On Why Your Blog Isn't Any Good

When I started this blog, I figured it was a good old boys club and that I'd never make any headway. I wrote intermittently, worked on some of my resources, released some things, and did ok, having 20 or 30 followers.

Then I read a statement from Cyclopetron, that said blog growth is a function of the quality of the posts, rather then a reflection of your status within community . I took this advice to heart, and in a little over a month, garnered nearly 60 followers. This was separate from the release of things like my treasure, or  empty rooms, tricks, and trap design or psionics documents. The stats on my blog in a short time it has existed (~10 months now) show it as a solid blog in our little community.

So what did I do to garner my followers? What can you do to improve your blog for me? :-)

• Write posts that are easy to read and concise. Use white space to break things up.You are welcome to write detailed dissertations on a topic, but most people are going through a blog roll or daily reader and don't have time for a review of an in-depth topic. it's best to write that and link to it as a resource for the interested reader
• Provide some sort of resource on your blog on a regular basis (recipes, a picture, quiz, etc.) So that people will want to mark your blog as one to come back and check
• Let your personality come through in your posts. People will follow a blog because they like you, not just the content
• Schedule your posts to come out either around the morning or the evening, when people are going through their blog roll (EDIT: or not as Tim points out in the comments)
• Be consistent in your posting schedule
• Use pictures and photographs
• Write interesting titles that draw interest, like they teach in journalism
• Oh, 
• You could always just release an awesome old school rule system - that seems like a pretty sweet way to garner followers for your blog. :-)

There are also a few things you can avoid doing.

• Don't ever post about what you're going to do or what you're going to post; or for that matter, why you didn't post. If you're writing a post, give us something besides an excuse.
• Don't consistently rant over and over about the same topics.We got it the first time. You could just link to the original rant. :-)
• Don't exclusively write a reply to forum post and then return to the forum and post it - unless you have something of consequence (i.e. too big or more permanent) to add, or you wrote the post so you could reference the post to avoid explaining your point of view.

Carl Rogers said what is most personal is most universal, and that's a large part of why blogs are so popular. It's what I want to see in a blog, say, one written by you.

Oh, one more advice, if you want a popular blog - if followers are your priority rather than just writing about something you love, you might want to pick a topic less niche than "out of print tabletop role playing games".