Change is Coming...

 

When I created the Arcadia Prime blog in 2007, it was intended to be a home where I could post my Warhammer 40k Battle Reports, along with any other 40k-related posts I felt like writing. Yet soon I wanted to write about more than just battle reports.  I wanted to write hobby articles, showing my progress in painting miniatures, along with some tutorials.  My series on painting Imperial Guard camouflage has turned out to have some of my most popular posts.  But the more I strayed from the original "mission statement" of 40k Battle Reports, the more reluctant I was to post. 

As time goes on, my interests continue to expand, most recently into games like Flames of War and Bolt Action.  I have also dabbled in the fantasy side of Warhammer as well.  But my interests go far beyond wargaming.  I play paintball, I am a larper (although I haven't done that for a while), gamer (lately into StarCraft II, but I'm also a big fan of Flight Sims like Falcon 4.0), and a father of two great kids (who I will mold in my geek image).  And after writing for decades, I have finally published a hard fantasy novel, The Pirates of Alnari.

None of these things have anything to do with 40k, but chances are that most of my audience can relate to something in that list.  Blogs are about providing content for readers.  Readers usually visit a particular blog for a specific reason, but as long as the content engages them, they'll keep coming back, even if it is not for the original reason they visited.

Back in the early days of blogging I read an article that said if you wanted your blog to be successful, you needed to maintain a very narrow focus.  Well, screw that.  If there's one thing I've learned about geeks, it's that they tend to have a lot of similar interests.  Perhaps not all the same interests, but there is certainly a lot of overlap. 

Here's just one example:  Pathfinder frequently posts about other things, including collecting Star Wars Legos.  It isn't 40k, but I like Star Wars and Legos too, so the posts are of interest to me.  If there's a post I'm not particularly interested in, I skip it, but I'll come back because I know there will be more posts that I'm interested in.

The bottom line is that Arcadia Prime is in for an overhaul.  Rather than trying to maintain multiple blogs about multiple topics, Arcadia Prime will be my "one stop shop" for everything "me."  I will be posting about more than just 40k or even wargaming, although there should still be plenty of both of those things.  Hopefully the other posts will be interesting, but even if they aren't, I doubt they will be so irrelevant as to scare away my audience.  In the end I think Arcadia Prime will be better for the change.