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September 14, 2006
How To Really Be A Poker Blogger
Probably the most frequent question I get from readers is "I have a poker blog, how do I get lots of people to read it?" I'll answer it right here to try to save myself some email.
The first suggestion I have is to post good content. That has two parts. The first part is being interesting. Post stuff people want to read about. Granted, some people do want to hear about your daily results at the $0.5/$1 no-limit games, but most don't. Talk about what's going on in the broader poker world or your little corner of it. If you have an opinion on something important, share it. It's probably much more valid than any poker strategy advice you have to give. Save that stuff for your book.
The second part of good content is writing well. What you say is often less important than how you say it. Use a spell checker. Use punctuation. Periods are your friend. Nobody is expecting Dickensian grammar from a poker blog, but people don't want to read anything that takes extra effort to comprehend. Avoid "lol"s, or saying "u" instead of "you", etc. And try to mix in humor wherever possible, a little goes a long way.
Also, speak candidly. You can speak a lot less candidly than I do and get away with it, but remember that your mission in life shouldn't be to make as many people like you as possible. That's a poor way to live and an even poorer way to gain an audience. You don't have to offend people, but don't be so afraid to do so that you castrate your message. Any worthwhile opinion is going to offend somebody. There are plenty of people taking meaningful thoughts and sugar-coating them to the point of uselessness. Don't fall into that crowd, and ignore anyone who does or expects you to. They are bad writers and even worse friends.
The second most important thing is to post frequently. There's a delicate balance between quantity and quality. The more you post, the less interesting your stuff will typically be. As far as ratings go, however, quantity is, in the short term, a little more important than quality. People who don't have RSS readers would rather read a mediocre blog once a day than a great blog once a week. People who do read via RSS are probably the opposite, but they're only about 1/4th of your readers, and that’s if you constantly promote it like me. For most bloggers it's even less.
Another way to boost ratings is to respond to your users. If they leave open ended comments, reply to them. Put your email address on your website and try to answer every one you get. I've always done that. If you're as lucky as I've been you'll even make a few very good friends that way.
Link to people who link to you. Don't link to crap. Private poker blogs, even if they suck, are ten times better than a lot of what's out there. I get link exchange requests from dozens of crappy poker sites a week, though most are picked up by my spam filter. If you link to all of that garbage people will realize that your list of links is largely junk and won't click any of it. I send a lot of traffic to a lot of people and like it that way, if I linked every crappy site that asked me to that would get watered down.
Now if you really want to get traffic, you can work for it. I don't do this, at least not for the sake of getting readers, but it's very effective. Basically what you do is promote your site grass roots style. Leave a bunch of comments on other blogs (ideally read them and post relevant messages) with your URL. People who see your comment and enjoy it will check out your site. Do the same on relevant forums. Posting a couple dozen comments/messages per day would give you a significant readership boost.
Personally I've never done anything for the specific purpose of gaining more readers. In fact, I always ask people why they want a bigger audience. If you're trying to make money off of blogging you're wasting your time. You'd be way better off actually playing poker. There are very few bloggers making six figures in the entire world, let alone in the poker section of the blogosphere. You'd be much better off spending your time learning to play better. Even a mid-limit online grinder can make many times more than the best poker blogger. Make your money at poker and make blogging a hobby. Or make your money at your day job and make both poker and blogging your hobbies.
It's nice to know that what you write is going to be read by a large number of people. And there are a lot of benefits to writing a good blog. But in reality I think you will achieve the greatest rewards by simply trying to be the best writer you can. You might not make the most money that way, and you won't get the most readers, but who cares? The enjoyment you get from it will be worth a fortune.
Posted by themaroon at September 14, 2006 4:39 AM
Comments
Great post.
Link exchanges are one of the hardest parts of poker blogging, since so many people have now started one (on sites like wordpress and blogger). Do you check PageRanks before accepting link exchanges?
Also, you say that making money of poker blogging is a waste of time. Do you earn much from this blog? I see lots of ads/affiliate links. I'm just starting out, but I hope to make enough to cover server costs.
Posted by: PokerBarney at September 14, 2006 8:25 AM
I hope the next post is "How to find a decent bottle of wine".
Excellent advice Matt and see you at the Boathouse!
Posted by: Drizztdj at September 14, 2006 10:17 AM
Thanks a lot for this post, Matt. It is extremely well-timed given that I started my poker blog a couple months ago, really started taking an interest in the poker blogger-sphere a couple weeks ago, and am now really hoping to create a blog that will attract some readers. Very much appreciated.
Posted by: Chad at September 14, 2006 11:33 AM
I do relatively well from this blog Barney, but nothing I'd want to make a living off of. I guess it's more than I'd make working at Wal-Mart, but for the time and effort I put into a post it's very little compensation.
Posted by: Matthew Maroon at September 14, 2006 3:20 PM
POker blogs are stupid so check mine out it is pure shakespeare with a touch of Hachem
Posted by: Jordan Lewis at September 15, 2006 3:13 AM
Right on target, matt. Quality post.
Posted by: Michael at September 15, 2006 7:53 AM
Zoinks!!!
Posted by: Mike May at September 15, 2006 10:36 PM
Matt, has Mansion verified your account yet? Their customer service is horrible.
Posted by: BaggageClaim at September 15, 2006 11:54 PM
Yes.
Posted by: Matthew Maroon at September 15, 2006 11:57 PM
This is cleanly written and well reasoned. I've stopped by here intermittently this last year and at times you've come across as pretty churlish. Not so here. This is good advice start to finish.
I agree blogging would not make much of a career goal for most of us, and that the point of it should have more to do with the people you meet and the rewards found in writing and receiving feedback.
Nice job.
Posted by: Iakaris at September 17, 2006 10:44 PM
"And try to mix in humor wherever possible, a little goes a long way."
Way to understand commas and semicolons, you hack.
Just kidding; I love your blog and always hope to meet you. (We must have approximately eight zillion common acquaintences.) Keep on writing, please.
--Nate
Posted by: Nate at September 18, 2006 9:19 PM
Great post.
My blog is my labor of love but would still like more people to read. Lately it is alot about me but I have some neat posts about ten people in History at my No Limit table and Jennifer Tilly vs. Pamela Anderson.
I need less me and more about Poker Stuff (to paraphrase Chuck Barris of the Gong Show).
Nice job, Matt. Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Wolverine Fan at September 19, 2006 8:53 PM