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Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:32 am
by Duckingham
1) What is your blog?
BricksABillion

2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
I call it a "catablog" of tools, tips, and techniques for building with LEGO. Mainly, as I come across something that I find useful that I want to remember, I blog it. So, the basic philosophy is I want a place to document the things I'm learning about LEGO building. But also make it available for other folks to use.

3) Why did you start or join this blog?
I felt that there wasn't really a single place pointing out tools, tips, and techniques to guide a LEGO builder in his journey to awesome MOC creation. And I had the blogging bug. I've also used the blog as a platform to be able to ask people questions. Like I've interviewed Nathan Sawaya, Joe Meno, Angus MacLane, and others -- working hard at not asking the same questions they always hear, but things I'd really like to know. And I also needed a place to blog things other than my own creations, since I do some freelance work and don't want to mix everyone else's stuff with mine on that site.

4) How do you go about blogging?
I subscribe to a lot of feeds from Flickr and personal websites and things like that. And some days when I have an idea for a tip or a technique I'd like to write about, I just go looking for examples.

I also will go into WordPress and start a post if I've thought up an idea, then just add to it for a few days, let it percolate a bit before posting. One thing I'm working toward is to have a "Smashing Magazine" approach to posts, e.g. 30 examples of really cool LEGO desks, or 15 LEGO Dogs, or 20 examples of sorting methods. That sort of thing. Of course, it's just me, and nobody's paying for it like they do at Smashing, so in the meantime it's mostly just the "Hey I thought this was cool because he did X, he did Y, and he did Z."

5) What is your biggest challenge with regards to blogging?
Finding stuff that hasn't already been blogged by The Brothers Brick? Finding the time to finish all the really cool ideas I'd like to cover; I have a full-time job that is not building with LEGO bricks, a wife and 4 kids. I also run a webcomic, The Brick Side, and occasionally do freelance LEGO building at Duckingham.

6) Do you have any advice for others who are considering starting a LEGO themed blog?
Don't just be another "me too" blog. I've nixed a lot of blogs from Google Reader b/c they are just re-posting the same thing that TBB just posted. This is starting to get bad with a number of the semi-big LEGO blogs all repeating the same Press Releases. Good Grief, if The Brothers Brick has already posted it, don't bother -- I doubt there is a LEGO fan on the planet who doesn't already read TBB, so why are you repeating what they just said? On the other hand, if your niche is posting Fabuland creations built by female TFOLs, and TBB happens to blog an example that you blogged, too -- fine, the world won't end.

P.S. Don't get me wrong -- I love The Brothers Brick, I just see a lot of blogs that try to copy them.

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 11:55 am
by Legoorci
1) What is your blog?
My Blog is called Legoorcis creations.

2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
I have no general theme, I post ererything I build, but mosttime sth. of a fantasyworld I build and I post to most of my creations a story.
My general philosophy is, that I can realy talk to and with my readers, on Flickr it's so...unpersonal, on a blog it's more personal.

3) Why did you start or join this blog?
I started my blog after I saw some other german Legoblogs (The World of Caldera and The Brick Time) where they tell the story of a fantasyworld.

4) How do you go about blogging?
I blog just my MoCs and storys. :spin:

5) What is your biggest challenge with regards to bloggin?
To spend much time in making/editing photos and write the storys I've got in my mind down.
To make people like what I do. :tasty:

6) Do you have any advice for others who are considering starting a LEGO themed blog?
Yes, before you start you should think of the advanteges and disadvantages of a blog compared to sites like Flickr and Mocpages.
Then you should think how much time you've got, and then where you want have your Blog from, my blog is from Wordpress.
Then you should take some time-maybe a weekend- to write several articles because nobody likes Blogs that have just one article or that have sth. staying there like "We're working on this" since some months.
Then you have to make your blog public, ask owners of other Legoblogs wether they can link your blog on their blog.
But the most important of all:
Have Fun! :D

Thats all I've got to say, if you've got questions, PM me.
Legoorci

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:35 pm
by Ye Olde Republic
I wish that I thought more often to blog. I've really been neglecting it.

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:41 pm
by eilonwy77
^Yes, I've noticed. ;-D Words! Must read more words! 8)

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:43 pm
by Ye Olde Republic
After the CCC is finished and prizes are awarded, there will be many words on my blog. Problem is, most of the blogworthyest MOCs in the last little while were entries and it was a bit of a conflict for me to even look at them until the submission time was past.

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:45 pm
by eilonwy77
I can understand that. I had wondered about conflict of interest for the judges. I was thinking perhaps in terms of looking at the pictures on flickr, reading the comments, seeing the favorites and being swayed by popular opinion. Not that I really think it would affect things, but the thought crossed my mind.

