Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: ntdars on February 18, 2021, 10:12:46 PM
-
Our group does a ton of hobbying, and decided to make a blog for our club just for kicks. What are somethings you look for when visiting hobby-focused blogs? It seems like the biggest factors are reviews, painting guides, after-action reports, , project logs, etc.
Here's the beginnings of our archive and as you can see, we're pretty excited to get started. Would love some feedback as well if anyone has it.
https://drawsteel.blogspot.com/ (https://drawsteel.blogspot.com/)
-
It’s a technical thing rather than a content suggestion, but I much prefer when posts are organised by subject area, or there is some way of selecting keywords. The ones where the only way to navigate is by flicking through the pages or by choosing month by month are much less user friendly, given that I’d usually be looking for only posts on topics that interest me.
-
It’s a technical thing rather than a content suggestion, but I much prefer when posts are organised by subject area, or there is some way of selecting keywords. The ones where the only way to navigate is by flicking through the pages or by choosing month by month are much less user friendly, given that I’d usually be looking for only posts on topics that interest me.
Thanks for the reply! We do tag our posts with topics (on the right side of the page) so you can easily scroll through that selected topic, unless there was something else you meant :-X
-
Tagging and categorisation is great, definitely something I appreciate when I see it.
Probably the biggest thing is to have fun and let that show through the posts. As a hobby blog you very much want to show your enthusiasm and passions, so let that lead you and have fun. If other people enjoy what you post and find it interesting or useful all the better, but write about what you enjoy first and foremost.
Lots of pictures always help on posts, many people will just scroll through looking at the pictures and only stop to read the sections that look interesting.
For my blog I've found battle reports tend to draw interest along with army showcases, and rambles on issues all in the hobby encounter (like decisions over basing). I don't really do reviews (other than as part of play testing) or painting guides (I'm not a skilled enough painter) so can't speak to that.
Ultimately people will be drawn to what interests then in the hobby. What you've been doing so far seems good, though the subject matter covered so far doesn't really overlap with my interests yet.
Regardless, have fun and good luck!
-
Thanks for the reply! We do tag our posts with topics (on the right side of the page) so you can easily scroll through that selected topic, unless there was something else you meant :-X
It is what he meant but you are using tags too loosely. Does Blogger have categories as well as tags or just tags?
-
So the one thing that I really hate about blogger sites is when people don't break long posts using the 'Read More' element (or whatever it is called in Blogger).
The way that your blog is currently set up you need to scroll through the entirety of each post before you see the next on your main page. So if, for instance, I don't care about Pig Iron minis I would have scroll through the entire post before I see the next post.
Drives me batty. Especially if someone has an especially long post.
-
Thanks for the reply! We do tag our posts with topics (on the right side of the page) so you can easily scroll through that selected topic, unless there was something else you meant :-X
Apologies, I hadn’t actually spotted the link and seen your blog when I wrote that - yes you do have the topics 👍 That makes a big difference to me.
Other than that, the painting guide is nice.
One thing I would like to be able to find is comparative reviews of things like roads, buildings, trees etc. I wanted to buy some roads lately and wanted to find someone who had reviewed several but couldn’t find anything. You could do ratings out of 5 for cost, durability, look on the table, etc. One issue I find is wargames magazines simply don’t give impartial reviews, and are never critical - I think because everyone’s in the business and the magazine editors are matey with most of the people in the industry. The figure reviews in things like Wargames Illustrated are so lacking, I find.
Also, up to date scale comparisons are good - I’m always searching for them and rarely find exactly what I want. That might deliver passing traffic who then follow. I’m not expert btw, just thinking about the content I struggle to find.
-
I like it when they do an AAR or show figures. But please remember to state the rules are that you are using and more importantly where the figures come from.
-
Thank you for the replies all! :)
So the one thing that I really hate about blogger sites is when people don't break long posts using the 'Read More' element (or whatever it is called in Blogger).
The way that your blog is currently set up you need to scroll through the entirety of each post before you see the next on your main page. So if, for instance, I don't care about Pig Iron minis I would have scroll through the entire post before I see the next post.
Drives me batty. Especially if someone has an especially long post.
It looks like Blogger does have a function to make that not the case on Mobile, but I'm still trying to figure it out on Desktop. Like this you mean right?
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/626750501471518723/812370377409691678/Screenshot_20210219-120936.png)
One thing I would like to be able to find is comparative reviews of things like roads, buildings, trees etc. I wanted to buy some roads lately and wanted to find someone who had reviewed several but couldn’t find anything. You could do ratings out of 5 for cost, durability, look on the table, etc. One issue I find is wargames magazines simply don’t give impartial reviews, and are never critical - I think because everyone’s in the business and the magazine editors are matey with most of the people in the industry. The figure reviews in things like Wargames Illustrated are so lacking, I find.
Also, up to date scale comparisons are good - I’m always searching for them and rarely find exactly what I want. That might deliver passing traffic who then follow. I’m not expert btw, just thinking about the content I struggle to find.
