4 Reasons Why Blogging Is Like Playing An MMORPG

When I read the "blogosphere" was doubling every six months, I started blogging just to see what all the hype was about. After blogging for almost two months now, I've found there is much more to it then just writing a few posts. I've also found blogging contains many of the same fun aspects, also present in MMORPGs (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games).

Here are four major similarities between blogging and playing MMORPGs:

#1. Progression

 In order to improve your character in MMORPGs, you must gain experience. Once you gain a certain amount of experience you will level-up. Each level-up is usually represented by a number and the greater the number, the further you have advanced. This tangible type of accomplishment, where you can easily track your progression, is present in blogging as well.

You may be a blogger and you may not care how many old or new visitors you get. On the other hand, you may be a blogger and the number of visitors you get week-to-week, or month-to-month is important to you.

I fit in with the second type of blogger, as I use Google Analytics to constantly measure the stats of my blog. Though there are many stats that experienced bloggers use to measure their blog's performance, such as bounce rate %, average time on site, visitor recency, etc., I currently focus on weekly visitors and total new visitors for my own blog.

I can easily see the progression of my blog by viewing the monthly and weekly visitor graphs. When I see larger % increases in visitors, week over week or month over month, I know that my blog is improving.


#2. Improvement

The concept of improvement is very important in MMORPGs as well as in blogging. In MMORPGs, there are various ways that you can improve your character. Improving your character, usually involves learning new skills and abilities, or involves the acquisition of better equipment. Gaining the most powerful skills usually takes the most time, and acquiring the best equipment usually requires you to complete the most difficult tasks or quests.

In my opinion, improving a blog is a lot like improving your character, except for the fact that you can make endless improvements to your blog. This is what I love about blogging; there is always room for improvement.

Though I've only been blogging for about 2 months, I have read a good amount of articles on how to improve a blog. Choosing the right keywords in your posts is very important for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as a large amount of your traffic will eventually come from search engines. Backlinks are also important, as you will get increased traffic from these links and you will rank higher in search engines, as more sites link to your blog.

I have found that the more posts I make on my blog, the more visitors I get on average. Not only that, but the higher quality posts, which have taken me hours to write, have gotten more views than my other posts. My posts have become better with each one I write. Looking back now, my first few posts I wrote in December are not as good as the ones I have written in the past week. As with most things in life, the more you do something, the better you will get. Blogging is no different.


#3. Teamwork

Teamwork is important in most MMORPGs. Whether it be a dungeon, a raid or just a party quest, teamwork is essential, especially in the end-game of most MMORPGs. Though some may not realize it, this is true of blogs as well.

Successful bloggers team up with other bloggers of a similar niche and exchange links. For example, my blog is about fantasy sports and video games, so I could ask the owner of another fantasy sports blog to put my link in his/her site and I would do the same for him/her.

You can also comment on other blogs to create backlinks and you can use social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter to gain more followers. If you don't share your ideas with others and if you don't connect with other bloggers or site owners, it can be very difficult to become a successful blogger.

When blogging, be sure to use blog directories, article submission sites, forums and the social networking sites. All of these tools can be extremely powerful for a blogger when used correctly.


#4. Competition

One the main reasons I play video games and continue to blog, is due to the large amount of competition. In MMORPGs there is competition among millions of players, who are either trying to move up the rankings, make their characters more powerful or win PvP battles. Competition within the "blogosphere" is no different.

Serious bloggers will submit their blogs to blog directories to get as much exposure to their blog as possible. They will also submit their posts to article submission sites and add their links to sites such as Digg or StumbleUpon.

Most people want to get their blogs to the top of blog ranking sites such as Technorati so that their posts and their blog will get noticed. There are currently over 120,000 blogs submitted to Technorati, so getting into the Top 100 is extremely difficult, especially for newer blogs.


There is also competition among bloggers to be one of the first five commenters of posts on popular blogs/sites. This is a great way to create backlinks, unfortunately many are aware of this technique and that is why there is a great deal of competition.

The more you learn about blogging and the more you work on your blog, the better you will be able to compete against other blogs.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to comment.