Tobold's Blog: I'm touched

Friday, December 15, 2006

I'm touched

The number of hits this blog gets has grown astronomically; just one year ago, in November 2005 I got as many visitors in the whole month as I get on a good *day* now. I watch these numbers, but at the same time I am now less proud of them. Because Sitemeter is telling me that over 90% of them have been sent here by Google, and are usually just looking for a specific solution to a specific WoW problem. They might or might not find it on the blog page Google sends them too, but most of them just leave in less than 1 minute and never read more of what I write.

So nowadays I get my motivation from those readers who stay around, who actually read my blog, and participate in the discussion by leaving a comment. And I am especially touched by those who say that I inspired them to write their own blog. This post is about two of them who started blogging recently:

Zoso is running a great blog called MMOG Musings. Scroll down to the 11th of December and start reading his series of posts on battlegrounds, it is good. And the blog is frequently updated.

Xaylissa has a MMORPG blog "about WoW, Other MMO's, Life and everything inbetween". Less often updated, but still good writing, for example about roleplaying servers.

You see, blogging isn't that hard. It's a bit like Field of Dreams: build it and they will come.
- posted by Tobold @ 1:14 PM Permanent Link

Comments:

Great blog!
/cheer Tobold!

# posted by

Doeg : 15/12/06 14:39

the hard part is keeping it up month in and month out, let alone 3 and a half years in and out.

/me touches tobold =P

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 14:44

I have to give you credit for my blog (which I started a few days ago) as well. The content has started to flow but nothing informative or meaningful yet.

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 15:50

Thanks very much for the kind words; I first arrived via Google too, looking for information on jewelcrafting in The Burning Crusade, but I'm still working through the archive!

And yeah, keeping it up is the hard part all right. Especially when there's battleground honour to be had! (Another advantage of battlegrounds: queues give blogging time...)

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 16:04

I also want to say "Thank you" you are also one of two people how inspired me to start with my own blog a few month ago and writing my own blog is somthin i realy like. In my first entry I wrote:

"Letztendlich sind Tobold und Christian Mücke die Auslöser für diesen Blog, denn die beiden schreiben wirklich gutes Zeug wobei Christian nicht ganz so oft etwas veröffentlicht und öfter tiefer ins Detail geht, während Tobold auch einfach mal etwas was passiert ist runterschreibt wie in einem Tagebuch ohne groß Fragen über Gamedesign und ähnliches aufzuwerfen.

Ich werde sicherlich nicht an Ihre Artikel heranreichen, aber jeder braucht Inspiration und Vorbilder."

I hope that you keep up writing for al loooong time.

# posted by

CampMaster's Blog : 15/12/06 16:08

I have a current events news satire blog (That I keep as a seperate persona) that was doing well enough. Then I stopped writing. The funny thing is, I looked at my sitemeter counter and noticed I had over 40,000 hits in the 6 months since I stopped (I had 10,000 total for the year or so I was writing). I though "what could they be looking for?"

It turns out, everyone was hitting one article making fun of (well myself) but it was this guy who built his own tivo / DVR from his computer, and spends all his time watching the SciFi channel, and everyone was hitting my site to get images of amanda tapping. I googled Tapping on google images and my site made it to the top row!

So I took down the images sheesh.

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 16:09

CampMaster, could you post a link to your blog? I couldn't find it on Google.

# posted by

Tobold : 15/12/06 16:20

Hehe,

Yeh, about my updates, i got kind of busy, though i do intend to post everyday, so ive stuck up Three Posts to make up for it :).

I found this blog, ironically, about 2 months or so ago, looking for Burning Crusade Beta Keys (competitions and the like) - I got the blog post about how someone sent you one, and i read a few parts of the archive, then the newest posts, and ive checked every day since.

Anyways, get over to my blog and hit the link to Sylvanas Singing, it rocks!

(Fantastic Blog By the way, keep on writing untill your physically incapable!)

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 16:22

Your blog didn't got its numbers by luck, you know. It's a really solid blog format. I did not know any other WoW themed blog, wich provides such a tight post frequency with true readworthy content. It´s easy to get hooked as a reader here.

/salute

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 16:37

I came here through Google, searching for a specific question, as you suggest. But I've been an avid, daily reader ever since (a couple of months). I only ready two other blogs religiously (Fred Wilson's AVC, and Joel on Software). And a few others as time permits.

I usually check for new entries first thing in the morning when I get to work and again before I leave at night. Yesterday morning, I noticed there were no new entries... what is Tobold up to? What, is he on vacation or something? Then I realized it's probably because I was working until 11 pm the night before. My point, is that I miss your material when it's not there for me.

