Is MMO Blogging Taking A Turn?
Hey guys, I have been noticing a lot of the MMO blogs lately going into different directions but some of the things I have seen have been quite a change in the MMO blogs that have been growing and expanding at rapid rates going into new areas and I kind of wanted to write about the trends here and see if anyone agrees with what i have noticed.
1) Magazine Style Blogs – It seems like what attracts readers is a comprehensive blog, one that incorporates video content, featured articles and actual blog content. The move towards magazine style blogs means that bloggers have to either put out content not as frequently as before allowing them to focus more on featured articles. The problem with magazine style themes is that they take away from the reader experience that most blogs bring to the table which can be a downer for some readers because readers want a easy to read page. By now however, some readers are used to it but it can still turn some readers off. Maintaining a standard blog layout like mine does mean that I’m not moving along with the trend but I also dont consider myself to be competing against the larger powerhouse blogs either.
2) Newsletters – This seems to be something that somewhat baffles me. Newsletters are becoming more and more popular and I am signed on to the ShoeMoney newsletter after a contest and all I can say is that its like receiving coupons in the mail – some are useful but most of it is just junk. Its a way to self-promote and although it might be helpful, it can get a bit frustrating to those who are signed on. I would like to say I receive emails every so often and although it started out that way, the emails have gotten more frequent. I like the idea of newsletters but not as a means of exploiting ones readers.
3) Sponsor / Ad Focused – Having ads and sponsors is not a bad idea specially when the idea is to help promote a good business out there and most of us started out that way. We found someone we had a good relationship with and we talked about it. Lately what seems to happen is that one blog will talk about 5 sponsors and say the same things about them – for example, “I really love using them, they’re the best”. It starts to sound like the same thing over and over again. I have stuck with Market Leverage, Clickbooth and InfoLinks and those are the only three that I promote because I think they offer their customers a lot more bang for their buck. The problem with sort of selling yourself out is that even though readers will still come and read it, the likelihood of receiving clicks goes does unless you have unique visitors from Google and the like.
I wonder if you guys have noticed the same thing. I don’t mean to rant about it but it seems like I might be the only one making these observations. It might be nice to get a little opinion from my readers as well. Do you think that MMO blogging (especially for the bigger bloggers) has now become a means of trying to commercialize their blog and make it a universal brand of sorts, without regard for the readers?
Hey Enkay,
I think it might just be another one of those “perfecting the design” type of efforts. Yes, we are seeing a lot of the bigger blogs in the MMO niche going magazine style, but we also have a handful that are staying with the retro blog look. It is just a different approach to positioning the content for different purposes. Maybe they want to give certain attention to a certain post (something like “Featured Post”) or maybe they want to emphasize a certain ad spot.
Regarding your last comment about the bigger bloggers trying to commercialize their blogs, I think it is very true. The extent that they do it is very different to the relatively smaller bloggers simply because the size of the subscribers and the traffic is very different. Bigger blogs can get away with it while smaller blogs have a huge potential of loosing it all. Newsletters are the same thing. Lists are worth so much money and have so much power. By promoting them and having people sign up, these newsletter owners are in essence earning money. I can’t agree more with you that many of the newsletters are junk. That’s actually a reason why I use a separate mail solely for newsletters because except for very few, many of them are pretty close to spam.
So yes, MMO blogosphere is seeing more and more bloggers trying to commercialize their blogs. I don’t think it is a bad thing because when you trying to MMO, the first thing you learn is to always tweak and try to perfect (although it is impossible) for maximum profits. The same applies and is being done on the blogs you and I are reading.
Enkay, I think you are on point with your observations for MMO bloggers, but really like the magazine style blogs. They are much more eye catching and interesting over traditional blogs. I find clients like this type of set up cause of the look and sleek style, but am with you on not being sure if it is reader friendly.
But newsletters are great. The money is in the list as they say. Obviously, the blogger shouldn’t just send junk email. The shortsightedness of this is that it hurts their brand and image in the eyes of those on the distribution or newsletter list. This is the critical error because they don’t understand that they can make money with these people for the rest of their Internet lives.
It is not my aim to send a high number of emails to my list, but provide information, build my brand and positioning as a resource for them to turn to. That is the value in newsletters.
And sure, when they come to the site, they get an eye full of advertising. It is MMO bloogers goal to make money. Now, they could produce their own products and push those, but that isn’t for everyone. I would like to do this and fill my advertising slots with my products. But that is coming.
Thanks for the read.
I know what you mean about some blogs over-promoting certain advertisers. It gets old fast. You lose a lot of credibility when you are constantly promoting something for the commission instead of doing it to help your visitors. There is nothing wrong with trying to make money from your blog. Just keep in mind how people will react to it and make sure you don’t overdo it.
when they come to the site, they get an eye full of advertising. It is MMO bloogers goal to make money. Now, they could produce their own products and push those, but that isn’t for everyone. I would like to do this and fill my advertising slots with my products. But that is coming.
I like magazine style blogs. Professional look is something that I always appreciate and in this case we could get some handicap in the right look.
Lots of MMO bloggers have stopped blogging recently, I think they found out you can’t make money with a MMO BLOG (with a site, yes.)