Blog Azeroth

So I am writing this to see how many active people are actually out there . I love Blogging, and reading other peoples blogs, mainly because it is neat to see everyones perspective on the game. I mean some like Just taking pictures, while other people round there dps to the .0001 place. I think I fall somewhere in between that.

My Main reason I want to write this post is for everyone out there that likes writing and reading comments!! I know that people are putting thier heart and soul into writing some of these things just to log on 2 days later to see that maybe 3 people read it, and you see that big 0 Comments Looking you right in the face, Mocking you!

I would like to change all this, I am new to blogging, and I would just like to get to meet new people, and talk and comment and have some fun.(Lot of and's in that last sentence) Anyways If you have an awesome blog, or a bad blog, or any type of blog I would love to see it below. I will try my best to view/comment on them all

Good luck and happy blogging to all!

Actually, I started blogging with a strict mentality to combat this. I told myself comments didn't matter at all, and as long as there was one person out there reading it, I would continue to write it. Has worked out for me thus far.

I don't care how many *reads* my blog. I care how many finds a *use* for my blog. I write to be read, so I am obviously filled with glee when people post comments - and there are a few regulars that can spike up quite the conversation in almost any blog post. But knowing that someone actually appreaciates the work I put in, enough to come back and visit the site several times a week, that keeps me going.

Part of it is my ego as well, I suppose. My brain sais "They are listening to me. ME! Muahahaha", but in truth, one wouldn't do all the work a blog requires if it wasn't because they wanted to make a difference.

I got into blogging because I am a forum whore. Head over to the druid forums on MMO-champion, and you will find me in every single moonkin thread. But I was getting annoyed with trolls, people posting false information, or whatever lurks on every forum, so I found myself writing really long replies. My mentality was to not just tell people "What", but also "Why". It takes a lot of time to keep posting stuff, and within a week, said post will disappear and be forgotten - by myself as well. So my initial motivation for blogging was to have a place to keep my posts - those that could be turned into a general article, at least.

And now, people read my posts on MMO, they read my posts on my blog - heck, I even see people making threads on MMO, saying "I was wondering if Qieth could...", which gives me mixed feelings; I am certainly not the only competent moonkin out there, and there are several other moonkins that are very regular on MMO - and I always tell people that they shouldn't just listen to one guy - especially me

But this is the situation at hand. Mostly, I find people sending me mails, asking me to look them over, or requesting tips for one thing or the other. And it feels nice, I wont lie. But it also tells me that I have actually reached out to people, that some people have actually read my stuff, and based on that, value my oppinion.

And getting out our oppinions, thats really what blogging is all about, isn't it?

Honestly, I probably get 1 comment for every couple hundred of readers I have on average. I have to usually post super controversial things to get my readers to actually post a lot of comments. For things that people agree with, they seem to generally comment less often.

I can't remember who it was that said that you should make a point of commenting, even if you don't have much to say..?

As Lissanna said - when many of us agree with something, we probably think there's no point saying so, since the author already said it. But the more you comment, the more exposure you give yourself - not just to the author, but to the other commenters.

One of the best ways to get comments on your blog is to comment on other people's blogs - particularly in the areas that you usually write about.

I try to comment on all the blogs that I find around about WoW because I also know what it's like to see the big 0 Comments and feel, just a little, depressed inside. Don't worry though it's not the end of the world, I get maybe 1 or 2 comments every 5 blog posts if i'm lucky and mostly just from nice people I know or who have returned the favour for me commenting on their own blog. However I also put up a monthly poll on my blog and last month got 114 votes around about so I know people are out there and engaging themselves at least to some extent on my blog even if they dont think they have anything to comment about.

Also invest in Analytics (yay I love that thing can you tell?). IT can help you improve your blog readership but it can also make you feel that little bit better knowing that while you may have no comments or no followers, you do actually have tonnes more readers than you think and many of them regular visitors.