I also started writing a blog in the last few months. It's a shared developer's blog at TheLadders.com, but most of the entries are mine. I can't give you full credit for inspiring me on this, but every bit of encouragement is helpful.

# posted by

Unknown : 15/12/06 16:41

I found your blog through a link from mmognation, which I have since removed from my list because it was not being updated regularly. Even for 'professionals', keeping a blog active is a huge effort. Nice job.

I should also mention that I have not played WoW in over a year, but I still read your blog every day. It's methadone for recovering WoW addicts.

Sammy

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 16:55

Tobold, just posting a response in this jumped my profile views up from 5 to 52. Remind me to buy you something purdy for Christmas. :)

http://lordnightwinter.blogspot.com/

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 17:21

"One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement. It is easy to laugh at men's ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a [...] duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet.

Blessed is the man who speaks such a word."

-- William Barclay

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 17:27

I just want to thank you for giving me somthing to read during my break times at work. Most WoW sites are blocked which is fine if the Air Force doesnt want me looking at sites about WoW. But I was trying to find some info about the new PvP system and volla lookie what I found here. I have been hooked on reading your site everyday. I check it in the mornings and at lunch with all my news sites; ABC, Fox, CNN, Extreme Tech, LiveScience, PC Mag, Slashdot, MSNBC, CNET, and Tech Digest. Gives me a good solid hour of content to read everyday.

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 17:47

I've been reading your blog for over a year now. You're great at what you do. I found your blog through google when I needed to get my wow fix from work lol and I have been hooked ever since.

Keep up the excellent work!

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 17:57

I've been reading your blog everyday for a month now and I'm hooked to it. When I get to work in the morning (PST,CA), this is almost the first thing I read on the web during sandbox upgrades and recompilation.

The quality is this blog is really good, lots of deep thought about the games in general.

And effectively it is really inspiring, I'm on the verge of starting my own blog. I've had lots of ideas about the games that I discussed with my brother, but never take time to put in words, and reading your blog I feel like this is a good way to share thought and give them a bit of longevity.

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 19:15

Dude....you have a great site with some great work. I've linked you on my site. Hopefully you'll get more hits from interested readers.

I'm at:

http://tcsgamer.blogspot.com/

Keep bloggin...

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 19:33

I've added all the links that have been posted here to my blog, if anyone else wants a link from my blog just drop me a line. :)

I would say something cheesy like "MMORPG Bloggers unite!" but I decided to skip that for a more practical approach, lets unite the blogging community! Tobold you've started a revolution!

Er something...

Mr. Gone's Gaming Blog

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 19:51

Yep, I see the same sort of thing on VirginWorlds. Lots of Google searches for WoW info.

One thing to keep in mind is that a ton of people pick up your content via RSS and sitemeter doesn't count that. I've devised a way to track that info since I coded by own feed and I can tell you, a ton of people use RSS to get my content. Your site is surely no different.

Congrats on all the traffic you get. It is well deserved.

# posted by

Anonymous : 15/12/06 20:14

Tobold you are like an Ironforge mailbox. A place for WoW players to converge. :)

# posted by

Yane (Yet another night elf) : 15/12/06 21:28

I'm probably one of those google-starting, here-for-less-than-a-minute folks--- why?

http://www.google.com/reader/view/

I've got you on my news reader, and I only visit when A) I want to see what other folks say or B) want to read the last bit that got cut off in google.

It's because I like your site enough to want to read any updates as they come, rather than a problem-solving thing.

# posted by

Anonymous : 16/12/06 03:33

Hi Tobold, I am one f your silent reader's. Though I have yet to participate in any of the discussion that goes around your blogs. I really love your blog, and never end the day without reading your blogs. Keep up the good work and more power.

Andy 07 Undead Priest

# posted by

Anonymous : 17/12/06 09:50

You can thank the interview on GameSetWatch for getting me here. I just started WoW at the beginning of the month, but have been running my blog since June. This is going to become a daily stop for me and I would write more about WoW if I could stop playing it. Great job!

# posted by

Anonymous : 18/12/06 03:30

Great blog Tobold. I started reading your posts about 6 months ago and since then have started 2 different blogs, one on video games and one on politics. I have to say that you were my inspiration for these blogs, and I hope you keep this blog going for quite some time as your blog is a great read whether you play WOW or not. :)

# posted by

Anonymous : 18/12/06 21:08