I happily recognized that my subscriber count reached 4K, after a constant growth in the year. My visitor count is also above 4K, sometimes higher, sometimes (weekends) lower.
I wanted to post another post like I did with 3000, giving some advices to fellow bloggers how to reach such success. However, just yesterday I attacked the M&S who exclaim for lvl43, explore Durotar or catch 100 fish. This made me think a lot.
Look at the perfect slope of the subscriber numbers (the negative peaks are bugs, every time I have them, other bloggers also have their subscribers halved). It's too perfect. One would assume that subscriber number jumps every time I post something great, increases when I post good, and decreases when I post boring stuff. But it doesn't. It just grows and grows.
I know that the idea will hurt some fellow bloggers like recount hurts those who "don't have time to farm gear", but it must be asked: Is high subscriber count, visitor count an achievement at all? Is it something we get for our "great content", or is it something like lvl43: if you care to log in, you'll get it. I mean if a blog doesn't turn blank or terribly boring, people will keep coming, since their friends read it, or simply because they found it once, have it bookmarked and they are bored at work and read everything bookmarked.
Is 4000 an achievement, or is it just a stupid "ding" post sub-consciously waiting for "gz" spam? (this is a real question, I want to hear your answer)
I wanted to post another post like I did with 3000, giving some advices to fellow bloggers how to reach such success. However, just yesterday I attacked the M&S who exclaim for lvl43, explore Durotar or catch 100 fish. This made me think a lot.
Look at the perfect slope of the subscriber numbers (the negative peaks are bugs, every time I have them, other bloggers also have their subscribers halved). It's too perfect. One would assume that subscriber number jumps every time I post something great, increases when I post good, and decreases when I post boring stuff. But it doesn't. It just grows and grows.
I know that the idea will hurt some fellow bloggers like recount hurts those who "don't have time to farm gear", but it must be asked: Is high subscriber count, visitor count an achievement at all? Is it something we get for our "great content", or is it something like lvl43: if you care to log in, you'll get it. I mean if a blog doesn't turn blank or terribly boring, people will keep coming, since their friends read it, or simply because they found it once, have it bookmarked and they are bored at work and read everything bookmarked.
Is 4000 an achievement, or is it just a stupid "ding" post sub-consciously waiting for "gz" spam? (this is a real question, I want to hear your answer)
56 comments:
I think 4000 is an achievement, but I also think level 40 is an achievement. It's a social norm to give congratulations. And it's meaningful. You have more readers, or more spells, or can ride faster. It may not be the most difficult thing to get to 40, and yeah, I read the blog when I'm bored because sometimes there's a good post. I don't come here more when there's something special, I come daily because I know there *will* be something special periodically.
I suspect subscriber numbers will always increase simply because some people read blogs as a fad, then stop a week or month later and never unsubscribe, never opening their blog list's RSS feed again.
Now, if it was an exponential curve - so the rate at which you were gaining new subscriptions kept increasing - that would seem more meaningful.
But then, it's not like I have a blog, or know what I'm talking about, anyways.
"I mean if a blog doesn't turn blank or terribly boring"
Your posting schedule and consistency is definetly in your favor. Having something for readers every day produces far more interest than the one amazing post a month. There were quite a few (and many more i'm not aware of, im sure) of gold blogs that died because they didn't post often, and 'dried up'.
As for whether it is an achievement? You'd have to do more research,and i'm still unsure how far you'd have to go until you'd 'grats' yourself.
1: do you think reader numbers reflect your (average) level of posting quality?
2:Do you feel your blog quality is high enough to warrant a grats?
It's that effort that is the substance of the achievement. I don't know whether 4k is average, great, or good, blogging wise. Assuming it is great, your putting forth a good amount of effort. It takes alot of time and intelligence to try and get a handle on some of the non-wow topics you go into (like the turkmenbasi post.). Your other filler posts such as morons of the week, and the occasional wowgold post aren't up to snuff. But you post often enough on the good stuff that i would consider you to have a high quality blog.
An M&S wouldn't be able to talk abstract ideas that you talk about. You may not be always right, but atleast you put together a coherent hypothesis and try to back it up, not "lol this is right because i said so".
