Independent or Aggregated Sites
In my perception the difference between doing an independent site or working within an existing site is mostly personal preference. The only real differences I see are in
ownership and the ability to work on search position.
Whether a new Devokan site is a good thing or not, I think, depends on what Dot wants to do with the site. If attracting new players is import then being easy to find is important. Starting within an existing site gives one a boost starting up in being found. I think the Devokan thread at MOUL gets the most attention and gives that boost. It can be used to direct people to any new material. The stats at GoMa show a pretty good following even with the small number of posts. The GoMa thread does not place well. My article on Devokan places ahead of the GoMa section. (11th place
SLUniverse – 19th
Devokan, a Myst Style Build in Second Life
I don’t know the stats here, I suspect OU has a lower readership count. I imagine that will change when we get the licenses for OS.
I am considering moving my blog to Go Daddy where I have my other sites. If I move my blog I can put advertising on the site and with any luck get the hosting cost paid. The blog has 200 to 550 people per day visiting.
JWP, I don’t remember if I’ve read your position on advertising and income from this site and related resources. ?
Dot, as to blogs… I tried several different free blogs when starting. I had 3 blogs for Nalates’ Things & Stuff. The 2 more popular blogs are Google’s eBlogger and WordPress, both have free versions. I like WordPress best. It integrates with MS Word so I can write offline and upload, images and all.
Blogs are easy to use. WordPress has an amazing number of options, features, plug-ins, a good user interface, I think both have import & export features for moving a blog. One can think of a blog as a forum with a fancy opening post (and good editing tools). With comments turned on; a blog post can be very much like a forum thread.
I’ve been looking at various RPG’s in SL to see how they do things to draw and keep people. How successful they are I base on how many are playing. I’m not sure how well that information will transfer to MO:OU. I suspect things to be similar.
It seems the SL chat and announcements are where most information exchange takes place. That stuff is transitory. SL folks don’t seem to use forums that much, i.e., Eder D’Uru. There is a core of any RPG’s fans that use the forums. But, there are far more players than forum users for most SL RPG's. That seems true of Myst-Uru. I think that shows a failure to provide a benefit to players for using the forums, it just doesn’t add that much to the players’ enjoyment. It is more of a necessity than fun. I also think a large number of older players never thought to look for forum support. In game links to the forum/blog are important. Trolls and flames have given many a bad taste for forums. Plus finding information in a forum can be a pain.
SL folks seem to use and read blogs. I think SL related blogs out number every other type of blog going. However, most MMO’s have a large number of blogs . That tells us something.
World of Warcraft blogs has 38 million hits, forums 25.5 million.
Second Life blogs yields 215 million hits, forums 183 million.
Guild Wars blogs 4.6 million hits, forums 9 million. Entropia: 384k blogs, 331k forums, Myst: 530k blogs, 543k forums, Uru: 318 blogs, 369 forums… all hits not a count.
Why are blogs popular? I think blogs require less effort on the owner’s part. Blogs are indexed by Google and people can easily find what they are looking for. It is easier to go to specific information. Commenter’s do not need to sign up.
Emerald Viewer Review is a term that many search on and how they find me. Players are going to search on various terms they feel relate to problems or interests they have. That gets people to the blog/forum and traffic and activity keeps writers and participants interested.
Devokan Tsahno has the #1 rated site on the term Devokan, actually Devokan Tsahno. I don’t count Devokan.com as there is nothing there… well a page with an image. In 7th place is the MOUL forum thread. My KOINUP is 9th. The Devokan.net yields a 403 error, probably a default page problem. A page there could funnel people to GoMa or here. With a little effort Devokan.net could hold a top 5 position. Wherever it points would get the majority of new visitors.
Whichever way Dot decides... lots to think about.