How To Make Your Blog LAF Friendly

[6milPhil]

The use of the web for our brilliant hobby is not only quite stunning but it really helps to keep it alive especially as an inspiration to us all. There are three core areas which provide this vitality; manufacturers' sites, public forums and personal blogs. LAF is, in my opinion, the best forum going. I enjoy it's mix of nationalities and the high quality of the posts. Keeping the quality high is important, not to create some kind of elitism, but to keep the forum alive so future generations might enjoy it as a resource of unrivaled parallel.

One way to protect the quality as well as interest other gamers in your Blog is to adopt some minimum style standards. Look as this as an example:

Hey Guys! I painted some figures with my mate Dave this weekend.
You can see them on my blog: http://www.dafk.net/what/

It provides the bare minimum of information and an off-forum link. Not only will this discourage folk from clicking on the link because they're short on time and the info isn't specific enough to attract interest but it will to some degree alienate forum regulars for being both lazy and possibly dragging readers away from the forum. If you are a new member and your original posts are like this it won't do you any favours with other LAFers either, it looks as if you don't want to be part of our community but want to use us to generate traffic. These are the very people you want to attract so it must be worth considering surely?

Now LAF is categorised into areas of interest, so posting in the right area is important. Should you get it wrong a kindly moderator will put it in the right place so HURRAH! for them. However within the sub forums there's quite a range of possiblities, so give some details - funnily enough you're unlikely to ever be too specific.

Hey Guys! I painted some Polish 28mm figures, as 18 Dywizja Piechoty from the Independent Operational Group Narew with my mate Dave this weekend.
You can see them on my blog: http://www.dafk.net/what/

Not brilliant but better.  

A truism but a picture does paint a thousand words. With that in mind you should always put, at the very least, one picture with your post. If you've a pile of pictures on the Blog you're linking to put a few up, maybe even consider taking a photo which is only used on the forum post. You can host this on your blog server.

Hey Guys! I painted some Polish 28mm figures, as 18 Dywizja Piechoty from the Independent Operational Group Narew with my mate Dave this weekend.
You can see them on my blog: http://www.dafk.net/what/

That's looking much better, will interest more people and being detailed in it's description should give your work a hint of authority as well as an expression of serious interest. The above really should be the minimum you post.

There's nothing to stop you developing the link post a little more:

Hey Guys! I painted some Polish 28mm figures from Polski Minatures, as 18 Dywizja Piechoty from the Independent Operational Group Narew with my mate Dave this weekend.

The 18th Infantry Division (18 Dywizja Piechoty) took part in the 1939 Defensive War, and being stationed near the Polish German border near Prussia saw a lot of action. You can read about them on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_18th_Infantry_Division

You can see them on my blog: http://www.dafk.net/what/

Now that's an interesting post, it encourages discussion and traffic as well as helping you and your blog become a part of the LAF community. The total has exceeded the sum of it's parts. etc.

Earlier mention was made of how you can't be too specific, and this is very importantly so with the link you offer in your post. Too many new Bloggers start off just quoting the front page, eg: www.myblog.com, which works but can generate problems the very moment you add a couple of posts. Here's an example, and imagine this is a post from a while back:

Hi guys, I just finished a pile of British Moderns. Not the world's best paintjobs I know but I'm happy with them.
They're part of my ongoing Jihadistan project and are a mix of 28mm Empress, TAG and Brooks from Old Glory UK. Great figures.

See what you think: http://6milphil.wordpress.com/

Now if you follow the Blog link quoted it takes you to the front page, which at the moment looks like this:


Clearly that's not the figures mentioned, and will frustrate anyone who followed the link. Sure you could scroll down and find it, but as time passes it won't be on the front page any more. Meanwhile it will still be on here, and when found via a search for someone developing an interest it will be a dead end.

If I'd used a post specific link it would have worked:

Hi guys, I just finished a pile of British Moderns. Not the world's best paintjobs I know but I'm happy with them.
They're part of my ongoing Jihadistan project and are a mix of 28mm Empress, TAG and Brooks from Old Glory UK. Great figures.

See what you think: http://6milphil.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/troops-out-for-the-lads/

That now takes you to the right page, and will do for eternity:


I hope this will help both those new to Blogging and LAF as well as the Regulars improve their experience. Keep your brushes clean.

Pictures of Polish miniatures borrowed from Anatolis excellent blog: http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/two-28mm-early-war-polish-soldiers.html

[Mr.J]

Excellent. Really sums up what I like to read and see in LAF posts and helps generate blog traffic too.

It is really good of you to take the time to do this, I hope it helps everyone, both existing and new members, to keep improving our excellent forum, which is, as everyone I'm sure knows, the best of its kind.

[AKULA]

Top post Phil.

 

[Steve F]

Very helpful post, Phil.  I hope that it can be made sticky.

[Za Zjurman]

Phil,

thank you very much for the effort. A very good post.

Regards,
Za

[Predatorpt]

Excelent work, hope this gets a sticky.

[Mad Doc Morris]

That's constructive criticism at its best, right in the spirit of LAF and its rules me thinks. Thanks for the effort, well done!

[Mason]

That's constructive criticism at its best, right in the spirit of LAF and its rules me thinks. Thanks for the effort, well done!

^^^^^
This.

[Major_Gilbear]

Top post there 6milPhil! 

That way, folks on the forum can have a discussion about a topic posted on the forum. Otherwise, it's kinda hard for any relevant discussion to pick up any interest/momentum if people keep being diverted offsite by links all over the place!

I vote for this thread being stickied. 

[Dr. Zombie]

Great post.

But I would like to add that one way of encouraging great posts is for the readers to post some feedback.

There is nothing more disapointing than doing an elaborate blog post with pictures witty remarks, musings on things learned and tips and tricks. And no one replies to it.

Even something as small as a "good job" "I'm following this" or something really helps with the motivation. And lets you know that someone is actually reading your ramblings.

Or it might just be me that is a great big attention whore...

[Cherno]

I agree about the motivation factor from comments.

It's a catch-22, though: Either you announce a new blog post on the forum, thereby spreading the word, and have to deal with the fact that people will post in the thread instead of commenting on yoru blog,  or you don't post in the forums and thereby won't have as much people read it in the first place  

On a more general note, personally I have avoided creating my own blog, I like creating a new thread here and hoping for a nice discussion. I typically cross-post on TMP as well, and possibly other forums (rpg.net are cardboard heroes for example) if the topic fits. I can see having a personal space like a blog is a great thing, but personally I like having as much info as possible at one place, so I keep it on the LAF

[6milPhil]

Rhanks for the positive comments folks/

There is nothing more disapointing than doing an elaborate blog post with pictures witty remarks, musings on things learned and tips and tricks. And no one replies to it.

I recognise that emotion, but you shouldn't let it deter you.
Partially I believe folk don't comment much on blogs because it's more of a publication than a discussion. It's also because folk who are registered here and then go and read a blog don't want or don't have themselves registered to comment on blogs, nor fancy typing out their details repeatedly to do so.

I get reasonable traffic but most of the comments come from other bloggers who are automatically logged in to comment. It's more likely for me to get many more comments in the forums linking to the blog than ever on the blog itself. Even then far more folk read threads than ever comment on them.

My most read blog post was the photos from Salute 2012, in the first day it had over 60,000+ reads, four comments on the blog, and ten here in the post announcing it. 

[Gibby]

Fantastic thread, this is exactly what I think even the most negative posters in a recently locked thread were trying to convey. Cheers for this!

[beefcake]

Well done. A very well written article there.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

Thank you, Phil. That made my day, really, and this proves again that the basic stones of LAF are still friendliness, gentleness and tolerance.