MMOBro has now been around for about 7 months. In that time, Tyler Bro and I have written several posts per month. We’ve covered the spectrum of statistics, opinions, fun top lists, and general MMO posts. Throughout this year, I’ve felt more like we were easing into something. Creating a blog takes work. I knew that would be the case from the start. Like most challenging endeavors, I did underestimate things quite a bit. Blogging isn’t just blogging but also socializing with others, communicating your new posts to interested parties, and selecting topics appropriate for your audience. I want to take MMOBro to the next level of quality and popularity, and I think Blaugust is a fantastic impetus in which to reach those goals.
For those unaware of what Blaugust is all about, Belghast over at Aggronaut essentially galvanizes the MMO blogging community (though not exclusive to MMO bloggers) into writing more in August. I believe this is the third year running, and it’s something I’ve been aware of almost since MMOBro’s first post. I didn’t really think about it that much though until late July. It was then that I decided to jump into the fray and join the ranks of Blaugust 2016 bloggers.
My realization of where MMOBro is at and how everything has progressed thus far led to three primary motivations for participating in Blaugust 2016. I touched on all of them in the first paragraph, but I want to explicitly state them below. I hope that by publicly declaring them I can have a reference point to remind me why I’m participating in such a time consuming activity. Because this is the first post in the new Blaugust category, I also hope that you as my readers (and fellow MMO bloggers in some cases) will hold me accountable.
Level Up
First, I want to use this to really kick MMOBro into high gear. I’m committing to a post every weekday in August. I’d like to commit to everyday, but I’ll be traveling almost every weekend in August. Tyler Bro will also be writing some, but I’ll be handling the bulk of the posts. I think it’s important to set reachable goals, and I know I can do every weekday. I will be targeting everyday as a stretch goal though. Typically, MMOBro makes about 5-6 posts per month. During Blaugust, we’ll roughly quadruple that. As a new blog, MMOBro doesn’t have a ton of history. By participating in Blaugust and reaching these post goals, our total content will grow by more than 50% in one month! I. am. excited.
Community Interaction
Second, I want to interact more with the community. While I am following and being followed by a number of great people in the MMO and gaming spaces, I want to challenge myself to interact more with the community. As such, after making my posts I’ll be going through the #Blaugust2016 hashtags on Twitter to look for new content to imbibe. I certainly won’t have time to read them all, but I will comment on at least one per weekday. I also want to note how much I like Twitter compared to other social media tools. The open nature of the platform makes talking with and meeting new people a lot easier. During Blaugust I’ll be focusing more on Twitter in order to grow both my followed and follower counts.
Write Efficiently
Third, I want to improve my writing efficiency. Right now, writing a blog post takes anywhere from an hour to several hours. In some cases, there is some serious research involved that slows down my writing, such as the aforementioned statistical or top X list posts. I can chalk the extra time in those down to heavy research hours, but I know there is more to it than that. I’m easily distracted, and I tend to overthink some of my verbiage. Setting a goal of a heavier writing load means I simply won’t have time for that. From there, I hope to force myself to write efficiently with that time crunch. Additionally, by simply practicing my writing I will also improve it. The third motivation then is to write quickly but with no less proficiency.
I’m sure I’ll be referring back to this post from time to time during Blaugust 2016. It’s easy to get lost in the minutiae of everyday activities. Having a focus point to return to can help energize and refocus. To those of you readers who are also participating in Blaugust 2016, I look forward to reading what you have to say!
