Mend Pet

There’s a new player in the Hunter blogging community, called Hesson.  Hesson has started a Beast Mastery Hunter Blog called The Spirit Beast recently, and I’m glad I’ve come across it.  While it’s still new, the content is very interesting and I’m sure there will be great things coming!

Hesson is also a fellow web developer, and has done something I couldn’t even hope of doing – he’s designed and developed his entire website himself!  That means no Wordpress, no Squarespace, no pre-built themes… too much work for me!  But his hard work has paid off and the result is a beautiful website with the potential to bloom into a great hunter resource for the community.

So check it out!  I recommend taking a look at his post discussing his choice of talents in the BM tree… maybe you’ll even be inspired to start camping for your very own spirit beast!

Syrana of Sideshow & Syrana has given me a wonderful Christmas present… a free blog topic!  The trend was originally sparked byTamarind at Righteous Orbs.  Here’s the idea:

I notice that it’s a season for gift-giving, mulled wine, the warm fuzzies and what not … and, putting aside my bah humbug inclinations, I got to thinking, well, how can we can spread a little festive love around here? And, given how connective blogs are and how much we like tagging each other to write things, I came up with a Cunning Plan…

It’s basically a blog-content gift exchange (and it really needs a catchier title), and here’s how it works. If you’d like to play, leave me a comment and in return I’ll give you a subject, or ask you a question … and then you go away and blog about it. It doesn’t have to be a whole blog post, this is meant to be low pressure gift-exchange, but, you know, a comment or a paragraph, or a corner of a post (or a full post, if you want to really indulge me, or feel inspired). And if I suggest something crap or boring in which you have no interest, you can look at it as the equivalent of a pair of novelty socks, say “thank you very much, Tam” and throw it away entirely, and I’ll pretend not to notice and make a mental note not to get you novelty socks next year….

And then, if you feel like it, you can throw it open on your own blog, inviting people to comment if they’re will to blog on a subject of your choosing….

If you’d really like, you can comment here and I’ll try my best to come up with a topic for you to write about.  But I warn you – I’m hardpressed to come up with my own topics, so you might not like what you get!

Anyway, here’s my response to Syrana’s query, “Regardless of min/max optimal raid DPS etc, what is your favorite pet that you have tamed?”

It’s a tough question.  Unlike some raiding hunters, I’ve built a strong bond with each and every one of my pets.  They’re like another part of my character, and I tend to bring them all out in rotation so none of them gets bored sitting in the stables too long!

But right now, if I had to pick a favourite (don’t tell the others!), it would probably be… Ambrose.

Did I mention Ambrose is a daddy?

If you don’t recall, back in patch 3.0 (shortly before Wrath of the Lich King hit shelves) Hunters were given quite a work-over.  Pet talents, pet classes, and a slew of new breeds to tame!  When I saw Moths were part of that list, I was so excited.

I’d remembered the Shimmerwing Moths from my first time in Netherstorm.  They were such a shocking electric blue that I was mesmerized at the sight of them.   And now I could have one of my very own!

So while some headed to various vendors or trainers the day the patch hit, I was right away on a flight path to Netherstorm.  I’d picked out a name (originally inspired by Ambrosius the dog from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth), and had my dear Fiddlesticks parked away in the stables.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to play much with Ambrose.  While leveling from 70-80, I was using my Gorilla, Hanno.  Once I hit 80 and began raiding he saw a bit of action, but with the dominance of the wolf nowadays, Ambrose only accompanies me for dailies, farm content and heroics.  Of course, he also tends to be the one by my side while I hang around town.

I still get whispers asking, “Where did you get that beautiful pet?” And it always makes me grin.  What a beauty!

In the spirit of shameless self-promotion, I thought I’d throw a link out to my achievement guide from last year: A Guide to Merrymaking!

Winter Veil starts tomorrow, and if you’re working on your [Merrymaker] meta-achievement, you might find some help from there.  I’ve updated it to reflect the 3.3 changes and everything!

Happy Hunting, and Merry Winter Veil!

If you’ve even got your little toe stuck in the ocean that is the World of Warcraft community, you’ve probably already heard about it.  But if you haven’t, I’m here to tell you what you need to know!

