Sunday 24 June 2012

The Sunday Sermon: So have these sermons worked?

        
    

Well right back on the 4th of December I wrote my very first Sunday Sermon. It had a purpose as an article, a mission if you will. It was a simple I guess, to see if Sunday's were jut slow days in terms of hits. As a secondary objective I decided to see if I could use these articles to generate more hits on my Blog overall. So has the experiment been a success. Well yes it has. I have increased my average Sunday 'hits' up from an average of 589 hits to 1214 hits. That's a pretty big leap if you ask me. The articles have also proved to be some of my more popular as well over recent months, which is gratifying as I've put a bit of thought into them. They've provided me with a sort of platform for some of my more mischievous tendencies as well as some of my more impassioned pleas, they've been fun to write as I've used them as a way to 'cut loose', so they have generated lots of debate and generally livened things up around here. So is it all slaps on the back and self congratulations then?


No, no it is not! You see I wanted to bring my hits per Sunday back in line with my hits I get on my blog during the rest of week. It seems those too have increased recently from an average of between 1000 to 1500 hits per day to something more akin to 1500 to 2000 hits per day. It seems that my blog is just getting 'more' popular across the board and that the increase in Sunday traffic could be just part of a wider trend. Bugger! You see Sundays are still by a clear margin my least popular day in terms of actual hits, this despite the gap narrowing considerably. Rapidly followed by Saturday I might add. It seems to me that you lot out there in the real world have 'actual stuff' to do on these things we call 'weekends'. Things that are more interesting any way than reading my blog it would seem... hmm... I'm not sure I like that.


Thing is that's no real surprise as I too tend not to read blogs as much on the weekend, as believe it or not I also have more important things to do, normally mowing the lawn or doing the washing up... I do have a life, honest! So I can hardly blame you lot for doing likewise now can I? As a percentage though my Sunday hits has closed in slightly on the hits I receive for the rest of the week. They're also quite stable now, so no wild fluctuations and there appears to be far less variance or deviation from the mean average 'Sunday hits' as it were. Whereas other week days there is a far wider variance. It seems having a regular weekly spot for a certain type of article has had a stabilising effect on my Blogs hits. This is something I am personally keen to explore a little bit further if I'm honest with you. So I'm currently looking to draw up a few more regular article series' to try and give my blog a bit more structure and shape. Hopefully these articles will interest all you lot and will prove as popular as my Sunday Sermons have, although hopefully for different reasons. Here's a list of the sorts of articles I'll be adding to my roster over the coming weeks and months:


Tales from the Frontline - These will be battle reports on the games I play and will appear on Saturdays. Yeah OK so partly it's a thinly veiled attempt to try and get a similar sort of uplift in hits for Saturdays as I have received for my Sundays. Hopefully it'll also give stability for my Saturday viewing figures that my Sermons have achieved for Sundays, and also give you all a reason to tune in on Saturdays as well. However, it's also an attempt to get me playing more games. I figure if I know every week I have to do a battle report then I'd better be playing at least one game a week. It'll also motivate me to paint my miniatures and get my gaming boards and scenery finally finished, as if I start putting up battle reports with half painted figures and dodgy looking boards you'll all rightly mock me. I don't like public humiliation, so it'll be a strong motivator for me to get my hobby to where I want it to be!

Frontline Painter - Linked I guess with the former article, because if I'm doing battle reports my miniatures better look presentable. These will go live on Friday's, yeah I'm trying to 'shut out' your weekends entertainment for you! The idea here is to try and keep me honest in regards to my New Years Resolutions, in particular the painting one, which has actually slipped, although I am ticking over in the painting department it is positively glacial! It's also that I want to do more painting. Plus I want to get much, much better at it. I've let myself get out of practice over the last few months / years. Ironically while I have been unemployed I should have had more than enough spare time to paint stuff, but every waking moment seems to be devoted to finding work, or taking a break from finding work by writing this Blog! I guess this Blog has started to take over my hobby time, hence last Sunday's Sermon. Trying to find a new job is still priority number 1 and all consuming. So if I know I need to put a painting / modelling article up most Friday I'm hoping I'll get my ass in gear and do it and it'll act as a motivator! I'm currently thinking this should be bi-weekly... but we'll see once I start writing them I guess.

