The Newbie Bloggers Initiative is definitely the highlight for me last May. Not only did this event introduce me to a crop of new bloggers, and gave me priceless blogging advice, but it also injected into me a rekindled passion for blogging and gaming. I mean, I had 18 posts in just one month, and all of it were about games. In my five years as a struggling blogger, that’s the highest number of posts I wrote in a month.
You know what else are high? My page views, likes and comments. It’s quite flattering to know that at least a hundred people come visit my site everyday and read whatever I write. So, thanks to all the sponsors who gave us some priceless advice and showed us some link love. Thanks to all my fellow newbie bloggers who participated on this event (my Google Reader has been quite lively since). But, most of all, thanks to Syp for spearheading this massively successful event.
To cap this event, I’ve also decided to take on Ambermist’s Final Challenge, in which we introduce to her three of our favorite blogs that participated in NBI. Since there were many good blogs who joined NBI, it was a tough for me to pick only three. But them’s the rules. So, here are my picks:
TL-DR
TL-DR stands for: a) Too Long, Didn’t Read; b) To Level, Defeat Ranganathan ; or c) To Level, Diane Rasmussen. But whatever the acronym really stands for, this blog is full of humor and useful information. But that’s to be expected from its authors, Gameronomist and Inforgamerist, who are both librarians and gamers with a shared interest in information science. I really enjoy every post in this blog. Especially the one about corpse camping.
Divinity’s Reach
I’m not the only one who wants to play Guild Wars 2 now, right this moment. But since we can’t have that, the blog Divinity’s Reach, its author and contributors, is keeping me on the leash with lots of Guild Wars 2 information and guides. I particularly like their character build guides. Especially the “How to Fight a Thief” post
Not Too Heavy
Okay, this is a World of Warcraft blog. If you read my MMO resume (which you probably didn’t), I’ve only played WoW for 6 weeks. So, I know little about the game. Yet, this blog is entertaining the heck out of me. Both authors, JustRight and Escalier, are really good writers (but mostly Escalier). Escalier’s post about MMO naming, On Judgement, is the one that caught my eye.
So, these listed above are my favorite blogs that were spawned by NBI. However, these three blogs aren’t the only ones who are good. There’s more, and you should visit them:
Emerging Blogs:
Lotro Family of Flosiin Nightsong/ Red Neckromonger/ Casual Aggro/ SWTOR from Scratch/ Elfkina vežička/ Unwavering Sentinel/ Windy Acres Ranch/ TL-DR/ Saali in Taborea/ Bad Tauren/ Musings of an Altoholic/ Neurotic Girl/ Geo’s Ironman Challenge/ Crafty’s Corner/ Scattered Thoughts/ The Poison Mushroom/ My Staff is Bigger Than Yours/ Vagabond Goes for a Walk/ EVE All Night/ Dreadblade/ Priest All The Things/ Brazokie’s Blog Space/ Warp to Zero/ Altaclysmic/ Winniekin’s Adventures / Winnie goes F2P/ Diminishing Returns/ World’s End Tavern/ Warrior Needs Time Badly/ We do it the WASD Way!/ Middle-earth Initiative/ That Was An Accident!/ Aggrolicious/ Conveniently Placed Exhaust Port/ Adamant Nomad/ Toastman’s Blog/ Ravalation/ Gaming for Introverts/ The Incidental Analyst/ Funsponge/ Bloodthorne/ AntiPlasmaFrequency/ Kemwer Game Blog/ The Adventures of Danania, Supergirl of Lorien/ Unliving a Death Knight/ Deathstomp/ MMO Juggler/ White Charr/ Not Too Heavy/ Flask Half-Empty/ Raspberry Jammed/ Click to Loot/ Kaw Kaw! Get in the Bag!