Can Gamers Teach Bloggers A Lesson?

There are so many places bloggers can learn lessons from, can anything really be learned from gamers? I believe so.

Now, I’m no avid gamer I’ll admit. I used to spend a fair amount of time in my younger years playing games online – most notably on Unreal Tournament but not much has changed with online gaming since then so lets take a look at what methods and rules we can apply from gaming to blogging.

1. The More You Play, The Better You Get

There is no denying it, practice makes perfect. Sure when gaming there was always that one guy who spent 40 hours a week playing and still came last every game but thats because he was playing but not learning.

So how does this fit in with blogging? I’d like to first point out that I’m not saying the more your post the better your posts will be – that’s nonsense but when you begin blogging your posts may be poorly laid out and un-interesting after time you will develop new techniques and posting styles that will help your posts become really inspirational.

Time spent blogging shouldn’t just be time spent posting, it should be time spent reading other blogs, taking in advice, researching and experimenting. If you think of it is a game, first you learn to fire (make a post) but there is a lot more too it than that and a lot of it will only come with time and dedication.

2. Join A Clan

A clan is a group of players that join up to form a team. If you have played games online you will have no doubt been part of, or come across, a clan. Joining a clan gets you to meet new people, play new people and can increase your reputation – can you see where this going? Thats right networking!

Networking your blog is a very important aspect of running a successful blog. There is little benefit in spending your time making good quality posts if nobody is going to see them. Network with other bloggers that are in your niche by exchanging links or maybe with by guest blogging which is becoming increasingly popular.

3. Make Friends

Gaming is always better when you know the people your are gaming with, if you’ve joined a clan the chances are you will spend a decent amount of time talking to these people and getting to know them. Do the same with your blog!

Be friendly, make friends by commenting on other blogs in your niche if you can befriend other bloggers it’ll help you massively in the long run. It’s always nice to be known, it’s nice to be liked and it’s also nice to be helpful. Other bloggers are just like you, they want the same things you want and you’ll often find you have more in common than you might think. Make friends and be friends, help them and they’ll help you. It’s as simple as that.

4. Don’t Spam!

Everyone hates spammers, in online gaming a spammer is someone who maybe will just run around a level pressing the fire key – just “spamming”.

If your a spammer people will find it hard to like/respect you. If they can’t do that you can’t do any of the other points mentioned in this article. Spamming your blog around by posting random links all over (usually in farcical comments) is an easy mistake to be made by new bloggers, you may see the short time benefits and think it’s worthwhile – it’s not, don’t do it!

5. Have Fun And Enjoy It

When you start taking a game too seriously you tend to have less fun playing the game, and ultimately end up doing worse or getting frustrated and giving up. The same can happen with blogging.

If your not having fun blogging, getting no enjoyment out of it, your posts will reflect that. You’ll lose all your enthusiasm, your readers will lose interest and in the end you’ll get frustrated, bored and just quit. Have fun blogging! – Take the good with bad and make sure your enjoying what your doing, if you don’t enjoy it there’s no point in doing it.