The Importance of Making Notes
As this is the start of Blapril prep week, I thought I’d share an important aspect of my blogging experience. As ever, I would like to state that what works for me may not necessarily work for you. We all approach writing in our own unique way and ultimately it’s all about doing what is appropriate for you. I find that having some processes in place helps me immensely with my writing. And perhaps the most fundamental of these is having a way to manage my thoughts. I’m sure many of us have experienced a situation where a good idea has occurred to us or we’ve thought of a good counterpoint to something we’ve read and thought “I must write that down”. Sadly, we then all too often fail to do so and hence we waste potential blogging “gold”. Which is why I want to talk about the importance of making notes.
Get Ready for Blapril 2020
Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks that all this spare time that many of us now have, can be put to good use. Belghast over at Tales of the Aggronaut, has brought forward his yearly blogging and content creation festival Blaugust and rechristened it Blapril. As the name indicates, this event will now run throughout April. Blapril is primarily a festival of blogging (although it offers much that is relevant to other types of content creation) designed to bring together and encourage new or lapsed bloggers. It is also an ideal opportunity for existing writers to renew their motivation and up their game. The event provides a means to share information and offer valuable advice based upon personal experiences. Blapril is about community, mutual support and sharing content. As I mentioned in a previous post, self isolation is in many ways the perfect time to take up blogging, podcasting, live streaming or generally creating some form of online content. If you’re looking for a gentle nudge to start any of these activities, Blapril 2020 can provide it.
Staying Motivated
According to the Blaugust Festival of Blogging timetable, the designated writing prompt for week number five is titled “Staying Motivated”. Because at some point, all content creators will find themselves either too tired, unwilling or simply unable to produce any new material. You may well have the time and resources to do so but lack inspiration to actually apply yourself. It’s a perennial question for anyone who writes, live streams or produces videos and podcasts. Like most problems of this nature which are dependent upon personal and subjective factors, it does not have a standard or easy answer. Staying motivated is a personal battle that you have fight by yourself, in your own way. If you find a solution that works for you there’s no guarantee that it will be applicable to others. However, there are some practical steps that can be universally taken that can contribute to staying motivated.
Celebrating Difference
The great things about Blaugust Festival of Blogging is that it’s a truly international event. For me that a big part of its appeal. Because although English may well be the universal language of all participants, it is not necessarily their first language. Hence a great deal of a writer’s native culture can bleed though into their posts. Rather than advocating a homogeneous approach to writing in which an international standard is enforced, I much prefer people writing as it naturally occurs to them, in the same way I enjoy and regional accents. In the internet age, it’s easy to think that there exists a universal, international pop culture. At a very simple level that may be true. Gaming is a major pastime all over the world. But look beyond the obvious and you’ll find that all countries have their own cultural foibles and idiosyncrasies. And that is one of the reasons I love to read other people’s blogs because I get to share in these.
Topics, Talking Points and Ideas for Blog Posts
According to the Blaugust schedule, its “Topic Brainstorming Week”. I shall interpret this literally and see if I can come up with some hints and tips about what to write about. Because at some point, all bloggers (and potentially other content creators) will sit down in their preferred environment, crack their knuckles and then remain with their hands poised over the keyboards, waiting for inspiration to strike like a thunderbolt. And sometimes nothing comes, or more to the point none of the ideas you come up with particularly inspire you. And therein in lies the reality of blogging. Not every post is a labour of love, a literary milestone or of social significance like the Gettysburg Address (feel free to insert an alternative regionally relevant stirring speech here. I prefer Henry V Act 3, Scene 1 myself). Sometimes, you have to pick something straight forward to write about and produce three or so paragraphs of adequate material. It may not be Shakespeare but it doesn’t have to be “filler” either.
Leave a Comment
It’s the first day of the month and the Blaugust 2019 Festival of Blogging is currently underway. So far there have been numerous posts from established bloggers, offering sound advice and encouragement to those participating in this annual event. However, I wish to focus on one specific aspect of blogging that appears to be on the wane at present. Something that can be invaluable to the new and enthusiastic blogger. And as Blaugust is no longer solely focused on writing, this is also applicable to podcasters, live streamers and You Tubers (I hate that phrase, but it appears to be an accepted collective term, so let’s roll with it). The thing I am alluding to is audience feedback or put more plainly, reader comments. Yes, the thoughts and musings of those who consume your work, left on your site, blog or channel, in the form of a few lines of text. They can be both praising or damning. Supportive, insulting or sometimes incomprehensible. But at least they indicate that someone thinks sufficient of your work to leave some sort of statement.
Preparing for Blaugust 2019
According to the schedule (which is purely for guidance and not a metaphorical gun to your head) Blaugust 2019 Festival of Blogging starts today. This is “prep week”; a golden opportunity to get all your ducks in a row. Now there’s nothing to stop you going into the event blind and winging it. For some content creators, that’s how they roll. However, for most of us, it helps if we have some kind of plan in place and have figured some stuff out in advance. For me this is important as I have a fluid day-to-day schedule and I’m also away for three days due to my son’s wedding. So I thought I’d share my approach to Blaugust, in the hope that it may be helpful to others. Like most things in life, there is no “one size fits all approach”, so you may want to temper my methods and adapt them to your own. You know your own strengths and weaknesses better than I. But the underlying point is still sound. Doing some degree of preparation for Blaugust will certainly help you.