In the meantime, I'll hunt down your blog and try to comment a bit on it, get the ball rolling a little

EDIT: I made a comment on your blog and it was then that I realised you are on my hit list of blogs to comment on anywa. I already had your blog on follow. Why was your blog on my hitlist? Well, as it turns out you've already commented on my own blog =o See? it does work, keep commenting! What goes around comes around

I can relate to how you feel! I enjoy the writing process, so for me, the blog is a fun endeavor. Would I like to have people read it and leave comments? Of course. However, the mindset I have is I enjoy blogging, and it allows me to write, which is something I enjoy in my free time outside of WoW. Focus on having fun with your blog, keep posting, and don't worry too much about the number of comments you receive. They'll come in due time

This is my experience as well. I actually get more whispers in-game than comments on my blog, unless I write a sad story -- apparently people only post if I make them cry.

It takes awhile to gain a reader community and build a relationship with them. The first few months of blogging are the hardest because you're working your arse off, trying to be interesting and it feels like you're alone in your corner of the internet. But after commenting on other blogs and networking with other bloggers, it slowly picks up.

The blogosphere is a bit more quiet than usual these days, though. People are taking breaks from the game, or are away on vacation or just aren't feeling as argumentative. I'm sure it'll get going again after awhile.

I felt a bit "meh" about it when I started. I used to update on my lunch breaks but since then its dropped off due to most sites being banned by my work (Not BA yet hopefully).

My only consolation was that I'm writing this to vent. Sometimes it's just nice to do something a little creative and get some of the shit floating around your skull out there. I occasionally try to provoke discussion, but some of the time I look at a post lying uncommented and recognise that:
"hey, I'd had a bad day there and that post chilled me out"

Basically?

Je ne regrette rien

I'd welcome you to check out what I'm blogging about. I try to check out everyone who comments on it and really interact with them. After all, we're a community!

You know my site has been up for about 7 months now, and I have learned so much. I think everyone has spikes in traffic at some point on their blog. I mean I have only about 1500-2500 people who visit Horde Review a day and maybe I get 2-3 comments if I am lucky. Alot of times I don't get any. The most people who have ever been to my blog in one day though is 16,000 which was a right after Ruby Sanctum, and what we do is plan for new content. I start getting strategies together and things to put out there as quickly as I possibly can after new content is released so we get that spike in traffic. You see before that jump of 16000 I was only get around 300 visitors a day, now I average 1-2000. The idea is to hold onto some of those who visit during your spikes I think.

Also if you wanna help your blog you can visit our site and bookmark your posts on our new WoW Bookmarking feature.

http://www.hordereview.com/wow-universe/

What you post will determine how many comments you get. Do you post questions, controversial information or leave things a little vague? Those tactics will get questions and discussions going on your blog.

On mine, http://www.justmytwocopper.org/ , I tend to give straight tips to making gold so the discussion is rather thin. You can install google analytics for information on how many hits you're getting.

I also like to read other's blog. But, only when I read something move me, I will leave a note. And I also write my comment seriously.

On Wordpress I can easily see how many visitors I have, how they found my blog and what they read/click.
It's not many readers and if I get over 300 a day it's because I posted a link in some popular thread on MMO-Champion, like after the big datamined list I wrote about new mounts and pets I got many visitors who searched for the different mounts.

I rarely get any comments. But my blog is still new and I'm new to blogging. Sometimes I sit and just think what I should blog about.
I love screenshots and videos and I have many, but I want it to be interesting for others, not only myself. Some people like to read long posts, some don't.
Many people write about what they do in WoW and how it affect their lives, and WoW from the female perspective.
Maybe I should do that as well. Cause I don't only want to write info and tips about how to play, farm, earn gold, do quests and raid, but also my opinion on everything.
So I wrote this post some days ago about the WoW music, my best post till now, but not many readers, sucks when you spend so much time on something.

It's just hard cause sometimes I think "what do people want to read?", when I feel I should think "what do I care about and want to share?"

But I get really happy for every comment I get and try give a visit and comment in return. Also added some blogs I like to a blogroll. I'll add anyone who wants

Just picking this out, because I'm curious if you know how many subscribers you have. I have spiky days (111 hits is my highest (thanks Beru!)), but since most of my traffic is transient, either from search engines or following a link/trackback, I'm far more interested in the number of people who've decided to subscribe to my blog, which is likely to be more constant with time, rather than how many people read one page (if that) and move on.

