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.

We have all heard the phrase sex sells, it’s true too. If I posted a picture of a certain nature which linked to another page there is no doubting 75% of people would click the link, probably without even realizing that the link will only take you to a past blog post. What would the point be in that though? Sure the click rate would be great but you’d be unhappy and uninterested with page that’s appeared before you.

So while sex sells it may not always be very effective, there is another method though that can be almost as compelling but with twice the effectiveness - controversy.

If you read my article on how to attract new readers to your blog you will remember I briefly touched on the subject of saying what you really think, of not being afraid to put your point across. Some of you may have wondered why I mentioned it but the reason why this can be so important is because people love to debate/argue/share points of view. It’s one of the reasons why forums work so well and have so much activity, if someone says something that other people don’t agree with they feel as though they HAVE to let them know about it, they HAVE to have their say and they HAVE to try and convince the original poster why they are right and he/she is wrong.

That’s all fine and well for forums but how can this help you with your blog? Well that depends how good you are at expressing an opinion. If you can be opinionated when making a post but do it an open manor so people feel as though they are welcome to share their view, then that is exactly what they will do - share their view.

It can be difficult to pull off but if you can talk about something that you know people wont agree with (but some people will) and if you can keep an open mind and encourage people to come forward with their views it can work great. People will post comments on what they think, sometimes huge discussions can occur on your blog which will just intrigue even more people. Readers may even blog about your post themselves saying how much they agree/disagree, they may even post it on other forums and websites to ask what people think - great publicity!

So whats the big picture and why the reference to sex sells at the beginning of this post? Well let me explain it for those of you that haven’t quite understood what I’m saying. To be a good blogger you don’t need lots of flashy niceties and cheap gimmicks, sure the short term benefits will be there with a few extra clicks to your site but if you want to run a successful blog it’s what YOU post that matters and if people are visiting your blog it’s because they want to hear what YOU have to say, even if they won’t fully agree with it.

Anyone who has been blogging for a reasonable amount of time will be very familiar with these sites by now as they are a great resource for all bloggers no matter what type of blog you run, every blogger should be using these sites. The three sites are of course; technorati, mybloglog and feedburner.

At a first glance you may be wondering whats so great about these sites and why you need to sign up, lets have a look and see what each site has to offer:

1. Technorati (link)

Technorati is one of the most popular blog related websites out there and with good reason. Technorati allows users to find your blog or post through the use of tags. So when you make a post on a specific topic Technorati can help people to find your post. If your post is popular enough this can definitely create an increase in traffic and provide a lot of return readers as Technorati also allows users to “favorite” a blog, if a user favorites your blog each time you make a new post they will automatically see a link to your post on the homepage which will encourage them to take a better look.

Technorati also provides a pinging service so you can keep people up to date on your new posts, again this another must for all bloggers.

Once you have signed up for Technorati don’t forget to favorite BlogCut!

2. MyBlogLog (link)

MyBlogLog is a great way to increase traffic to your blog, it’s always a good way to find out more about who is actually reading your blog. MyBlogLog is especially great if your a blogger that enjoys reading lots of different blogs.

MyBlogLog has a feature which allows you to view who has recently visited your blog, you can then view their profile and in turn visit their blog. You can add people as contacts as well as join communities which is a great way to find other bloggers who share your interests and view blogs similar to yours. As you are doing other people will be doing the same and in turn visiting your blog.

Although the site design does let its self down I would still highly recommend every blogger to sign up at MyBlogLog as it really can be a great environment and you can also join up with BlogCut’s Community!

Technorati and MyBlogLog are both great ways to get your name out there, to make your blog accessible and to basically socialize and connect with other bloggers.

3. FeedBurner (link)

FeedBurner is an excellent way for you to keep track of people who have subscribed to your blogs RSS feeds. You can view how many people are currently subscribed to your feed and will also provide better options for the people who subscribe to your feed through it. Feeds are a very underrated aspect of a blog by a lot of bloggers which is why I would recommend FeedBurner to everyone. You can view BlogCut’s feed by clicking the RSS Icon (where it says ‘Feed’) on the left menu.