Greased: The Nerd Bacon Newsletter (1.7)
Issue #7, Volume 1
Nerd Bacon News: July 2015 (1)
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First things first: I hope all of you are having or are planning to have a wonderful Fourth of July! As I’ve gotten older I’ve lost of some of my resistance to heat, bugs, and sitting in the grass, but I still love the sight of fireworks and the smell of a grill as much as anyone! Be sure to eat a cheeseburger or two for me – Carolina style with onions, chili, and slaw. Now let’s dig into what both The Bacon and the video gaming landscape in general looks like in the aftermath of E3…
Hey, we understand that a lot of you may need a little break after the craziness of E3, but don’t forget about us! We’re off to a little bit of a slow start and we had really hoped to see more post-E3 articles roll out. If you do have any post-E3 pieces you want to see published, try to wrap them up pretty soon and get them submitted.
The summer is not a friendly time for gamers – in fact, we probably won’t see much action until later in September or October as far as top tier titles – but that doesn’t mean that we have to slow down! Use this as a chance to catch up on games you haven’t gotten around to playing or as an excuse to dig into your older systems! Or make this an opportunity to chase down badges and see if you can get your box as big as Nerdberry’s and myself!
New at The Bacon?
We have had a lot of newcomers join us in the last couple of months, and yet we can’t seem to get any of you to really get going when it comes to regularly writing articles. Where are you!? What are you doing!? What’s standing in your way!?
We do have rules about membership here, but since we’ve been so busy lately, we’re willing to offer a small reprieve to those on the verge of deletion. If you’re having trouble getting started, please let us know and we’ll do whatever we can to help.
Maybe you’re one of a few newcomers who had his or her first article rejected. If that’s the case, I urge you not to get discouraged. In the interest of uniformity and quality, we do have a lot of rules in place and we all realize that this can be a lot to get used to and difficult to get right the first time around. Know that we really do want to publish your work! If we didn’t, our editors wouldn’t take the time to go over them meticulously and then follow up your article with emails on how to craft a piece that’s ready for publication. We put just as much time and energy into critiquing a piece as you do writing it, so don’t give up. Take it one step at a time, follow the documentation, and if you need help, ask!
Occasionally our new members are plagued with technical issues; issues as simple as losing their password, or those of a more complicated nature such as finding their way around WordPress. If you’ve lost that first email we sent you or you’ve logged in and found everything a bit daunting, don’t hesitate to let me (The Cubist) know and I’ll get you sorted out just as quickly as I can!
C’mon raw Baconeers! Show us what you’ve got and help us make Nerd Bacon even bigger and better! Turn yourself from a cold, limp, mushy piece of meat into a hot, crispy, crunchy slice that everyone wants a bite of!
Nerd Bacon (Still) Needs Reporters!
That’s right, we still want to officially bump 1 or 2 of you up to reporter status. What does being a reporter mean? It’s pretty easy: just bring us a minimum of 2 news articles per week. They don’t have to be long and drawn out, just factual and relevant. For examples of what the ideal news piece should look like, take a gander at any one of The Watchman’s great efforts.
Being a reporter is also your chance to make Nerd Bacon shine from time to time. Feel free to chase down your own news for a Nerd Bacon exclusive! Maybe you can forge relationships with a couple of small developers out there? Maybe snag an email interview? You could even bring us first hand coverage of a local event!
You’ll still be free to write whatever other articles you currently have the clearance to write about (and we hope you continue to do so!) but now we will base your performance on how closely you can stick to 2 pieces of news each week.
If you think you’d be interested, shoot us an email! Currently, we’d prefer that prospective reporters have at least 10 published articles to their name already.