Thoughts on Blogging Part 9
The last three months have been problematic from a writing perspective and my productivity and motivation have both suffered. I struggle to find appropriate time to sit down and apply myself to writing and when I do, I seldom have the correct mindset to stay focused for long. Yet due to the back catalogue of content available on Contains Moderate Peril, there is still regular traffic coming to the site. Ironically, despite my low productivity, I have started receiving an increase in blog related marketing and have received numerous emails regarding “collaboration”, “featured posts” and “SEO optimisation”. All of which I have no interest in. However, the point remains, I’m not writing as much as I used to and I miss it. The same can be said for podcasting but that’s a tougher problem to fix. It is more labour intensive than writing, so the logical thing to do is to focus on the former and not the latter to fix.
Thoughts on Blogging Part 8
I wasn’t expecting to write another entry in the Thoughts on Blogging series so soon, but something came up that grabbed my attention and got me thinking. A simple question that’s often asked about blogging and one that has many layers to it, as well as numerous answers. A new blogger who recently joined the Blaugust discord server asked for help “getting traffic to their blog”. An enquiry that gave me (and possibly others) pause for thought. Because we all to a degree want to attract traffic to our blogs. But I also think bloggers are too coy about this this subject. We’ll say things like “I write for myself” or “it’s not about the numbers” and although I agree with these points, building an audience is important. Let’s be honest, it can be somewhat disheartening after writing a lengthy post about a subject close to you heart, for it to fall flat and not attract any traffic. As discussed before, often it is the casual blog posts written in a hurry, that can be the most popular and the articles you’re most proud of can go unnoticed. So let us be honest. I think most bloggers want to grow an audience and enjoy the sense of accomplishment that it provides.
Thoughts on Blogging Part 7
I decided to take a short break from blogging last week. I have a lot on at present and the only time I’ve had available to write has been in the late evening. I prefer to write in the morning as I’m more focused and motivated. Plus I haven’t really had a lot of positive things to say of late about the two primary subjects of this website. Broadly speaking there’s not a lot of going on in the video games industry that enthuses me. Similarly, the current crop of film releases have hardly distinguished themselves. At present when I do get writing ideas, they tend to be obscure niche market subjects or commentary on social issues. For example, I’m thinking of writing a post about my continuing enjoyment of the Japanese TV show Takeshi’s Castle. I’m also forming my thoughts for an article about how society’s relationship with wildlife may be “broken”. Stuff that is interesting to me but may not be ideal material for readers of Contains Moderate Peril.
Ride Off Into the Sunset
“At some point, KTR and other MMO blogs mostly drifted from being MMO blogs. Some have remained pure, I am sure, but we became online gaming blogs, gaming blogs, online culture blogs, general blogs. And we gradually trailed off”. Zubon. Kill Ten Rats. And so another MMO blogger who has been part of the community “furniture” for years, decides that they’ve said everything they can upon the subject and that it’s time to move on. It’s a familiar story, one that I totally understand and can identify with. Passion waxes and wanes, scenes change, as do people. There comes a point where you don’t feel there’s anything left else to discuss or whether anyone is actually listening, except in Zubon’s case they definitely were. It’s always a shame to see a community stalwart go, but nothing remains the same forever.
Thoughts on Blogging Part 6
As January comes to an end, I am pleased that I have so far managed to maintain a daily writing schedule. I hope that I can continue in this vein throughout February. As ever the actual process of sitting and writing has proven a somewhat mixed bag so far this year. Some days the word simply spill out of me and a blog post potentially writes itself. On others, composing just three coherent paragraphs is like pulling teeth and much time is spent procrastinating and getting side tracked. But a mixture of self-discipline and a degree of pride have helped oil the creative wheels and kept the content flowing. Whether any of it is any good is for others to decided. However, it was nice to find one of my posts quoted in an article over at Massively Overpowered. It means that at least someone is reading my work and pondering upon the points therein. Writing is after all a means of communication and sharing ideas so it is rewarding to know that you’re not just yelling into the wind all the time.
Thoughts on Blogging Part 5
This week, a rather high profile sub-reddit associated with the Star Trek Online community, changed its status to “private” as a means of protesting against the state of the game and the way developers Cryptic are handling things. That matter was surprisingly resolved within 24 hours after an olive branch was extended from the STO community manager on reddit. However, it is not the protest itself nor the state of the game that I wish to focus upon, but the importance of /r/stobuilds as a shared community resource. A lot of STO players enjoy optimising their builds and tweaking their loadout and this site it the place to go to share such information. There is also a group of hardcore players that dig deep into the games data and comprehensively crunch number and generate useful information. Hence if a resource such as this was taken offline for longer period of time, it would have a tangible impact upon players and the wider community.
