All posts tagged: Blogging

Blogging and the Honest Truth About Running Ads

Published by Thor

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 …

Some WIP Shots and Slowing Things Down (for now)

Published by Joe B

Between the reemergence of the sun, writing books, and chasing after two little boys, I have realized that I need to slow some things down. But part of that slow down is to make sure the articles I publish here are not rushed or forced. So with that said, let’s check out what is on Joe’s painting table first and get back to the boring blog stuff after. WIP Blood Bowl With two Blood Bowl teams completed (Orcs and Dwarves), I had turned to the balls and tokens so that I could get a fully painted game in. As with many things on my painting table, I got started and then distracted. At this point, both teams (and the human team) are mounted to bases and primed. The ball mark, the one meant to fit in each base, is press-fit into a spare base. All the others are glued down. I’ve made decent progress on the Dwarf team’s markers with all the base colors and wash completed. I will probably only do basic cleanup on …

How to Improve Your Hobby Skills Through Showcasing

How to Improve Your Hobby Skills Through Showcasing

Published by Joe B

Want a quick tip to improve your miniature painting skills? Post pictures of it for the world to see. No joke, this has been one of the best drivers for me how I improved my hobby skills: through showcasing. This is part three of my series on improving your hobby skills. You can download all three parts into a single eBook by filling in the the form below. [convertkit form=5003522] Improve Your Hobby Skills Through Showcasing You may think it’s odd that I would add a suggestion for showcasing your model as a way of developing your hobby skills. But it comes down to this: community feedback and incentive to improve. With very rare exceptions, we have a very warm and encouraging community of hobbyists, and if you post your progress and ask for help, more than likely some of us will find you and encourage you to keep it up. I know because that is how I pushed myself to improve and keep at it. This final post in my series focusing on improving …

Thoughts on Why Do We Hobby Blog

Why do you Hobby Blog?

Published by Joe B

The people who paint miniature wargames is relatively small. And those who choose to take the extra time to write and share pictures is even smaller still. To these, I ask the simple question: why do you hobby blog? Last week I posted this question: “Why do did you start  your hobby blog, what motivates you, and what frustrates you.” I wanted to get a sense of why others choose to write and share their work. And what keeps them going. Below you can see some of their responses. I also added my thoughts about why to start blogging about the hobby, frustrations along the way, and ways to stay motivated. Reasons People Start a Hobby Blog I started what is now Broken Paintbrush in 2008 as a way to log my painting progress of my Iron Warriors. With no idea what I was doing, how to find other hobbyists, or how I “should” blog. I just started writing and posting pictures. @brknpaintbrush I blog to try and make sense of what I'm doing – kind of …

Good Reads 47

Good Reads 47

Published by Joe B

Need a dose of awesome hobby reading? Then get ready for my picks for Good Reads 47 and be prepared to spend a few hours enjoying some excellent content. Painting Black A few weeks back I wrote an article on painting black using some quick and dirty methods. For those looking for a more advanced discussion on the topic, check out David Powell’s post on painting shiny black. Squaduary Finished While my Squaduary pledge was a failure, plenty of other hobbyists fished their squads in this final showcase. With at least 40 participants and 205 finished models, I think Rory created a fantastic new event. I can’t wait until next year (I really will complete something I promise!) Monster March If you haven’t seen it already and enjoyed Squaduary or Dreadtober, Swordmaster is hosting Monster March! As the name implies, this event is all about completing a Monster this month. So far it looks like 19 people have started, so grab your nearest monster-on-the-sprue and join in! Titan Maniple There are times I wish that I had …

Reviewing 2016 and Looking Ahead to 2017

Broken Paintbrush 2016 Review and Looking Ahead

Published by Joe B

Ah, the time of annual hobby reviews and thoughts on 2017. Not a popular post for many to read, but, as with many others who write one, this post is mostly a reflection for myself and introspection on what I want to do next year. If you believe the internets, 2016 was a shit of a year in many ways, and as one put it, much of the low points will setting us up for an even tougher 2017. Call me an optimist, but I think 2016 was a remarkable year, and 2017 is going to be unbelievably awesome. For Broken Paintbrush, I know this is true as this was my best year yet regarding painting quality, blogging consistency, and community growth. And yet, I have some plans for 2017 that have me giddy with excitement. So let’s get started, shall we? Looking Back on 2016 Hobby Accomplishments While 2016 wasn’t my most prolific year regarding painting, I am happy with what I did get done as I spent more time focusing on improving techniques, …

Broken Paintbrush Blogroll is Live!