If i had to take an educated guess, i woudl say numbers are a good indicator if a blog is alive, but NOT how good it is. People still read Marcko's blog, and he regularly reposts old content.
You might want to look at comments as a better indicator. You have a more robust comment section then any other blog i've read (even after you delete some of them). Some of it is because of your writing style, but i chalk that up to you as intentionally writing in an agressive manner to make people pay attention. Even taking into account the "NO UR WRONG" trolling that occurs, you stil have more on topic comments discussing a topic than most.
The subscriber growth is even because people are lazy; it is easier to ignore a blog you are subsribed to than to drop the subscription.
Daily hits, on the other hand, you can write home about.
The increase is interesting, but the (filtered) slope might be more sensitive to reader opinions.
That's a stupid lvl43 thing, to use your terminology.
I used to enjoy your site and was reading articles and participating in discussions. No longer. Now I come to the site only because sometime earlier it has become part of my morning routine. When I see a piece on politics or economy, I close the page right away. When I see a piece on WoW, I skim through it first. Occasionally (pretty rare), something in the piece catches my attention and I actually read it. I never read comments. All of the above things count as visitors on your graphs...
Depends...how do you define an achievement?...do you have a metric?
You do have one of the better WoW blogs out there.
On the other hand, past a certain point, most businesses/entertainment media grow without much actual effort.
Anyways, gratz...
Personally, I think it is just a grind. It doesnt remove the fact that your blog is great, just like it doesnt remove the fact that great players have to go throu the 79 dings.
But I think that an interesting blog just can't die unless the blogger wants it. Because if you catch attention of 1 person, that person will talk about the blog to 2 of his friends, at least of one his friend will talk about it to 2 of his friends, etc.
The line of your subscriber is too linear. If it was peaking very fast very high (and staying there), then I would call it an achievement.
Any moron can reach level 40. Reaching 4000 hits requires hard work, patience, a well thought out blog, continuously good content, and at times a good dose of inspiration. Saying ding and expecting a grats when you hit level 40 is moronic. Throwing out the fact that you have got over 4000 daily hits is a real achievement. So, grats and keep it up.
All I can say is I usually start a day from reading your blog. I'm not subscribed and I always comment as "Anonymous" because seriously, who cares what's my nick, it's meaningless.
What made me stay is:
- you post every day in the morning
- I like your attitude
- your posts are understandable, some people might find grammar mistakes but seriously, I usually get the point while reading some other blogs I leave with a feeling "uuuh what that guy actually meant to say?"
- you post interesting stuff, if you relate to WOW it's either some good advice or some funny stuff, not boring like "I won epic trinket today gratz me" or "should I buy t10 glove or helmet next"
- if you relate to IRL stuff, you refer to "science" like economy or psychology but it's still understandable not some magic "bla bla you need to study 10 years to understand this"
- you don't post about stuff that I don't care about, it's other bloggers choice to post about Dragon's Age Origins or Avatar movie or whatnot, but I don't care, I find it boring, I leave
About the number of subscribers not dropping... What would actually make someone take the hassle and unsubscribe? I doubt one boring or pointless post would do it. It's the long run that counts.
Oh, and last thought:
I don't know if it's a milestone.
I don't see much difference between 3999 and 4000.
But I know 4000 people is a lot.
And if the curve is rising, it's a good sign.
What I would say to any retard putting "DING" in party/trade/raid-chat:
CON-F*CKING-GRATZ now get back to work
So in your case, no exceptions:
CON-F*CKING-GRATZ with the 4000 subscribers, now get back to blogging about goldmaking :D
Your are part of my morning "what's up in the world ?" routine. I came for your gold at first, now I may like your style whatever the content is.
From a goblin's perspective ,its not any achievement at all because there is no monetary gains. From a blogger's perspective, returning visits and constructive comments are achievements as it validates the effort you put in as a blogger. Although not all the posts you have are necessary accurate, and some are downright biased, it makes me think hard about what you have said, whether its true or not, rather than taking it at face value. This is what I personally like though.
I used to come to this site to look for money making tips ( that's why its called the greedy goblin ), but now genuine posts on money making has kinda dried up.
