The topic of ads is one I always find interesting. There seems to be a fair bit of negative stigma attached sites that run ads, and that’s what I wanted to discuss today. I wanted to clear the air on the subject and explain it from the perspective of the blogger, or website owner. Thor from Creative Twilight is back with more insight on hobby blogging. To check out more tips on improving your blog, check out the page here. I tend to use blog and website interchangeably when writing. For the sake of discussion, I mean no difference between them. Bad Ad Setups Ever been to a site that ran like eight different ads all over their site, plus one that floats at the bottom, and often a pop-up when you leave, or a pop-under as you’re visiting? Hell yes you have; we all have. Those sites are often so slowed down by the amount of ads they are delivering that you give up on reading what you went there for, and you just bail out …

So, you’ve created an eye-catching title that will drive visitors to your article, and hopefully, search engines, but now you have to keep the reader there to absorb your content, right? I would have to say that of all the things I’m hoping to cover in this series, this one may be the most important one of them all. Thor from Creative Twilight here again, back with another tool for your blogging arsenal. Use that First Paragraph to Grab the Reader A lot of people will determine if they want to read your article based on your opening – that first paragraph. I’m sure many of you did it with this article. So, it should come as no surprise that you need to grab the reader’s attention from the start. How you go about that is entirely up to you, and there’s no wrong way to do it. A common technique will be to tell the reader what the article is about. Basically, summarize what you’re about to talk about. Another common method is to …

There are a lot of stats explaining the value of an article title. I won’t bore you with them, but suffice to say the article title plays an enormous role on people choosing to read the article or not. We all do it, choose to pass on an article because of its headline, or opt to read it. It’s something we know about, at least subconsciously, but very few take it into account when creating their article. Thor is back for improving our blogs. Why? Because with some simple adjustments, it can significantly improves who finds you and how long they stay. Thor’s experience has given him insight for what works for hobby bloggers. Why Bother? As noted above, the big reason for taking the time to write effective, eye-catching headlines is to get your article read. That may seem obvious, but let me explain. Do you use Facebook? How about Twitter? Many of us have a large feed of stuff we scroll through every day on social media. I don’t have the time to …

Where…where am I? I must have stumbled into the wrong blog. Hello everyone. I’m Thor. Joe was looking for some guest bloggers, so I told him I’d see what I could do. Let’s see if I can write about something interesting and different from my usual stuff. I know. I’ll write about blogging! I do want to welcome and thank Thor for writing some articles for Broken Paintbrush. I’m looking forward to his articles on blogging for hobbyists and how it can help us improve our digital works. If you are interested in guest writing as well sign up below or read more about it. A bit about me first. I run a blog of my own, Creative Twilight. Some of you know me (hi, Greggles and Rory), others of you may not. I’ve been blogging for seven years now, which is a lifetime in the blogging world. I’m an avid Warhammer 40K player who loves Chaos Space Marines, despite the dated codex. Most often I blog about my hobby work and my 40K gaming. …