Starting out a blog can be quite challenging at first. You are essentially a whisper at a rock concert. What will you write about? Who will read it? Well, here are a few tips that I believe to be true:
Firstly, don’t ever think that you will become the next big thing overnight. It doesn’t happen. Particularly if you are writing about stuff that people can read about everywhere else. 40k falls under this category. There are endless blogs on 40k, and you have to ask yourself what makes yours so special? Well, the real answer should be “nothing.” At the end of the day, you should be writing about what you want. Don’t think you have to be writing articles on the latest tournament builds, or leaking images of upcoming releases to gain readers (it will help exposure, but isn’t required). There are plenty of blogs out there that haven’t leaked a thing and have 500+ followers. Gaining views is about writing content that makes sense and isn’t made up. Don’t write posts about topics you have very little knowledge about. There would be no point in me trying to write a post on Warmachine, because it would be rubbish and those viewers who read it wouldn’t come back. Stick with what you know and you will get there.
Secondly, DO NOT overload yourself. If you can aim for one post a day, then great. However, like most working people, you will find it very difficult to get in one post a day, let alone every second day. Consequently, it is best to aim for 2-3 posts per week. If you want to knock out a number of posts in one session, use the scheduling function to cover you for a few days. That way you don’t have to keep logging back in and out.
Thirdly, get yourself onto as many blog rolls as possible. For blogs on wargaming, I would go with Faeit212’s blog roll, as well as Talk Wargaming. Furthermore, you will often find that many blogs (such as this one) have their own blog roll that you can get onto by simply emailing or dropping a comment about it. This is marketing 101, you can’t get your product out there if no one knows about it.
So, in a quick summary:
Write about what you know.
Take it easy.
Get your links out there.
I hope this helps anyone starting out a blog, don’t be discouraged if three months down the track you still haven’t received a comment. Stick with it and you will enjoy it.