I'm disagreing with the opinion that, basically, blogs just go-on-if-you-remember-to-water-them-once-a-week, like some plant. Unless of course we are talking about one b**** of a plant that wants it's water every day, of the perfect temperature mind you, with special toppings of whatever meets it's fancy that day and might actually look at you funny if you're not doing it right.
I don't know exactly how much work you put in your blog but it is considerable, and that is not to be trivialised.
As for the achievement part, I'd say that depends on who you believe your judges to be.
Are YOU proud of it ? Then it's an achievement for you.
Is it more than the average WoW blog ? Then it's an achievement for the WoW blogosphere (else if it was this easy, all blogs would have that much, right ?).
Your vision of things is not always enlightening, but its entertaining usually, and that's what I ask of gaming blogs ! :)
Grats Gevlon :)
I've reflected a bit over this too and yeah, I think that it's pretty unlikely that bloggers will lose subscribers. Once people have started to subscribe it's kind of unlikely that they'll make the effort to unsubscribe. However they might not read your blog - or anyother blog whastoever anymore. You don't realy know. On the other hand - you DO know that 4k individuals at SOME point have considered your blog interesting enough to take the decision to subscribe for it. And that stands for something. It's an active choice.
I think you should be proud of the 4 k subscribers you have. But above all you should be proud over that you've been going on for so long, writing so regularly, still managing to keep up a decent or even good quality.
I think that the 4k mark is like a milestone. It gives you a reason to step up for a moment, look back at your own work, how it has developed over time and to look forward, thinking about the road that lays ahead of you. There are other landmarks like this that you can use as well. You can count your posts and acknowledge your 500 ding or you can celebrate your blogging birthday.
I'm one of the bloggers who take the opportunity when those milestones appear. I like to ponder a bit over my own motives for blogging, about the state of the blog. I know it's a bit introperspective and maybe not much so interesting to others to read, but it it's interesting for ME to WRITE and that's what's important to me. And besides I actually like to read posts from other bloggers about blogging, since I'm so passionate about this topic myself.
Finally: Gevlon: don't be shy. Be proud of what you've done. Be it 1k, 2k, 4 och 8k readers - you've made a true mark in the WoW blogosphere and there aren't many people around here who haven't heard about you. And this inspite of the handicap you have, writing in a different language of your own, which means that it takes quite an effort every post you make. (I know what it's like.)
Cheers!
And once again, either you want to hear it or not: grats!
Gevlon,
In someway it is indeed just another achievement. People come here because they found a good post and friends read them and indeed are bored at work. But I guess that is just the way it works and go's.
The question is, what does the 4000 visitors mean. Do they read your blog or just click, check, leave or read.
If you keep 4000 people occupied by interesting post and they read it instead of just zapping then I think its damn well worth a gratz.
Sure its something social just like gratzing a person on lvl xx. That is ofcourse allot less of a achievement but its not wrong every now and then.
If only 2000 people actually read your post and the others just zap here to look for gold tips. Then it is just a achievement you can use to get commercial adds and saying "Oh look me I have 4000 people here". But its not very impressing or worth something.
Really what does the visitor count means to you. There is nothing wrong with being abit social. Like gratzing on lvl up or something else. What separates your gratz from a M&S gratz every level every achievement is what do you mean with gratzing that person and what does it mean to him/her.
In the end everything can be achieved by farming. It doesn't matter how long you are doing something its HOW you are doing it that matters. Kinda counts for wow and real life.
Now go make some new interesting AH fun project and keep on blogging.
Congratulations Gevlon.
ps: if you make a topic for the next 1K visitor (5K then) please don't post it will look allot like , ding lvl 23,ding lvl24 etc ;)
Why did i come back?
First i found this blog with the relation of gold making.
Now i'm done with that in WoW, i just don't know why i keep visiting this blog.
I don't like the last 10 articles.
Morons of the week got boring.
Maybe because its written in a personal way. All those other commercial sites are written in a way, 1000000 people can easily do.
I don't know if 10 more articles will make me leave as in not visit anymore.
Time will tell.
4000 an achievement... nah
But its worth being proud on. a lot of constant visitors makes you feel its worth the effort.
