About The Retromags Blog

Retromags has a new feature that allows members to create their own blogs within the Retromags website. The blog system is like your personal web page on Retromags!

Why blog?

So now your asking yourself, Why blog instead of just posting in the forums?

1) Blogs can be commented on by guests, while forum topics can not! Retromags has many lurkers that visit our site each day, but do not actually have an account with us. Entries made in the blog system can be commented on by anyone, but topics in our forums require that members sign up to reply.

2) Blogs will soon be able to be customized! In the very near future you will be able to control what theme your blog uses. We will be putting into place different themes so that when a user clicks on your blog, the color scheme you picked shows up regardless of the forum theme they have picked.

3) Blogs entries support tagging! The tagging feature allows you to group similar entries, you can use the "tag" feature of the blog system to organize your reviews into categories such as "Super Nintendo" or "RPG Games". Then anyone who comes to your blog and reads one of your entries, can click on the tags to find other similar entries.

4) Blogs are better suited for multi-part entries! Lets say you wanted to create a walk thru for "The Legend of Zelda", with the blog system you can break down the walk through into sections like "Legend of Zelda (Dungeon 1)" and post them as you finish them. When trying to do the exact same on the forums, it would be more desirable to wait until the entire Walk Through could be contained within 1 post. With the forums its a community section, and sometimes can be perceived as rude to "flood" a section with a bunch of entries. Since the blog system only floods your personal blog, its more acceptable to have these multiple entries. The best part of these multiple entries is that search engines like Google will refer more people to your blog entries. A single forum topic named "Scribblenauts Walk Through" will get far less hits then the separate blog entries named "Scribblenauts Level 1-1 Walk Through", "Scribblenauts Level 1-2 Walk Through", "Scribblenauts Level 1-3 Walk Through"...etc

5) Blogs can be set as "Private"! Very soon members will be able to create private blogs that will only be viewable by your friends on Retromags!

6) You can delegate out Editors! Another option coming soon will be the option to allow people to create entries on your blog. This will allow multiple people to work together on 1 blog.

Blog Idea's

• Video Game Reviews
  
• Video Game Walk Throughs
  
• Music Reviews
  
• TV/Movie Reviews
  
• Top # Games for "System"
  
• Worst Games Ever
  
• General Rants/Raves
  
• Journal Entries
  

Topics to possibly avoid

While Retromags does believe in "Freedom of Speech", we are a gaming website, and there are limitations to free speech wherever you go. We would ask that your blog entries avoid the following topics...

• Race
  
• Religion
  
• Politics
  

Who Can Create A Blog?

Currently anyone above "Newbie" status can create a blog. This means that members either need to have 25 forum posts to create a blog, or they need to be a Premium Member/Team Member. We have restricted Newbies from creating blogs because if they have less than 25 posts, they generally wont have an interest in posting blog entries.

How To Create A Blog?

Click on the link below to create your personal Blog

http://www.retromags.com/forums/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=blog

Helpful Tips

Give your entry a descriptive and unique title!

The Retromags blog system gets indexed by Google multiple times a day, Your entry will usually show up in search results within about 24 hours. The better the description of your entry, the more traffic you will receive. An entry named "StarFox" will fetch you some attention on Google, but an entry named "Phillyman Reviews Starfox for the Super Nintendo" will generally fetch you more attention.

Put some thought behind your entries

While you do not have to write a novel, entries that only have a few sentences will not get much attention. Try to provide enough substance to make your entry stand out, but not too much that readers will get bored half way through and move on. With practice you will surely become a fantastic writer!

Submit your entries to Digg or Twitter

Above each entry you create should be an "AddtoAny" button that will allow you to easily submit your blog entry to Digg, Twitter and many more. A quick submission to Twitter will generate an instant flow of 20-30 people looking at your blog. Digg on the other hand, can result in hundreds to thousands of viewers reading your story. Feel free to submit other peoples entries to Digg and Twitter also and they may return the favor to you!

Promote your Blog

If you belong to other gaming websites, put a link back to your blog from those sites. Each post you make on those sites will then have the potential to give your blog more attention. Please abide by the rules of other sites when doing this though! Oh and throw a link to your blog in your signature at Retromags also!

Report Blog Problems

If you are having issues with the blog system and need assistance, please submit a request at the link below...

http://www.retromags.com/forums/tracker/project-5-website-issues/