Hello, my fellow Escapists! I'm planning on starting up a gaming blog in a few days, but first, I would very much appreciate your advice as to how to go about it. What site should I use, and how would I increase web traffic to the blog?
Gaming Blog Startup Assistance Needed
- Thread starter Bradach Donachad
- Start date
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Warning: I'm not an expert at the internet. The content I post online is yet to become particularly popular but I'm working on it. That being said you shouldn't hold your breath for someone with more experience to weigh in.
The way I see it most blogging services offer basically the same functionality, that is, to give you the ability to write articles that people can look at on the internet, so it's not necessarily the platform you use but how you use it. That being said I'd definitely consider something that has plenty of members rather than something for just building a standalone site - that way people can easily subscribe to your content meaning they will be more likely to return when new stuff is posted and can like/plus/reblog/etc your posts without them necessarily having to create an account (because who wants more of those am I right?). That means stuff like Tumblr, Facebook and Google+. They aren't necessarily the most flexible platforms (or really even designed for blogging as far as the latter two are concerned) but if you're willing to delve into the code a bit you could easily embed them into your own custom layout on a separate website giving you the best of both worlds to an extent. I've actually just started working on a website [http://www.xxsnowyxx.com] designed to be a hub for my online presence and while the layout isn't necessarily finalized you can get the impression of the flexibility you have when embedding a feed in such a way (that one on the main page is actually from Google+).
The problem with some (all?) of those is that they aren't necessarily easily monetized with accompanying ads or the like compared to more flexible services such as Wordpress or similar services that let you edit the actual code of the blog page (or blogspot, etc that have built-in support for Adsense or other ad providers). There is always sponsored posts and driving traffic to your main site however the former isn't likely to be an option as a startup and the latter may be difficult if most of what you're doing is the blogging. If you plan to monetize in the future you may want to go for either a platform that has built-in ad support or is flexible enough for you to add it manually but also allows for some degree of social media integration to maximize repeat views and word of mouth.
The way I see it most blogging services offer basically the same functionality, that is, to give you the ability to write articles that people can look at on the internet, so it's not necessarily the platform you use but how you use it. That being said I'd definitely consider something that has plenty of members rather than something for just building a standalone site - that way people can easily subscribe to your content meaning they will be more likely to return when new stuff is posted and can like/plus/reblog/etc your posts without them necessarily having to create an account (because who wants more of those am I right?). That means stuff like Tumblr, Facebook and Google+. They aren't necessarily the most flexible platforms (or really even designed for blogging as far as the latter two are concerned) but if you're willing to delve into the code a bit you could easily embed them into your own custom layout on a separate website giving you the best of both worlds to an extent. I've actually just started working on a website [http://www.xxsnowyxx.com] designed to be a hub for my online presence and while the layout isn't necessarily finalized you can get the impression of the flexibility you have when embedding a feed in such a way (that one on the main page is actually from Google+).
The problem with some (all?) of those is that they aren't necessarily easily monetized with accompanying ads or the like compared to more flexible services such as Wordpress or similar services that let you edit the actual code of the blog page (or blogspot, etc that have built-in support for Adsense or other ad providers). There is always sponsored posts and driving traffic to your main site however the former isn't likely to be an option as a startup and the latter may be difficult if most of what you're doing is the blogging. If you plan to monetize in the future you may want to go for either a platform that has built-in ad support or is flexible enough for you to add it manually but also allows for some degree of social media integration to maximize repeat views and word of mouth.