You aren't writing a blog to be not heared on the net.
I dont care so much about the number you have achieved, but rather that the blog is continuing growing.
To me that meens 1 thing.
People that stumble upon this blog likes is and tell about it to thir friends.
Ive often quoted or referd to this blog on my guilds homepage.
As long as you write interesting and good post on a regular basis I think you'll soon ding! 5000 subscribers/readers.
Did a yellow rectangle come up, claiming "4000 subscribers reached"?
Than it's an achievement:)
I think achievements are things you want to achieve. Did you want 4000 subscribers? Was that your goal?
Reaching lvlXX is not an achievement, since all you have to do is play the game, the rest will and inevitably follow(ofc if you wish you can disable XP gaining).
In my opinion the brilliance of a blogger can be judged by judging the kind of commenters he attracts.
Raising popularity is just a matter of very controverse posts and blogging at least once per day.
I wonder, Gevlon, do you celebrate your birthday? - or do you see it as another stupid grind & ding thing that every moron that cares to "log on" into life each morning can achieve?
If you DO celebrate your birthday, then gratz on your 4k -if not, you probably couldn't care less ;-)
You are quite proficient in setting your own goals and things you regard as "Achievements", like blue-raiding or soloing instances below level.
Why don't you set your own goals regarding such things as reader base or subscription rates?
I myself don't regard any views/subscribers count as an achievement, since I don't know the math and processes underneath it (e.g. are only unique IP's counted toward views?).
And to answer some commenters about the rss feeds subscriptions 'idling' about... I's easy to verify by breaking the current rss feed and creating a new one, thus 'killing off' the idle subscriber base. I don't know the 'how to' behind this, but I saw this happen with some blogs I follow.
The problem with your question is that the two are only subjectively meaningful. If by getting 4000 you received some sort of gift (for these purposes, a solid gold bar) in the mail when you have done so, then I can bet that people would wholeheartedly agree that 4000 is some sort of milestone worthy of congratulations. However, if this instead happened at 5000, would anybody care about 4000? No, they would tell you to go bust your butt to get that last 1k. Milestones are overwhelmingly meaningless unless there is some perceivable "gain." Website traffic is fairly perceivable and countable (a.k.a. graphs).
However, in WoW, things like skill and talent are often not. When I finished the hunter epic quest back PreBC, I was guildless and after posting in Trade, felt fairly miserable at the responses. However, a few months later, I kited an elite from SMV to Shattrath. The havoc it caused gave me quite a deal of personal attention, a praise to my skill.
I guess it all comes down to appreciation when you recognize somebody for doing something you hold difficult or of value. I personally don't have a blog, but I can imagine an up-and-coming young blogger who is having trouble with his first hundred is at least a little respectful of four thousand.
I have personally discovered the Greedy Goblin a few months ago by listening to the 'The Instance' podcast; and have been reading up nearly daily (except, indeed, during weekends).
I am not surprised you are doing so well and keep growing. The blog is an interesting mix of fun, philosophy, economics and psychology ... allways explained in an understandable and 'crisp' way. ... And I also really enjoy your WoW challenges.
I have also linked many your posts to my IRL-guildies
I would consider myself as a real 'social', although hardly a '(71/0/0)-800dps 'Moron'.
I find your a-social views on life in general and on WoW in particular very interesating and entertaining. And I frequently find myself 'LOL'ing (sorry about that) at the Morons of the week blogs.
However, allthough I run a mass of LFD's (allways as healer of Tank) I must sadly admit that I am yet to encounter a true M-specimen of the (71/0/0)800 DPS persuasion ...
If I ever do, I'll definitely trty to capure that wonderfull moment ;-)
Keep up the good work, Devlon
4000 isn't a particular achievement - but the steady increase in visitors is.
And... well... you seem to have become synonymous with certain attitudes. The Hoover of vaccuum cleaners. That's certainly a 'Realm First'.
Gratz! :P
And yes, it is an achievement. Constant growth is an undervalued quality. Is it a natural process, due to the factors you've mentioned? Yes, it is. But "natural" doesn't mean "unassisted", or "effortless".
