Chris Grant
One would expect the editor of the Web’s most linked-to gaming blog to have a long history as a gamer. This is certainly true of Joystiq’s Chris Grant, who began playing games like King’s Quest and Zork around the age of six. Making notes as he experimented with moves and playing some segments by rote, the young Grant undoubtedly accelerated the development of his read ing and writing skills.
www.joystiq.com
Some years later, thoroughly enthralled with video games on consoles like the NES and Genesis, he returned to Zork via Activision’s CD-ROM Return to Zork game. “Following that experience,” he says, “I went back to the original Zork—equipped with slightly better reading comprehension, of course.” He found it every bit as engaging and baffling as he did when he was a child. Grant’s interest in games did nothing but grow as new generations of video game consoles came and went throughout the 1990s. After college and a move to Philadelphia, he began writing a gaming column for Philadelphia Weekly in 2005 while holding down a day job as a carpenter. Meanwhile, January 2004 saw the debut of Engadget. Game-console fanatics crowded into the blog, right along with wireless, CD, DVD, communications, and other kinds of gadget enthusiasts. Concurrently, a generation of gaming consoles was coming to an end, and there was increasing talk about the new equipment on Engadget. It quickly reached the point where the site just had too much gaming news, and a lot of Engadget-loyal readers got frustrated.
From carpenter to blogger, Chris Grant’s route to blogging underscores the fact that successful bloggers can come from any sort of background. Grant’s experience in writing a magazine column was helpful to him as a blogger, but it was largely his enthusiasm for and knowledge of gaming that guided him on the road to blogging success. And he shares certain attitudes and techniques with other successful bloggers profiled in this book. Here are some highlights:
Joystiq
“The secret to success is consistency and quality.”
www.joystiq.com
Some years later, thoroughly enthralled with video games on consoles like the NES and Genesis, he returned to Zork via Activision’s CD-ROM Return to Zork game. “Following that experience,” he says, “I went back to the original Zork—equipped with slightly better reading comprehension, of course.” He found it every bit as engaging and baffling as he did when he was a child. Grant’s interest in games did nothing but grow as new generations of video game consoles came and went throughout the 1990s. After college and a move to Philadelphia, he began writing a gaming column for Philadelphia Weekly in 2005 while holding down a day job as a carpenter. Meanwhile, January 2004 saw the debut of Engadget. Game-console fanatics crowded into the blog, right along with wireless, CD, DVD, communications, and other kinds of gadget enthusiasts. Concurrently, a generation of gaming consoles was coming to an end, and there was increasing talk about the new equipment on Engadget. It quickly reached the point where the site just had too much gaming news, and a lot of Engadget-loyal readers got frustrated.
From carpenter to blogger, Chris Grant’s route to blogging underscores the fact that successful bloggers can come from any sort of background. Grant’s experience in writing a magazine column was helpful to him as a blogger, but it was largely his enthusiasm for and knowledge of gaming that guided him on the road to blogging success. And he shares certain attitudes and techniques with other successful bloggers profiled in this book. Here are some highlights:
- Being able to rapidly educate yourself on a subject is an asset for a blogger, as is a memory that allows you to retain even the most trivial of details.
- Take information that you find on the Internet with a grain of salt, and check everything against multiple sources.
- You must post consistently, no matter how inconvenient it is to your schedule. Readers expect to see the same volume of posts every day.
- Consider blogging in a niche. If you blog about things that no one else blogs about, you’ll always be high on search lists. Working in several niches at once can have a similar effect.
- Delivering timely information will keep readers coming back.