Wanna Make a Few Bucks? Wanna Help The Bacon Make a Few Bucks?!
from Nerdberry
Previously we mentioned assistance in selling ad-space on the website. Our next big step towards bringing in ad-revenue and putting that money directly into the site is selling ad-space on the website itself. The specifics can be broken down at a later date, but to summarize, we want to hire a salesperson who will focus on reaching out to prospective companies in an attempt to sell them advertising space on the website. We will have multiple packages that range from website only to Live Stream product-placement (depending on item, of course), and pre-video advertising for any YouTube videos. This salesperson will be the contact person for these companies and retaining/renewing their contracts will be rewarded. This will be commission based, so the harder you work, the more money you make. We can nail down the specifics once we find the right person. If anybody is interested, or knows someone that has previous sales experience and might be interested, contact NerdBerry@NerdBacon.com. Thanks!
from The Cubist
I’d also like to quickly add that a sustainable source of income is one of the most important things you all can help us out with when it comes to Nerd Bacon. Having a little bit of money to throw around for incentives, advertising, technical upgrades, and eventually as pay for you guys is the next big hurdle that we need to surmount. As some of you know, we’ve lost maybe half a dozen decent members to paying gigs, and this is a trend that will sadly continue until we’re able to offer compensation. If you truly want to see us grow and prosper – if you like working for us instead of some faceless conglomerate owned by a multi-million dollar company – if you want to truly be a part of something from the ground up – then put whatever energy you can towards helping us bring that cash in. It is not for David and I to get rich off of; it’s for us to continue to grow and expand the site and put ourselves on par with our competitors. Please, do what you can and help us out! What’s good for us is good for you!
The Dusty Ol’ Forums…
from Nerdberry
Believe it or not, the Nerd Bacon Forums were once a thriving oasis full of interesting topics and interesting people. Okay, maybe it wasn’t thriving. But we had big dreams for the forums once! And we still do! One of our very own Baconeers from times passed reached out to The Cubist and myself. He took on the daunting task of getting the forums prepped and ready for that sweet sweet bacon life. Everything was hunky dory until he retired to focus on work. Anyway, to get to the point… We would love to get the Forums back up and running. If anybody has any experience or inclination to learn, we would love to talk to you! I can hear Mr. Cube working on a new badge with your name on it right now…
Review Spotlight
- Top 10 Mistakes in Mortal Kombat History – The Cubist
- Ok, I know this may look like I’m bragging on my article, but give me a second to explain! Recently we’ve been urging senior and semi-senior members to explore articles outside the realm of typical reviews, and this is a great example of turning something you’re knowledgeable and/or passionate about into a Top 10 List instead of crafting a simple editorial or rant. I was doing a little bit of “mental bitching” about some aspects of MK, and while yes, I could’ve written a more straightforward article on the subject, I broke the idea into discrete pieces, expanded upon it, and voila, a Top 10!
Nerdberry expresses a similar sentiment…
For anyone who’s been keeping up with Nerd Bacon in the last 2 months, you’re more than familiar with The Cubist’s obsession with Mortal Kombat X (among others). But that’s exactly why this article is so good. Everyone has an area of expertise. The Cubez took all of his gripes about Mortal Kombat and channeled them into a constructive and informative Top 10 piece. “Top 10” articles tend to have longer-lasting value than that of “news” or “editorials.” Instead of creating a rambling thought piece, he created an organized article that is certain to garner much attention. Great job Cubistro!
- Something Old, Something New, Something Doom – Superking
- Nerdberry says…
This article is really a great one. Much like that of Cube’s Top 10 MK Mistakes, Superking took his knowledge and love for the series and transformed it into a really interesting read! It’s very different from many articles that come across Nerd Bacon’s super black/green pages, but that’s exactly why it is so refreshing and such a fun read. If you weren’t excited for Doom before, you sure as hell should be now!
- Nerdberry says…
- Valiant Hearts: The Great War – PS4/PSN – Gingerbot
- Nerdberry says…
Gingerbot (Caitlin) is a busy busy person! So we always appreciate when she drops a sweet little review on the site. I especially like this review because of the intro paragraph. Sometimes that’s all it takes to set the tone and captivate the readers. She opens her review with, “The key to any great game is an amazing story.” What a bold statement! One that I can agree with! But others might say “No! It’s the controls!” But who cares what anyone else thinks? Caitlin put her thoughts on the table for everyone to see and she didn’t waver. Great job! Strong writing.