Frontline Workshop -These probably won't be as frequent as my Frontline Painter articles. They will be about wider hobbying stuff like the odd sculpting task, or scenery building etc. The skills that have been lost to many of us hobbyists over the decades of pre-made plastic buildings and resin bases. Skills few of us exercise now, myself included. So it should be fun I guess. I'll probably make a right pigs ear of everything, but hey I enjoy making a mess and using power tools so it'll be a win win for me! These will more often than not replace any Frontline Painter articles and also go live on Fridays, because there's not enough material or time in the day for me to do both.

A sneak peak at some of the scenery I've been working on...

Industry talk - Well over the past year I've met and spoken to many people who work in the industry and had good long chats about many interesting things. Things that have sparked new ideas in me and got me writing articles that interest you. So I started thinking, what would happen if I actually kept a record of these conversations and turned them into interviews all you lot could read? Well there were two experiments, the first was the interview with Steve from Sarissa Precision... who knew two blokes talking about burnt MDF would prove so fascinating? The second was the interview with Rob Lane from BaneLegions, and that too proved insanely popular with you guys. So I decided it was possibly a good idea to get a crack on and do some interviews on a more regular basis. I have many in the works right now and I think my aim is to perhaps do one a month, or maybe fortnightly, who knows, and who knows how many of these people I annoy I can convince to actually do interviews. But I'll be giving it a blast. If you work for a company and would be willing to be interviewed then you can email me here:

TheFrontlineGamerBlog@Gmail.com

Macavity Ponders - Yep, the ginger Maine Coon is back with a vengeance. The most requests I get for articles on my blog are things that have been written by my cats. The articles Macavitry did around Christmas 2011 also proved annoyingly popular, in some cases more so than the stuff I actually write (stupid bloody cat). So you're going to get more of them. I warn you though, they might not all be wargames or hobby related. Macavity is a cat and I can't be held responsible for the weird crap that goes on inside his twisted little ginger head! However, Maccavity informs me he is a 'ver busy kat' and can only make an appearance once a month... most likely the first Monday of every month, so you've been warned!

Macca doing some research for his articles.

Diary of a research cat: Study of a human hobbyist - So as not to be outdone by the ginger cat Tybalt has informed me he'd like to keep a diary of a social experiment he is conducting. I thought it sounded interesting and rather fun... until I read the title. I'm no longer certain it sounds like such a great idea. However, a deal is a deal and I can't go back on the agreement now. Tying Tybs down to a regular spot has proved troublesome. He tells me he'll write stuff as and when he wants and if I don't like it then tough. He said he'll only share interesting observations with his readers, and that apparently his subject isn;t always interesting... again I'm not so sure I like the sound of that. Hopefully you'll enjoy his social experiment.

Tybalt stops me looking at his 'research data'.

So there you have it. I'm trying to bring a bit more structure into my blogging as I've just celebrated my first year anniversary, and move into my second year. Yep, as this Blog is one year old now and I've reached my major personal milestone that I set myself of blogging for an entire year (and still enjoying it) I need to set new targets to keep me occupied with it and hopefully you guys entertained by it. I'll still be popping up with opinion pieces as and when the urge takes me, don't you worry about that. I'll also continue to do my reviews of product and maybe themed weeks, as I have some of those planned already. I'll continue to search out new and exciting games too, not for you lot you understand, no purely for my own self gratification and entertainment, it's just an added bonus you guys seem to like it too. I'll just let you know what 'intrigues' me as and when it crops up! So that's it for now I guess. It's been a bit of a strange Sunday Sermon all things considered I guess. Hopefully not too many of you switched off, I'll start bringing the changes in gradually though so there won't be wholesale change here anytime soon. Let me know what you guys think of my plans. Peace out!

