All posts tagged: guest

Guest post by Thor on how to keep the attention of your readers

How to Create Articles that Keep Readers’ Attention

So, you’ve created an eye-catching title that will drive visitors to your article, and hopefully, search engines, but now you have to keep the reader there to absorb your content, right? I would have to say that of all the things I’m hoping to cover in this series, this one may be the most important one of them all. Thor from Creative Twilight here again, back with another tool for your blogging arsenal. Use that First Paragraph to Grab the Reader A lot of people will determine if they want to read your article based on your opening – that first paragraph. I’m sure many of you did it with this article. So, it should come as no surprise that you need to grab the reader’s attention from the start. How you go about that is entirely up to you, and there’s no wrong way to do it. A common technique will be to tell the reader what the article is about. Basically, summarize what you’re about to talk about. Another common method is to …

Guest Author D Powers on the Mindset of Painting

Guest Post: The mindset of painting

Hallo!  D Power from I’m Alone with a Dream here.  In this guest post, I’d like to ramble on a bit about a favored hobby horse; the mindset behind PAINTING. I’ve known of people starting out collecting and painting wargaming miniatures with high hopes and great excitement. Later they become frustrated with what, in truth, is their own style of painting that’s trying to develop– while they repress it with images of what they think is “correct.” Something like what the ‘Eavy Metal studio has produced. While you get neither points nor bad marks for imitating someone’s work you admire, you should not be discouraged from being yourself. Nobody is Norman Rockwell A veteran illustrator friend of mine told me of a time when Norman Rockwell was so popular that everyone tried to imitate him, putting others down for not copying the “proper” style.  While this peer pressure isn’t quite so present in the wargaming community, some people tend to think it is, and that’s sad really. Time passed, and because nobody was Norman Rockwell, nobody …

Status 6 Weeks into having Guest Authors

Guest Post Status – Six Weeks In

About two months ago I put a call out for guest writers on Broken Paintbrush. I wanted to add some diversity of thought to the site, new perspectives on the hobby, and give others a chance to write. We are now six weeks in and I wanted to share the guest post status and do another call out for anyone interested. To date, I’ve had four guest writers and five posts (Thor has gone twice already!).  I’ve received emails and ideas from five more writers who I hope to post soon as well. My hope is that after showing you what other guest writers have done, it will get you to think about writing as well! Thor Talks about Blogging The first guest I had, and now twice, is Thor from Creative Twilight. He started a series where he will discuss how to improve our blogs, tailored specifically to us hobbyists. His second post dived into the importance of writing a strong title for your article. While Thor has his own awesome blog, he decided to …

Guest Interview with Adam Jones of The Golden D6

I have a special guest interview as today’s guest post. One of the great things about our hobby is being able to connect with so many people all over the globe. And almost exactly a year ago I wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about Adam Jones. Until out of the blue, he reaches out to me on Twitter saying he has a crazy idea of building an online hobby magazine. In this last year, Adam has since released 6 amazing issues, packed full of hobby articles from your fellow hobbyists. You can check out my review of Issue 3 or Adam put together a special pack of the articles that I’m featured in, you can fill out the form below and download a teaser! Interview with Adam Jones of The Golden D6 Tell us a bit about your hobby? The Golden D6 used to be my regular gaming group and we’d meet on a weekly-ish basis to get out Warhammer 40000 on. At the time, the Melbourne 40K tournament scene was a vivid …

See How to Write an Effective Article Title

There are a lot of stats explaining the value of an article title. I won’t bore you with them, but suffice to say the article title plays an enormous role on people choosing to read the article or not. We all do it, choose to pass on an article because of its headline, or opt to read it. It’s something we know about, at least subconsciously, but very few take it into account when creating their article. Thor is back for improving our blogs. Why? Because with some simple adjustments, it can significantly improves who finds you and how long they stay. Thor’s experience has given him insight for what works for hobby bloggers. Why Bother? As noted above, the big reason for taking the time to write effective, eye-catching headlines is to get your article read. That may seem obvious, but let me explain. Do you use Facebook? How about Twitter? Many of us have a large feed of stuff we scroll through every day on social media. I don’t have the time to …

How-To: Adding LEDs to 40k Tanks

When I go into my local Games Workshop store, people can’t stop talking about my models. Why? It’s because they light up! And I want to show you how easy adding LEDs to your 40k tanks, vehicles, and terrain can be. Guest post from Andrew Dart, originally posted on his blog, which he is phasing out. Instead, find him on Instagram as @hobbyvices. This post is helpful for me because I’ve been trying to add LED lighting to my Knight Titan and Stompa as I build them. Shine on! My land raider was the first time I’ve ever used LED wiring components in my entire life, and it was ridiculously easy.  Much easier than I anticipated.  I’ve repeated the process on a Rhino transport for my Berserkers to do a step-by-step for anyone curious or scared at the idea of dealing with LEDs. Ordering the Supplies All materials for wiring and lighting came from Evans Design.  I find them to be the best quality, and alarmingly straightforward – they come pre-wired! Make sure you match …

Oldhammer – What it is and how to get involved

If you’ve been in the hobby for awhile you know what Warhammer is and probably have an opinion on the company that designs and markets the miniatures and the current state of the game. You may have heard of Oldhammer or seen various references to it on the net, but what exactly is it? This is one person’s opinion, so take it for what it’s worth. I want to welcome another new author on Broken Paintbrush, Sean Squires from Sean’s Wargamer Corner. While blogging since 2011, his main focus lately is on Oldhammer and igniting the passion in other hobbyists. This is Oldhammer! At its core, Oldhammer is a nostalgia for the days when many of its adherents got started in the hobby. We saved our money to buy miniatures, drooled over the battle reports and Eavy Metal painting team’s work. We even occasionally threw dice with reckless abandon and trash talked with our friends while having a great time. There are almost as many interpretations of Oldhammer as there are Oldhammerers, and while there are …

Mistakes

Hi. I’m Thor. Let’s Chat About Blogging!

Where…where am I? I must have stumbled into the wrong blog. Hello everyone. I’m Thor. Joe was looking for some guest bloggers, so I told him I’d see what I could do. Let’s see if I can write about something interesting and different from my usual stuff. I know. I’ll write about blogging! I do want to welcome and thank Thor for writing some articles for Broken Paintbrush. I’m looking forward to his articles on blogging for hobbyists and how it can help us improve our digital works. If you are interested in guest writing as well sign up below or read more about it. A bit about me first. I run a blog of my own, Creative Twilight. Some of you know me (hi, Greggles and Rory), others of you may not. I’ve been blogging for seven years now, which is a lifetime in the blogging world. I’m an avid Warhammer 40K player who loves Chaos Space Marines, despite the dated codex. Most often I blog about my hobby work and my 40K gaming. …

Be a Guest Writer on Broken Paintbrush

Guest Post on Broken Paintbrush

So I’ve got to a point I want to add guest writers on Broken Paintbrush. In part, this is because I realize that I can’t keep up with everything else going on in my life, but I want to turn this site into something special for all my readers. Why Guest Post? So why would you want to guest post here? I put some common reasons to guest post below, so if you are wondering why you would even bother to write on somebody else’s blog (like mine), check them out and perhaps I can convince you to give it a try. 1. You don’t have a blog of your own For those who don’t have your own blog, guest posting is the easiest way to try it out. You can skip trying to build a site and audience and just write something cool. 2. Want to reach a bigger audience For new bloggers, it can be hard to get noticed, even with the great communities we have in our hobby. One way to do this …