Nevertheless, there are still lots of blogs out there – it’s just that they don’t seem to have the same level of community interaction as they used to. Back when Campaign Mastery started, it was quite common to comment on and link to each other’s blogs; these days very few people are “old school” in that regard (You’re one of them, one reason why I’m happy to return the favor). Instead, commentary is delivered in a transient form (social media) rather than being perpetual and potentially valuable insight to future readers. In effect, too many seem to be busy in their own little corners of the Blogoverse. Eventually, people will tire of being a big fish in a small pond, and either close down or learn anew how to reach out, seeking to reinvent their reach to suit a wider audience, so this is a temporary condition, I think – the trick is to survive.

When we started, the average lifespan for blogs (in general) was two years. Only about one in ten survived any longer, and each year thereafter, nine in ten would fold. I estimated at the time that gamers, being a passionate niche market, might have more staying power – perhaps one in five would make it through each anniversary. I think the numbers that I’ve seen come and go have more or less borne out that estimation. And the implication is that for every explosion in numbers, there has to be an equally massive dying off a couple of years later. Campaign Mastery is now closing in on its 6th anniversary, and it would not have made it without the support of a lot of readers like yourself 🙂

Saying that “the ones that seem to provide the most value are those that are constant in the industry” is, I think, putting the cart before the horse. The reason they are able to be constant in the industry is that they offer enough value to get readers coming back time and again.

But it still knocks me around a bit to realize that I’m now considered one of the “elder statesmen” of RPG blogging by some people. But that was only achieved through consistency and reliability, and that in turn was only possible because we found a blog structure, mission, and style that could be sustained. While you hope that what you have to offer is of value to a reader, each post is a shot in the dark, and the more readers you have, the more certain you can be that some of those shots will be wide of the mark for some of that readership. Does Campaign Mastery offer value to readers? I like to think so, but that could ultimately be self-deception; the only way to know for sure is feedback – and people coming back for more 🙂
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I remember when I started out with RoleplayingPro long ago, there were very few RPG blogs. Then it seemed over the course of a year the market was saturated with them. I am surprised to see that so many have no been sustained since I was gone. RPG Bloggers are a virtual ghost town of people that come and go. The ones that seem to provide the most value are those that are constant in the industry. Probably like anything I suppose…
Samuel Van Der Wall recently posted…Breathing Life Into Goblin Civilization – Part 2/3