31 comments:

  1. I think these article series will be good not because of 'hit' but because it opens the door for regular diversity on your blog. I find that interesting, and from experience I can tell you that it adds motivation to your projects when you want to get things finished so you can share them, or make sure you get some great shots during your games and then enjoy writing them up. This enjoyment clearly shines through in the writing, and from good writing comes good audiences, generating the hits you want. So I think you will achieve you overall objective, but I think you might discover a lot of fun and satisfaction along the way. At least I hope you do :-)

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    1. That's the hop Paul, and I hope others enjoy what I do. It's necessary for others to enjoy it... but it'd be nice if they did. Also by broadening the types of article I produce hopefully I'll broaden the Blogs appeal and also make sure there's something for everyone on my Blog.

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    2. Indeed so! Of course YOUR weekend is not in synch with all of the the world. My Blog hits drop on Sundays and Mondays - the Europe/US weekend, and Saturday's hits are the same as Tues-Fri. Maybe there is an angle in that for you

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    3. Yep. I've already noticed the differences between different time zones. My Sunday Sermons normally go live very late in the evening or early Monday morning for Aussies and Kiwi's. The reality is though that most of my readers are from Europe, and the next largest chunk coming from North America. So I have to try and set my scheduling up for the majority of readers. Besides you can read the articles whenever anyway.

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  2. It looks like I'll be looking forward to weekends on your blog then :)
    I really like the battle reports. They can show off a game in ways a review can't and for some of the lesser known games they can be very difficult to find.

    And since my painting skills are.. well crap.. I'm glad you're going to be doing more of those as well ;)

    All in all, good times! :p

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    1. Well that's the hope. I'll be working through how to do what I plan on doing. I think I'll introduce things steadily and smoothly, and give myself the time to do things properly.

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  3. Sounds like a plan (and we all know what happens to those, lol)

    btw, having caught the 1995 version of Village of the Damned on TV last night and given the column he is proposing, you might want to worry a bit more about Tybalt - just take a look at those yes! ;)

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    1. You have no idea how true that is of Tybs!!!

      He's an evil genius, and as I type that he's just snook into the room with what looks like a chicken bone in his mouth... as I said. Evil.

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  4. Hey Frontline,

    I like the ideas for the series- I already enjoy reading what you put out, so having more to read is a bit of a plus. Just a cautionary note- that's a lot of commitment per week (painting, 1 game, plus the work that goes into the blogs per week) and I'd hate to see you burn yourself out.

    Gar

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  5. I tend not to read many blogs on the weekend myself, but I actually make it a point to pop by every Sunday morning and Read the Sunday Sermon because they are consistently enjoyable.

    Your plan sounds reasonable. Painting and battle reports are an untapped source of content for your blog, and a lot of people enjoy those things.

    As far as generating hits on certain days, since blog posts exist forever once posted it occurs to me that there isn't much incentive to read it the day its put up. Do more people read a given week's Sunday Sermon over the week then on Sunday?

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    1. In terms of my Sunday Sermons 60% to 70% of the hits they receive are on the Sunday they're published. with roughly 20% being during the subsequent Monday. They then receive a smattering of hits through the remainder of the week and then further hits at weird times. Perhaps because I do a new one each week they tend to have a very short shelf life, but they are all really quite popular.

      I agree one of the strengths of Blogs is that they are in effect an online resource or store of articles that can be accessed at any time, and I'd urge people to do that with this Blog. But, I'd like to give people a reason to check back most days during their lunch break or on their train journey home from work.

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    2. I would have thought that a given sermon would attract the majority of its readers over the course of the workweek. Based on the number you have it seems that people are choosing to read them more or less when you want them to. As for them not attracting a lot of attention after their moment has passed it could be that due to content or title they are perceived as time-sensitive; or perhaps all your visitors inclined to read that sort of article read it the week it comes out. It’ll be fascinating to compare the readership patterns of another weekly series with the ones you have for the sermons.

