A comment against my previous post got me thinking about why we blog, and what we like in a blog (and perhaps what turns us off).
This blog is not a business; it generates zero revenue, and therefore I have no financial motivation to worry about optimising it to catch as much traffic and business as possible. It is a labour of love, and I’m still here two years later because I love maintaining it. I write here because:
- I love to write and want an “outlet”;
- I love the druid class, and enjoy being part of the druid blog community;
- I love to analyse things, pick things apart, and expand my own knowledge;
- I like to initiate discussions with a bunch of great people;
- I love to help people and to teach them;
- I like having my own space to use as a sounding board;
- I like making pictures with Model Viewer; and
- I like to report on news and give my thoughts on changes.
These are in no particular order – although having an outlet, helping people, and reporting are probably highest on the list.
I’m quite aware of when I haven’t been posting “enough” of the resto-specific stuff. I made my blog to be part-info, part-editorial, and when it starts leaning heavily towards one or the other, I don’t like it. Yes – if it has been info post after info post for a while, although most people would consider that valuable, I feel that it’s not a balanced mix of information and entertainment. I like to keep my blog relatively balanced between “bloggy” blogging, and news or tips. But I don’t beat myself up on it, because I don’t have someone grading my work. It is what I make it, and whatever I feel like writing is what I write.
Bloggers – why did you create your own blog? Was it to express your ideas and feelings about the game? To provide a class resource? To entertain? Or a mixture of these?
What was the vision for your blog?
And as blog subscribers – what do you look for in the various blogs that you subscribe to? What keeps you coming back to your blogroll? What makes you unsubscribe from a blog?
I subscribe to as many resto druid blogs as I can find, so that I can stay up to date on what everyone is talking about, but I will tell you that I tend to skim over a lot. The ones that I devour are the ones written with personality; the ones that inject some of themselves into their articles. And I find it much easier to get into good discussions when the blog author is sharing their unique insight and feelings on topics. Have you noticed that? When we post news snippets, even if they have our opinions of the changes, the comments tend to be few, and short. The entries that create real discussions are the ones that are written with personality and feeling.
It’s why I also subscribe to non-druid blogs like Righteous Orbs and The Pink Pigtail Inn. And it’s why I still read the Greedy Goblin, because as much as Gevlon annoys me at times, and as much as I often disagree with him, he has personality coming out his ears, and it makes his posts interesting (if sometimes irritating).
I started reading Gevlon’s blog for the gold tips, but this has all but dried up now, as he mostly writes about his pug guild with a smattering of social commentary. Normally when a blog changes direction (long-term), I lose interest. Perhaps it’s as though I think – this isn’t what I signed up for. I had expectations, and now I’m not getting what I expected. Certainly I’m not annoyed at the author for changing direction, I just don’t have any interest in their new direction.
Have you stuck to your blog vision? Have you strayed? Is it something that you are conscious and careful of, or do you just go with the flow and let your blog evolve and be elastic over time? Do you feel uncomfortable when you feel that you’re not sticking to your vision?
I personally think that my blog is basically sitting level with what I intended it to be, back at the end of the Burning Crusade. A mix of information and entertainment (though your mileage may vary on the entertainment side of things), with the odd rant. The raiding information has tapered off lately, due mostly to my carpal tunnel forcing me into casual raiding status (though hopefully I can now get back to raiding and back to writing about raiding). But while raid info has tapered off, general information and guide content has increased. There was a time leading up to Cataclysm when I felt that my blog had too much beta news, but that was also the product of having little to do in the game, pre-expac.
I know that “staying on track” is something that bloggers are concerned about, because I see them apologizing all the time for taking a break, or not writing much about XYZ lately. I’ve also seen non-bloggers lately complaining that the resto community hasn’t been writing anything “good” – I can only assume that “good” in this situation means to write about numbers and raiding, though this is just a guess. I haven’t noticed a dip in quality blogging.. I think that it has been really great since Cataclysm, now that we have things to inspire us again. But it’s all very subjective, of course. One person’s good post is another person’s valueless post.
I’m interested to know what you all think of blog vision, how you’re travelling, perhaps whether you’ve reinvented your blog, or whether you have strategies to stick to a particular plan?
Edited to add: Red Cow was writing a great article while I was writing this!
Also, I’m very happy to announce that I’ve partnered with BLIZZARD! Oh my gosh, I’m so excited about this opportunity. I’ve also partnered with a local business who is helping me keep the lights on here! Paying for domain names and hosting isn’t cheap, and I’m lucky to have readers who support my blog!
TBJ vs RestoDruid.info
Which reminds me. I didn’t make this clear the other day when I launched RestoDruid.info. I think a few people thought that I was going to move to RestoDruid.info, and ditch TBJ.
My intention is to keep TBJ exactly as it is now – a mix of info/guides, game commentary, and a light dusting of soapboxing. RestoDruid.info will be purely news, information, and guides. I will likely cross-post all of the info posts on both blogs, so that readers of TBJ still get those informative posts; however, there will be no editorial on RestoDruid.info (other than my own succinct thoughts on changes etc), and no personal posts or rants.
The vision for RestoDruid.info is to be a site that houses my guide, but also has some news and articles on the front page, staying info-oriented.
So, if you are only interested in the info posts and don’t want to read my ramblings, and you don’t want to just skip my soapbox posts, you could unsubscribe from TBJ and just subscribe to RestoDruid.info instead.