I know that for example From The Warp counts for a lot of my hits.
Cheers for the feed back guys. I'll try to make the post more substantial that "Here's another army list!"
Hi there. First time visitor (found this from back40k, I think.) I've been running a website for a few years, and I'd have to say I think the biggest thing that brings people back is consistency. I have written an update every week since January of 02. When you stop being consistent, people stop checking back. Basically, keep writing something.
if you are interested, you can find me at http://warpstorm.net
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