NBI: The Worst Advice You'll Ever Receive About Blogging

• I may be a blogger. I may even be a seasoned blogger, if only through bloody minded determination. So though I may be nominally qualified to offer advice on blogging, I can't say that any of this will do you any good. Also, some of this advice may sound contradictory. Take heart in the fact that I am as confused as you are. Forward!


• One of the first things that anyone will tell you about blogging is to be consistant with your posting schedule. The internet is a fickle thing. If you aren't posting regularly, people will forget about you. Go too long between posts and suddenly you're deleted from a half dozen RSS readers and your hits drop. Your readers will only support you for as long as you support them. Unless you have a baby. People tend to hang in a little longer in that case.


• It is absolutely necessary to be passionate about what you are writing. Your passion will fuel your creatively. Your excitement about something will make me excited as a reader. If you're pooping out posts just to fill your schedule, people will know. They might not tell you, but they will quietly unsubscribe. That's why I continue to read Keen and Graev and Syncaine. When they are down on games, their blogs are unreadable. But when they are excited about something, they are some of the best.


• This might sound silly, but if you find a topic that interests you, lean into it. I almost never say everything that I have to say about a topic in one post. One time, I ended up writing an entire post without ever stating the point that I wanted to write about in the first place. No one will mind more posts about a topic if you have more to say.


• Now, you also have to disregard all of that to avoid burnout. Blogging is not a sprint; it is a marathon. When you write a blog post, you are participating in a conversation with your readers and other bloggers. Sure, you probably have a lot of passion at this point in your blogging career. Don't over do it! If you push yourself too hard, blogging becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. I'd rather you take a break and come back once you are ready rather than disappear altogether. There have been a number of promising bloggers who I've linked in the past who I sorely missed because they gave up far too early.


• Finally (at least for this post, be careful about hyperfocusing your blog. I ran an in-character Guild Wars blog for a year. That was great right up until I burned out on the game. Give yourself the flexibility to write about what you want. If that is a specific MMO, MMOs or all of gaming in general, or whatever, your blog is your place to share with the community. If you feel to constricted, you will eventually run out of things to say.


• I think that's enough advice for one post. I have two more on the way as NBI Month continues. For now, I'm linking three blogs that are already off to a great start: World's End Tavern, Vagabond goes for a Walk, and My Staff is Bigger than Yours. These three are just the tip of the iceburg. There are several more to be found at NBI HQ. If you are interested in starting a blog, check out my earlier post. It's never too late to join, no matter what Tobold says. Jerk.

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© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.