So you think you have what it takes to be a blogger? You’re willing to put your work out there for all the world to read, flame or ignore?
Grats
I’m here to give you some tips on how to do it the Creep way. Granted, if you do things as I do them, chances are you’re walking into a pit of fail from which there is no escape. BUT! I’m willing to put my two cents out there.
I started this blog to work on web development. I just wanted to experiment with setting up and working with a blog engine. Creeping was originally published on a C# blogging engine, eventually migrated from there to a much simpler to use and modify WordPress blogging engine. I prefer WordPress and say use the hell out of it. It’s flexible and if you’re willing to learn a little php you can do a lot with it.
The web language php really isn’t too bad, trust me.
As for how you get served this fabulous content? I go for the private hosting option. Yeah I have to pay for my blog to be ignored by the world at large, but I have more freedom to post whatever I want. Also it usually isn’t blocked by IT gurus trying to keep you from reading gaming blogs at work.
I also control whether or not there is any advertising on my site. You’ll find none.
Granted that means I make no money from my site. BUT…. I am also beholden to no one. So whatever you see me saying about this game or that, is strictly because I wanted to say it, not because anyone gave me anything or because I was given a kickback.
Come on, who’s going to pay a Creep? Hell I’m pretty sure that most of the world still thinks I’m a dude. I’m down with that it gives me a chuckle.
If you want to go the free route, though, go for it. I mean if you’re not sure that you want to invest in a blog, check out Blogger or WordPress. You’ll get your money’s worth, and if you sign up for Adsense with Google, you might even get some coffee monies if people clicky clicky on ads that pop up on your blog.
You get some theme flexibility, which means you get to tweak how it looks so you can make it an obnoxious orange if you so choose. Also you can usually opt buy your own URL and you can have people navigate to “whatever-game-I-love.com” and get away with it. There of course YOU get to rant to your heart’s content, that’s always bonus. Keep in mind however you do have to follow your hosting provider’s terms of service.
Some blog providers are strict, some aren’t. Remember to take a look at your terms of service before you start posting language most foul, that should usually keep you from ending up on someone’s naughty list, and I don’t mean Santa.
I however, can cuss it up, rip it up, and post whatever I want to rant, whenever. The only terms of service you get here is reader beware. Once again, that’s where buying your own hosting helps.
Granted you want to watch some of your language, or you end up with some REALLY interesting spam. Ask Scarybooster.
Be persistent. I haven’t been a faithful blogger, but Creeping has been in operation since October 2008. While I don’t post as much as I should, I do love blogging mostly because I like to look back on what I’ve done in games, and also because it gives me a place to rant about the industry that pulls all the strings on my games.
That won’t make you popular. I can’t tell you how to be popular. I’m a geek, I don’t do popular.
Lastly and most importantly, remember that you write for your reader. Make it easy to read and translate into multiple languages where possible. Do a little editing, and remember, thanks to Google cache, whatever you write is going to be out there… possibly for as long as there’s a net.
So don’t be a total dumb ass cause it’ll come back to bite you. Post your own content, don’t pretend to be something your not just to get pings, and you might not want to flame people. That usually doesn’t go over well. Sure you can get away with it, cause it’s the net and trolls get great ratings. But you know what, the blog community is made up of some great folks. Be nice to them and they’ll serve as a great resource for years to come.
Best of luck to you, and if you do keep up with this, and want to drop me a link, hit me up, my e-mail is creep at the url above. That or check out Twitter, Facebook or Google+. I’m on all of those places too, though they make me use my real name there.
Till next time, I’m going to be hunting Frostweave *groans* take it easy.