/ Mistress of Illusions/ Malefic Incantations/ MMO One Night a Week/ Omens of Onterion/ The Blue Haired Geek/ TFScribbles/ Glimpses from Middle-earth/ Goetia’s Letters/ /con mmob/ Gaming Abroad/ Backseat Game Design /Divinity’s Reach/ Big Numbers/ Trippin Tyria/ Eons and Eons Away/ Horrible Ball of Fire/ Image Heavy/ Casually Vicious/ Gaming Brew/ The Roaring Silence/ MMOARprz/ Game Delver/ The Diverted Muse/ Newbie Hobbit/ Battlemastered/ thenotsonewnoob/ Auction House on Farm/ Giddeon’s Hammer/ Noob Raider/ The Altoholic/ stnylan’s musings/ The 10th Level of Gaming Hell/ commentarilies/ Inside the Magic Shop/ Beyond Tannhauser Gate/ Argus or Bust/ Lotro Cinna/ Warlockery/ Stabby McStabStab/ Healing Mains/ The Loony Bin/ Warcraft Street/ Real Adventures in Fake Worlds/ GnomeGates.com/ Hipstalotro/ The Butterfly Gamer/ The Mighty Viking Hamster/ Why I Game/ Wald’s Wanderings/ Ald Shot First/ Sephora’s Closet/ Donovan Drones/ Beyond Reproach/ The Horn & Ivory Gates/ Landroval Style/ MMO Asylum/ Renai Hunter/ Space Fiddle
Advice Posts:
- Stropp’s World: Being a blogger superstar, Just do it, The pros and cons of self-hosting
- StarShadow: Some blogging advice, Themes and widgets, Screenshots, Menus, categories and tags
- In An Age: Advice for new bloggers
- Tish Tosh Tesh: Who Am I?, Blogging is a social activity, For love or money, Thinking linking, Traditions
- Tales of the Aggronaut: The Google Reader blogroll, Getting started, Be open-minded (unlike me)
- Wadstomp Gaming: The importance of social media, Submit a guest post, The best advertising payouts,Be sure to burn your blog to feedburner, Create your own voice
- Beau Hindman: General advice, Indie games and bloggers
- Games and Geekery: Why you should blog, Learning about blogging from perfect strangers
- Skycandy: Blogging wrong, blogging right
- Shards of Imagination: Choosing the subject of your blog
- MMO Compendium: Keeping up with the industry and bloggers
- Contains Moderate Peril: Some general guidance, Mind your language, Stats, Episode 61
- Lotro Fashion: Screenshots make your blog interesting
- High Latency Life: Finding your voice, You need a thick skin
- Scary Worlds: Mobile blogging, Creating a good title, Advice you don’t want to hear
- ETCmmo.com: General advice
- Nerdy Bookahs: Why do you want to blog?, Why haven’t you started your blog yet?
- World of Matticus: WordPress plugins, Finishing your blog setup, Making connections
- World’s End Tavern: General tips
- Parallel Context: The best advice
- Tremayne’s Law: Read Think Write Edit
- Jaded Alt: So you wanna be a blogger?, What’s in a name?, If you remember nothing else… write!
- Avatars of Steel: Curling up with a good blog
- Blog de la Burro: Why I started blogging, Some advice on blogging, Does traffic matter?, How to deal with writer’s block, What you should blog about, Are comments important?, Is it ever okay to rant?, How to get noticed
- Inventory Full: How the Bhagpuss came to be, Take a moment, Backing up your blog
- Gamerlady: Tips to start
- Just One MMOre: How to be consistent and make it painless and easy, One question high-traffic blogs ask
- Spinksville: Picture manipulation tools and copyright
- T.R. Red Skies: Quick tips, Objectivity, relating and heart
- Live Like a Nerd: WordPress plugins for bloggers
- I Have Touched the Sky: Avoid barriers to commenting on Blogger, Blogs lists and RSS
- Thade’s Hammer: Advice for the new bloggers
- Levelcapped: Tell me about yourself, None of my business
- Psychochild: What makes your blog special
- Bullet Points: The worst advice you’ll ever receive about blogging, You are your blog
- A Casual Stroll to Mordor: Learn how to podcast, Writing for the web
- Contains Moderate Peril: Episode 58, Fine-turning your blog
- A Green Mushroom: Blogging tips and hints
- Too Many Annas: Picking a name
- Grimnir’s Grudge: It feels good to be a blogger
- Gankalicious: Never tell the truth, Meeting interesting people, Who the hell reads this?
