Do NOT Play For Second Place

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

When I got home from my six mile run I was surprised to read this article about Just My Two Copper which subsequently blew me away. It also got me thinking about the author's blog and the hundreds of ones like it throughout the wow blogosphere. The author is Bigjimm, who blogs with Zekta and both write for Phase 3 Profit, a blog I love to check in on whenever I have the time to do some wow gold research, and has been a member of the JMTC community for quite some time.

His article praises my work on this here wow gold blog and makes the claim that all other bloggers who write about making gold are playing for second place. Bigjimm, it is with great thanks that I am writing this post and I want to give some advice to not only you but every other wow gold blogger out there who looks at JMTC and wonders if they are writing for second place.

I'm going to drift away from the usual gold post today because I want to make a point about blogging. I've been doing it for quite some time and I have seen my share of bumps, writer's block and hate from the wow blogosphere (sometimes deserved, sometimes not). Bigjimm makes the point that most people who write about gold now end up writing something that I've already written or covered and sometimes this is very true. With the inception of the JMTC gold forums, now pretty much every gold making thought that can be thought is tucked away somewhere on the forum boards, on this blog, the youtube, the twitter, the podcasts, or anywhere else within reach of the JMTC community.

Bigjimm, I'm begging you and every other blogger for the sake of this community to never write for second place! You are writing to the same community that I am, and to be fair, your content is excellent. Perhaps you are wondering then why did Markco succeed as rapidly as he did? (who doesn't love talking in the third person?) Maybe I should leave that to those people curious enough to buy the book on my blogging adventures, but I'll shed some light on it in this article and explain further why you should ditch the idea that you are writing for second place. First off, I created a community focused on the idea of making gold in wow. Second, I expanded to every social media outlet I could find, since wow is a very social game. Third, I always wrote as if I was the best out there, playfully calling myself the gold guru and doing my best to live up to that expectation. I did not care if I failed, because I was and still am having so much fun building the JMTC community and providing quality information to the wow gold making community. I was always open to criticism and willing to implement excellent suggestions from the community. That's what it's about, having fun and taking everything in stride.

You see Bigjimm, if you don't have fun blogging, you don't succeed. And I'm trying not to lecture right now, because I don't doubt that you do actually have fun blogging, but what I'm saying is very true. When Gevlon attacked my terrible sales pitch and blew my proposal way out of proportion, many people thought I was done as a blogger. When I made the terribly uninformed accusation that wow.com was stealing my content (it most likely wasn't) many thought I would never see another link. When I made a host of other mistakes during my naive blogging career, it was the fact that I enjoyed writing that kept the site going, and still keeps me going today. It was also the community, have you seen their puppy eyes when they ask for help?... just can't let them down!

The second part of the answer to why you shouldn't write for second place is how I truly became well known. I worked my ass off for hours every night and wrote exciting content that applied to current game events as well as new approaches to very tried and true methods for making gold. My bid low, sell normal method was not something truly inspiring or intelligent, but it was one of hundreds of new and interesting ways I came up with to look at old methods for making gold. The articles I wrote on upcoming patches and how they would affect not just primary markets but secondary and tertiary ones as well were also a new approach to writing about wow gold. Sometimes the most simple of articles made the greatest impact, since so many people who knew the information took it for granted. Every day I come up with new things to write and if I write from now until I die there will still be things left unsaid. The trick I've used is to not look at what someone else writes and say "wow that's really good" but rather "ok what are they missing here; what could of been better?"

By writing this way, I wrote for the same community everyone else did but with my own personal style and spin on wow gold making. In order to follow in my footsteps you need to do the same. You need to find interesting and personal approaches to age old methods of making gold. I didn't truly build this community, I simply put a name on it and gave it a place to roam each day. If I die tomorrow and the blog fades into nothingness, this community will continue to roam until it finds a new home. I wouldn't even call it a home, but rather a favorite meeting place. Now that so many wow blog enthusiasts are in one place, you can hop on my shoulders and write directly to them on the JMTC forums, your blog, and anywhere else. There is plenty of room up here at the top of the wow gold blogging mountain, and I have paved the way for many more to join me. What you have to do is be Bigjimm the Billionaire, write till your fingers bleed, spend hours every day just digesting and thinking about wow gold making, becoming a member of the same community you slowly build, and always looking for the next big risk to take.

As Patrick and Sean said about the interview I did with them on How I Wow: "It's as if for Markco gold is not the goal. Excellence is the goal." That is how I approach my life and the wow community has seen how that level of motivation can turn a crap site with 1 follower (Thunderion) into the juggernaut (to use Bigjimm's verbage) it is today. Motivation can weather the storm and it can truly allow you to do anything, as long as you're having fun along the way.

Keep blogging Bigjimm, and blog for first place amongst the great community here. Break big news, make mistaken predictions about icy dragonscales, get accused of tax evasion by Tobold, get vilified by Gevlon, please be smart and be nicer than I was to wow.com, mispell your own name, and most importantly... get profession cooldowns mixed up on a monthly basis! In other words take tremendous risks and have fun! It all works out in the end and the more risky you are, the more adventurous, the more it will come out in your writing and suddenly a community will form around your ideas as well that is attracted to your way of looking at the game they love to play.

Bigjimm's Billionaires... I can see it now! I hope you can, and every other blogger out there. Because if you don't aim for the highest pinnacle, you will never reach it. Perhaps you, the person reading this load of hot air I call a post, are going to be the next big wow blogger. If you need help, send me an email, give me a guest post or take advantage of the new social media I've created for gold making in world of warcraft: Just My Two Copper.

Thank you, the community and especially Bigjimm! Rock on JMTC. I don't just hope to motivate you to make gold in wow, I hope to inspire you to improve your life in the real world as well. All great things must come to an end, and even the mighty Markco will eventually disappear from the pages of wow history. But while I'm on the front page and living large, I'm going to have one hell of a good time.

~ Markco: Gold Guru, Last Bastian of Prot PvP, and Podcast Specialist