- Nerdberry says…
- Pilotwings – SNES – ZB
- If there’s anyone currently on the site with an easily identifiable style of writing, it’s Mr. ZB. His conversational tone makes his work almost instantly recognizable, and this is something that everyone should strive for…not to copy ZB directly, but to develop a distinctive style. We operate as a collective, but we connect with readers on an individual basis. Having articles of a consistent quality from different reviewers allow readers to connect with the individual better, and that’s a concept that we’re always working hard to highlight and promote.
Remember to Write with Professionalism!
from Nerdberry
Even though NerdBacon.com has a “blog-style” WordPress theme, we don’t conduct ourselves as a blogging site. That’s not quite how we see ourselves even though we incorporate personal sentiments, personal events about a certain game, and so forth. So it is important that everyone remember to remain objective more often than not. It’s completely okay to be a total mush about a game from time to time, but we don’t want to be too glowing when we write. And hey, I’m not coming down on anybody because I definitely have a tendency to let my nostalgic feelings interfere with a truly unbiased critiquing of a game. Not only should we remain objective, but we should also use real words and not abbreviated words. For example, using “till” in place of “until.” Read this sentence: “You might not like sports games, at least not till you play NHL ’97.” It looks unprofessional and it looks like it belongs in a blog or on someone’s Facebook.
But the last thing we want is for everyone to sound robotic. Please do continue to include anecdotes, personal events surrounding the game, some nostalgia, game history, and more. If you want to use the word “till,” then make sure the tone of that sentence or paragraph is obviously very light. For those who write with a loose-flow style much like that of a conversational tone, remember to use abbreviated words very sparingly. Don’t let these rules change your style or the vibe of your review. Just keep a close eye on your work and remember to write with professionalism. Afterall, any and all of your work can be used in a portfolio for future jobs if you choose.
from The Cubist
To briefly add to this, here are some other words you should generally stay away from in your writing: gonna, dunno, wanna, sorta, gimme, lemme, kinda, etc.
Monday Night Twitch – Tentatively Titled The BLT – Is About to Begin
We’ve been discussing it forever, and now we’re ready to get this project off the ground and hopefully bring our Twitch presence more in line with what we’re doing on the site. First and foremost, this is a chance for anyone to participate in our official Twitch streaming without having to regularly commit to a day and time. We want to see as many Baconeers as possible participate!
We also want to make it abundantly clear that anyone who wishes to go above and beyond simple “Let’s Play’s” is welcomed and highly encouraged to do so. We want to do something different – we want to make these Monday night events entertaining and interactive above all else. Be sure to run your ideas by us first, but chances are we’ll be happy to say “yes” to any concepts you may want to implement. When you’re up to stream, make the show your own! Take charge, do what you want, and most importantly, pay attention to the chat! This is your audience!
When the streamer gets too engrossed in the game, and/or when the audience isn’t feeling it and begins to engage in their own conversation, the stream itself can become sort of pointless. If your game suffers a little bit, so be it! If you have to admit to defeat and move on to something else, do it! Keep things fresh with your audience, and keep your eye on the chat. This is your chance to be the center of attention; make the most of it!
Finally, we need hosts and hostesses to start “signing up” for these shows. We’ve got this coming Monday (the 6th) and the next Monday (the 13th) lined up, and possibly the following Monday as well. We do realize that many of you may not be able to plan that far ahead, but do try to let me know as soon as you can – even if you’re interested but can’t settle on a definite “yes” yet, let me know anyway! Our goal here is to form a schedule that extends roughly a month into the future. So c’mon and get involved! Even if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to streaming, drop us a line and we’ll be glad to help you out.
Obviously certain hosts and hostesses will be featured more than once, but the more of you that we can get involved, the better. And please keep in mind that you’re encouraged to go above and beyond the standard “Let’s Play” formula; just let us know what we can expect in advance.