- Herding Cats: Creating a podcast on the cheap with WordPress
- Distilled Willpower: 8 blogging tips they won’t tell you
- Vicarious Experience: From there to here
- TL-DR: Protect your blog!, Tags and Categories
- Multiplaying: You should be blogging
- Blue Kae: Advice is a strong word
- Screaming Monkeys: Top five tips
- Caer Morrighan: Get started with WoW blogging
- Hawt Pants: New blogger advice
- Tiger Ears: Why I started blogging
- Berath’s Brain Burps: Sage words, How to get lots and lots of hits
- Just One More Unlock: Newbie blogger tips, Opportunity
- Hunter’s Insight: An idea is formed, What not to do
- ALT:ernative: Starting at the beginning, The first idea
- Epic Slant: Tips and links, Guest post
- MMOGC: 3 little things
- A Journey through the Mind: My 0.2 ISK
- Red Cow Rise: What and why to post, Blog setup and community building
- Epic Slant: Writer’s block
- Creeping…: So you think you can blog
- The Ancient Gaming Noob: Playing blogroll breadcrumbs
- Dragonchasers: How not to build an audience
- Welcome to Spinksville: What you should write and how to write it
- The Stories of O: Top 4 tips
- A Ding World: Blog posting
- The Wild Boar Inn: Blogging tips
- Professor Beej: Stop writing!
- Nomnom.info: 4 blogging tips
- Gamer BC: A solid foundation and a step forward
- Casual Is As Casual Does: Tips, tricks and who am I kidding
- Roll One Hundred: Managing screenshots
- Bullet Points: I refuse to call it a blogosphere
- KIASA: Good advice
- Pumping Irony: Before taking the plunge
- Life is a Mind-Bending Puzzle: Wrapping up advice all in one place
- Rikna’s Rants: The blog rings, By this keyboard I rule!, Guests and cross posts
- Sheep the Diamond: Advice from an old bull
That’s it for the NBI month. I know May is already done. But I get the feeling that this is only the beginning for us newbie bloggers.
The Frugal Gamer 
That is the most accurate blog title ever. May was like a launching pad–you guys take it from here!
I really appreciate that you linked a specific post for each blog. That’s a great introduction! Thank you!
It was an epic month for us new gamer bloggers, and thanks to you sponsors for giving us a bunch of ideas on what to write.
I have to be honest, I learned A LOT of stuff from the other sponsor bloggers. There was a crazy amount of good information going out this month.
thanks so much for the tl-dr mention. I loved writing the camping post, but I don’t like *being* camped. 🙂 –Diane/@infogamerist
I’m lucky that I have not experienced being corpse camped. But it’s an ugly, dishonorable practice. My guild and its 3,000 members look down on corpse campers.
Thanks for the nice mention!
Glad you enjoyed the dumb and nerdy jokes on our about page 😉
Oh no problem. TL-DR is the best blog that came out in NBI, hands down. You guys are even winning the “best blog” category from Syp’s poll.
Plus, you guys just armed with vital information on how to silence people who scoffs at MMOs but goes on dating sites.
thanks, Skron! See you in Goldshire. 😉
haha! Information is always more fun when it’s funny. Even though I like bad jokes.
Flattered to be in the top 3 :p, even if you like the darker side of Not Too Heavy. I have to agree with Tl-Dr being a favourite as well, those guys are doing a fine job.
thanks so much! The best part is that we’re having a great time building it.
Thanks so much JustRight 🙂 gl in your category on the voting as well!
[…] The End is Only The Beginning (The Frugal Gamer) – Award for most fitting blog post title: Skron. Also, some great recommendations for blogs you should check out. Thank you, Skron! […]