Trying to see if cross posting Blogs into Forums may have a positive impact on Traffic

[Bouargh]

Hi,

 

Since the discussion we got into private chats, it made me think about looking ahead if cross-posting in a more systematic way BLOG entries into FORUMs may lead to any kind of change in habits/traffic.

My first attempts are in the following areas:

• 12 Months of Hobby - easy to implement and to align with the way the topic and challenge is working.
  BLOG: Volkus Scenery - Part 2 - Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up - The Bolter and Chainsword
  vs.
  FORUM: =] 12 Months of Hobby 2025 [= - Page 4 - + WORKS IN PROGRESS + - The Bolter and Chainsword
• A kind of Edito/Wish list in the Drukhari forum.
  BLOG: Another digression - This time about Drukharii - Bouargh´s miniatures´ closet clean-up - The Bolter and Chainsword
  vs.
  FORUM: Drukhari Wish List - + DRUKHARI + - The Bolter and Chainsword

 

 

In both cases anyone could see how much Tags (Likes...) can be collected in both areas and how much comments are posted either into each Forums or bellow each Blog entry. With the idea to promote views and visits in the Blog of course . From a cualitative point of view, one can have a look at a few days or a few weeks. 

 

Since we talk of behavioural aspects, I do not expect any visible impact a short term. It will need maybe a more sistematic discipline in my Blog entries´ managment over the next months.

 

While I am writting these lines, I realize that these 2 Forum areas are maybe not the most representative:

• Hobby related areas have a rapid turnover, inc. 12 MoH, which makes tahta impact is probably worth being looked at short term only. But one can repeat the action one and again.
• Xenos forums are not the ost active in the whole B&C forums, which makes that impact maybe very delayed and/or volume of feedback intrinsically limited  

 

Let´s see if cross posting bring fruits...

[ZeroWolf]

I did wonder what you were up to when I saw similar posts in the unread feed.

 

Really you could do with a few more of us doing similar to get better feedback. Though really my wip thread is the only applicable one in my case as I don't have any other posts in the other sub forums that would match.

[Brother Tyler]

Since the software doesn't allow the automatic announcements, cross-posting is an excellent way for members to create visibility within the forums and draw traffic to their blogs. I really like the way you've done it (posting the URL of the blog entry and letting the software convert it into the link card), which I think is vastly superior to the way I was doing it (copying and pasting some portion of the blog entry into a discussion topic, then adding a link-as-text).

[Bouargh]

48h later (more or less)... a follow up.

 

• Impact of cross posting in 12 MoH topic:

- BLOG with 66 views - of which up to 10 are probably mine - 1 Like and 0 Comment

- POST with 5 likes and zero Comment. (Number of view is irrelevant being a more global topic with lots of interactions and participants) 

• Impact of cross posting in a standard topic in a low traffic forum:

- BLOG with 58 views - of which up to 10 are probably mine - 1 Like and 1 Comment leading to an answer (commented by the very same user that Liked the content)

- POST with 76 views, 0 Likes and 5 Comments in the discussion

 

1st elements of Conclusion: not everyone looking at a Post goes to the Blog entry referenced within. The deliberqte use of a vignette call to the Blog is eventually not a sufficient incentive. in anotehr way, finnally, traffic generated in terms of comments and interactions is not really different in these 2 types of contributions. 

 

But can we rate the value on a single isolated event? let's see if "more brings more" while repeating the experiment once and again.

 

PS: I feel like I need an excel speadsheet...

[Brother Tyler]

Yes, it's probably a little too soon to tell.

[Gillyfish]

23 hours ago, Bouargh said:

PS: I feel like I need an excel speadsheet...

 

Oh, I'm sensing an eventual power point presentation with clicks per announcement and traffic per blog. 

 

More seriously, this is a great idea. It might indeed be worth a bit more experimentation in different forum areas to see whether drives up interest.

[Bouargh]

144h later (more or less)... a follow up.

• Impact of cross posting in 12 MoH topic (Volkus):

- BLOG with 80 views (+14) - 1 Like and 0 Comment

- POST with 5 likes and zero Comment. (Number of view is irrelevant being a more global topic with lots of interactions and participants) 

• Impact of cross posting in a standard topic in a low traffic forum:

- BLOG with 97 views (+39) - 1 Like and 1 Comment leading to an answer (commented by the very same user that Liked the content)

- POST with 143 views (+68) views, 0 Likes and 7 Comments in the discussion

 

Repeating the process with another Blog entry related this time to Feb pledge in 12 MoH 48 h later:

• Impact of cross posting in 12 MoH topic (Kastelan):

- BLOG with 40 views (+14) - 2 Likes and 0 Comment

- POST with 5 likes and zero Comment. (As before, number of view is irrelevant being a more global topic with lots of interactions and participants) 

 

Looks like the initial hours/days of the life cycle of a BLOG post are key into reaching number of comments and likes (or similar support actions). After that vieers are just viewing. Could it be a matter of transposing netiquette behaviours usually rpomoted into the Forums to Blog´s posts? Ones refrain from commenting after a while in order not to fall into crimes of thread Necromancy? 

[Gillyfish]

That's an interesting point. Threadomancy was much more of an issue when the forum received heavier traffic and necro-ing a dead post could be severely disruptive. Obviously the OP updating their hobby PLOG (for example) has often not been an issue as it adds content to 'their' thread and adding content to a Blog follows the same concept. However, replaying to a dead thread does not and might inadvertently suppress responses to Blogs (or it might just be human nature).

 

Do we need to try and encourage more input on older Blogs to encourage more content from Blog authors?

[Brother Tyler]

Threadomancy is actually an issue that I have long thought that we need to re-think. That's a broader issue, however, so I'll leave it for another time/place (though I second the notion that a member updating their own blog and crossposting the link the discussion forums does not constitute any kind of negative threadomancy).

 

As far as encouraging more input on older blogs, I think that is something we should definitely do. To be honest, if I had more time I would mosey throughout the site and engage with members on all kinds of content, especially the blogs. As with everyone else, though, my time is limited. I think that part of our overall effort here is to develop methods for encouraging blog use by both authors as well as readers (engagement). There are multiple layers to that effort, however, including incentivization (achievements/badges), visibility (crossposting is just one element), and simple strategic communications concerning blogs, what they offer, and how they are superior to the discussion forums for personal projects. @Xenith's suggestion to include links in the forums (in the PM) is something that I definitely think we'll be doing, but that, too, is just one part of the overall effort. I think that we'll be developing methodologies for featuring blog entries (that's a staff action) and for getting more visibility of blog entries elsewhere on the site.