Azeroth United, a recently established home base for WoWers who dabble in blogging, podcasting, comic-ing, and all other forms of expression.  And with their great power of community, they’ve decided to lend a hand (and heart, and voice) to Child’s Play charity!

You can read all about it at their site, and follow AU on Twitter to keep up to date on new developments. And of course, you can find out more about Child’s Play if you haven’t heard about their worthy cause.

As you can see, I’ve added a shiny “Featured Content” link to the campaign on the sidebar, and I really do encourage you to check it out and see all the good going on, and help to contribute whatever you can.

By no means do I consider myself an expert in the field of blogging.  In fact, after I began blogging a little more than a year ago, I did a lot of searching around for tips and advice.  Unfortunately, a lot of it comes off as preachy or condescending.  It also often is about how to maximize the number of readers you can pull in to maximize your revenue.

I’m not super concerned about that.  I know the readers will come if the content is there, and revenue?  LOL.

So I’ve compiled my own list of suggestions based on the past couple years of both reading and writing blogs. These tips aren’t really about what you write, because that’s totally up to you.  It’s about usability.

Content

Let’s face it – the most important part of your blog is the content of the posts themselves.  If you write it, someone will certainly read it.  But there are ways to make that process more enjoyable for everyone.

1. Use images. Having some sort of visual representation of your post, even if it’s a vaguely related stock image (see above) or screenshot will help catch the eye and keep your blog from feeling like a book.  If I visit a blog and all I see through the last 5 posts are walls of text, it will make me less inclined to read it all.

2. Use whitespace. Line breaks and paragraphs!  Break your content down into smaller segments to help people who only have time to skim the article, and to avoid overwhelming readers.

3. Use links. Referring to previous posts you’ve written will provide references and allow people to see your previous work.  Linking to other people’s related posts is how the blogosphere got it’s start.  Don’t be afraid to link multiple times for one reference!  For example, I might want to tell you about the new podcast by @Brigwyn of The Hunting Lodge!

4. Don’t post for posting’s sake. Ok, so I said I wouldn’t tell you what to write.  This is my exception:  Quality over quantity.  Don’t post purely “Sorry I didn’t post yesterday!” posts.  If you normally post every day and miss one because you had no time or inspiration, just let it go.  Your readers will not disappear because of one slip up!

Navigation

This one gets me a lot.  If I read an article I really enjoy, I may want to see what else the author has done… but sometimes that’s not as easy as it should be.  When choosing or creating a theme, try to incorporate multiple ways for a reader to navigate to your previous work.

1. Provide links to popular/favourite posts. A link section with the posts you are most proud of or ones you think are most useful will help showcase what your site is really about to exploratory visitors.

2. Use categories and tags. Tag clouds and category lists help users to find posts related to their interests.  If I want to find all your posts related only to your podcast, it should be pretty simple to do from your menu.

3. Have a search box. Yeah, we all know how to use Google.  But if I know there was an article on your site that I’d like to find again, I should be able to use your site to find it, rather than having to go through Google’s interface.

4.  Use previous/next links. Believe it or not, some people just like to browse.  Supply “Previous Post/Next Post” links on single post pages, as well as “Previous Page/Next Page” links on multiple post pages.

Display

1.  Display the publish date/time. It drives me crazy when I read an article and can’t find anywhere that says when the post was written.  Is the content still relevant?  Should I bother commenting on it?  The answer is different if the post is 6 months old or 2 days old.

2.  Provide contact information. It should be easy to reach you from your website.  Displaying your e-mail address or providing a contact form will allow people to avoid the frustration of trying to find a way to get in touch.  (How else will they tell you you’ve just won £750,000?)

3.  Make your RSS feed easy to find. I hate having to search around a page to find that little orage square.  Sometimes there isn’t one at all!  Many people prefer to use RSS readers to view blogs, and if you don’t provide a good link to your feed, some might not bother to follow yours.

4.  Don’t truncate posts within RSS. I understand you want people to come directly to your site instead of reading it purely through a reader.  Maybe you want to get some additional hits on your ads, maybe the formatting just looks better that way.  But this is not the way to drive them to click through!  It will just cause your content to go unread.  Unless you can somehow convince me the post is going to be worth a click through in those first 3 sentences, I probably will just move on.  Make your site very visually appealing and provide other services on it if you’d like to make sure people always click through.