Take a look at Josh's question about it. It's actually a tough one.
In my opinion it is easier to start a Runescape blog at one of big sites with established blogging community, like Sal's or Tip.it (or even RSBandB). You'll get readers and comments right away. But it is much harder to go beyound this particular community in a long run. Chances are that people from Tip.it won't be reading/commenting on blogs from Sal's (and visa versa). While Runescape blogs hosted on neutral platforms like Blogger or Wordpress have a chance to be potentially exposed to broader Runescape audience. But those are, of course, much harder to make people aware of. There are technical differences too (customization capabilities, moderation options etc.), but it's not that important. There is also a third way: maintain the blog in several places (Aximili E I is doing just that).
What are your thoughts? I know several people switched from Blogger to Sal's. Was that the reason why? What were your experiences? Is there something I am missing about fan site blogging platforms? I never really tried it, so I might very well be mistaken here.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Where is the best place for a Runescape blog
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9 comments:
Blogging on Tip.It means I can use BBcode stuff all over the place. So that's useful.
I'd link it with Blogger if I could, but I don't know how, or whether it's even possible.
Probably getting more readership and finding friends in-game who are part of Sal's or Tipit or whatever.
I moved away from Sal's to have freedom of speech (no site censor lol).
I set mine up at blogspot so I could use my google account with it. I've never been a member of any of the large rs communities (though I could see how using them is beneficial). I like the customization I can do with blogspot and people can find my site easily.
I'm with Jax & Kitt on this one for the reasons they listed.
If you wanted to boost readership, I think you just be social. Talk to others, comment on already existing blogs (not in a spam way, in a way where people will be interested in what you're talking about), etc.
Maintaining a blog in several places can be difficult.(With some of the issues being what Vaskor has pointing out in his post)
I maintain mine at Blogger as well as the following forums: Mechscapeworld(Stellar Dawn?) Runescoop, and RSCA(RSC Alliance) That's probably overboard for most(I do have a method that makes it easier...) so I would recommend for sanity issues that for most people having their blog at a blogging site (such as Blogger,WordPress) and on one major RS forum is sufficient.
I have tried sal's with an RS2 blog (of course I am currently retired from RS2 so that blog is defunct...) And it went well but I think it's hard to start a blog in either location.
At Sals its the overwhelming number of blogs. Which can crowd your blog out. Places like Blogger and WordPress its getting the word out with there with there being so few...
Of course G's adivse is extremely important no matter which route you find best for you.
I went for Sal's because I'm a member of Sal's. I have no experience in writing Runescape blogs in other sites, but I can give you the insight on writing where I do.
There is a ready-made readership, made up of the thousands of Slammers there. But this has both pros and cons. You have more potential for someone to just stumble across your blog; but you also have a lot of other people writing similar blogs in the same place.
I personally wrote for several weeks with hardly anyone coming in to read. You can tell that, on Sal's, because the number of hits on your blog is automatically shown on the blog list. I had, perhaps, a handful, who would comment on occasional blogs.
There's also the fact that Sal's blogs default to having to spprove comments. Some new bloggers don't realise this, so their potential comments stack up unseen. They think no-one's interested, then they stop writing.
What happened to me is that a popular blogger, on Sal's, bigged me up. I had a sudden and very discernable surge in readership, as his people nipped in to see what the fuss was about. Some of them stayed.
Then, a good while later, Vaskor picked up on me and publicised me on Runescape Readers' Digest. That boosted my readership a lot!
Sal's, if you like, is like being given a shop in a busy high street. You have all that passing trade to intice in. However, if you're not selling anything interesting, then everyone's going to go to the brightly coloured store next door.
Even with Sal's providing that, having in-house or external publicity is essential, if you want a big readership.
On the other hand, why write for a big readership? This is just my humble opinion, but it's much better to write for yourself. That way you don't get bored. :p
Thank you very much for the comments and answers!
I recommend google's blogger service. It's easy to use, almost endlessly customizable for the more advanced, and you have more freedom of speech. The blog is not 100% yours but Google has an excellent track record of reliability, plus you can put some advertising on the blog aswell, or even set it up with your own domain name.
With a free blog on wordpress you cannot put advertising on it or it will get deleted. You can also buy your own www.yourblogname.com adress with wordpress and have total control (you can do that too with blogger)
With a blog inside a community, you have to follow what their guidelines I think, and if your views get too controversial, you never know when the admins will press the delete button or tell you to move on. (For example criticizing jagex might be viewed as a serious offence and get your blog deleted)
Now blogging can be really fun, and if you want to do it mid-long term, I may suggest that you build your blog on a solid foundation.
On the readership aspect, I agree with what G is saying. I believe that the platform has little to do with popularity. A good strategy to attain readership would be to first create a couple of meaningfull post in your blog and then start commenting on a lot of rs related blogs, or join multiple communities and start being helpfull in them, answering questions, etc , and leave your blog's link in your signature.
Cheers everyone, and nice to see more and more rs blogs popping up, keep them comming ;)
You also have the option to buy a cheap hosting package and use any blog software, I use b2evolution, it is very powerful totally customisable and available free from their site or can be installed automatically if fantastico is installed on your hosting control panel.
The main benefits are you have your own domain name (or many if you wish), easily changeable skin, any advertising you want, automatically pings popular blog listings, you can be seen on Google within a week of starting (within hours on some of my blogs) and get to number 1 search if you post regularly.
See your very detailed stats so you know a lot about your audience.
I get between 300 and 1600 unique visitors a day and I am not very active at the moment.
Downside is you need to pay for hosting but that is well worth having just for your own unique email addresses.
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