Searching Content on Contains Moderate Peril
If you are a WordPress user, there are a multitude of plugins that you can apply to your blog to tweak and customise it. The only downside of this is that every time WordPress upgrade their software, all your plugins subsequently need to be updated. Many plugins are written by third parties and therefore you do not have guaranteed long-term support. Plugins can also be exploited, which is why I ultimately decided to stop using WordPress for my website. I made the transition to Squarespace for my hosting needs in August 2015 and have never looked back since then. However, I have been using the same template for three years now and I was pondering recently whether it was time to change it. Yet a change of this kind is bound to have knock-on effects and could potentially end up creating more problems than it solves. So rather than go off half cocked, I decided to do some research to see if I could improve the functionality of my blog.
Analysing Blaugust
There is a blog post over at the Greedy Goblin, where Gevlon crunches the numbers to see how many bloggers are still writing a month and a half on from Blaugust. Needless to say, I am not surprised by his results. Writing events such as Blaugust and before that, The Newbie Blogger Initiative, have always had a high attrition rate. I know lots of good writers who cannot sustain a regular writing schedule due to their work commitments. This is especially true of those with families. Then there are those bloggers who simply run out of stamina. Posting regular content is hard and requires focus and discipline. Producing in-depth and longform posts with any regularity is even harder. So, Gevlon’s summary merely proves what many of us new in advance. But I guess you'd find the exactly the same results if you were analysing the aftermath of an event that encouraged podcasting, live streaming or posting videos of You Tube. Creating content of any kind takes time and effort. The better the quality of that material, the more time it takes. Hence some will cease their efforts.
Blaugust Reborn: Event or Cause?
The Blaugust Reborn is an event, which promotes blogging and offers advice and guidance to those who have just started or who are toying with the idea of doing so. It has no agenda beyond providing encouragement and support. The advice that is offered through various veterans’ content creators collective experience, is just that, advice. It can be taken or ignored, because ultimately blogging is a very personal pastime and there really isn't a right or wrong way to do it. If doing what you do and the way that you do it brings you pleasure, then you've pretty much well nailed it. I see Blaugust Reborn as a benign undertaking. It has no agenda that I am aware of. In fact, I could argue that my involvement is a little self-serving, in so far as I hope that some great new blogs emerge from this year’s event that I can read on a regular basis. Overall, I see the Blaugust Reborn as a simple exercise in offering a helping hand. For me it's not any more complex than that.
Blogging and Self-Discipline
Although blogging is great fun and a very rewarding hobby, it is also at times hard work. I don't say that to discourage you, but it is a fact that needs to be considered by all embarking upon their content creation journey. Writing per se requires a degree of self-discipline. Without it, your aspirations will remain just that. Nothing will get done, posting will become irregular and you'll readers will simply lose interest and look for material elsewhere. So, what exactly do you need to be self-disciplined about? Well if you want to write posts regularly that are engaging and of a good standard then consider the following points:
Time For a Makeover
This is another post for Blaugust Reborn prep week, that’s primarily aimed at the returning blogger. Again, there is advice here that is relevant to those just starting out with a new blog but there’s already a ton of good advice available for them. I’m focused more upon trying to encourage those who once had a blog (and subsequently abandoned it) to dust it off and start producing content again. In my last post, I offered some advice regarding such things as writing schedules and having a basic plan as to what subjects you want to explore and goals you may wish to achieve. This time let’s consider some simple and practical aspects of your actual blog template and hosting package.
When Blogging Turns Bad
There’s currently a ton of useful advice coming out of the Blagust Reborn Prep Week. Most of which is specifically aimed at those who are blogging or creating content for the first time. However, I want to touch on a subject that some may think is a little inappropriate to raise at this point in the proceedings. Especially in light of the fact that Blagust Reborn is supposed to be about nurturing and not discouraging. But I believe that there’s a lesson to be learned from the tale I’m about to tell. I think it would be wiser for new writers, podcasters and streamers to be cognisant of it now rather than stumble into it three of four years down the road. Because a percentage of those who start content creation this August will continue to do so and find some measure of success with it. Success is a relative term but irrespective of that it can come with its own set of problems.
Dust Off Your Old Blog
It’s an old and all too familiar story. At some point, you thought “I know, let’s start a blog. I can write about the things that I enjoy and share my passion for river widening with others”. So you promptly went and opened up a free WordPress or Google Blogger account and jumped in feet first, without any semblance of a plan because who needs a plan, right? Then you quickly discovered that the witty epistles you hoped to write regularly were harder to produce than rocking horse droppings and finding time to write was proving hard; what with all the football on TV and the weekly meetings of the glee club. Plus, it also became apparent that something had gone horribly wrong with the internet and the CIA was obviously blocking your site content, because the army of fans you so righteously deserved had failed to manifest themselves. So you decided to pack it all in and instead try your hand at live streaming, because blogging is as good as dead (because Tobold said so) and you look really good in front of a camera (just remember to move the clothes horse out of shot first).