For me personally, subscribers is the metric I value most, because hits don't count for much unless they're "converted" into repeat traffic, and comments can depend very strongly on the kind of thing you post.

There are a lot of points I agree with from folks here, but none more strongly than Qieth. The main reason I started MMO Melting Pot, which aims to pick out some of the best posts from around the blogosphere and put them in one place, is to try to provide a service that both the blogging community and our readership will find useful. If people are finding what you're doing useful, enjoyable or would just plain miss it if you stopped doing it, you're doing something right.

A lot of people are saying that commenting on other blogs really helps. That's true (and something I'm working on getting better at myself) and gives those bloggers a warm fuzzy feeling, too. But other folks are right - subscriber numbers are a better metric, and both Google Analytics and feedburner (if you're using it) will help you keep track and keep smiling.

As a side question: Markco, you make a comment about asking questions to try to encourage commenting. Can you unpack that a little? Any idea what sort of wording, or what sort of questions, you've found to work? Or different ways you've tried (or not tried yet) asking questions?

I don't know about the subscribers? Where can I see how many I have, if I can?
I think most people who read my blog come from Twitter when I post there about a new blog post or when I comment other blogs they give me a visit.
I'm trying to subscribe to all blogs I follow and read and hope other people do the same.
Most of my visitors are also from links/trackbacks from different sites, but I hope some of them who come to check out one post or picture check my other posts aswell.

@Rebecca: It happens that I end a post in a question, inviting the readers to share their views on the topic. BUT I want to give out a warning: I've seen to many blogs ending every single post in that way. And that's just annoying.It looks mechanical and like you're kind of desperate for comments. You don't have to ask things. People will comment anyway if you have a topic that is engaging.
So by all means ask - but do it wisely and not in every post.

@Syrco: there are tools such as Feedburner and Googleanalytics. They're quite easy to add to your blog. Even I've managed to do that and I'm very untechnical. Through those you can see how many subscribers you have and analytics has a ton of info about your visitors - what they read, where they come from etc etc. Tbh I'm not interested enough to follow up on the Analytic stuff. But I check out Feedburner once in a while to see about the subscribers. It's nice to see your readership grow; however I warn you against taking those numbers too seriously. At least when it comes to subscribers I think you can have many subscribers that actually don't read your blog anymore. How often do you un-subscribe to blogs? Most won't bother to remove it. So the numbers will inevitably be inflated.

There's a special section on this forum for blogging tips and tricks where I think you can find more info about analytic tools - or ask if there's something you miss.

i think there's many reasons why a blog gets read and commented on or not - and only a few of them are really in your hands. sometimes its odd how much work you put into one very-well written post that gets no attention and the next day you only write a few lines and post a picture and get many comments. who can say why that is? sometimes you hit the 'nerve' of a greater topic that brings a lot of people to your blog, sometimes you write a witty post with lousy timing and nobody will care because there's mega-news on mmo champion everyone needs to discuss.

especially if you do not already have a solid reader-base commenting on most of your posts, you have to expect 'waves' like that. comments are great as long as you remember that lots of comments (or the lack thereof) arent necessarily a sign of high/low interest or that your post was particularly good or bad. you could make an experiment and have a very famous blogger post the exact same post of somebody starting a new blog: the well-known blog is bound to get more comments and potential backlinks because it gets more attention and has its faithful readers. but you need to earn that bigger audience and that takes patience and consistent quality over a longer period of time. all the 'top blogs' had to work hard to get where they are now.
maybe you already manage an okay comment-percentage in relaion to your readerbase, so don't lose hope just because you got the small numbers. I'm already happy if one or two people enjoy what I wrote!

what i believe you can do personally is simply to be patient and persistent. keep the quality of your posts high and interact with other bloggers that write posts you enjoy. contact a few major sites that list bloggers and ask them to add you. above all, make sure you enjoy what you write and remember to write for yourself first.

i also feel there's other factors like site layout for example, that can be a disadvantage. or if you're using other media, like facebook and twitter to get your posts noticed and contact others. I don't know what big a role twitter plays and I chose not to use it, but apparently it's helpful. but I cling to the hope that it's not gonna matter in the long run.

