Posts tagged writing

Hey all! It’s your friendly-neighborhood Matt Demers here with a bit of a giveaway to help jump-start my new bloggy-blogs. If you haven’t noticed lately, I’ve been trying to keep my site pumped with new reviews (almost) every day, from Korra to graphic novels to video games and music. 

This is all awesome, and I’m pretty happy that I’ve managed to make a schedule out of it, but the nature of Tumblr means that text posts don’t really share as well as image/art posts do. I’d really like to expand my reader base, and I figure the best way to do that would be to ask you guys to reblog and recommend me to your friends!

So, herein lies the giveaway.

I will be giving out three (3) copies of Bastion: Soundtrack Edition for Steam over the next couple months. For this giveaway, one is up for grabs, and I’ll be choosing the winner randomly from the reblogs of this post.

If you can, writing a  recommendation would make my day, as well :). I’m not really sure of a way to include people who don’t have Tumblr (as it’s hard to track both Twitter and link sharing); I’ll take suggestions for the next time I do this.

I’ll be keeping a list of the usernames of the people from the Notes list for this post, and draw on Sunday, May 27. Keep in mind that in order to be considered, you can’t change any of the text in this post (including below this line). That’s just for people who don’t want to read the mushy stuff as to why I’m doing this.

—- 

But anyways, thank you. It’s been my dream job to write about what I’m passionate about, and have people enjoy reading it. I don’t feel right outright asking (*cough* begging *cough*) for recommendations, so this will have to do for now.

If you already read/like/reblog my stuff already, thank you. I wouldn’t be here without you. If you’re new to me and my writing, come in and stay awhile; you’re sure to find something you like.

Thanks for reading.

If you’re a writer of any kind and enjoy reading comics, I highly recommend you check out “Learn From Webcomics!”, a Tumblr I ran across by accident when someone reblogged their Tom Preston critique post.

In short, it takes an example offender webcomic and critiques its writing, pointing out exactly what they do wrong, their reasoning behind the criticism and what the writer can do to fix it. At the end, it offers an exercise that the “student at home” can do in order to hone their skills and avoid falling into the same holes.

This is the type of criticism I like reading for just about anything. It’s dead-on without being petty, and it’s informative without being preachy. As a dude who’s hoping to dabble in comics writing in the next little, it’s definitely got a place on my follow list.

(Sick Moleskine hard drive found here.)

What do you like reading?

What should I be writing more of?

Note “Popularity” vs Follower Conversion

• Until you build a large following of your own, you may be blessed with a reblog stream that comes from being shared by someone who has a large following. I find that if any of my posts get shared by Marcus, Kelly or Francis, I get a stream of reshares and likes (which I am eternally grateful for. You should check out their blogs, as they do great work).
• However, this can rarely leads to followers, as blog posts I’ve made with 150+ notes will yield none.
• NOTE: This seems to be different when a post is an image set or a written post; the former seem to be “one off” reshares, while the latter tend to attract more repeat viewers in the hope you’ll produce more material.
  While posting entertaining GIFs will get short term share spikes, there isn’t any promise of repeat entertainment, unless you’re a theme blog.
• What You Can Do: For the past week I’ve added a simple “If you like this post, or found it by reblog, consider giving the original poster a follow” signature to my posts. I have gotten more new followers in that window of time than I have over any other month. 
• It’s sincere enough that people won’t be annoyed (because well, everyone wants to be recognized for their work), and if they don’t like it, they won’t follow. It helps to properly source things, as, well, you’d be a douche to beg for followers while trying to pass off something as your own. 

Tag Traffic vs. Networking

• Tag traffic (that is, people coming from tag searches) tend to be very low when pitted against being shared by users with high followings (see above). However, the important thing to realize is that theme blogs use these tags to find material; you have nothing to lose by tagging the hell out of everything you write.
• What You Can Do: For instance, I’ll add both “Adventure Time” and “Adventure Time with Finn and Jake” to relevant posts, as, well, they’re two separate search terms. It’s like how “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “Avatar: The Legend of Korra” are completely different properties. Tagging “Avatar” might be “good enough” (hell, throw it in anyways!) but you might miss people looking for specificity in the meantime.
• However, it’s often more valuable to be reblogged by people of note, as it can almost be seen as an endorsement of “Okay, this is quality.” Even if it’s an argument or criticism, curious parties will wander over.
• Tumblr’s system is unique in that you will see everything someone posts; with Twitter, tweets starting with an @reply will be hidden if you don’t share that person on your list.