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  6. This is very exciting news to me. Obviously (by looking at my own blog) I'm a fan of regular scheduled blog post-types as I've found it easier to get into the mindset of writing the specific types when I'm prepping them (does that make sense?).
    Either way, VERY excited to see how this turns out, so I bid you nothing but great(er) success!

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    1. Thanks. I'll be introducing the articles slowly and steadily and building up to them. To ease myself into it and also to see ow reasonable the schedule I've set myself is. It'll take time but now I've set myself the targets I've got something to achieve and that's what drive me personally, having goals.

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  7. Battle reports, shmattle reports...
    Bring out the cats!
    :D

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    1. The cats will be posting article soon. Don't you worry about that... Types has even brought a rectal thermometer online, although I have no idea why. The little shit even used my PayPal account!!!

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    2. Be afraid.
      Be very afraid.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Why is my Google account being stupid today?
      -_-

      Oh, internet...yer so wacky.
      :P

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    5. It's not the Internet it's a glitch in the Matrix!!!

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  8. +1 for the Preacher art work.

    And yes, write more stuff!

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    1. Yep Preacher rocks! And I'm planning on not necessarily writing more stuff, although that's a distinct possibility, it's more a plan to write more varied stuff.

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  9. Looking forward to the battle reps actually. They seem to be big drivers on my blog usually, but if you can do them for the less known games and get into a bit of detail with them, all the better. Might cause more people to spend money they don't have ( like I did for Sedation Wars Kickstarter.. yes.. I know you have a forewarning, but I still blame you! :) ).

    Concerning the painting articles.. am curious how you will frame them actually.. as they might not be the most wordy ones, and when I look around the old blog-o-sphere here, usually some of the best blogs have just beautiful models and little to no text.. so again.. curious how you pull this off, and what kind of reaction to hits you get with them.

    Cheers

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    1. I've actually done a few painting guide type articles already. My Sorylian fleet and I started a miniature from the BaneLegions range called Maagaan. I'm still working on him.

      The Battle reports are the ones I'm planning on having most fun with.

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  10. I'll look forward to all these features. I do think sometimes that you spend too much time blogging about your blog, if you see what I mean, your blog is occasionally in danger of eating itself :-)

    Knight_Of_Infinite_Resignation

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    1. Yep I can certainly see that over the last month or so. But then again it has been to try and guage public opinion about various things to try and make stuff better. I've had a brief flick through hte last two months worth of articles and reviews, opinion piece, Editorials about industry news and sermons all individually outweigh the amount of articles about this Blog. So why you might have that impression... it's bollocks!!! :P

      I am however done with those articles now I have an agenda set, and after Friday the prize draws will thankfully be over for a little while. So hopefully that will meet with your approval. ;)

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  11. I really look forward to your battle report posts. If there's one thing I like, it's battle reports. There's not just one thing I like of course, there's quite a few. But if there were just one, then it would be battle reports. I also tend to enjoy your industry talks quite a bit.

    And yes, I sort of do things on Sundays, so I tend to read your Sunday Sermons on Monday mornings, which I have off from work. I work every other weekend, plus Saturdays are RPG day, and Sunday is boardgame day (though i got a game of Tomorrow's War in last Sunday).

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    1. I hope I can live up to your expectations!!! :P

      I'm just ooking to have a bit more fun and variety in my writing really. If I can change things up a bit I hope it'll stop things getting a bit stale for you guys, but more importantly for me.

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  12. I actually read the Sunday Sermon more than any other of your blogs because the other ones are contingent on having something that interests me at the time. That's not always the case with some of the games you talk up, but the Sunday Sermon is always an interesting read. Due to other committments I don't often read it on Sunday, funnily enough...

    Looking forward to the Battle Reports and I'm interested to see how you handle it. I used to write a review of all my games on my blog but having to do it every time I played a game (once a week at least) I found to be more work than fun. Then again, you take blogging to a whole new level so I don't see why not.

    Enjoy the games!

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    1. I've already done some mock runs and of course I did the adventures with girls articles, which were sort of battle reports for board games. They proved highly popular. As always I'll approach what I do with a keen eye for detail, but trying to keep things etertaining and fun.

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