Published by Joe B

This is something I’ve been putting off doing for a while, but I have finally got it done: The Broken Paintbrush Blogroll! One of the common themes I saw in last week’s discussion on commenting was that many people have lost contact with blog updates since Feiet’s blogroll went down. I know I used to get a good deal of traffic from it that has disapeared. So, following Thor’s advice, I’ve installed WP RSS Aggregator and added all the blogs I follow (over 150!). You can check it out at: https://www.brokenpaintbrush.com/blogroll. That is where you can also find how to add your own blog to the feed (if I haven’t already added it!). I am still working on the formatting and sync issues, but I’m hoping that the Blogroll will soon help everyone find new hobby bloggers and connect. If you see funny business, let me know so I can fix it. Request for a Logo Also, I am putting a request out for anyone with digital art skills. I need a blogroll badge, and …

Importance of the Hobby Community

Importance of Community

Published by Joe B

I had originally titled this post “Why I Comment” but decided there was more to it than just leaving a note on other blogs. Instead, I want to speak of the importance of the community, in particular, the importance of the online hobby community. As this blog is nearing its 10th birthday, I’ve had a lot of up and downs with both the hobby as well as the blog. The thing that has sustained me through so many low times is the fantastic community of online hobbyists. Shortly after starting the blog (named 14th Grand Company at the time) I joined an online group doing the Tale of Even More Painters. We had a monthly challenge to paint a particular type of unit for our armies. It was a productive time, but more importantly, it was a chance to build roots into the community. What got me thinking about all of this, and finally write this post, was one of the responses to a survey I sent to all the Dreadtober participants. “People not helping other …

Cool Tool: Canva

Cool Tools: Canva – For Awesome Blog Headers and Social Shares

Published by Joe B

I’ve had a couple of people ask me how I make the blog headers and other images I use. When I shared Canva with them, I’ve had nothing but positive feedback. So I figured it was time to share it with all of you: use Canva (a free tool) to make awesome images with pictures and text. Before we get too far along, I want to clarify that Canva is a free tool (with paid upgrades of course) and there are no affiliates, meaning I get nothing for sharing this tool with you. It’s simply a tool I have found super helpful and want to share with you. What Is Canva? I found Canva as I’ve dived into the how-to-blog world. Amongst all the bloggers-selling-to-bloggers crud I have found a few gems worth sharing with hobbyists. With Canva being one of them. As an online web app, Canva is super easy to get started, create images from anywhere, and use them for anything. It prompts you to create a new design based off of a ton of different pre-configured …

Dreadtober Recap and Thoughts on the Event

Dreadtober, a review and thoughts on running the event

Published by Joe B

Well Dreadtober 2016 has come and gone, but I want to take a moment and look back at what happened during the event and my thoughts from running it.   As some of my readers have gathered from my lack of posts the last two weeks, Dreadtober wore me out both on the hobby front as well as the blogging. While I have no regrets doing it, I needed some time to step away and paint a few models for fun. What Happened For those who missed it, or didn’t follow the full journey, Dreadtober was a challenge to build and paint a Dreadnought-like model during October. Greg started it last year and I ran this year’s event. I ran it a bit different this year by breaking it down into six weekly challenges and using email to communicate with the participants. Starting at the end of September, I challenged each member to plan out their project and state their commitment. It then continued into building, painting, finishing, and photographing the miniature. The results of …

Be a Guest Writer on Broken Paintbrush

Looking for You – Write for Broken Paintbrush!

Published by Joe B

With Dreadtober coming towards the end, I am starting to plan for November’s posts, and I need you! I’m looking for guest writers, contributors who want to write for Broken Paintbrush. Become famous(ish) but more importantly, add something to the community that your fellow hobbyists will enjoy. I’ll get into the hows and whys below, and I even have a list of potential post ideas if you want to write but need a muse. Post Ideas Below are the general topics I like to cover on Broken Paintbrush with some specific ideas to give you some inspiration. Don’t let it limit you however, if you have an awesome topic you want to add it, just let me know as well! Tutorials By far my favorite articles are those that share how you go from A to Done. Anything from assembly to painting to photography. If it helps a fellow hobbyists, let’s talk. How to paint a certain army/faction/tribe How to paint a color/effect/technique Painting tips for Beginners/Mid Level/Advanced How to Convert X into Y How to …

Guest post by Thor on how to keep the attention of your readers

How to Create Articles that Keep Readers’ Attention

Published by Thor

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 …