Social Media Thanks
from Nerdberry
Big thanks to ZB (Sam) and Steroid Gamer (Sean) for stepping up in a huge way with our Facebook and Twitter feeds! We’ve seen tremendous growth in both areas and we hope for more very soon! There are still numerous other social media sites that we’re trying to tap into. So if you want to snag 1 and assist in running it, we’d love that! Plus, you can add it to your resume for future jobs! Let us know if you want some more information.
Get Involved! Get Greasy!
Hey! Listen up! We want you guys to help out and be a part of Greased! We’d love for you to send in comments, questions, and any other newsworthy information that might hold relevance to other members. We’ll consider any other ideas you may have as well, so don’t be shy. Make Greased yours!
Site Developments
We’ve got quite a few small developments happening when it comes to the site, so listen up! We could use your help when it comes to several of these…
First up, it’s personally an exciting time for David and I because we are fast approaching Nerd Bacon’s 2 year anniversary! We founded the site back in August of 2013. I remember that David came to me with a vision and the bare bones of a website. Remembering my own prowess with which I built websites back in 2001 or so, I grossly overestimated my abilities. But after some phone calls, some late nights, a lot of hard work, and a healthy dose of trial and error, we started getting ourselves on track. We spent the next few months writing, designing, learning, and recruiting, and officially “opened our doors” the following January. And the rest is history!
A month-long celebration of the founding of Nerd Bacon could be a great way to keep interest alive while we wait for the heavy hitters of the holiday season to roll around; any ideas on how we might celebrate?
Unfortunately, August is also a time for domain fees, hosting fees, etc. If anyone out there is interested in donating to the cause, please contact Nerdberry as soon as you can at Nerdberry@NerdBacon.com and let him know. I know he’ll appreciate it; plus you’ll receive a Coin Badge for your financial contribution.
You should also notice a permanent Twitch schedule now residing in the right sidebar with collapsible items. Most of you are already aware of the Twitch schedule, but this can serve as a great reminder to those not familiar. When and if you host a stream of your own, you may want to mention this when you close out your stream – something like, “for more information about our Twitch activities, go to NerdBacon.com and look for our ‘Twitch Schedule’ in the right sidebar!” In the near future we hope to update this on a regular basis (perhaps in line with the newsletters) with as many actual titles and times available at the time.
We’ve had a slow couple of weeks here with only a few articles published. I understand some of you are still “recovering” from E3, but try not to let that stop you for too long! We’ve also been noticeably short on badge earnings these last two weeks. Go out there and get some badges! If we owe you one, don’t be shy about letting us know!
Finally, I want to again draw attention to the upcoming Member Evaluations. I haven’t been able to get started on these as soon as I’d like, but they will be going out sometime soon-ish. Between drawing up the numbers and coordinating commentary with David, it can take a little while to get these done, so they’ll probably trickle down to you guys in groups of 5 or so. Remember that this is not a chance for us to draw negative attention to anyone’s efforts, it is just a chance for us to keep you informed about your level of activity.
Well, I think that about covers it! Now let’s take a look at what June’s numbers have to tell us!
HTML Tips & Tricks
Collapsible Content
This time we’re going to cover something a little different than standard HTML/CSS. This time we’re going to discuss a certain type of shortcode. What is shortcode? It’s simplified code inserted into a post that another part of WordPress translates into something else. Basically, a complicated language or markup (Language A) is substituted by a shorter easier to understand language (Language B). One of our plugins translates the easier to learn Language B into the more complex Language A.
The bad news is that we can’t really build on our current knowledge of HTML; the good news is that most shortcode is formatted exactly the same.
Today’s shortcode is going to focus on collapsible content. Now since the shortcode will only work in WordPress I won’t be able to display any examples here, but I can explain how it works. Once you’ve read it over, take a look at some examples in action on this page of the site I’ve set up as a demonstration.
These tips and tricks can be used either in the Visual or Text editor.
When generating collapsible content, everything that we want to collapse or expand will be between an opening [expand] tag and a closing [/expand] tag. What we can modifiy is the clickable text itself in the opening tag.
