What makes me fall in love with your WoW blog

Recently I’ve been thinking about why I like some WoW blogs more than others. There are blogs where I eagerly lick every single word that comes out. They’re so excellent that I always feel I’d wanted a little bit more. And then there are other blogs, some of them actually very well established, with hundreds or thousands of daily visitors, who leave me absolutely indifferent.

You could say it’s just a matter of taste, a gut feeling or something like that, but I’d like to explore it a little bit more. What exactly is it that makes me fall in love with a blog? What do some blogs have that other lacks?

The ongoing competition at World of Matticus has highlighted the issue even more. How would I make my choice among all those extremely talented wanna-be-bloggers? Would I make the same choice as Matt and Wyn or do I have other criteria?

It’s pretty hard to tell what kind of blogs appeals to Larísa if you just look at my blogroll. The blogs represent very different styles and cover different parts of the game. It’s hard to see any pattern.

After some pondering I realized that I should go further back in history to find the answers. - all the way back to the old Greece. I think the well known authors and philosophers from that era would have become excellent bloggers. They really knew how to catch an audience.

According to the classic rhetoric you should use your Ethos, Pathos and Logos, which is exactly what many of the best bloggers do, whether they think about it or not.

Blog with Ethos

Ethos is about your person, how you make the audience sympathise with you and trust what you’re about to say. Interesting enough you don’t have to do this by telling the world how good and cleaver you are. Often the readers will like you more if you’re not afraid to share your shortcomings. To confess your failures, to show some humbleness and self irony are classical tools to catch the audience.

I like blogs where you get at least a glimpse of the person behind the blog. In my world it’s one of the things that make a blog different to a website. The art is to keep the balance, to be personal without writing about entirely private things that won’t interest anyone else. And I’m afraid there aren’t any easy guidelines to stick to. It’s more about intuition.

Writing with ethos also takes courage. If you write about hard facts it’s much easier to cope with a cold reception from the readers, negative or non-existing comments. But if you write with a strong ethos you make yourself more vulnerable. The stakes are higher. On the other hand – if you succeed, the rewards are the bigger.

Several of the Big Names among bloggers are very strong when it comes to Ethos. Like Big Bear Butt. He has already deserved the love from the audience, his personal brand is so strong by now that we’re ready to love whatever he writes. We WANT to like it because we like his person.

Here are a couple of examples of recent blog posts with a high amount of ethos, which I loved:

Turning the Corner: Overcoming Pressure Situations in WoW and Real Life, posted by Krizzlybear at Frost is the New Black
Casual by Circumstance by Lassirra at The Hunter’s Mark
Letting go by Pike at Aspect of the Hare

Blog with Pathos

Pathos has, as most of you probably know, to do with feelings. This is how you really touch the audience, how you make them feel and react to your post. If they get angry, sad, thrilled or uneasy at your writings, you’re much more likely to be noticed and remembered. One effective way to do so is to share your own feelings.

It doesn’t have to be a long rant. You can just as effectively stir up the feelings with a very short note. If it comes from your heart it will cut right through the daily buzz of the Blogosphere.

Just look at the very short post by Softi at A little WoW for Me: Every time I log off I cry a little inside. She had over 20 comments at this little post. No wonder – she really struck in a chord that many could identify with.

Another example: Sir, I respectfully disagree by Auzara at Chick GM. This one is very cleaver indeed. She says that she vehemently disagrees, but the tone is rather mocking and self assured; you don’t think her feelings have made her loose control for a second. In fact this post, as well as the other posts I’ve mentioned above, uses both ethos and pathos to get through to the reader. It’s typical for good bloggers – the ability to use all of the tools, which I’ll come back to.

Pathos doesn’t necessary have to do with sad feelings or emotions – it can as well be to make the audience laugh. Humour is a very good tool to gain an audience. One who does this very well is Gnomeageddon at Armageddon’s coming. Just check out those posts: Why aren’t there any undead taurens and How to AFK in raids.

Or have a look at Krizzlybears talent tree for Podcasts. (He’s very talented himself, in my opinion.)

Blog with Logos

Logos is about knowledge and rationality. To prove to the audience that you’re right by logic and common sense.

Many bloggers have a mission to educate their readers a bit. To share their little piece of the big puzzle that WoW makes in the hope that other players will find it useful. Some bloggers do this at a greater extent than others. If I was looking for some good theorycrafting about resto druids, I’m pretty sure I’d end up with Resto4life as many others. Her “logos” when it comes to those things is pretty convincing.

Critical QQ, who also writes with ethos and pathos, is an awesome mage theorycrafter. I wouldn’t think of questioning his calculations.

Don't forget that it takes more than pure knowledge to make a high profiled Logos oriented blog. You must also have a pedagogical talent, be able to explain things to a less knowing audience. To grab their attention it’s often a good idea to add a pinch if ethos or pathos to the post.

Just like Zupa does in this wonderful post about how to aoe-grind effectively as a frost mage or Krizzlybear in this post about mana efficient mage specs, disguised as a rant about a hang over. Check it out!

Mix it up

Every blogger has a special temperament. A personal fingerprint if you say so. There are blogs that are pretty cool and intellectual in their style, not trying to win the audience with any big gestures, but still convincing having such a clear logos (and discrete pathos and ethos). Such as Blessing of Kings.

Then there are others who emphasise pathos so much that they even put it in their name. Like My mage sucks.

And there are blogs with such a strong personal identity that you sort of get to think that you know them, they become like friends. Like Cynra at Airee.

If you want to find a permanent spot in my must-read-every-day blogroll you should combine the different aspects.

It isn’t by hazard that Sydera’s post got the best reviews in the first round of the SYTYCB event. Her open letter to the badge of justice, managed to combine the three aspects, even though the emphases was on pathos.

Matticus himself is an example of a balanced blogger who does it all. Part Time Druid is another one. I don’t know if this Ethos-Pathos-Logos balance is something those two bloggers think about consciously. “Hey’ now I’m going to use a bit more of my ethos”. Probably not. Maybe they “just do it”, talented as they are.

But for us not-quite-so-gifted bloggers I think the trinity of the classic rhetoric works fine as a recipe for succesful blogging:

Ingredients:

Ethos - Let the readers get to know you.
Pathos - Make them feel something.
Logos - Everybody isn’t a theorycrafter. But everybody knows something about the game. Find a way to share your knowledge.

Preparation: Make a tasty mixture of it.

Result: Enjoy the love from your readers. At least from Larísa.