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 7:54 pm
by Bluesecrets
I can understand that. I had wondered about conflict of interest for the judges. I was thinking perhaps in terms of looking at the pictures on flickr, reading the comments, seeing the favorites and being swayed by popular opinion. Not that I really think it would affect things, but the thought crossed my mind.
When you are judging a contest, it is all about impartiality. Judging the MOC for the MOC itself. You can listen to anything, read anything, but what it comes down to is the build. If you can't be impartial, then its best to avoid everything, don't talk to people, go into a cave. Or...just don't run a contest or be a judge. For it isn't fair to anyone if you are swayed by any opinion. The judging done by the admins for the CCC is impeccable. As a judge for several contest for CC (the secret society contest, the contests I run with aliencat, and a few others), it is completely an impartial thing. I don't know one person who judges who lets their opinions be formed by others.

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2011 8:16 pm
by Ye Olde Republic
Agreed. I wasn't afraid of being influenced, I wanted to keep myself from making comments on entries before it would be appropriate. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have self control issues.... :roflol:

aaaand on that note, we're starting to drift off-topic here so let's just say that is that on this subject for now....

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 5:50 am
by Bruce N H
Hey,

Just coming back to this, in the past year I've started three additional blogs. Yes, I'm nuts. In my own defense, I also redesigned my blogs so they are all connected in format, so it's kind of like one blog with seven categories, but a reader could choose to only follow one of those or several depending on their interest. Anyway, back to my original list of questions, numbers 4, 5 and 6 were answered way back at the start of this thread and are the exact same for these, so I'll just do 1, 2 and 3 for each of my newer ones.

1) What is your blog?
ComicBricks
2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
This is all about MOCs and now official theme news related to comic book characters. Mostly DC and Marvel, but occasionally other stuff.
3) Why did you start or join this blog?
As with some of my earlier blogs, it was really sort of me thinking that someone should really have a blog along these lines, but since no one else did, I did it myself. I grew up building LEGO, and I also grew up watching the Superfriends, Batman, reading Spider-Man comics, etc. Lots of others have put these two things together and made their own MOCs based on these comic heroes, and of course there's the whole customizing crowd, but there was never a home for them. There was a very short-lived BatBricks site when the first Batman sets were released, but it never went anywhere. So I started this blog last fall. It was kind of plodding along, getting a fairly small readership, but then this July a rumor came out that there was going to be an official DC theme. Over 24 hours of furious activity (including me calling publicists for LEGO and Marvel), we got official confirmation that there were actually two licenses, and then we saw some initial images. Very quickly my readership increased significantly, and now that blog is much more active.

1) What is your blog?
DisneyBricks
2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
Disney (and Pixar) MOCs and official sets. I'm not including things like Prince of Persia or the Pirates of the Caribbean, though, because I don't really think of those as Disney. When I say Disney I mean more the animated things, but also older movies like Mary Poppins or whatever. If someone made MOCs of the Mickey Mouse Club I'm sure I'd blog those as well. Oh, also stuff related to the theme parks, so I suppose I have posted some PotC MOCs, but ones based pretty directly on the ride, not MOCs based on Johnny Depp etc.
3) Why did you start or join this blog?
Same as above. It's one of the blogs I always wanted to read, so I decided to publish it myself.

1) What is your blog?
SciBricks
2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
This blog is all about MOCs that are related to science - real science, not science fiction. I also try to include a longer commentary with the posts here. Rather than just saying 'here's a great MOC'', and show the picture, I hope to have my readers actually learn something in the process.
3) Why did you start or join this blog?
In my professional life I teach chemistry. I wanted to join my passion for teaching science with my passion for LEGO.

Bruce

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2011 8:14 pm
by Formendacil
I forgot about this thread--thanks for bringing it back, Bruce. In the year or so since it was last active, I also started a LEGO blog. It's rather small in audience, but that does keep the pressure down a little.

1) What is your blog?
Grandfather's Tales

2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
My blog is sort of two-fold. On the one side, it's a platform to "publish" a weekly webcomic and the most erstwhile LEGO Castle epic (from whence it takes its name), and on other side, it's a platform for me to talk about LEGO in a more general way--usually through set reviews and to share the excitement of new purchases.

3) Why did you start or join this blog?
I was reading Gimme LEGO, and really enjoyed the personal sort of tack that Dr.DaveWatson was taking in presenting his LEGO hobby and wanted to do something similar. This was also the kick in the pants I needed to finally launch a weekly LEGO webcomic.

4) How do you go about blogging?
Since my content is mostly self-generated, either through the sets I own or the webcomics I produce, it tends to proceed mostly from how much energy I have to update it. In the last few months, this has worked out to about once or twice a week, though it was quite a bit more frequently before the summer started. Maintaining a steady flow leads directly to the next question...

5) What is your biggest challenge with regards to blogging?
For me, the biggest problem is making sure I take pictures--and take good pictures. Admittedly, I could link to other people's pictures, but the impetus to post comes from my own collection, and at least in the case of the webcomic, I *have* to create the pictures for their to be a comic. Once the picture is sitting in a folder, it's just a matter of getting around to topic, but getting this impetus set up has been somewhat problematic. It also hasn't been helped by the fact that I now live in an apartment with virtually no natural lighting.

6) Do you have any advice for others who are considering starting a LEGO themed blog?
Like others, I agree that finding a niche is the key. Even if what you actually present is the same as other blogs, the presentation itself should distinguish you. Three people can post the same MOC or review the same set; it only becomes tiring when they start saying the same things about it.