Title – The title refers to what the clickable text (or trigger) will be. The target content will be between the two tags, but within the opening expand tag, we will define what the user clicks on to expand or collapse the target content. You’ll probably always use the title feature since your readers will need something to click on. Adding it into the opening tag is easy. Let’s say we want to say “Click here to read more!” Here’s what the opening tag looks like now: [expand title="Click here to read more!"]. Easy enough?
Swaptitle – This refers to what the clickable text changes to after it’s been clicked. For instance, let’s say at first we want it to say “Click here to expand!” but after it’s been clicked we want it to say “Click here to close!” Here’s the opening tag: [expand title="Click here to expand!" swaptitle="Click here to close!"]. If you want the text to stay the same whether the content is expanded or collapsed, leave out this attribute altogether. (This holds true for most future attributes as well; if you don’t need the function it provides, it’s as simple as not including it at all!)
Trigpos – Short for trigger position, this refers to whether you want the clickable text (the trigger) to stay at the top of the target content or below. By default it stays at the top, so if you want it at the top, you won’t need to use this at all. If you want it to appear below the target content, add this to your opening tag: trigpos="below".
Expanded – By default, your target content will be collapsed, and this will probably be what you need for most situations. But what if you want your content to start off expanded? Add this to your opening tag: expanded="true".
Trigclass – Short for trigger class, this defines where the arrow will appear. By default, it appears to the left of the trigger text. If you want the arrow on the right, use trigclass="arrowright" in the opening tag; if you want no arrow (and just the trigger text itself), add trigclass="noarrow" in the opening tag.
Tag – Use this function to add a pre-defined HTML tag to your trigger text. You can use things like h1, h2, or any “h” followed by 1 through 9. Just add tag="h7" to your opening tag.
Startwrap & Endwrap – Here’s an alternative to using pre-defined tags. Here you can define your very own HTML to apply to the trigger text. This is the only instance in which it is safe to mix HTML and shortcode! Use startwrap to mark the beginning of an HTML tag such as <strong> or <em> and then use endwrap to close the tags, like </strong> or </em>. Stick all of this in the opening tag and don’t forget to use the arrowheads. If you wanted to embolden your trigger text, you would include all of this in the opening tag: startwrap="<strong>" endwrap="</strong>". Note that HTML with inline CSS (such as span tags) will not work. The quotation marks needed for the inline CSS mess with the quotes in the shortcode. For maximum flexibility, we can craft special predefined tags for an individual’s exact needs.
You may not need or want to use all of these at one time, but let’s take a look at what a complete tag might look like. Let’s say you wanted your clickable text to read “Read More” and to change to “Read Less” after it was clicked; you also wanted the clickable text to move to the bottom of the target content; you also don’t want an arrow to appear; finally you want to italicize your trigger text. Your opening tag would look like this: [expand title="Read More" swaptitle="Read Less" trigpos="below" trigclass="noarrow" startwrap="<em>" endwrap="</em>"] then follow this up with the target cotent (the content to be expanded and collapsed), and then end it all with [/expand].
There are also plenty of other tricks you can do with this plugin and check it out: we’ve actually paid for this one so you have the full range of functionality at your disposal. You can even nest collapsible elements inside of other collapsible elements!For a more in-depth explanation of how to use the plugin and all the variables you can use, you can visit this address: http://plugins.twinpictures.de/plugins/collapse-o-matic/documentation/ , official documentation regarding the plugin with examples.
You may also want to head over to this page on the site itself to see some specific examples of what we’ve just discussed.
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Current Members Area Password:
- Only available via email!
Drop by the Members Area any time to check up on the latest site developments, leave a comment, or just to say hi!
Note: The password will be changing at the beginning of August!
Badges Earned
June 21 – July 4
E-Tank (E3 Participant)
- Justicescooby
Cube of Zoe (LNNB Attendee)
- Doc Croc
- Rhutsczar
- ZB
- InfiniteKnife
- AbyssalOblivion
- The Cubist
Box Hat (Top 10)
- Gingerbot
Strength Bracelet (StumbleUpon)
- Rhutsczar
- Doc Croc
- The Cubist
Poison Mushroom (Bio)
- Rhutsczar
Mushroom (Contrib.)