Your blog is growing because you score high in both frequency and relevance. On one hand, you post regularly - every day. I know subscribing to your feed pays off, because it gives me precisely one post every day (in fact, for a long time, this was the reason not to subscribe, since I already knew there's a post up every day at 7AM and didn't need a feed to notify me). On the other hand, close to 90% of what you write is actually worth reading (to me - subjective measure, mind you).
As a counter-example, I do read wow.com, but I'd never subscribe to their feed, as I don't subscribe to any "news" feed. Yes, the update frequency is even higher by an order of magnitude, but the relevance is way down. I don't need to be notified that there's a new post on wow.com, because (much) more likely than not it won't be of any interest to me (again, highly subjective measure). I'll just check it once a day, and that's it. Others may see this differently and actually subscribe to news sites - I tried it and it actually put me off readers for quite a while, because I always ended up with what amounted to sophisticated spam.
So, if reaching 4k subscribers is an achievement, is reaching level 40 as well? Not quite.
Like I said, constant growth is natural, but not effortless. To facilitate it, your blog must be "going somewhere". You can't just c&p the same entry every day for a year (even if it's a really good, perfectly written and insightful entry) and have constant growth. You have to provide something new, every day.
Reaching a certain level does not compare, because it is the result of a purely repetitive activity. That's not to say that you don't get better along the way. Both your character and your player skills develop with time. But ultimately, going from 43 to 44 requires the exactly same sort of activity as going from 41 to 42. It doesn't get more difficult, it doesn't require you to develop new approaches. You just do the same thing (quest & kill) over and over again and the levels keep coming.
I do see the point in congratulating on "milestone" levels, because there's a subtext attached.
"Congratulations on reaching level 40 and thus being able to travel faster"
"Congratulations on reaching level 58/68 and thus being able to go to Outland/Northrend"
"Congratulations on reaching level 80 and thus being able to participate in end-game (if that's what you wanted, reaching your ultimate goal for the character, otherwise)"
But congratulations on level 43? Do you even get to train any new skills? Did anything change at all compared to 5 seconds ago? Aside from the gear you're wearing having become slightly less useful, because the rating conversion formulas now calculate slightly less in your favour? There's not much to congratulate on, simply because nothing changed. You'll just carry on using your rotation, doing slightly more damage to targets with slightly more health.
Personally, I came for wow gold advice. I can say that I have found much more here. It's part of my morning breakfast at work yes. But on the other hand it's your content and your style why I read your blog instead of something else.
I prefer to read about your ideas or world perspective than some "fun stuff" about celebrity. Even when I disagree with you.
Also you got a lot of good comments and that helps a lot. Clearing them from trolls is also very good. That's the reason why I visit allmost every day 4-5 times.
As many commenters before me said, I enjoy your blog because it is intellectually engaging, and even when you make the most outrageous real world analogies, they are stimulating to read. In my book, that is a worthwhile enterprise.
Your blog contributes to the market of ideas on a market which can easily become very stale and repetitive (the "talking about WoW" market) in a very meaningful way.
And even though they're the slowest to show effects, ideas are the most valuable of all the things you can trade/exchange.
If more readers is an achievement depends on your motivation for writing the blog. If the point is to get your opinions heard it's an achievement for sure. If it's about venting of some steam when M&S frustration gets bad it's not realy important how many read it.
I started reading wow gold blogs looking for advise on goldmaking, my first stop was Marko's blog and his basic auctioneering guide helped me alot. I then found your blog and the result was i made more gold from professions and almost stoped auctioneering (investing) altogether.
I now keep reading for the philosophy posts, as i now have enough insigth in goldmaking, im not gold caped, but i know for sure il never have to farm anything ever again, and that was my goal.
As long as there are posts about how socials and socialism is ruining wow and the real world il keep reading.
I don't agree with everything you write, but many times i think you are rigth or that you are on to something.
Thanks Gevlon, Keep up the good work, and "GZ"
its just a ding!
since other then a gz there isnt really a meaningfull response
There is a huge difference between level 40 and 4k readers: you can't go back to level 30 once you reach 40, however number of readers can decrease.
Therefore your post means "my popularity is not decreasing, quite vice versa, so I'm still OK".
