Top 5 Things For Aspiring Content Creators

Good morning all,

Disclaimer: I am a content creator and I would love to say that the TMAT blog is the most influential resource out there for MESBG - but I can't. Granted, in print, we publish more than anyone out there on the MESBG scene (best I can tell, it's not even close - and I follow a lot of written content creators, links on the right-hand side), but TMAT isn't the Green Dragon Podcast or An Unexpected Podcast or Battle Streams in Middle-Earth or Zorpazorp. We're also not the painting/converting geniuses that you see over at Benji's Hobbies, Miniac, Ninjon, Lyla Mev, or Squidmar Miniatures. And yes, I love all of these content creators and read/listen/watch them all - and you should too!

Photo Credit: Stock Photo, I think

But I've been at this for a long time - this blog got started just over twelve years ago in late February 2011 (with our first battle report on March 8, 2011 - I count that as our "real" anniversary) and with a slight lull during "the dark years of SBG", I and some local friends who have ebbed and flowed over the years have been generating content hoping the internet would care for a long time. And it would appear that starting in mid-2019 (and certainly after the COVID-19 global shut down drove many players to seek as much MESBG content as they could find a year later), this little blog has seemed to gain some traction. With two active channels contacting us about blogging before their jump into the action (check out the Castellan's work and Sharbie's work if you haven't already), I figured I'd share some advice with all of you on the "secrets of the trade" when it comes to generating content (in case you were thinking of getting in the game as well). While I, again, don't feel like we are the mainstream here at TMAT, you'll see these same strategies employed by other content creators - most of whom are linked above and throughout the article.

#1: Have Long-Running Series

If you're like me, you're excited when a group like the Unexpected Podcast team or the Green Dragons post a podcast episode that's on your favorite faction - or maybe you're excited by another "500 Under 50" post from the Drawn Combat Blog so you can find an affordable way to get started with a new faction (maybe one you like the aesthetics for or have been interested in for thematic reasons for a while, but aren't sure are worth a huge expense). While one-off posts are fun from these channels, it's the long-running series that bring us back to them. As content creators, running these series is a way to not only get new viewers, but also serves as a way to give long-time readers a reason to return.

It also creates a sense of purpose for you as a content creator. We all fear the day where we have nothing to write about (well, I don't worry about it that much - I've almost always got another idea brewing) and having a long-running series allows us the time that we need to delve as deep as we want into a topic that we (and hopefully others) will find interesting. Here on the TMAT blog, we have on-going series like Rythbyrt's Armies of the Lords of the Rings/Hobbit faction reviews, the Bare Necessities of list building for each faction, reviewing Legendary Legions in the Stuff of Legends series, our monthly formations posts, defending underused profiles in our In Defense Of series, and most recently taking your scenario forces into Matched Play (which can be found on our Quest of the Ringbearer and Other Sourcebooks tabs). This excludes short series on how to play the game, how to best employ skirmish units in your armies, how to use magical powers, fan-made Legendary Legions/faction revamps, and of course tournament reviews/battle reports. These series not only run for a while to provide some continuity for the channel for a season, but we can take breaks from them and come back to other series topics as we need to.

Finally, having a long-running series means that, over time, you can cover "everything" on a topic - and as the journey continues, new viewers of your blog or channel can review what you've already put up and "catch up" if they want to (though good luck getting through all of the Battle Streams of Middle-Earth painting sessions . . .). We've created pages specifically to keep track of these series here at TMAT (with the last updated date to show how old the article is) and that allows new viewers to see what else we have going on - which helps us get more mileage out of the content we make.

#2: Keep Track Of User Usage

Statistics can only be trusted so far - our platform here is run by Google and we can see how many "views" we get, how many comments there are, and some info about what countries those views are coming from. We also generate a little money from ads on our site - thanks for bearing with the advertising, it means a lot! Ultimately, this knowledge helps us tailor our content - posts on topics that don't get a lot of views/generate revenue might be pushed down in priority in favor of other ones. For example, army/legion reviews and Centaur's one-off posts that explore rules changes have proved to be "more interesting" than series on mathematical formulas and spreadsheets based on their views (or Quest of the Ringbearer content, as I noted at the start of the year). Having more views or fewer views doesn't make content better or worse, but it is a metric for what your consumer base wants - and that can be valuable for informing where to direct energy.

Statistics can also be used in another key way: it will tell you how "interesting" your blog has been over time. While views isn't a clean way to understand this, if you're seeing your blog, YouTube channel, or podcast venue get an up-tick in user interaction after a certain series, an MESBG release that you capitalized on with content right away, or after you reached out to a big Facebook group with an update, you can see pretty easily where the spikes of usage came from and whether they turned into a trend. Views are a simplistic metric and it isn't everything, but knowing how many views there are is quite useful.

Now sometimes, your views/usage will look like a stock market chart (going up and down), but over time, the trend will appear - and if it has plateaued (or declined), it might be good to reach out on a Facebook group or some other medium and ask what kinds of content people want to see? This can also be good for getting inspiration for new content (such as new long-running series). If the trend is generally going up but a particular month (or set of posts) seems to be down, don't worry about it - watch for the trend to correct (and if it doesn't, then you know you need to get to work).

#3: Regular Content Is Gold (And Plan It In Advance)

We all go through spurts of creative genius - some days, we're on fire and have tons of ideas and just write, write, write (or whatever the verb is for your content medium). At other times, we can't seem to find anything to write about (or don't feel like doing it). When it comes to content creation, it's better to have a regular, steady release of content than a big spurt of content here and there. For us here at TMAT, we post at least two articles a week - one article is from a long-running series (see the previous discussion above) and the other is a free-for-all (maybe it's a terrain-building mini-series, a one-off article on any topic under the sun, or reviewing the most recent FAQs). This year is special since every other Saturday, we're also posting Quest of the Ringbearer content - but don't get used to it (we all have jobs and families outside this hobby, after all)! ;-) Whether you're releasing content multiple times a week, every other week, or once a month, I'd encourage you to have some kind of regularity to it - and let people know what it is!

Sometimes this means you'll be writing like crazy and scheduling content to appear weeks or even months after writing it (that's what me and my fellow authors do here). It's okay for content to be delayed so long as it's still timely - anything that appears to be timely should make its way up the chain and appear sooner than originally planned. An example of this can be found here on our blog when we were knee-deep in our Bare Necessities series: someone asked us in the comments of one of the articles whether we could tackle Far Harad at some point. As it happened, we had the article already written, but it wasn't slated to be posted until a month or so later. Given that one of our readers specifically asked for it, we didn't see any reason why it needed to be delayed, so we switched around the schedule and released it the following week (you should check it out if you haven't already). Whatever the reason, write when you feel like it, schedule it so you have content coming out regularly, and be flexible with release dates.

We also try to have content prepared a bit in advance to give us lead time to experiment with armies we haven't used before reviewing them or buying time before a new sourcebook release so we aren't trying to madly write content for a new book because "that's what everyone else is talking about right now." Having a few weeks (or ideally a month or two) of content already scheduled in the hopper also allows you to do "normal life" things like go on a vacation, have a busy season at work, or care for a sick loved one without feeling like you're "falling behind on that hobby project you have going on." It helps - it helps a lot.

But this should highlight one other thing: if you're going to go the Patreon route (which we have not), regular content and free perks is a MUST. If you're going to be paid for your content, make sure you're giving it - regularly. And, if someone's paying you for it, make sure your content is not only good, but excellent. Period. Oh, and it helps if you're giving them something they can't get from "just viewing your stuff."

#4: Share About What You Know (And Keep An Open Mind)

To delve a little more into the last point a little further, if you're going to delve deep into a project, make sure you're writing what you've experienced, not what you think is true. Some factions are weird and their strategies, strengths, and weaknesses aren't immediately obvious. If you lean on what the community says about factions like the Wildmen of Druadan or Legions like the Men of the West or the Riders of Eomer, you might miss out on a fun opportunity to explore unloved armies. And if you can make it work and "crack the code" with them, that can REALLY generate content views.

But this also does something for you: it exposes you to new armies, new factions, new heroes, or new play styles - and you might find out that the armies you've been using, the hero-to-warrior ratios you like, how many banners you run, or your preference for big heroes over budget ones might not ACTUALLY be what you like to play. Who knows, you may discover more about yourself along the way than you do the army you're experimenting with!

#5: Keep At It

The underlying theme of all this is to just stick with the hobby - in a world of competing games and normal life, the main hiccup for any content creator is generating content. And the solution is simple (albeit uninspired): just keep doing it. I've heard from several authors in interviews that they've had that at some point in their careers they got advice that went something like this: "Write. Just write. Even if it's bad. Then write some more." This approach not only means you'll need to come up with ideas of what to cover, but you also need to develop the discipline to not stop generating content. Sometimes you'll "just be writing" and suddenly come up with a great idea for a post or podcast - and that one thought can get people to find your work and enjoy your content. It may be trite, but it's true: if you make it, they will come.

This is also one of the great things about MESBG content creators: it's not like we here at TMAT are competing with another blog, YouTube channel, or podcast channel - all of us are contributing to the resources of our international community, and if the way we (or someone else) communicates something resonates with you, then the players of our game get better and we all have a more rewarding experience when we come to the table. Towards that end, we here at TMAT try to promote the resources we enjoy listening to, reading, and watching - and I know a lot of other content creators do the same.

Conclusion

If you're interested in starting up a blog, a podcast, or a YouTube channel for MESBG, let us know in the comments - and if there are resources out there that you like and follow that you don't see on the side-bar, let us know that too (we're always up for something new). Until next time, happy hobbying!