On Making and Promoting a Blog Post

 

Since the question has been brought up, let me give you a peek behind the curtain.

I’ll spend 3-4 hours creating a Battle Report, sometimes referred to as an After Action Report (AAR).

This is down from 8 hours about 10 years ago due to better tools and more refined process.

I write it as a blog post, for several reasons.  The first is I am more in control on how it is viewed.  Different browsers, monitors, CPU settings can all distort the presentation in a way I do not anticipate.  Also, this gives me a count of how many visits I get, and from where they originate.  Both country, and from which site. In the end, that count is the only thing I have to judge how successful the blog is.  Because most readers, about 98%, do not comment. 

After publishing, I then make an effort to promote the blog post.  Because I only have about 12 followers who signed up that get a notification when I post something new.  A point to make, Ancient miniatures is the lunatic fringe of a subset (as in Miniature Wargamers), of a fragment (Wargamers), of a minority (Gamers) of society as a whole.  If I publish and do not promote, no one will see me.

As an experiment, I will post by not promote this missive, and that will give me an idea on the difference.

I promote to a number of facebook groups.  Which groups depend on the subject matter. 

He is a list of my Ancients groups and forums.  This will give you a measure of the scope of the problem, and other readers of this missive may discover a group they are interested in. 

Ambler Gaming Group:  Because I am associated with them.

NASAMW  Because they represent all things Ancients, but are mainly Warrior™ centric.

Berks-PA Gaming club:  Largely Warhammer 40K and Magic, but sometimes they invite me up for a demo

Historicon: Because they represent all things miniatures, but not necessarily Ancient and Medieval

Tabletop Wargames Network: Because they represent all things miniatures, but not necessarily Ancient and Medieval

Tabletop Commanders Forum: Because they represent all things miniatures, but not necessarily Ancient and Medieval

Providence Gamer’s Game Knight: Because I am a member

The Ancient & Medieval Wargamer: (obvious)

Medieval Miniature Wargames:  For the truly Medieval period games

Historical Miniatures Gaming: (obvious)

Bob’s L’Art De La Guerre Wargaming Group Page: Bob lives about 30 miles from me, so it is as a favor to him

Wagamers: (obvious)

Lead Pushers: Obvious

L’Art De La Guerre: Most of my Ancients and Medieval games are LADG

L’Art De La Guerre Hong Kong:  There are 6 followers there, and they seem to appreciate being included in the world

After Facebook I post to some forums:

TMP:  Both Ancient Battle Reports and Medieval Battle reports, depending.

L’Art De La Guerre: To let the Europeans know what the Yanks are doing.

Dakka Dakka: Mostly Warhamer 40K, but they have a Pre WWI section.

HMGS: Because not all members are on Facebook

BeBee: If I have a long story the game is set in, then BeBee will accept an AAR

SocDaisy: Mostly older men that refuse social media, but are otherwise pretty cool.

The Wargames Directory: Because the owner asked me to

There are a couple of forums/facebook groups I do not post to, because their owners specifically asked me not to.  Their site, their rules, and I will honor them.

Then I email my closest friends, people I can put a face to.

This takes about another hour.

There are some obvious overlaps, I am sure Bob’s  LADG page is totally enclosed within a Venn diagram of LADG.