I definitely can see what the topic starter here feels about this. I know that if I'm writing it's because I want people to read, either for their education in some topic or just random enjoyment (hopefully). I also know the feeling of the low views and the zero comments, definitely lowers the motivation. My 15 Minutes of Wow is my second blog. The first one was well, sort of like 15 minutes except it applied to all things, not just WoW, so the topics were kind of varied. But with such a broad scope, I actually had a harder time finding things to write about and without the consistency, I don't think many views converted into readers and as such, lost most motivation to write.

I've only been writing 15 Minutes for a few weeks now and I've had a random spike to 95 or so in viewers and yesterday was nearly 80, though most days are at least 20 which makes me pretty content for now.

As a pretty big related note to this thread, I have to give this site a pretty large amount of credit for my views the past 2 days being really high. Looking at the tracking of links clicked to get here, I'd say 50% of views came from this site and their readers, or links posted of me from people that saw me here (big thanks to the meltingpot here). So good news to all! In just 2 days it's clear to me this Blog Azeroth is helpful for us bloggers, so I guess the creators and we as a community are doing the right thing here.

@ Everyone... WOW i am so surprised this post took off like it did.

/waves at Mr. Stoneskin

Honestly, I mostly write because I like to babble. I used to do this more in my own guild forums, but since I'm a bit in between guilds at the moment, I felt that I needed a new place to spill out all my ideas and ramblings. Thus, my blog was born!

Like everyone else, I like getting comments. They're few and far between right now, but my blog is young yet...'tis the nature of the beast. I myself am a terrible commenter. For the most part I prefer to lurk, but if something grabs at me you can be sure that I'll pipe up with a wall of random text. I'm actually fairly shy, and commenting on other people's work is simply something that I'm working on getting better with.

As far as getting comments vs views vs subscribers is concerned, honestly at the end of the day I'm just happy if one person bothered to stop by to gaze at something I took the time to create. If someone comments, whoo hoo! Conversation/feedback! If someone subscribes, yay! A regular viewer that likes me! But views...this is my gold mine. I don't care if it's one person coming back to my page 40 times in one day or 40 different people, it's still pretty darn cool. I also love the statistic tracking system that Blogger has set up, and it's really neat to see folks from different countries stumbling into my corner of the 'net.

I also feel that I must echo Sharden's applause. Without Blog Azeroth or the MMO Melting Pot I would only have a fraction of the page views that I do now, so thank you!

We all have our reasons for blogging, comments or no...our projects are what we make of them. If others like your work, kudos to you! If they don't, it doesn't matter too much, so long as you're happy with the product.

While I can't say comments just don't matter to me, I certainly can't say I write for them. I write to put my thoughts out there, almost like an online diary, sometimes they're fair and sometimes they're not, comments can be great motivators though, particularly in rough times. Being reminded that there might be people out there that want to read your ramblings is certainly a nice thing.

I don't think I can offer advice on how to get comments or even readers (particularly given my recent finding out that neither of my RSS feeds worked >.< so for the past x months nobody could actually subscribe to my blog, stupid stupid stupid moment) but I can offer that I myself read many blogs and rarely comment, it's not that the posts are bad, or their subject matter isn't something that interests me, but, for me to comment I feel like I should have something to contribute other than "I agree!" or "I disagree simply due to opinion!" Since those feel a little too much like standard youtube comments to me, and I'd much rather have 0 comments, than your average youtube commenter.

My two cents in this thread, hopefully my rambling makes sense.

Well, I think the original point of this post was to get people to post their Blogs.

So i guess.. here we go

http://alittlesliceofwow.blogspot.com/

It's a new blog, and I'm a new blogger. But I plan on posting regularly about all of the happenings in WoW. I'd really appreciate it if you decided to check it out. Any comments, both constructive and praising, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks =)