I’ve been doing this for over five years and I thought I would share some Warhammer Blogging Tips. It was a blog like my own that inspired me to start. Sadly it’s now inactive.

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But I’d bet some Imperial Credits that somewhere out there, a reader of this blog is starting or thinking of starting a blog of their own. Hopefully, it’ll be about a righteous arm of the Imperium and not about an enemy of mankind! Chaos and Xenos support may exit now.

Overview

The topics I’ll cover can be split into some broad topics, I’m sure there will be some overlap.

First off we have Issues, these are problems and barriers that you may face when it comes to blogging. Not everyone will experience these but some people will and it’s worth covering them and offering advice on overcoming those issues.

I’ll also talk about Tips, I mean, that’s what you came for? These are general tips about Warhammer Blogging; do X and not Y, have you tried this rather than that, etc.

And finally, we can cover some parts of Growth. A big part of doing this is not only growing the blog and the number of people that read it, but also about improving my hobby output by being accountable. It’s very satisfying to look back to a year ago and see how far you’ve come. The journey of going from article number one to article 300 has been long and sometimes blank – periods of no hobby – but I’ve always strived to grow myself and my hobby abilities.

What is your Why?

Before you blog, think about your Why. Why are you blogging? The answer may seem obvious, but it’s often not as simple as you think.

I can’t help you think that through but it’s worth doing and bearing that Why in my mind when you’re writing. It’ll give your blog a clear, but subtle, underlying purpose which will keep you focused and your audience coming back.

Warhammer Blogging Issues

First, let us look at the issues that some people may face.

WordPress

Firstly how do you start a blog? Well, it’s pretty simple and free! Head to WordPress’ Create and Website and get started! It’s really that simple. You don’t need to buy a domain name and install anything or code anything. Just get started and start writing!

Writing

Finding the time to write and having the headspace to write can be hard. Real-life gets in the way for all of us. If you’re using WordPress then their app is perfect for getting things written. If you’re not using WordPress then any notes app will do too.

When I get an idea for an article I open up the WordPress app, give the post a title and save it as a draft. That’s it. It’s now stored ready for when I do have the time.

I currently have 14 drafts on my blog – including this article as I put it together. 14 is a lot but it’s OK. I know it may take me 6 months to get around to them all and other posts will get created and published during that time too. I’m realistic about the output I can produce to the level I was to produce it at. You should be mindful of that too.

So, note down ideas as soon as possible so you don’t forget them and can come back to them when you can give them your full attention. Also, don’t overdo it and try and publish every idea you have on a week. Take your time and be realistic about your writing output.

Getting Noticed

This is something that is hard and there is no quick fix. There are many avenues to push your continent out via, more on this later.

But it will take time to grow an audience and a community around your ideas and projects. Try not to get caught up with the numbers when you start. My first article went live on March 24th 2014 in the 7 days after I had less than 40 users visit the site. Most of those viewed the homepage and nothing else!

It’s a slow game to get Google to rank your site, build a social media following and grow. But keep going!

You know that saying…

Terra wasn’t built in a day

Here is a comparison of my games, then and now. The Basilisk and Leman Russ on the 2014 image are also in the 2019 picture!

Warhammer Blogging Tips

Now for some general tips!

Write Anything

You can literally write about anything. That article about painting with an ice cream tub has had 4,600 page views (the 19th most popular article) which is madness! Everything you do with your hobby is something that someone else, somewhere, has never done. Therefore what you’re doing is of interest to them.

Are you discovering how to paint the skin of a Guardsman for the first time? That is worth sharing, despite thousands of other people already doing this there will be others out there who want to learn how to do it still. Or may have done it before, but not the way you’re discovering it. Is there a right way to do anything in this hobby?

Rapid Deployment Paint Station

Write Unique

If you feel like your subject matter for an article is not worth writing or that it has been done to death before – *cough* Contrast Paint Articles *cough* – then try a new slant on it. Make your experience a unique one.

Guardsman’s skin is a good example. There are a lot of articles and videos on painting skin, these are great resources. But they are often from veteran painters that know exactly what each painting technique can do; glazing, washing, layering, blending, airbrushing, dry brushing etc. Share your experience as a newbie, that will be extremely valuable to another new painter who also doesn’t know what all those techniques are.

This is where I find a good amount of success and popularity with my articles. Having something explained by a none-pro makes it more accessible to more people. My output is of course not as good as a pro painter, but then who is really striving for that? Really?

Keywords

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an article in itself, so I won’t try here. But use the Yoast SEO Plugin on WordPress if you can. This lets you input a Focus Keyword for an article and then tells you what you’re missing within your content to help improve your SEO. Things like;

• Page Title
• Sub-headings
• Content
• Image captions

Doing this from day one really makes a difference to your traffic in the long run – and gives you focus on an article.

Can you tell what the focus keywprd/phrase is for this article?

Pick a Good Title

A title is hard to pick – but pick a good one, a clear one and not a cryptic one. You’re just starting out and so being clear about what an article is (and is not) about will help your readers go into the article with the right expectations.

This photo is here to keep things interesting – move along

Warhammer Blogging Growth

So you have your blog, you have some articles and you are gradually picking up traffic. Where do you go from here?

Social Media

Get yourself onto social media;

• Instagram – great for photo sharing and being inspired, not great for getting traffic
• Twitter – great for conversations about the hobby, OK for traffic
• Facebook – good for conversations and good for traffic

There is also Reddit, but Reddit can be a harsh critic at times.

If I am unsure about an article I will publish it and share it to just one platform, then wait. If I have missed some key point then I will amend the article and then share it to more platforms. Rather than sharing it everywhere at once and then getting the same negative comment.

There is a lot more info on social media for this hobby in my Social Media Guide.

Other

There are other ways to get yourself out there when you start Warhammer blogging;

• Post on forums
• Ask other blogs for links
• Offer to write articles for other blogs in exchange for links

It can be slow going to start with and Google is slow to pick things up and rank you.

But you will get there, just write relevant and honest content.