I’ve had an email from an RPG blogger who will remain nameless asking why I never include their articles in the bucket of links. Rather than replying in person I thought I would post this to help anyone trying to get those precious links.
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Have a Catchy Title
Everyday I look through the output of the RPG Blogger’s Network plus about 30 other blogs not on the network. That’s well over 100 posts a day. If your title doesn’t jump out, doesn’t give a clue about the article subject or otherwise fails to catch my imagination, then I will ignore it.
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Have Good Teaser Text
Other than the title, all I’ve got to go on in most cases is the 200 or so characters that are included on the network’s RSS feed. Make sure they are interesting. Many bloggers waste this text by explaining how they were going to post the article a week ago but then their cat died blah blah blah. That first paragraph really matters, don’t squander it.
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The RPG Blogger’s Network has a bug
Some blogs coming from a certain type of blogging software get messed up by the RSS feed and the teaser text gets mangled with a whole load of HTML. I ignore any posts like this because it is not worth the time finding out what it was meant to say. I understand this is a problem that the RPG Network cannot fix so if this effects you, consider changing your blog.
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Have Some Meat to your Article
If all your article does is link to someone else’s article, then I will ignore it. If you find an interesting link, then write about why it is interesting and why this effects your game. The great thing about the bucket is I can pull different points of view together so when several bloggers write about the same link or issue, I can use them all.
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No One Is Interest in your Game Write-Ups
OK, this is a personal one and I’m sure lots of people are interested in what happened around your gaming table but I’m not. The fun of games is taking part, not hearing about someone’s else adventure.
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Be Different
If all you write about is why 4e Sucks / Is Great then you’ll get ignored after the 4th or 5th time. Variety is the spice of life.
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Pick of the Day
For our Tweeter Feed‘s Pick of the Day selection, I like to pick things that fit with the Twitter mentality – short and punchy. Cartoons, artwork, really short articles or anything that can be digested quickly is ideal.
Above all, the bucket is a personal selection and my selection on any given day is influenced by many things including how much time I can spend browsing and whether I’ve got a hangover or not. If you have a really great article that meets the criteria that you think I should include in the bucket you can email me at: Chris (at) 6d6 Fireball (dot) com.
9 Comments
Amen to all that.
Says me, who is in the middle of a multi-post adventure write-up right now. Oh, the hypocrisy
greywulf´s last blog post..Like it’s 1981 all over again, part eight
OMG! It’s like American Idol, and Chris is Simon Cowell!
Dead Orcs´s last blog post..The Color of Power
Dead Orcs,
I object to that remark. I’m nowhere nearly rich enough to be Simon Cowell.
Greywulf,
I think I need something in there about limiting a series of articles to 3 or 4 posts.
Chris
Good advice. Those are pretty much the same criteria I use when skimming my RSS feeds.
Actual play write-ups are my favorite when they contain humor
The adventure climaxed with Badger coating his naked body in garlic oil (so as to bring out his pecs) and throwing himself at a suspected werewolf, yelling the never-forgotten battle-cry of “Oh crap hang on that’s vampires I was thinking of”.
or when they contain encounters I wanna steal for my own GMing like ones that have elevators, thunder, and subterranean hippogriffs.
So actual play reports can be some of the awesomest out there IMO.
“Be Different” <= This!
So many times I see posts on RPG bloggers where everyone is writting the same thing or replying to the reply of the post on another blog… Don’t cover the same as everyone else… it just gets boring.
ravenpolar´s last blog post..Bravyet Overview.
Where does bribery come in on the list?
Nicholas´s last blog post..Red-dragon-hot links
Nicholas
It’s the most reliable method but cash only. I been too trusting before and that has left a nasty taste in my mouth.
Chris
A nasty taste in your mouth? Sounds kinky.
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