zondag 6 mei 2012

Who decides you're a succesfull blogger?

Who determines you're a succesfull blogger?..
And what actually is a succesfull blogger?

Are you a succesfull blogger when all you do is basicly repost (gaming) news or comment about said news on your blog, especially news you know is gonna attract people (or trolls) to your blog?
Do high visitor counts tell you that you are a succesfull blogger?

Personally i am first and foremost blogging for myself, if anyone who visits my blog actually likes to read some of my stuff than i am glad and happy they do (i actually hope there are a few people out there who like to read my blog. LOL).

I started this blog in Feb of 2007 but have been blogging way before that, in fact back then it was called a weblog (yes, it was before blogger.com came and it all changed to simply "blog") and was exactly that: a log on the web.
Most weblogs back then were writing about every day life, things happening around them and commenting on it they were almost like an online diary and that is excactly how this blog started, mostly as my online gaming diary as i felt a need to seperate my gaming from my RL posts, most of my first posts are just a screenshot or a screenshot and a few sentences/words.

Nowadays blogging seems to be all about posting the latest news and those type of blogs seem to be called "the popular" blogs.
I do remember some time ago i had a comment on my blog from someone, who seemed almost angry, with the question why i wasn't blogging about Warhammer Online and why i was ignoring it on my blog, which was at that time all the "popular" blogs wrote about, you couldn't go to a blog without reading about it.
And i basicly answered back that i wasn't blogging about it because i had zero interest in the game and was not going to play it and so i wasn't going to blog about it either.
And that is what most of the "popular" blogs still seem to do, write about the latest "popular" thing. GW2 anyone?

I am not a blogger who writes what people want to read, i write about the stuff i do in the games i play (MMO or other) and about the games i have an interest in or intent to play.

I also believe that blogs are not a place for the lastest news on games, there are plenty of other sites for that that do a way better job.

Do visitor counts actually say you are a succesfull blog, well personally i rarely check my visitor count (i am just not interested in it), and the few times i do i can see that most of the traffic comes from google searches related to whatever post google found related to their search, does that number actually tell you that you are a succesfull blog?
I don't think so, it just tells you that people ended up on your blog via a google search.
But just in case you want to know i get anywhere between 900 to 2000 hits a month, but most of those seem to be hits on old posts.

The only reason i check my stats occasionally is to see if any blogger is linking to me so i can put a link back if i am not linking them allready (yes i still believe in the old ways of weblogging and that is to link back).

Do comments actually tell you you are a succesfull blogger, personally i don't think so, i mean it might show you you have visitors that actually like to talk about the stuff you write or you just have a bunch of trolls trolling your posts.
Are those comments from people that are regular commenters on your blog or just the one time troll commenters that want to poke up the fire.

So who actually decides you are a succesfull blogger?
I think the answer is simple: YOU
When you are happy blogging and enjoy doing it you are succesfull, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks or what you visitor count says.
And that is also the answer to the question what a succesfull blogger is: if you enjoy what you are doing and you keep writing posts you are a succesfull blogger.

So why the hell did i post this, well this was brought on by the Newbie Blogger Initiative and eventhough i am not participating in it i still wanted to write a bit about blogging and how i feel about it, hence this post.

I do think this is an excellent initiative and it is always great to see new bloggers.
But i also heard terms of "elder bloggers" and "established bloggers" being thrown around and that gave me somewhat of a bad taste, i mean who decides when you are an "established" or "elder" blogger.
To me there is only the term blogger, you either are or you are not.

Sure i personally might disagree on what blogs seem to have become over the years, but that doesn't mean i am a better blogger than anyone else, afterall it is all about what you want to write about and not what i think you should write about.
Heck when people talk about the "biggest" blogs out there i often disagree, cause i either am not interested in those blogs or just see them as one of those blogs that repost news and that's just the thing with weblogs you often visit a few select blogs that mirror your interests and hey if all you are interested in is the latest gaming news you are probably going to be visiting those blogs that post about that.
Personally i am more interested in reading from peoples own experiences in the games they play (even more if they play the same games i play), more of the diary type of posts (like i do), and those are rare to find.

Now there are probably bloggers out there that will be pissed off by this post, well so be it. I am just stating my opinion here, i am not trying to tell you how you should run your blog.
They may or may not see me as on of those "established" bloggers (probably not), i couldn't care less, the fact is i have been blogging for quite a few years now and do seem to know a little about blogging by now and i definitely am still enjoying myself on my little corner of the web and i do hope that those that do read and enjoy my blog will continue to do so, i really appreciate you being around!

5 opmerkingen:

  1. While I liked the idea of encouraging new bloggers, it seemed a bit silly in a way. Do we really need tips for blogging? Writing, sure. But blogging? say what you want to say and some people will want to read it and some wont. Success is self-defined. To me success means a post that people respond to, perhaps even one that someone else blogs about, but for others its just a place to put thoughts and to other others success means progressively higher reader counts.

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  2. That is excactly why i wrote this post, i mean i think what NBI is trying to do is awesome, but in the end it is the blogger him/herself who decides if it is a succesfull blog, there is nothing to teach about that.

    I really don't think there is anything i could add to the NBI besides telling new bloggers: write whatever you want to write about and don't let anyone tell you what you should write about, cause in the end you have to like your blog, like what you are doing or it's going to be a short trip :)

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  3. Nice, this blog is talking Dutch to me. Easier to read than the Captcha.

    In the end, it's probably me who says it's been successful or not. However, up until May, 1st, I was pretty much on my own. I didn't have much information about how my fellow bloggers are working and what tools they use. I am sure by the end of the month I've learned a lot.

    You may be right in saying that the creative part is up to me, but some feedback helps in this regard. And you need readers for that.

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  4. Well i do think that blogging tools is also a matter of personal taste as to what suits you best.
    But true a little guidance there might make it a lot easier to start a blog.

    Personally i use blogger and the blogger iphone app and an app called Evernote for taking notes.
    But i am pretty sure not everyone likes/uses them :)

    Way back when i started blogging i used notepad and added some html to it and linked it on the website as a weblog entry.
    Later i tried selfhosting which is great because you can customize your blog a lot, i used GreyMatter and later Nucleus CMS but got tired of all the hacking attempts and comment spam and decided to stop the selfhosting.
    For me blogger had all i needed and i no longer had to worry about the hacking :)

    But like i said it's all a matter of personal taste, i like blogger but i think the majority of the bloggers use wordpress (i think wordpress is a lot more customisable than blogger).
    And for any other tools to use, well i tried many and eventually you'll find some tools that serve your needs/wants.

    Because i have been blogging for so long i guess i have overlooked the fact that there are so many tools out there (free or payed) to use that i guess it would indeed be helpfull to get some tips in regards to using them.

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  5. Yes, the choice of tools is a matter of personal taste and of the general situation of the author. Somebody who just wants to write to his hearts content might not want to be bothered with the technical details or how to stop spam or hack attacks.

    Tool selection plus the way you do your writing, including how to get inspiration and knowledge forms a set of best practices. And as a newbie blogger you don't have many of those.

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