Unfortunately boasting about being popular is quite against radical goblinism. But it's rational enough so you could keep doing this once in a quarter.
@Gevlon:
No, I wouldn't call 4000 an achievement, not if you made a "ding" post at 3000. The reason for this is that as your graph shows, it's a linear growth. Being linear growth, we can roughly estimate when you will reach 5000. Had the 4000 come -sooner- than would be estimated by the linear growth, then it would be closer to an achievement. You accomplish a mark faster than expected.
Ideally, for any number based achievement, one would be proud of achieving a greater than linear growth. This means that you had to do more than just the same old stuff.
Well, it's definitely true that if you keep killing same level mobs one by one you will eventually ding 80 and "win".
Blogging that won't happen - there has to be something of interest there for people to sign up, so increasing reader numbers means that what you are writing now is at least appealing to the new people who see it (even if some of the old ones just haven't bothered to unsubscribe).
Whether 4000 as a number is something to celebrate is a different question. Why is it special that a couple were married for 10 years (more so than 11 years or 9)? Surely 4001 is a better achievement than 4000, so why talk about 4000? It would only matter in the case of a socially defined goal set by other people (pretty much the definition of M&S) or in terms of a goal you set yourself in advance. Since you didn't set it (or didn't tell us about it), it means nothing.
So, congratulations on still having a continuously increasing reader base at the point you chose to look at it. "Whatever" on having any particular number of subscribers.
well ive read your blog for a while now.i usually read it at work when ive got a bit of free time along with other blogs i like to catch up on.my reading of it doesnt change if theres a good or bad post being written. im actually surprised of you even taking a second to ponder whether you should count this as an achievement or not going by what ive read on your blog and your goblin ways. to me yes it would be an achievent but to you its just like level 43 and you dont like seeing gz on your blue guild for that now do you.
I believe it's another "Ding!" thing. However, 4000 is different from 4207, just like 40 is different from 43. I can understand if someone goes "Ding!" every 10 levels, their 'milestones' you could say. Yet at the same time it is child's play...Anyone can level from 1 to 80 within a couple weeks if they work at it, or it could take them several months if they're slackers or only have time to play an hour a day, or less. Either way, it's easy to level and isn't really worth a "gz" at all.
On a sidenote...What the Hell is "gz"?? I've never heard of it before. Is gz the new abbreviation for gratz which is internet slang for grats which is short for congrats which is short for congratulations? God, people are getting so lazy...Is it really so difficult to type out one single word? Would it really kill someone to hit the keyboard 15 times in quick succession while in flight? Oh, right, I forgot, they're used to hitting one single facerolling key 15 times, not multiple ones, so it would probably be far too challenging for M&S....
Grats!!
The only way to 5000 is to be more mean!!
You're absolutely right, Gevlon. It's a fairly meaningless marker. Remember, the majority of blog readers are probably M&S (although I would assume that the intellect of your followers are slightly higher than average). What that means is, once they find a blog, it takes a LOT for them to stop reading it. I continue to read BBB, for example, and he hasn't posted anything worthwhile in two years, but my numbers continue to add to his growth.
Is it an Achievement? Well was it your goal to get as many subscribers/visitors as possible?
My SHORT answer: For you, no.
Achievements, just like in WoW, are based on our own goals or the goals others set for us. Blizzard wants us to ding 80 so there is an achievement for us. Many Bloggers would gauge their success by the number of people who pay attention to their posts.
I don't think you fall under that category(not that I know you or anything, just based of the personality I can glean from your blog). I believe you do the blog because it entertains you. There is no achievement for you in having a billion people read but there is an enjoyment for having a core following that reads and sometimes provides interesting comments or topics . . . or seething hate and rage.
Really interesting numbers, maybe some more data analysis of your blog?
I agree to the idea that the number of subscribers is a bad way to mesure the success or the quality of the blog. As people here said, people subscribe and don't bother unsubscribing.
A more valid mesure of popularity, however I believe it is the slope of the no. of people subscribed. It describes how fast your blog expanded, how quickly you became known in the blogosphere. Compare this to other bloggers and you can draw a parallel.
