Goldenstar posted this on May 29th, 2012.
Categorized as blog, blogger, Community, NBI, newbie blogger initiative, Windy Acres Ranch.
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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/MLEnSOJNdLw/

Looking for information on horses or upcoming equestrian events? Look no further than Windy Acres Ranch!
There are several articles with How To guides on hosting races, judging, and designing race courses. Maps and photos of the commonly used race courses are available. There is a contest every month on the site, with prizes ranging from 100 Turbine Points to 750 TP. The site has a schedule of horse races, standings that rate the race riders based on their performance, and best of all, a fancy horse name generator.
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suzita posted this on May 18th, 2012.
Categorized as elder scrolls, eq2, everquest, games, lord of the rings online, lotro, MMO, newbie blogger initiative, rpg, vanguard.
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Full link: http://suzitastarshadow.wordpress.com/2012/05/18/week-3-challenge-my-main-characters/
I’m loving Ambermist’s challenges – really fun to do and to read how others have responded. Its also nice to have some direction for a change, especially as currently both I and my toddler are cold-afflicted again
so… this week’s challenge – my main characters… this could be lengthy so be warned
Goldenstar posted this on May 16th, 2012.
Categorized as blog, Community, MiddleEarthInitiative, NBI, newbie blogger initiative.
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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/Vy4P3jHFrps/
I love it when I get to introduce our audience to new LOTRO themed blogs and here is one by a man named Ben called “MiddleEarthInitiative”.
The primary topic of the blog is to reach the new player and provide content that will help those new or just getting started with LOTRO.
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suzita posted this on May 11th, 2012.
Categorized as games, lord of the rings online, lotro, MMO, newbie blogger initiative, rpg.
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Full link: http://suzitastarshadow.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/week-2-challenge-why-you-do-what-you-do/
thought I’d join in this week’s challenge by Tastes Like Battle Chicken, which is basically to explain why you do what you do in a picture.
so here it is:

I’ve used screenshots from lotro, but really its the same in any game I play
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suzita posted this on May 6th, 2012.
Categorized as elder scrolls, eq2, everquest, games, lotro, MMO, newbie blogger initiative, rpg.
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Full link: http://suzitastarshadow.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/wordpress-tips-menus-categories-and-tags-nbi/

WordPress uses categories and tags as both a way for search engines to find your blog and as a way for you to organise your content. There are different ways of doing this but the way I find works best is to use categories for individual games and the overall subject matter (e.g. games, mmo, lotro, vanguard) and tags for keywords (e.g. lotro outfit, weatherstock 2012, minecraft client crash) and some sub-organisation (e.g. lotro lore, weekly screenshot). Wordpress suggests using between 6 and 10 categories/tags as the optimal amount to use. It does take a bit of trial and error to find which work for you but you can change them and change as you go along (you can rename them globally which can save a fair bit of faffing under the Posts> categories or tags dashboard).
Custom menus are just brilliant, especially if you play more than one game and write about more than one subject. As you can see above I’ve used a custom menu to differentiate all posts categorised under lotro and under eq2. These posts are then further sub-categorised into lotro outfits, eq2 decorating etc. I tend to only put posts on the custom menu if there are a fair amount of posts as otherwise the category widget works just as well (test it out – try looking at my minecraft posts using the category widget, and then the lotro posts under the category widget. Then look at the lotro menu above and try that out).
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suzita posted this on May 5th, 2012.
Categorized as elder scrolls, eq2, games, lotro, MMO, newbie blogger initiative, rpg.
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Full link: http://suzitastarshadow.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/wordpress-tips-screenshots-nbi/

WordPress has a number of ways to use screenshots in a post. A free wordpress account will give a very generous 3GB of storage, I have been blogging for 3 years and have TONS of screenshots and images uploaded and I still have 2.9GB left! If you embed videos though, I expect this will eat up the storage quicker… So you can insert a link to Flickr or Photobucket, but if you’re just using images my advice would be to upload away you will have more options with your screenshots if you do.
Insert image:
As you can see above, the simplest way is to simply insert a full size image (preview and adjust smaller if necessary as some themes will post HUGE images
) Generally though, if you have a fixed width post column, the large size will adjust to the size of your post width (kept in proportion with the height).
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suzita posted this on May 4th, 2012.
Categorized as elder scrolls, eq2, everquest, games, lotro, MMO, n, newbie blogger initiative, rpg.
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Full link: http://suzitastarshadow.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/wordpress-tips-themes-and-widgets-nbi/

Ok so I’m not going to talk about the basics or how tos as WordPress has plenty of help and tutorials already. What I aim to do, is to point out some tips to get your blog looking the way you want, how to use screenshots in a post and how to organise content. phew! I think I’ll need to split this into three posts
Themes:
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suzita posted this on May 2nd, 2012.
Categorized as Dragon Age, everquest, everquest 2, games, lord of the rings online, lotro, minecraft, MMO, newbie blogger initiative, rpg.
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Full link: http://suzitastarshadow.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/some-blogging-advice-nbi/
OK so, you want to blog about gaming but you’re not sure where to start or what to write? Funnily enough… that’s exactly how I feel right now! This blog is mostly an online gaming diary with a few creative efforts, guides etc thrown in, so the advice I give will obviously be from this angle
Subjects:
The first thing that I feel is important is that you write about what you enjoy, not what you think others will enjoy. If you have a great screenshot, post it up. If you’re proud of an outfit you’ve created or a house you’ve decorated post that up. If you’ve had a blast running around X dungeon – describe your adventures. If you roleplay, try developing your character on your blog. Experiment too – you don’t have to publish the results
The subjects you write about may stay varied and personal or they may develop into a theme – follow your interests
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Roger Edwards posted this on May 1st, 2012.
Categorized as editorial, lotro, newbie blogger initiative.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://www.containsmoderateperil.com/newbie-blogger-initiative-got-an-opinion-then-blog-it/

I have always enjoyed writing, expressing my thoughts and sharing them with others. Naturally I like to read comparable material from those with similar interests to me. I’ve been blogging now for nearly five years and Contains Moderate Peril is the result of several previous blogs about gaming and movies morphing in to one.
However it has been a steep learning curve and I’ve found a lot out the hard way. Things such as finding an audience, sharing links and achieving a style can be very daunting. This is why a lot of people quit before they’ve even begun. If only there were an online resource that could answer questions, provide support and allow bloggers to connect with each other. Well now there is!
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Goldenstar posted this on May 1st, 2012.
Categorized as blog, blogger, Events, MMO, newbie blogger initiative.
Shorthand Link:
Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/BwpEfk-bhpU/

Casual Stroll to Mordor (CSTM) is joining the Newbie Blogger Initiative (NBI) for the month of May! This is a program set up to inspire players to create an MMO blog of their own.
The whole purpose of the NBI is to make the process as easy for you as possible and to give you a ton of support and initial traffic. Getting readers is always hard at first, we know and we want to help!
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