Suggestions for RFN bloggers

As someone who has been writing a Raider blog for a multitude of years on another site, I thought I would share some thoughts and suggestions for my raiderfans.net family who may be just getting started.

Do it because you love it. You love the the Raiders and you just want to talk about Raider football. Take the time to get in depth with what you want to say. This is more than just starting a thread, this is you adding your voice to the chorus of people talking about the Raiders. Your blog is a reflection of you, your thoughts, your ideas. Give it your voice. If you like to keep it light and be funny, do it. On my MVN blog, I have developed a tone that works for me, which is slightly newsy and dispassionate, but far from impartial. Find what works for you.

One of the things that I have learned over the years is that the best way to get people to read your blog is to post consistently. Whats the point of writing a blog, if you don't care if its read? You can post every hour on the hour, every month, every week, every day, whatever. But if you post once a week, make it always on teh same day so that your readers know to check on say Wednesday to see your latest. I have not missed a day on my MVN blog (Often more than one post a day) since 22 December, and that was work related.

Hype your blog. You put your ass on the line to come up with the best Raider content possible. You had a great write up on why Stuart Schweigert is not only a bad safety, but why he was the worst safety in the history of football. You want the world to read your masterwork telling the world of Stu. You post a link in the blog forum telling your rfn brethren that your new work is ready for the world. That is a good start, but there is so much more you can do. Short of spamming every message board known to man with links to your greatness, which would not only be quite time consuming, it would be a good way to piss people off, you can use tools at your disposal, some of them are right before your eyes.

You have seen those little buttons below your rep-o-meter, here is where they come into play. This bad boy links you to digg.com. Digg is a site where people post links to news and blogs, so that other people can find and judge them. they digg the ones they like, comment on them on that site, or they bury them. (A negative vote.) I don't use digg much for my blog, as I have never had much luck. Its a very general purpose site.

I recommend Yardbarker.com. Yardbarker is a specialty sports site. It is similar to dig in that people vote it up or down, but it is dedicated to sports. Another great site is ballhype.com. Ballhype also has the M.O. where you submit a story and it gets "hyped" by other members, but it also has a social networking side, where you can join groups and make "friends."

Anyway, I hope my suggestions help. Happy blogging.