Yeah 100% agree on the the reviews - our group is definitely more black and white when it comes to mechanics we like in rulesets and our overall opinions of them (which might be a bad thing too), so we already have some rules reviews/read-through's planned as well. We're huge fans of the LittleWarsTV reviews if you've seen them on YouTube, but most likely won't do anything "scoring" like they do since I find that method not too definitive.
Terrain stuff too is already on the radar!
I like it when they do an AAR or show figures. But please remember to state the rules are that you are using and more importantly where the figures come from.
Absolutely, I'm excited to do our first AAR. I've seen some that are PAGES long but others that are more of a summarization without doing a turn-by-turn playthrough - I honestly don't know which I prefer.
-
I love blogs so I am excited to see your club has started one.
Like someone stated above, I quite often go straight to the pics and then go back and read. One thing that throws me off AAR's is when all the pictures are from the same angle and distance; if you have a dozen or more form the same distance and angle it is visually boring. I want to see from above, ground level, pulled back and close-ups. When you are describing a whole wing falling back in disarray then a shot from above the table and pulled back may be appropriate. A key melee between 2 units in the centre of the table, a closer view would be better.
-
It looks like Blogger does have a function to make that not the case on Mobile, but I'm still trying to figure it out on Desktop. Like this you mean right?
(https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/626750501471518723/812370377409691678/Screenshot_20210219-120936.png)
No. Its called a Jump Break in Blogger.
https://www.websitespot.com/blog/how-to-insert-read-more-html-code-into-your-blog/
I am not sure what your screenshot is showing but it might just be trimming the article size for mobile.
-
Lots of interesting points in this thread. I have tried to improve my blog with some of the points raised but my biggest challenge is not really being very familiar with WordPress. Getting it to do exactly what I want, especially the “free version” has been difficult.
-
Its [sic] called a Jump Break in Blogger.
Look for the "dash" symbol in the tools menu in the "Compose View" of the Blogger editor. See attached image.
It's placement is crucial. Ideally, you need an opening paragraph that explains what the post is about, a picture and a teaser, second paragraph that encourages readers to click the read more link. This way the front page of the blog is both easy to scan and tempting if the reader's interest has been piqued.
https://blog.vexillia.me.uk/
-
I use my blog as a painting record and a location to host pictures that can be linked to forums like LAF, I do not do reviews much as I feel videos do a better job of that. I also like to add research and sometimes battle reports.
What attracts me is nice pictures and useful information.
Look for the "dash" symbol in the tools menu in the "Compose View" of the Blogger editor. See attached image.
It's placement is crucial. Ideally, you need an opening paragraph that explains what the post is about, a picture and a teaser, second paragraph that encourages readers to click the read more link. This way the front page of the blog is both easy to scan and tempting if the reader's interest has been piqued.
https://blog.vexillia.me.uk/
Well you learn something everyday did not know that for blogger!
Cheers
Matt
-
The few blogs I follow are actually specifically about one project. For that reason I don't share others views here on the 'read more' subject - if the author has put a new post on his project blog, I am obviously going to be reading the whole thing!
However if it was a blog with multiple subjects and projects, some of which don't interest me, I imagine the 'read more' style would be appreciated.
-
Good quality pictures and interesting ways to display models. If you have the set up put some terrain down and have models placed as if they're in a game. Battle lines and skirmish pictures sell you a world instead of a toy soldier. Painting guides are also a bit draw to me, even if you can't paint well you might have a good recipe someone else can be inspired by or steal.
Keeping your personal life out of it, doubly so for kids. Lots of blogs and youtube channels start off well and start to include more and more family non-sense until it's all about someone's daughter finger painting a model. As much as you love your family, no one else cares about models they paint. Food blogs are overwhelmed by this problem now because it's such a competitive SEO field. The longer the post the higher google ranks it for some bizarre reason. You end up with a 2 page story about some lady's holiday before she tells you the ingredients purely for SEO reasons.
If you're looking to grow your blog through search engines, make sure to make your pictures friendly for it. Model1.jpg has less impact than WW2-British-Airman-28mm-Perry.jpg It's tedious to label everything that way but you will be featured in image searches which is the primary way many of us search for blogs.
-
I'm not sure I've seen a wargames club blog that has really worked for me - I suspect that what, for me, makes a good wargaming blog is that it's personal. One chap writing about hobby stuff that interests him, dealing with basing issues, discussing rules for potential projects, showing photos of newly painted figures, that kind of stuff. So Giles at Tarleton's Quarter and RogerC at GA PA are perfect examples of what I like.
I used to keep a blog a few years ago and I found that the oddest of topics would get lots of hits. I once did a survey of 15/18mm French artillery pieces comparing their dimensions with the real thing - what I thought was an over obsessive diversion into Nerdland turned out to be one of the most popular pages. In the entry I'd made a throwaway comment that to truly get an accurate gun you would need to mix components from different makers - about 18 months later I was making a rare visit to TMP and some nut-job had actually done it (and credited me for the idea!).
