Hey everyone! Given the glut of Rash of the Itch King posts recently, I thought I’d tackle this as a blog tip here on TNB.
When you’re working on a blog post, it’s easy to get very excited about something you saw in game and write a post about how you just discovered it! And given all the new things releasing about Lich King lately, there are a LOT of new things to discover.
Posting about hot topic items is fun! It’s “cutting edge” and helps get you and your readers excited about new things that are coming up in game. But MANY bloggers are also doing the same thing. Especially right now, with so many people tracking every punctuation change in the beta patch notes, original content is hard to find.
However, many of the warcraft blog readers are not single-blog readers. They read LOTS of our blogs, especially because we’re constantly linking to each other and building up our community.
So, you ask, does that mean I can’t talk about the expansion in my little, newer blog and must let all the “Big Dogs” take all the glory? Of course not! What you should do is present your OWN side of the story.
Blogging is half news and half commentary. The news might be similar to what people are seeing everywhere – if your commentary is interesting, they’ll still read what you have to say. Taking the time to create new content that is completely your own not only draws in your readers, but it helps to develop your voice as a blogger and invites conversation in your comments.
Individual content post are also ripe for link-love from blogger friends. If someone else really likes your ideas, they’ll respond to them, either in a comment, or in a response post of their own – which builds up your traffic and gives you an opportunity to respond back!
So remember – when blogging about Warcraft, we’re in a limited medium with a lot of audience overlap. What makes great blog posts isn’t lists of news items, it’s what we as bloggers have to say about it.
Every Thursday, one of the Annas from Too Many Annas stops by with a mid-week blogger tip. If you have questions or suggestions for future tips, email Anna ( tips at twistednether dot net ) with a message titled “Blog Tipping”.