The number of daily hits is a better way to check out the your popularity but it is however also flawed. Moreso, it is strongly correlated to the effect presented above and to your posting frequency.
Regarding this, I think a better way to estimate "daily" interest is the number of comments you get for your post. An interesting post that got a lot of views is likely to get a lot of comments as well, but the estimation of quality is less biased by all those who just click your website, skim through the text and quickly close it after.
Bothering to leave a meaningful comment means that your post has was successful and you've appealed to that particular reader.
Deeper still, what is ultimately an achievement for a blogger of your type, I believe it not the number of people who actually read your posts, but more likely the number of persons to whom you've managed to send a message across.
The best reward for someone who tries to spread out his ideas, is seeing others debate them in his absence. And again, when comments here turn from questions-and-answers between you and your readers, to a debate between the readers themselves, you can know for sure you've succeeded.
(debates which are kinda hindered atm by this comment moderation thing btw...)
So there's your answer. The best feedback about the success of your blog is not in that meaningless number but in the number of meaningful comments (that might help you develop your ideas).
All the previous comments are too long and I don't have time to read it right now(I will do it later), so someone may have said this : 4000 is indeed an achievement. However, posting about it would be slightly social too (though in this case, it's rational enough to be accepted, just like it's acceptable to tell your guildies that you just get Gladiator title). Technically, since you said that you write blog to get new feedbacks/ideas for others, you should not care about subscriber at all.
I happily recognized that my subscriber count reached 4K, after a constant growth in the year.
"Happily"? I don't think I'd see such word in your blog before. There is something I've always wondered, is emotion inherently related to being social and non-goblinish? Because if you want to act rational, the last thing I'd want is to have emotion filled your mind, be it anger, sadness, love or happiness. What do you think about it? Is it acceptable for a goblin to feel anykind of emotion?
As a fellow blogger I'd have to say that your RSS subscriber number is a meaningful stat and hitting milestones such as 100, 5,000, 10,000 etc does reflect on a successful blog.
There are hundres of thousands of blogs but the majority of them can't even get 100 subscribers, anyone in WoW can eventually hit level 43 if they just put x amount of hours in, but give a bad blogger an unlimited amount of time and they will not experience much more than 100 subscribers.
What you have going for you is definitely your posting frequency and that most of your topics are controversial and spark conversation.
I'll be honest, I used to read almost all your articles when you talked about WoW Gold making but now I just skim through my RSS and only click on a few.
I find some of your viewpoints on economics and society to be similar to my thoughts but most of the time I'm looking for information that I can apply in-game.
I think it's better than a grind, but still more dependent on time than anything else. Your incoming count will probably gradually grow over time, but unless you keep things interesting, on-time, and free of waste-of-time posts, you'll lose people. You've done a good job of being consistently interesting and on-time, and I think that keeps people subscribed. I know it has for me - I am not too lazy to unsubscribe from things that become mediocre.
I’ll be honest. I don’t give a flying hoot how many subscribers you have…
All that matters to me is that I get 1 or 2 good posts a week. I don’t care about the other readers.
It only takes me 30 seconds to decide if your day’s post is worth reading… If I don’t like it I won’t finish reading it. Your blog is consistent enough to be on my “daily read” list.
Do I care that other people feel the same way? No…
Do you deserve congratulations? Good work maybe but not gratz (Don’t tell me how to spell Gratz… anything but congratulations is wrong so shut it)
Cheers!
CK
Gratz!!!
Numbers of visitors means exactly that. Numbers of visitors. I think your post today indicates that you (despite it unmasking you as being mildly social) are interested in WHY we visit.
Gevlon asks for a boost!!!
I rarely miss one of your posts. And unlike any other blog, I also read a majority of the comments because your commenters are IMO the most educated and well-written in the WoW blogging community.
Even if you had only 500 consistent readers, that's got to make you feel good about your writing skills and post ideas.
You started a blog describing how you made wealth in a video game, and have produced an interesting, readable, and popular discussion panel on world economic and social issues.
Now that's epic.
Like others, I think it's similar to the level 40 achievement. Both do require some effort, but at the same time will likely happen inevitably given a constant amount of work. That said, getting people to read your blog is definitely a lot harder then getting to level 40.
