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Getting Noticed
Contents |
Community
If that doesn't say it clearly enough, nothing will. In order to become noticed in a positive way here at BlogShares you must take an active part in the community. After all, BlogShares is one small part game, one very large part community. Please see Community for more information about IRC, the Forums, and other social areas of BlogShares.
IRC
If you want to take an active and positive role in IRC, you have to get to know everyone. Be friendly, courteous, and helpful when the opportunity offers itself. If you can be helpful to another player, please do so. If not, please let other players in the room address player questions. IRC can be a difficult arena for discussion and answering questions, so chime in if you can help, but please let others handle it you can not.
Be a frequent visitor. Not everybody can live in IRC - but taking five minutes here and there to hop in and say hello to the regulars when you have time will go a long way. People remember. People especially remember the nice guys and gals. A great deal of behind-the-scenes discussion takes place here, and many of the most active players, as well as the administrators, frequent #blogshares. (You can find the link to #blogshares at the top of most pages, underneath the time and date.)
For help on IRC, see IRC Channel and IRC Primer.
Forums
Take a quick trip to the General Discussion forum and introduce yourself. You don't have to be overly specific, just a simple hello and what you think of what you have seen so far will suffice. People will welcome you.
Once you have been around for a while and are comfortable, offer some advice to other aspiring n00bs. You don't have to be too technical. Simply pointing them in the right direction will help them learn for themselves, as well as help you get yourself noticed.
Contests: The forums house many contests, at least one or two per month - often more. These contests offer prizes ranging from a few billion dollars to a Premium Membership. One thing to note however: If you enter a contest, enter to win. Don't just be a smart-alec and jot down a couple of lines if it is an essay-type contest - that will get you nowhere. Take the time to understand what you want to write about and then write up a meaningful entry. There is no shame in waiting until the last day to enter if your entry shows you spent time on it.
Eventually you may be able to afford to hold contests on your own. Several of our members hold monthly contests that are funded not only by themselves, but by other top tier players. These contests draw a lot of attention to BlogShares, helping out the game and, more importantly, the community. But don't be dismayed by the high assortment of prizes older players offer - they have been around for a while and can afford it. Take your time. When you are ready you can hold a contest that offers something nice - even a few rare Ideas. You don't necessarily have to create and run the contest, either. You can help sponsor one with your cash, ideas, and/or Chips and increase the prize pool.
Text Ads
Text Ads are the social staple of the main page at BlogShares. Every day you will see hundreds of ads here at our site. Every single time a page is loaded, a new add is picked at random for display. You can buy ads with Chips to promote your blog or someone else's blog/site. You can promote your own contest or draw attention to a specific thread in the forum. You can create all kinds of text ads for all kinds of reasons, so long as your ad does not attack another player. You'll probably find a use for text ads at some point. Please see Rules for more about Text Ads.
Press Releases
Any Premium Member who has claimed a blog is able to create a press release once every 24 hours to place on the Blogs.php page. Blog press releases cost $100,000 (B$, of course!).
Press releases can even be shown on the front page of BlogShares for everyone to see. Front page posts cost $5 million.
Much like text ads, these can be used for a variety of purposes with one difference - you have a lot more room. Remember to keep it clean however, or you could find that you've bitten off more than you can chew. Please see Blogs for more information.
Overall, there is one constant thing to do and remember:
BE FRIENDLY!
Hall Of Fame
Alternately, you can gain notoriety by donating accumulated B$ to be added to the Hall of Fame.