Hey guys!
Here is the link to my video game blog : http://pixellatedculture.blogspot.com/
The first post is about Fallout 3 for those interested in the Fallout-verse, but knowledge of the game is not entirely necessary.
I chose Blogger as it is part of Google and links up to a bunch of other services. Blogger also gave me a bunch of tools to put on my blog, as in links to Twitter and Facebook, putting my own Twitter on the site, a page view tracker, an RSS button for subscribers and more! There’s even an option for Ad Sense, which I opted out of. Blogger also has a variety of templates and great customization. I wasn’t feeling to creative, so I just tweaked one of the basic ones. It was super easy to set up and get started. Blogger also has a button at the top for “Next Blog” so if you’re feeling random it takes you to another blog, thus potentially increasing my traffic. The only trouble I has was hyperlinks. Oh, they work and it’s fairly intuitive to get them in there, it’s just the field won’t let you copy the link in so you have to type it yourself. There is a “test the link” feature so you know if you typed it in right, but it’s still mildly annoying.
It’s a little early to tell how successful this will be, but I have hope. I didn’t realize Blogger has so many features when I signed up so that was a pleasant surprise. Anyway, check it out and leave comments telling me what you think, either here or at the blog itself.
Edit:
So now I have two posts up. The second is on Bioshock. So far, I haven’t gotten any comments, but I have gotten plenty of views. For the rest of the process for the project time limit, I do have the list of games I want to speak about. I do plan to keep the alternating schedule of history week vs lit week.
However, I do desire comments as I want this blog to be an interactive experience. I want people to leave suggestions and give me ideas. I’m hoping that I can encourage people to leave a comment and this is just new blog jitters or something like that. I also recently redesigned by template to look a little more classy and the background isn’t so distracting.
I’m also having trouble deciding format. I’m thinking my blog looks a little bland because the it doesn’t have pictures. However, I’m afraid that putting too many pictures would disrupt the flow. Right now I have hyperlinks for aspects of the game which are important. What’s the best way to go about the picture issue?
Looking good! I enjoyed your first two posts. To your last point, I would encourage you to incorporate some pictures. At least one picture for each post. That kind of visual element can play a really important role in making your posts more appealing. Also, I would encourage you to think about incorporating headings. I am a fan of headings all the time 🙂 but they are particularly important on the web. People scan web pages much more actively than they do books, so it is important to try and hit your points home with headings.
In terms of getting more traffic and comments. First off, it is always a bit rough when you start out. It takes a while to get people following you and then as you go and get a body of work up there you will start to get people going back through your previous posts and giving some comments. Now beyond that, you might want to think about starting to comment on a bunch of other game blogs and then be sure to leave your blog URL when you do. People tend to check out your other posts when you do that sort of thing. You might also offer to do a guest post or something for one of the other games blogs. That tends to be a great way to get a bit more traffic.