As we venture out in the world of blogging, we tend to follow the footsteps of one’s that have already made it big in the blogosphere. We try and copy their strategy, their techniques and pretty much everything they do in order to succeed and become the next A list blogger. What we fail to realize is there is a lot to be learned from bloggers that are just starting out as well.

In this post I will point out some of the things that we might have forgotten as we try to climb the ladder of success when it comes to blogging. So what exactly can we learn from new bloggers? [Read more →]

Tags: Blogging by Ritu B - 2 Comments »

With all the blogs on the web, it has increasingly become a challenge to stand out from the crowd. As many blogs as it is out there, it seems like no matter what topic you write about, or what niche you choose, it is most probably already explored by someone else. So how exactly do you stand out from the crowd? What are some of the ways you can differentiate yourself and your blog from the blogosphere?

I am pretty sure you have heard of quite a few of them. I will list a couple here but in this post I will share the one most and critical way to differentiate yourself from other bloggers and blog. [Read more →]

Tags: Blogging by Ritu B - 2 Comments »

With thousands of blogs emerging on the web each day, marketing your blog has become a necessity. Gone are the days when you could update your blog frequently and get noticed, simply cause you write often. In today’s ever growing web, there are certain marketing practices that we need to embrace in order to gain visibility and exposure to what we have to say.

In this post I will share three basic blog marketing tips that seems to be ignored by most bloggers,
[Read more →]

Tags: Blogging, Marketing, News, networking by Ritu - 2 Comments »

Just kidding. Don’t want anybody throwing their waxy earbuds at me. I was referring to a new study published in the journal Cyberpsychology and Behaviour – did you know such an academic journal existed? — that says a majority of MMORPG players swap genders when they play.

Well, they don’t, like, you know “swap” out parts or anything, they just create characters of the opposite sex, for apparent strategic reasons. (That’s what they say anyway, but you know there’s more than one of the 119 respondents with something frilly and secret in his closet.)

From the wording in the Guardian, you might assume all 54% of the men who said they cross-avatared were closet-cases:

“Fifty four percent of men said that they had portrayed a female character online; a move they said allowed them to flirt with other players and explore a different side of their personality.”

Hmmm. I don’t think they meant it that way. Other reports say it might also be a strategic move: If another player thinks they’re dealing with a girl, they treat the character differently.

Therefore, I think TomM’s description, albeit more juvenile, is more accurate:

In the words of one male participant quoted in the study, “Nerd + Boob = Loot.”

I don’t know if somebody really said that, but it’s funny nonetheless.

Bobbie Johnson, the author of the Guardian article above, also commented on his blog, saying the professor told him that online gamblers often pretend to be women to hustle other players – just like mechanics and women, gamblers assume women don’t know when hold’em or fold’em.

Women, like in real life, do it for other reasons. In fact, kind of the opposite reason: they feel other players take them more seriously and that their avatar is less likely to get its leg humped. 68% of the women surveyed said they switched gender online.

Just a reminder: You never know who, exactly, you’re talking to online.

A fifth respondents were introverted pasties, preferring online conversation to offline conversation, so long as it didn’t interfere with their George Lucas stalking. Men who played MMORPG were less likely to swap genders but were far more likely to find it easier to converse online.

That may be because they’re not actually conversing with women a good portion of the time. The women are ripping them off by pretending to be that dude they hate. That’s okay because bar girls are kind of scary; everybody know what it’s like to get played for drinks.

Well, maybe not these guys.

All of the above was good-natured teasing. Please don’t hack my bank account. (You’ll be pretty disappointed if you do, anyway.)

Tags: News by JasonLeeMiller - 1 Comment »