Blog Azeroth

Ok, so here's the deal.

The name is Flairn. Or Theloral. Or whatever else you'd like to call me. Some of you epic Blog Azeroth folks with photographic memories may recal that at this point my little internal failed blog start counter is at 2. 3 actually, if you count the one I never got around to introducing. I have a disease which I'm sure many bloggers have experienced in their careers, I'm addicted to new sites.

Ooohhh... new blog.... Oooo... Ahhhhh... Shinnnnyyyyy...

It's pretty bad.

My problem is that I keep trying to make a blog about something very specific. I made a feral druid blog, while I was leveling my druid feral, only to go resto and boomkin at 80. I went back to feral and tried to make a hunter/druid blog with a hunter pal of mine, only to have him drop out due to RL issues. Then I made a blog about trying to get into PvE on my druid, but of course just as I started that, my arena career kicked off, and I was busy farming relentless and wrathful gear.

Now I've got a DK at 80, which is somewhat taking over as my main, and a druid I'm not really sure what to do with. I thought about making a DK blog (since there seems to be very few of them and since my DK is sort of my main... this week). But I realized that every time I limit myself to a class, or a spec, or an aspect of the game, I end up getting bored. Because I don't really play one aspect... I play it all.

So, I want to make a blog... about everything. I'm not sure how that'd work out. But I'd like a place where I can post about EVERYTHING that I'm doing, not just what I'm into at the time I made the blog. Much akin to WoW.com I'd like to make a site about every aspect of World of Warcraft- but without the news (I'm not crazy enough to go toe to toe with people like mmochampion or WoW.com) updates every 5 seconds. But with a topic so... massive... I don't know where to begin.

SO, I'm putting it out to you- the great and allmighty people of Blog Azeroth. The titans of the blogosphere. The blogers that put the blog in... blog! What would you like to see in a new blog? What is there a lack of in our community? And what would you call a blog on so epic a scale? I'm used to tiny niche stuff, but I want to make a blog I'll never get bored of. Something that encompasses... it all!

I realize that's kind of ridiculous, but if ever there was a group of folks I thought could handle my problem, I'd like to think it's Blog Azeroth. Consider this sort of like build-a-bear workshop... without bears... and that crazy synthetic stuffing stuff... and the workshop... and with blogs. Ok... the build-a-blog... blog!

Thanks so much for your help, and hopefully I can get some kind of feedback (which really, in this case... would be anything )

~Flairn/Theloral/the other alts

A quick PS- I'm not posting this asking BA to do my work for me. I just want ideas towards the eventual blog I'd like to create. And after all, I'm not the one who's going to be reading this. So I'd like imput form the community- they're the people that are supposed to benifit from the blogs of WoW.

PPS- If anyone has read all the way to the bottom of this epic wall of text... you sir/madam are a truly dedicated individual.

I'm not knowledgeable enough about the blogosphere to know what there is currently a lack of, but whatever you choose to blog about, it would probably serve you well to pick something to focus on. Even if it isn't just one class or just one part of the game, it helps for your blog to have a focus of some kind, for its that focus that will make people want to read it. What that focus should be for you, I don't know, but as Matticus once said, "By appealing to everybody, you appeal to nobody."

As for a name, your blog is currently called "Flairn's PvE Adventures". Why not just call it "Flairn's Adventures"? It might not be the epic name you were looking for, but it's general enough that you won't be stuck writing about one topic.



You should see some of the posts I write on my blog. If I can write them as long as they are, I can read your post.

You make an excelent point... much as a certain part of me would like to disagree with you.

In fact after posting that stream on conciousness, I went out and... are you ready for it... actually did my research. I discovered that every blogger that has ever posted anything involving starting a new blog for any reason has pretty much said exactly what Matticus and you so eloquently told me. If the topic is too broad... it's too broad.

I was actually on my way to delete the thread until I found someone had already taken the time to read it... and respond. So, the conclusion I have reached is this.

You're right.

(duh)

Anyways, the main thing I play in the game is my DK and my druid, so I'll try and come up with a title that includes both of those (a la Dots and Hots). Or maybe just something like 'Flairn's Adventures', like you suggested. I can always change the title to something more personal after I get the blog rolling.

Thank you very much, my philosophical friend, for steering me away from blog content suicide. You probably salvaged this blog-to-be. I guess the next question (if anyone wants to read all the way to this point), would be format. Wordpress has worked for me in the past, so I'll probably stick with it. But is there anything that should always be included in a blog (RSS feed, blogroll etc.)?

Thanks again!