- Nerdy Friend
Super Leaf (Author)
- ZB
Gold Leaf (Twitch Host)
- Doc Croc
Have you earned a badge that you haven’t yet received? Let us know!
Fresh Meat:
New Member Spotlight
Let’s give a warm, crispy, greasy welcome to Nerd Bacon’s newest Baconeers!
… Wait … we can’t welcome any new members, because we haven’t had any new ones join in the last 2 weeks! If any of you are wondering how to help us out, get out there and track down some talent for us! Tap into any online (or real life) communities you may be a part of and help us to become even more productive.
Nerd Bacon Needs a New Poll!
It’s about that time…Nerd Bacon’s homepage poll has run its course. One of our most popular polls asked about favorite Mario games. Got any great ideas for what poll should appear next? Visit our Poll Archive to see what we’ve used in the past; maybe it’ll give you an excellent idea!
Articles
June 21 – July 4
- Amiibo Release Info (Updated)
- PaRappa the Rapper
- E3 2015 Review
- Nintendo World Championships to Return
- Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe
- Mortal Kombat: Unchained
- Top 10 Games of E3 2015
- Pilotwings
- Five Good and Bad Trends of E3 2015
- Valiant Hearts: The Great War
- Seduce Me: The Otome
- Tales from the Borderlands
- Mortal Kombat X (Mobile App) (Updated)
- Top 10 Biggest Mistakes in Mortal Kombat History
- Frogger
- New Doom News
- Jet Set Radio Future
- Condemned: Criminal Origins
- The Incredible Crash Dummies
- Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection
- Chicago Amusement Tax to Apply to Online Gaming
Technical Focus…Semi-colons
Semi-colons can be an effective piece of punctuation if used correctly. When used incorrectly, it can come off as sloppy. Worst of all, when you use a semi-colon incorrectly and someone spots it, they instantly know that you have no idea why you put that there. Now if someone who doesn’t know any better sees it, well, they still don’t know any better…so do yourself a favor and learn how to use a semi-colon!
I’ve seen several members – from stellar writers to just passable writers – use semi-colons incorrectly. It doesn’t have anything to do with your skill as a writer. Like most grammar and punctuation, the semi-colon is governed by rules, and these rules don’t typically have anything to do with how good of a writer you are. However, using them properly adds an extra degree of credibility to your work, and the rules of the semi-colon are actually pretty simple.
Some writers use semi-colons when they should be using either colons or, more often, commas. Semi-colons serve one sole purpose: to join 2 independent clauses. An independent clause is basically a fancy term for “complete sentence.” Hopefully we all know that a complete sentence has both a subject and a verb.
What a semi-colon does is join 2 complete sentences. There are 3 things we can do with 2 complete sentences in a given situation: we can leave them as they are, join with a comma and a conjunction, or join them with a semi-colon. Here’s an example using the sentences, “I went to the store” and, “then I came home.”
- Leave them alone. I went to the store. Then I came home.
- Comma + Conjunction. I went to the store, and then I came home.
- Semi-colon. I went to the store; then I came home.
Now what if we changed it up a little from, “then I came home” to, “then came home”? Since “then came home” is not a complete sentence, we can’t use a semi-colon. The only option in this case would be to say, “I went to the store, then came home.”
Technically it’s not incorrect to join any 2 sentences with a semi-colon, but most of the time it’s relegated to 2 highly related sentences. The use of a semi-colon implies less of a pause (and therefore less of a disconnect) between the 2 than a conjunction, and a conjunction implies less of a break than using a period and starting a new sentence.
Semi-colons should not be used to introduce lists (that’s what a colon is for) nor should they be used for a “dramatic” pause where only a short phrase follows. (Semi-colons require complete sentences on both sides.) In that case a colon is the more formal choice, but a dash ( – ) may better illustrate your intent, such as, “The boss battle is difficult – extremely difficult.” An ellipsis (…) is an informal albeit effective way to convey such a pause as well.