As for helping people who view via a mobile phone when I started the blog that wasn't a "thing" - and I don't think that I would have made any changes to formatting anyway. My blog was more for me than anything else - I didn't much care whether anyone read it or not. I'm pretty certain if someone had said they couldn't read it because it didn't work well with their phone I'd have just thought "read it with something like a pc then" - I had to be nice and considerate to people at work, I felt no obligation to oblige some bloke online. Let's face it, I'm a misanthrope!
-
I'm not sure I've seen a wargames club blog that has really worked for me - I suspect that what, for me, makes a good wargaming blog is that it's personal. One chap writing about hobby stuff that interests him, dealing with basing issues, discussing rules for potential projects, showing photos of newly painted figures, that kind of stuff. So Giles at Tarleton's Quarter and RogerC at GA PA are perfect examples of what I like.
I used to keep a blog a few years ago and I found that the oddest of topics would get lots of hits. I once did a survey of 15/18mm French artillery pieces comparing their dimensions with the real thing - what I thought was an over obsessive diversion into Nerdland turned out to be one of the most popular pages. In the entry I'd made a throwaway comment that to truly get an accurate gun you would need to mix components from different makers - about 18 months later I was making a rare visit to TMP and some nut-job had actually done it (and credited me for the idea!).
As for helping people who view via a mobile phone when I started the blog that wasn't a "thing" - and I don't think that I would have made any changes to formatting anyway. My blog was more for me than anything else - I didn't much care whether anyone read it or not. I'm pretty certain if someone had said they couldn't read it because it didn't work well with their phone I'd have just thought "read it with something like a pc then" - I had to be nice and considerate to people at work, I felt no obligation to oblige some bloke online. Let's face it, I'm a misanthrope!
Yeah, you're spot on there, depends on the goal of the blog. I keep mine mostly just for a place to record my progress and games and ramble out thoughts and share it as a means to get feedback and ideas from others on the things I'm doing and thinking about. I've no real desire to build and monetise it into anything other than a hobby record. My most popular post (that still gets hit multiple times a week) was a ramble on the difficulties of balancing basing for small play areas and small figures while still presenting a pleasing aesthetic and a fair representation of the troops. I genuinely thought it would be of little interest to anyone and was mostly just a way for me to gather a number of things I'd been thinking about together in one place. My second most popular post of all time is of some generic cardboard and colouring pencil counters and terrain I made on Saturday afternoon as a means to try out rules without appropriate figures. Funny how these things go.
-
The success of a blog depends on the intention. If all you want a blog for is to capture your hobby process then almost anything will do.
If you want the blog to help promote a club then you need to look at how and what you post from that perspective.
So things that I think good club blogs have are
List of past and upcoming events
Photos from those events
Hobby posts that relate to club activity
Link to member blogs (if any)
I am not entirely certain that blogging software, or at least hosted blogging software, is going to give you what you need since it is rather prescriptive in what it offers for free.
I am a touch biased in this instance as I used to write CMS software and so I am used to self-hosting and tinkering. YMMV :)
So I would suggest looking for other club websites and seeing what you like and then making a list of your goals and seeing what features from those sites will meet those.
-
I'd offer two pieces of advice;
! - Regular posts, this does not mean daily posts, but they have to be regular - for example a You Tube-er that I follow has a regular Monday, Wednesday and Friday update. I find myself looking forward to the updates.
2 - Produce the Blog for yourself if you enjoy it then you can be sure others do. My own Blog is now thirteen years old and I still find things to post about.
Tony
http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/ (http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/)
-
Look for the "dash" symbol in the tools menu in the "Compose View" of the Blogger editor. See attached image.
It's placement is crucial. Ideally, you need an opening paragraph that explains what the post is about, a picture and a teaser, second paragraph that encourages readers to click the read more link. This way the front page of the blog is both easy to scan and tempting if the reader's interest has been piqued.
Thanks, that was very useful!
Our group does a ton of hobbying, and decided to make a blog for our club just for kicks. What are somethings you look for when visiting hobby-focused blogs? It seems like the biggest factors are reviews, painting guides, after-action reports, , project logs, etc.
Here's the beginnings of our archive and as you can see, we're pretty excited to get started. Would love some feedback as well if anyone has it.
https://drawsteel.blogspot.com/ (https://drawsteel.blogspot.com/)
A really nice blog what You made there!
I also started my blog recently (october of 2020), and I find here many tips very useful!
And not as a blogger, but as a blog reader, I would say that its important to have pictures, the posts shouldnt be too long (TLDR is a real problem), and maybe the most important is regularity (I dont regulary visit such blogs, where I dont expect regular content).
And only one hint, as a blogger: have a lot of post on store, because there can be busy times, and with a buffer its much easier to keep up the regularity.