There will always be reblog fodder, but it will rarely help your cause

• Like snarky commentary during an awards show on Twitter, there are certain things that will always get you reblogs. Hell, I posted two screencaps from the opening sequence of a cartoon and netted myself 44 interactions.
• These tend to be semi-timely: GIFs from a just-aired TV show will be shared like hell within a fandom, and screencaps (rev up those VLC players!) do just about as well. 
• Again, like I mentioned above, unless you’re a theme blog with the promise of more content, this will rarely net you followers.
• Since new followers will be seeing your content through common friends, your name/link is often buried within the post itself. It is uncommon for people to forgo the initial entertainment of the post itself and say “Man, I wonder who the man/woman behind this post is?” and click through to your page.
• Since there is no easy way to follow the original poster of the post, you are unlikely to see any benefit. This is especially true when a blog post is picked up by a popular theme blog: you’ll often see “X reblogged this post from notyourblog”, and your only involvement will be limited to a small linked name that no one will bother to click. This is the major problem in the why mass notes =/= mass followers.

By Sofia P. on Flickr

So, what can I do?

• It’s tough, because as soon as you try to force people to read your blog, it is very easy to come off as a douche. The flaws in Tumblr’s system create these problems, and fixing them requires effort that users might not want to expend.
• Encourage good practices - Webcomic artist kind of get the shaft on Tumblr (as we’ve seen before), so it’s a good idea to encourage people to view the original artist’s site, if only to support them. Insist on proper sourcing (I appreciate Maya chewing me out from time to time) and give credit where credit is due. No one wants to think the time spent on something was a waste of time, so comment, like, subscribe, whatever.
• Produce good content in a timely manner - If you want people to follow you and appreciate your work, you have a responsibility to churn out good stuff from time to time. Suddenly getting an influx of 100 followers then falling off the map is not good form. The queue is there for a reason.
• Don’t let Tumblr be your sole social media strategy - Like I said above, until Tumblr gets its act together with analytics, a large amount of ad/direct traffic is going to come from Twitter, G+ and Facebook. Share your direct links there, and more often then not it will come out in a respectable format. Use bit.ly (and sign up) to get an idea of how many people are clicking, and use that data to your advantage (like I’ve written before).
• Weigh your options - Can you stand losing the sharing power of Tumblr in favour of Wordpress, Squarespace or Blogger? Is your traffic/exposure dependent on shares? If not, it might be worth switching over to a system that’s more under your control; however, for artists/photographers, the ease of sharing is a bit hard to let go.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment, and follow me on Twitter.

• Replay Paper Mario (N64)
• Watch Battlestar Galactica
• Watch Band of Brothers
• Watch Game of Thrones
• Watch Walking Dead
• Re-read Transmetropolitan, start to finish
• Write one issue of a comic using Scrivener, no matter how bad or cliche it turns out to be. Aim for 24 pages.
• Figure out a task system that works for me; organize my life better and actually form some good habits when it comes to getting work done. GTD didn’t exactly work for me, so I need to find something different.
• Watch Metalocalypse
• Play through Knights of the Old Republic for the first time

Hurm. Anyone know what else I could add to this?

In this post I’m going to steal a concept from Warren Ellis and re-introduce myself to the people who might be reading this blog.

My name is Matt Demers. I’m a 21-year-old journalist from Toronto, Ontario. My Twitter handle is @MattDemers, and you can contact me via e-mail at Matt [at] MattDemers [dot] com.

I write about a number of fantastical things, including comics, Android and issues that [should] matter to nerds everywhere. I primarily write opinion columns because I find great enjoyment in doing so. I love making people think about the world that they live in.

You can find my work weekly on Nerd Girl Pinups, a project I became a part of before I moved to Toronto in 2008. They are a lovely group of ladies who’ve devoted themselves to showing that there’s more to being a nerd than putting on a pair of glasses and posing with a Game Boy.

I write three times weekly for Droid-Life.com, a blog about Android products. I do app reviews for them, which I find very fun. I’m a big fan of the platform, and enjoy my Motorola Atrix smartphone immensely.

I write many times a week for ComicVine.com (sadly, they don’t have a “find all posts by author” button). I write feature articles about concepts that many a comics nerd has contemplated in their quiet moments, and also do reviews weekly. Also, I cover breaking news and Canadian conventions.

I also write about music from time to time. This writing includes my favourite interview: one with Juno award-winner and all-around nice guy, Shadrach Kabango.

My work has also been featured on other sites, like DorkShelf.com, The National Post, PopShifter and Android and Me.

One day I hope to express my opinion for a living. I take the serious personally, and the personal seriously.

I am always looking to write about new things, or talk to new people. Never hesitate to throw me a message on Twitter or via comment; they will always be replied to.

Thank you for reading.