So, the quick lesson is that if you use a semi-colon, make sure you have a complete sentence on both sides of the mark.
It’s equally important not to overuse the semi-colon; you want to give your writing a dynamic pace. Overuse of the semi-colon can give your writing a monotonous quality, so switch it up!
Tips & Tricks
by ZB
Diction
Diction, or “word choice,” literally refers to the choice of words we use when trying to convey a certain idea in an article. ZB reminds us that using the same word again and again can diminish the professionalism of our work and offers up some advice that I myself often use as well – Thesaurus.com.
Most of you will probably remember using a thesaurus in college or high school, probably for really silly and pointless exercises. Well, now you have a good reason to use one! Finding just the right word to say exactly what you mean or just using a thesaurus to spruce up your work and expand your vocabulary can make all the difference. Using Thesaurus.com is an easy way to do it; all you do is type in a word. A thesaurus can also give you antonyms (or opposites) of a given word, which can sometimes be equally useful.
If you’re concerned that you may be using the same word or words too often, you can always take a quick look by using your browser’s “Find” function or by pressing Ctrl + F on your keyboard.
A word of caution though: it can be easy to get on a roll when using a thesaurus, so don’t overdo it! If you begin to replace every single “basic word” with a fancier word, your manuscript jeopardizes its prospects of appearing reasonable and concedes the possibility of resembling an entity shrouded in pretentiousness (see what I did there!?)…at which point you’ve overshot the very audience you’re trying to reach.
Did you know that…
We have a Review Submission Checklist for easy reference?
Once you start getting the hang of writing reviews for us, you may not need to dredge through our full explanations every time.
When you just need to refresh yourself or make sure you haven’t forgotten anything, use our checklist. It’s a simple way to make sure you’ve hit all the major points, with links to the more specific details in case you need them!
If you’re new, just getting started, or are a little rusty, be sure to take a look at our Review Submission Checklist!
Upcoming Twitch Events
The BLT (Various Hosts)
July 6th – The Incredible Crash Dummies with ZB @ 7pm EDT
July 13th – Majora’s Mask with Doc Croc @ 7:30pm EDT
Nerd Bacon Plays!
with InfiniteKnife @ 7pm EDT
July 8th – Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Episode 5
July 15th – Episode 6
July 22nd – Mario Party 10 (with possible multiplayer)
Girls Got Game
with Sarus Vakarian and Nerdy Friend @ 7pm EDT
July 9th – Game TBA
July 16th – Game TBA
Late Night Nerd Bacon
with The Cubist @ 11pm or later EDT
July ???? – Make sure to follow us on Twitch and sign up for email alerts so that you’ll be notified when these casual (and sometimes completely bizarre) streams pop up!
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Following, adding, subscribing, friending us earns you a badge! It can be hard for us to tell when this happens, so please let us know!
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Site Stats (June 2015)
June was another month of erratic numbers; huge ups and downs were the normal. We had a few great days right there in the thick of E3, but the rest of the month just couldn’t keep up. Are the summer doldrums already kicking in? Are the record high temperatures across the country actually driving people outdoors earlier this year? Who knows.
One thing is for sure though, and that’s that we raked in about 1100 more hits during June of 2015 than we did back in June of 2014. Unfortunately though, we weren’t able to break through May’s numbers, which were about 200-300 ahead. If, however, you account for May’s extra day over June, we brought it roughly as much traffic as we did last month. (The average visits per day were virtually the same for both months.) Still, I think all of us expected a bigger run due to E3. It’s also interesting to note that we also took a dip during June of 2014 when compared to May and July.
Here’s where Nerd Bacon’s originality comes into play. People can find news anywhere – maybe they hit us first and maybe they don’t – but when you all start using your expertise to craft 100% original articles, people can’t get that information anywhere else. That’s what we need! News is good, news is great even, but let’s all try to take that a step further and come up with some truly original content that won’t be posted elsewhere on the web.