I do think what you've done here is worth congratulations, even if 4000 subscribers is a rather arbitrary number to tie that congratulations to. While I often disagree with your analysis, I almost always find you worth reading.
Measuring subscribers is one metric, but it's better to have more data than just that. Generally, blogs measure their readership by the number of unique visitors they get per day/week etc. You might want to install sitemeter or something like it.
Reader count does not go up or down based on a single variable such as "individual post quality." That is like saying that a piece of art is 'better' than another piece of art because the colors are more vibrant. You're oversimplifying. For one, I think the way that you are consistent and prolific in your posting weighs very heavily in your favor.
However I disagree that the number of subscribers will simply always increase because it just does or because of laziness. You are gaining new subscribers at a rate greater than you are losing subscribers through attrition. Apathy would be indicated by your gaining NO subscribers while still losing subscribers to attrition.
As for the question of is it an achievement? It is an accomplishment to have reached this level, certainly. Have you gained skill in what you do? I don't think that can be directly related to any metric such as this. Which one is more important to you?
4,000 is an achievement if that is what you are aiming for. If you simply want to post to your blog and do not care whether people read or not, then it's just a bit of noise. If you are seeking to spread your message, or want higher visitor count for any reason, then it is an achievement, a milestone on your way to some ultimate goal.
And no, not everyone will keep their traffic or grow it. If a blog is boring or uninteresting, you risk losing whatever audience you have. Even a blog that tries to be shocking or controversial will run out of steam if there is no depth.
Or as Seth Godin would say, if you do not have an interesting story to tell, no one will want to hear what you have to say.
The "achievement" is missing the other side of the equation: the market.
A car manufacturer that sells 75% of the cars it did 3 years ago when the industry is selling 60% is performing, if not doing, well. A blogger that sees 30% more viewers when 300% more blogs are being followed due to more people being aware of blogs and aggregators like Google/Yahoo Reader and Bloglines, and the new browser RSS support, and iPhones et al provide access in more places.
Note also that "subscribers" may not even be the right metric any more. I have a number of blogs I subscribe to in Bloglines (eventually will be Google reader but this works.) A few I read every single post, and some I never read at all; I just haven't done spring cleaning in a while. Not all subscribers are equal.
Woody Allen said "80% of life is just showing up." That probably applies to blog writers as well.
As far as I am concerned? I got onto this blog from a link or a mention by Tobold. However, I stumbled across quite a few blogs this way and as far as game blogs go, only two are really regular visits for me. Tobolds and here. Brokentoys used to be but it hasn't been as interesting as it used to be so now that's become a 'very boring day at work' thing.
The thing is, there are plenty of blogs and a very good post that I read as the first one I see on that blog, will grab my attention. I will go back a couple of times or read back in time on it and if the average is interesting, I'll come back. A single post may get some extra hits through links to it, but it won't get you regulars.
So I'd say the 4000 daily is actually an achievement, a sign that the blog is consistently an interesting read.
perhaps a better metric for your own blog would be total comments posted per day / week / month.
Whether you write crap or something I really like I come back. I come back because some of the things you write I really like, as much as I hate some of the non-sense I think your brain is filled with. Plus, your weekly user-submitted SS's are always worth it.
I subscribed to your blog long ago and read it pretty regularly. Not every day or every single post but when something you write interests me (happens alot!), I read it.
And I don't subscribe to blogs just to leave them in the RSS reader. If the blog is boring I delete the feed. Simple.
It means a lot and I have noticed that your posts are much better since you changed your format - maybe changed is wrong - adjusted. Anyway, I have enjoyed most of your posts lately and I think your numbers are showing that you are reaching your target audience, before the adjustment I wondered what was your target.
I like the Goblin, I enjoy the blog but I keep feeling that the rss subscriber/real visitors on the blog ratio will keep decrease ;)
In terms of popularity I think it's definitely an achievement. It shows that you have a product (your blog) that people are interested in, enjoy and keep reading. Plus, compared to a lot of other blogs, your growth rate is very fast which is another measure of success.
Given that the top amateur blogs in this niche only have around 5k subscribers, I think it's certainly a big achievement. Grats!
Post a Comment