Also, don't set too high a standard. If you can't post every day, don't try to. It's better to build up from a start you know you can maintain than to drop dead from exhaustion after trying too hard. (Advice that I didn't quite follow myself... arguably to my discredit.)

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Thu May 03, 2012 5:36 pm
by Bruce N H
Hey all,

Yes, I realize I'm insane. Last fall I started my 8th and final blog:

1) What is your blog?
TolkeinBricks
2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
All things related to Tolkien and LEGO, both MOCs and the official theme. Very sporadically I will also post something non-LEGO, like when the trailer came out for the upcoming Hobbit movie.
3) Why did you start or join this blog?
Okay, as people may or may not know since it's been so long since I let my project stagnate, way back when (as in ~2001) my biggest addition to the LEGO community was my big LEGO Lord of the Rings project, still only about 40% finished (and please please please if you follow that link don't start at the first chapter I posted, it's dreadful). Lord of the Rings is my favorite book, and I'm a fan of all of Tolkien's work (though I have to admit I haven't read the last couple of HOME books). I started TolkienBricks the moment I heard the news of the new Lord of the Rings license. I'm actually not 100% thrilled over the idea of the license (as I've argued here many times), but I was more excited by the fact that the license will surely spur more Tolkien-themed MOCs. Given that the license exists, I'm relatively happy with the sets we've seen so far, though I've got my critiques.
One thing I do want to note - my blog is not simply devoted to official theme news. I'm much more interested in people's MOCs (the same is true of my ComicBricks site, which was up for about six months before we ever heard of the official license).

I promise (serious this time) I'm not going to start any additional LEGO blogs. I've started a separate thread on blogs that I wished existed, so maybe some of you could run with those.

Bruce

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Sat Sep 22, 2012 4:52 am
by Elephant Knight
1) What is your blog?
A Pirate Brick for Me

2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?
Pirates!

3) Why did you start or join this blog?
It started out as a spot where I could more actively talk about my Pirate MOC's and such, and recently it has become a home for my new Comic, A Pirate's Life.

4) How do you go about blogging?
Whenever I have the time and energy, I will post a MOC of mine, old or new, talk about it came to be and such. It happened about once a month. Now, I post twice a week, cause of my comic

5) What is your biggest challenge with regards to blogging?
Finding time and energy.

6) Do you have any advice for others who are considering starting a LEGO themed blog?
You have to be into it, and don't do it on a whim. Stick with it. I really hate seeing intesting blogs die out.

EKnight

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 2:32 am
by mpoh98
1) What is your blog?

http://bba-brick.blogspot.com

2) What is the general theme of your blog, or do you have a general philosophy that drives your blogging?

Anything we find on the internet that is amazing, and is worthy to be blogged. There is no actual theme, we just go around on flickr, mocpages, etc finding amazing creations.

3) Why did you start or join this blog?

I thought it would be fun to be in the blogging world, and I saw lots of creations I thought epic, but weren't blogged. So I made my own.

4) How do you go about blogging?

I just scavenge, scour, and look around on flickr, mocpages, eurobricks, classic-castle, etc and when I find something, I blog it! Then I let the builder know that I blogged it, that way they know and can share it, or just be happy! :D

5) What is your biggest challenge with regards to blogging?

Finding the right time to blog - sometimes, I see an amazing creation, but I am busy with school and other stuff, that I can't blog it till later, and sometimes I lose the creation. :cry: Also, when I see something cool, I want to blog it, so at least once a day (not possible)

Finding the right mocs - I don't want to overload the blog with creations, and not blog just everything cool, but find the best ones, and sometimes ones that are rarely known. (that is the whole purpose of blogging, right!)

6) Do you have any advice for others who are considering starting a LEGO themed blog?

Don't let your blog die out! There are so many blogs I see, that die out over time. Try not to let that happen, at least once a week will do, and if not, just post SOMETHING to let your readers know that you still are at it!

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 4:26 pm
by AK_Brickster
Hopefully this is on topic, but do any of you who run blogs here make any money off of them? I know that sites like TBB make a bit of money, though probably not enough to fully support one blogger, let alone a team of 10 (or however many they have on staff).

Do people like Tommy of "Brick Nerd" generate any revenue through YouTube advertising?

Just pondering such things while at my normal 9 to 5 place of employment and thought I'd ask :)

Re: LEGO Blogging

Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2014 11:39 pm
by mpoh98
AK_Brickster wrote:Hopefully this is on topic, but do any of you who run blogs here make any money off of them? I know that sites like TBB make a bit of money, though probably not enough to fully support one blogger, let alone a team of 10 (or however many they have on staff).

Do people like Tommy of "Brick Nerd" generate any revenue through YouTube advertising?

Just pondering such things while at my normal 9 to 5 place of employment and thought I'd ask :)
Well, I don't. But I know that you can through blogger. It has something to do with adding ads to your page. I know the Erickson's blog, inspiredbrickblogspot.com, make/made money off of it using ads. I don't know exactly how, I just know you can. :)