My Blogger Master Plan Has Failed

Posted by Markco at 8:00 AM

A Maniac Crazed with Power

When I first started blogging there really was no site out there that existed for the sole purpose of giving gold tips on a daily basis, every day, consistently and with great quality. It was sheer luck that I managed to fill this void and succeed in the first blogging expedition I had ever attempted. However, in my quest for power to become the number one blogger among gold blogs, as many goblins have documented in the past, I began using questionable strategies to boost my traffic and lower that of my non-existent competitors.

Doomed to Fail

It is for this reason that I blame myself when I look around these days and see dozens of wow gold sites popping up out of nowhere. Some of them have grown into really impressive communities, which again I blame myself for helping them to build these. Not to mention those damn blogging carnivals, those have turned unknown bloggers into renowned community members of the wow blogosphere sometimes overnight. Darn, my master plan was to suck those unknown blogs dry and steal their handful of subscribers for myself! Damn it, foiled again! And what's this, other blogs in the community are running their own carnivals or 'best of the month' conventions. Gah! Some even started their own podcasts, so Castaclysm was a failure as well it seems... What's next another gold forum? Ah shi...

In a last ditched effort to stifle bloggers everywhere I started accepting far more guest posts in order to steal more subscribers from those foolish enough to fall into my traps. But what's this... instead of stealing readers I ended up sharing my own with these blogs and making them grow even larger. "There must be some way... oh wait I know!", I thought, "I will start following these new bloggers on twitter and including them on my blog rolls. Then surely I will suck their memberships dry and increase the JMTC subscriber count to new records!" Alas, just as before I failed again at utilitarian, global dominance of the wow gold blogosphere.

After so many defeats and poorly constructed attempts at stifling my competition, I have come to the realization and admited to myself that my master plan has failed. For this reason I have withdrawn from the wow blogging community and instead of leaving behind an empty trail of wordpress and blogger wastelands, I leave you all with a rich community of budding bloggers and a pseudo think tank in the forum, social media and blog here. I even left you with a natural leader in Mageshadow to keep this blog going while I focus on the gold guide and my other blogs. What's more, I have helped to establish bloggers who think of their blogs as a business in order to improve both the quality of their sites and the longevity of their existance.

My master plan has failed, to your benefit.

Some goblins thought I did these things for the "google juice" but they will never know the real methods I used to boost my traffic on this site... unless of course they read The Traffic Blogger...

Thank you all for these past two plus years. I will post from time to time, but as you might have noticed, the daily posts from Markco are at an end and have been for almost two months. Believe it or not, I actually have a heavy sadness creeping over me as I type this farewell post. It has been difficult to send writing ideas to Mageshadow instead of writing them myself, and it has been especially hard to stop looking at my life experiences and finding ways to share them with this audience. You were there when I dropped 60 pounds in 6 months, when I learned to write "should have" instead of "should of," when I foolishly entered flame wars with other bloggers and when I made dozens of both grave mistakes and great accomplishments alike. There were also experiences you shared with me, like the two couples who married that originally met on JMTC or the over two million players and counting who we helped become better players through this site's community. I think we can all agree that it was more fun than we expected it would be. What's more, you have proven to me that with hard work and intelligent business decisions a person can create a business out of nothing and be successful. I still have much to learn, but you have helped me greatly with your support and encouragement. Thank you all.

Regarding you all, I am especially proud of the bloggers I have helped out in this community. They have taken to their blogs like fat kids on wedding cakes and although it's messy, they are doing a great job. There is currently more information on making gold in wow than ever before and I am happy to see that the systems I've put in place to nurture this environment will not degrade easily. Make your communities great fellow bloggers! It's a far greater reward than the money you will naturally make from helping people in your own community.

It was a good run ladies and gentlemen. I can't think of anything funny or catchy to say at this moment because I am overwhelmed by the reality of the moment... I have to somehow stop writing as I slowly realize that this is it... this is the last post I will write as a main contributor to JMTC... and I have this irresistible urge to type "and" no matter what my grammar ends up being like by the end. I've been putting off writing this for months but the time has finally come.

All good things must come to an end. Enjoy cataclysm, enjoy making gold and most importantly, enjoy life with your friends and family in this world... of warcraft.

And now for a link to my favorite post of all time, something I will never forget and it wasn't even written on this blog. Bigjimm, I have always felt bad that I didn't do a good enough job promoting you on this blog so here you go and congratulations on your marriage. That post you wrote came at a time when I felt like throwing in the towel. Boy am I glad that I didn't.

FAQ

Q: Will you continue to manage JMTC and assist Mageshadow in SEO, content creation and growing the wow blogopsphere?
A: Yes. Consider me the manager and Mageshadow the voice.

Q: What will you do next with JMTC?
A: I have big plans for being on the cutting edge for developing programs that help the readers here succeed in all aspects of wow. Next on the chopping block is a coaching program which will provide income for the coaches and great information for those who are coaching. It won't be limited to gold making so that all players will have the opportunity to coach as well as be coached. Expect this to be a grass roots, startup style program where anyone can join as a coach or coached player and the participants can actually earn money helping out each other. I'll be working on having this coded and ready for use hopefully by next week. Start thinking about what topics you would be interested in coaching or being coached. (PvE, PvP, Class specific, Server specific, Gold making, Addon Use, Profession Specific, Etc).

Q: Is Castaclysm dead?
A: Yes. Thunderer got his new day job but Jhaman has quit wow. If the show continues we will probably change it significantly.

Q: Will you continue to update and support the gold guide?
A: Yes, consider the guide my new wow writing outlet with updates 1-2 times per week or when lots of changes are happening to the game. This means more content for blog readers who also have the guide. I also have big plans for updating the design of the guide itself for easier navigation and nicer looking graphics. Expect new additions in the form of videos and walkthroughs from other gold gurus as well. An hour of footage is planned for the TSM guide alone.

Q: Are you still going to play wow?
A: Yup. Still pvp'ing about once every two weeks as well for my conquest points. Still playing fail prot much to the chagrin of my teammates.

Q: Will you remain a part of the community on social media sites and the forums?
A: Yes, time permitting of course.

Q: So I still get great content, you just aren't writing 90% of it any more?
A: Bingo. Some might even consider this a blessing lol. I'm moving towards a management role in all my online endeavors. Change is good though, I have a track record of creating great things through change and this role swap will be no different. Over time I have come to the realization that coaching bloggers to become great is where my true strength lies, and that's where I'm headed next with my online endeavors.

Images from: webpages.uah.edu/~robinsc/quiz3.html and www.sxc.hu/photo/616427