Alt blogs can be very successful, so don't feel like you must be limited to a "main" to enjoy a blog. Blogs can be dedicated to tanking, healing, dpsing, or just how to make an hour worth of WoW fit in your day--the problem is deciding what you're going to enjoy writing about. I know before I started I set up a list of four things that would be covered in my blog, and I try to stick to that as much as possible.

On to your second question I'm going to steal our list from the Chopping Block and post it here for you

When bloggers give advice on blogging they will often come up with the idea that you need to specialize, find a smallish niche and stick to it, or you'll never get an audience. And that's something that I disagree with, from my own experience.
The only limit I have in my blog is that all my posts somehow are related to WoW. I never write pure off-topics about my real life, politics and such. WoW is a topic that is limited enough to me.
I write about what comes to my mind. It can be what I did last night, it can be something I read on Blizzard's website, it can be commenting on topics that are discussed in the Blogosphere. Whatever.

You see, what is most important of all is that you write about things that are meaningful to yourself. Be passionate about what you do. Enjoy the process of writing and write about things you enjoy. That's the foundation you need.

Eventually you might become "succesful" in the sense that you'll get a bigger audience. That takes a ton of work, a lot of patience and a little bit of luck. But if you start out blogging with the idea that you'll somehow become the new wow.com, I predict that you'll soon get disappointed. You need to find other incentives for blogging, you need to have the driving force somehwere within yourself.

It's not hard to start a blog. But to keep it going for more than three months takes commitment, bordering to insanity.
I hope you're one of those few who have "it" and will turn out to be a permanent resident of the WoW blogosphere. Good luck!

To clarify, my analogy to WoW.com in the OP certainly didn't mean I wanted to be as sucessful as WoW.com. That's obviously pretty well impossible. I just meant post about all kinds of things WoW-related, like they do over there, instead of a niche.

You've all given me a lot to think about, and I think what I'm going to end up doing is this:

I'm going to make a blog, with the intention of blogging about WoW. I'll talk about things that interest me (and so hopefully interest SOMEONE else out there). From there I'll probably end up with some kind of niche that I'll write mostly about, but I'm not going to pick one from the begining. That should keep me from ever gettting bored of the whole thing, and make me a more perminent member of the community.

I'm going to toddle off and work on that blog... I shall post here with the result! And hopefully I'll end up on TNB as a newly introduced blog later this week.

I just want to say you folks are awesome, you've been a huge help for the whole process. Thanks for being fantastic!

Well- after much petering about, and much fretting over a theme, and a lot of worrying about a name, I finally did it. I created the blog which (I hope) will become some kind of member of this awesome community. It's the one I'm going to stick with, and the one I'd really like to see stand the test of time.

Introducing: The Cognisance Council www.cognisancecouncil.wordpress.com

I'm VERY thankful to all you fine folks for all your imput and help. All that I can do now is write, and keep writing.

So thanks guys, you've helped one more blogger out there get his start.

Hopefully I'll see all of you around

~A very greatful Flairn

Ultimately, what you choose to blog about should reflect what you hope to get out of the experience of blogging in the first place. If your only goal is to have a creative outlet, then you can write about whatever pleases you on any given day. However, if (one of) your goal(s) is to grow a solid readership, then continuity is something you'll need to consider.

That said, you don't have to focus on a specific niche of the game itself, but there should be an overarching theme to what you're doing aside from "everything!". For example, Larisa pointed out that she doesn't specialize in any particular niche--actually, that's false. She may not specialize in a particular class, but she does consistently post editorial commentary about the game. Your "niche" isn't necessarily about what aspect of the game you choose to focus on. What that's really referring to is a set of expectations your readers can develop based on the common thread everything you write shares.

Readers of blogs subscribe to sites and return to them regularly because they want one (or both) of two things: information and entertainment. Also, readers want to have at least a basic concept of what they can expect from your site. If you're posting random articles on any number of different topics in a short span of time, you can easily confuse your readers and they'll start to lose interest. Unless there's a common thread that provides continuity between all these different topics that will tie them together into a nice bow for your readers.

If readership is something you're concerned with, take a moment to think about two things: who is your target audience, and what keeps you subscribed to a blog? Think about the different blogs that you subscribe to. Which ones are your favorites? What makes them your favorites? Identifying the things you like about different blogs will give you some insight into what traits most people appreciate about blogs. And, once you have your target audience identified, you have a context to put those observations into that you can apply to your own work.

In short, you don't necessarily have to pigeon-hole yourself into a specific class or spec, but there should be an easily identifiable theme or motif to what you're doing if you want to keep readers coming back.