We are seeing a nice trend in returning visitors though, which is one of the things we’ve always been after. And if we have to loose a few new visitors in order to gain some returning visitors, well, so be it. A sustained fanbase is exactly what we need. Several aspects such as page views and pages per sessions stayed roughly the same, especially when accounting for May’s extra day.
The other 2 criteria measured, bounce rate and session duration, lead us to an even more confounding situation than what we had in May. For unknown reasons (maybe all the news?) the bounce rate is all over the place, shooting first up and then down in leaps and bounds. This is not a good a thing. We want to keep that bounce rate as low as possible and suddenly it’s jumping all over the place. (This could be a good thing and it could mean that the website and its pages are finally starting to find their way into search engines, but I can’t be sure.) The confusing thing is that our average session duration times have been on an upward trend these last few months. Although I have my reservations about how session duration is measured, we went from barely hitting 2 minutes to nearly 3 and a half minutes in June! One would think that a wild bounce rate would lead to lower session durations…but who knows?
The only explanation I can come up with is the same one I offered up after taking a look at May’s traffic, which is that while the overall quantity of our visits may not be as high as we’d like, our numbers would seem to indicate that the quality of our visits is improving drastically. You’ll also see that our demographics remained mostly the same, though we made a little more headway into the 18-24 year old crowd this past month. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: Nerd Bacon needs women!
In addition to the usual numbers and graphs, I’ve included one comparing this year’s June to last year’s. Despite all the crazy and seemingly contradictory numbers flying around, one thing we can be sure of is that we’ve come quite a ways since last year this time.
Let’s do our best to make July a screaming success – it was one of our strongest and busiest months of 2014. With a new Twitch show lined up and 2 current Social Media Managers helping us put ourselves out there lately, we’re on the right track. What we need the most from you is reviews reviews reviews so keep ’em coming! And don’t forget…
Remember it all boils down to a very simple formula: more traffic = more ad-clicks = more money = your chance to get PAID!
| Visits – June 2015 | ||
| TOTAL | UNIQUE | |
| Hits | 7,169 | 5,920 |
| % Increase over April | -3.68% | -7.63% |
| Average Per Day | 239 | 197 |
| Page Views | ||
| Total | 38,189 | |
| % Increase | -5.58% | |
| Average Per Day | 1,273 | |
Until Next Time…
Most of you guys and girls are doing a great job when it comes to giving us a steady stream of content to publish and we definitely appreciate it. As always, one of the biggest ways you can help us is to keep on playing and keep on writing! Of course if you have some extra time on your hands and want to help a little more, we’ve got several things you can get involved with including our Monday night Twitch show, managing our presence on a social network, procuring financial backing for us, and bringing new recruits to us.
I mentioned earlier that July of 2014 was one of our best months on record at that point, so let’s see if we can do the same thing for July of this year!
CONTACT US
Administrators
- NerdBerry –
NerdBerry@NerdBacon.com – Promotion, advertising, funding, events, social networking, editing, concept & direction. - The Cubist –
TheCubist@NerdBacon.com – Tech support, maintenance (badges, newsletter, membership management, etc.), graphics, editing, concept & direction.
Assistant Admins
- Variand –
Variand@NerdBacon.com – Twitch support, site support, concept & direction. - ChronoSloth –
ChronoSloth@NerdBacon.com – Link supervisor, general management & maintenance. - InfiniteKnife –
InfiniteKnife@NerdBacon.com – Twitch support.
Editors
- Doc Croc –
DocCroc@NerdBacon.com – Editing, publication, and scheduling.
Authors
- The Watchman –
TheWatchman@NerdBacon.com – Current affairs specialist, head reporter. - Gingerbot –
Gingerbot@NerdBacon.com – Reporter. - Justicescooby –
Justicescooby@NerdBacon.com – Senior writer. - Steroid Gamer –
SteroidGamer@NerdBacon.com – Senior writer. - Sarus Vakarian –
Sarus@NerdBacon.com –
Senior writer. - Rhutsczar –
Rhutsczar@NerdBacon.com – Social media manager, senior writer. - ZB –
ZB@NerdBacon.com –
Social media manager, senior writer.
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