Blogging enters middle age.

I've been putting a little thought into blogging recently, particularly around some of the changes I have noticed since I started the caper.

When I first began, I got hardly any traffic at all. That was fine and what I expected. I was in it for my own pottering-around satisfaction, not for popularity. But if I did a battle report I'd put it on TMP, and soon found that I'd perhaps get 300 hits over two days - more if it was on a popular battle or topic - and I started to like it.

I began to post links to my newly-painted figures there to show what particular ranges looked like (there were not so many photos on manufacturers' websites in those days - or that was my excuse anyway), and the odd how-to article, game review, or lighthearted take on something. Again, these would get some hits and over time you'd build up a list of followers and make virtual connections with other bloggers.

After a couple of years of this I noticed there were diminishing returns. People stopped clicking on my links so much from forums. I'd get 200 hits instead of 300, 150 instead of 200, until, eventually I was down to about 50. Sometimes less.

And the chat around a post dropped off, too. Instead of 5-10 other forum members adding comments, you might get one or two if you were lucky.

So with both interest and engagement dropping off, it seemed that posting links was shooting myself (and the forums that hosted the links) in the foot. People had perhaps become tired of blog-hawking and blog-hawkers, and also perhaps resentful of the draining effect the constant outside links had on the vitality of the original forums. Denizens were no longer so impressed by the promise of battle reports, game reviews or painting updates, and there was, I felt, a perceptible undercurrent of hardening passive-aggressive antagonism on both sides (Why are you posting that here? We've all seen it done better before! vs I've put loads of work into this. The least you ungrateful lot could do is have a flamin' look!).

At any rate, the blog honeymoon was over.

I've since adjusted, and now I pretty much don't link to my blog anywhere, unless it's for 'educational' purposes, or I'm particularly excited about something, and want to share that excitement in the relevant forum.

It seems to me that bloggers have naturally congregated into loose circles of like-minded folk. Not necessarily like-minded in era, figure scale or rule set, either; often it seems to be a shared set of ideas about what you like to see in a blog, and so you comment or show your support for those people whose blogs you enjoy, learn from, or are in awe of in some way, regardless of whether you play the same games or not.

These days my hits are a long way down on what they were at their peak, but the peak was actually vastly inflated by bot visitors, anyway. I'm very content to keep pottering along at 100-250 hits per day - hopefully mostly by real people - and enjoying the comments that people leave and the little community that builds up.

It's been good. I'm happier, more relaxed - and hopefully a slightly kinder hobbiest - than I was when I felt a certain amount of pressure to try to spread the word.

Anyway, I'd be interested in other people's observations around blogging and the changes they have noticed.

Thanks for reading (if anyone has got this far!).

A cluttered paint table is a happy paint table!

Somehow over the last few days the blog has ticked over to 200,000 views. Appropriately enough, this has been my best ever month for blog hits, down largely to a new but deeply committed spam bot fan base in Russia!

Anyway, all joking aside, thanks to those of you that do drop by to take a look here or leave the odd comment. It's much appreciated. 

Right, back to the work table.

Paint and game on!

Cheers,
Aaron

50,000 hits and a celebratory giveaway

After a couple of years blogging we are approaching the milestone of 50,000 hits.   I'm fairly sure that some of them have even come from people other than me (!), so to thank you all I'm going to do a giveaway.

Before we get to the details, I'd just like to say that while this blog's primary function is to keep a record of my wargaming activities, it has also proved to be a significant motivator in helping me to get more figures painted - and these done to a less shameful quality than I was previously accustomed to.

As good as this is, by far the most gratifying by-product of blogging has turned out to be the connections built up with gamers all around the world.   It is a constant inspiration to see what others are up are up to and to have people drop by here to take a look and/or comment is very encouraging.

So, to cut to the chase, as a thank you to all the folks who visit me here, I'm going to do a humble but heartfelt celebratory giveaway.

The winner will have a choice of two items.  For those who like boardgames there is a lightly used but complete copy of GMT's Guilford, the third volume in Mark Miklos' Battles of the American Revolution series.  It's a nice little game containing two scenarios and uses quite an interesting battle mechanism.  The counters are all punched, bagged, and neatly clipped.  It's probably not something you'll want to play every night, but you might get a few good games out of it.

If boardgames are not your thing, you can instead take the poorer cousin: a set of EM4 Miniatures' Old West Heroes.  The box is slightly beaten up, but it contains five pre-painted 28mm figures, rules, and a CD-R with files for a printable western town.  The pre-paints are not going to win the Golden Demon, but they're not bad, and it looks to be a useful set if you like Wild West gaming and light-ish rules.

To be in the draw, there are two things you have to do:

1) be (or become) a follower here, and
2) leave a comment on this post saying what your favourite board and miniatures games are.

If you are a follower here but have changed your user name, profile or photo since you became one, you can always 'recommit' to be sure that I don't overlook you by mistake.

Once we get to 50,000 hits, the dice will be consulted to find a winner.  I will then announce the result here and ask him or her to contact me privately with a name and postal address and to indicate which item they would prefer.  After that I will send the game or figures off, hopeful that they will arrive in one piece, but conveniently avoiding all liability if they do not!

The dice roll will of course be done fairly, but people I recognize as especially valued visitors will get the equivalent of two entries in the draw.

There we have it.

Thanks very much again to everyone who has dropped in here over the past couple of years, and good luck!