Greased: The Nerd Bacon Newsletter (1.3)
Issue #3, Volume 1
Nerd Bacon News: May 2015 (1)
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E3 is fast approaching! Although we want you guys to go ahead and start thinking about what role you might be willing to play during the event, we still have a good deal of time to prepare.
Until then, let’s keep doing what we’re doing. Reviews are always a priority, so let’s review! Don’t forget that you don’t just have to write game reviews. We always love to host hardware reviews as well. Got a favorite light gun, or an unusual controller? How about a nice piece of performance-boosting PC equipment? Or maybe you can give us an expert rundown on a classic console, including things like processing power and other specs? It’s all fair game, and if you’ve never written one before, you’ll find that it’s a bit of a different experience. Plus, you’ll score yourself a Hammer Badge!
If you’re a member who’s reached at least 10 published articles, you can also branch out into DIY articles or top 10 lists. We’ll talk more about DIY pieces a little further down. Top 10 lists should be pretty self explanatory; you can see our collection of such articles by clicking here. They take a little longer to put together than a standard review, but they’re always a big hit on social networks and they’re good for stirring up the interest and opinions of readers. Top 10s are a great way to show off your expertise, be informative, and craft an entertaining article all in one blow. And you’ll get your very own Box Hat Badge to go with it!
So for the time being, let’s keep doing our thing. Priorities for May:
- Write reviews!
- Help us recruit. Pass along the application URL – http://nerdbacon.com/apply/ – to anyone you think might be interested.
- Support us on social networks and keep up with the Twitch streams.
- Consider assisting us with editing, social networking management, and other needed areas, including the newsletter.
- Start thinking about your role in our E3 coverage!
Next Month: E3
We’ve been building up to it for some time now, and although E3 is still in the distance, it’s time to really start buckling down and getting ready for the flurry of information that’s going to hit. We’ll touch on this more during the next newsletter, but if you’re interested in getting involved in this year’s E3 coverage, now is the time to start thinking seriously about it.
What does covering E3 mean? It means staying on top of the information coming out of the expo by whatever means possible. With so many videos and streams being broadcast directly from the event, it’s best to use these primary sources whenever possible. We don’t want you guys and girls out there scouring other news sites for the latest info; we want you watching the events themselves, first hand, whenever possible and writing up your own reports.
News articles are, in general, held to a higher standard than reviews. The trade-off is that news articles become irrelevant very quickly whereas reviews remain as relatively timeless sources of information. E3 coverage will be held to an even higher standard since we will be working so hard to write, edit, and publish these articles as quickly as possible. If you’ve never written a news article before, contact us so that you can get your feet wet before the madness begins. Typically there are no second chances with E3 news. If the article isn’t up to snuff the first time around, there just isn’t time to revise, resubmit, and re-edit the piece before the news runs cold.
Also important to remember is that E3 is not just about June 16th – 18th! There will plenty of information coming out beforehand and plenty of expert analysis up for grabs after all the big reveals, so we can really have fun with this during the entire month of June! For those ready, we can start putting together some “E3 hype” articles out there now to build up to the event. If you’ve got something to say about E3 before it gets here, then say it!
This is just a rough idea of what the coverage will be like. If you’re interested in participating, don’t let this discourage you, just know that we take it seriously and we want you to take it seriously as well. We really do need as many of you helping as possible, so don’t be shy about “signing up.”
D.I.Y. – A Closer Look
A lot of you may not even know that we have a DIY section of the site; fewer still may truly understand what it’s about. Whether we’re talking about a punk demo tape or your latest home improvement project, “DIY” means the same thing: do it yourself. When it comes to DIY in the world of gaming, this covers a surprisingly large range of activities, just under the surface of “normal” gaming, that many gamers are wholly unaware of.
I want to take just a couple of minutes to address Nerd Bacon’s DIY section and in the process draw some attention towards it and hopefully explain a little about why it’s here and what its function is.
When David and I got Nerd Bacon off the ground, one of our first jobs was to partition the site into major categories. At some point, or maybe over several points, I mentioned that I wanted to start collecting this wealth of “DIY-ish” gaming information scattered across the web into a single place where people could come and get their fix for various projects. Nerd Bacon may not yet be the web’s premier hub for such information just yet, though we have built up an appreciable selection of articles. I say “articles,” but they’re more like guides.
Most of the articles that I (The Cubist) have contributed to the DIY area were born of a particular project that I wanted to undertake. When attempting these projects, I found that I often had to visit several different websites – often upwards of 4 or 5 – to acquire all the requisite knowledge to undertake some of these tasks. Some websites were great at walking me through one step, but I was invariably directed elsewhere for instructions on how to do something else critical to the overall success of my project. In short, I had envisioned a place where a reader could get from point A to B and hit points C, D, E, and F in between all in a single place.
So what is a gaming DIY project? Well, it can be anything from manipulating software to crafting original hardware. One of my first articles (and projects) was to create a composite output cable for the TurboGrafx-16 (TG16). The TG16 doesn’t natively support composite output (well, technically it does, but it lacks the proper external connectors), so I made a cable! One of our members, student 20, has published an excellent series on the concepts and ideas behind modding and NerdBerry offers up a guide for starting a Sega Dreamcast collection for under $100. Past members have tackled subjects such as building computers and emulation basics. One of the most practical and least time intensive topics is that of burning your own games for older systems.
Not everyone will be inclined to mess around with their existing equipment, but for those of you that are tinkerers, start documenting your experiences and help us fill in our DIY area. And for those of you who thought, “there can’t possibly be anything that would interest me” in our DIY section, take a look around; you might be surprised! If you have something like a Dreamcast or Sega CD lying around, you owe it to yourself to see just how easy burning your own games can be.
Take a look around Nerd Bacon’s DIY section!
Review Spotlight
- A Virtual Life in Plastic: An Overview of the Barbie Games – Sarus Vakarian
- We’ve been trying to get several of you more involved with our Beyond Bacon efforts lately, and Sarus pulls through in fine form. Check out her journey through Barbie’s video gaming evolution.
- Shrek Fairy Tale Freakdown – GBC – ZB
- We could all probably come up with a million horrible ideas for games, but a fighting game revolving around the characters of the movie Shrek, on the Game Boy Color no less, has to be near the top of that list. ZB manages to almost make this sound like a fun game…
- Suidoken II – PlayStation – Rhutsczar
- NBe sure to check out the review for this PS1 sleeper hit, one of today’s rarest and most expensive PS1 games! In-depth and informative, take note of the deft balance between commentary and explanation is this article from Rhutsczar.
Google+? Tumblr? Anyone? Bueller?
I know I’m always hounding you guys about social media, but it’s for 2 good reasons: 1) we need the help, and 2) no one’s volunteering! The more I mess around on Tumblr, the more I like it. Our posts are reaching non-followers and non-followers are even reblogging some of these posts, which is very cool. I know Facebook generates plenty of activity and that many of you help us out on that front and that’s great, but I really want to put some heavy focus into Tumblr where there’s a greater emphasis on content rather than socialization. Even visually speaking, there’s a ton that can be done since Tumblr lets you input your own CSS. We have a paltry 7 followers and yet the last 4 posts have all gotten notes from people other than those followers. In short, there are people out there that are interested in what’s going on at Nerd Bacon . com, we just need someone with the time and energy to help us tap into that.
Still not motivated? It all comes down to what we’ve been saying all along: the more prolific we are on social media, the more hits we drive to the site. The more hits we drive to the site, the more ad clicks we get. The more ad clicks we get, the more money make! And this isn’t money for us, this is money for the site. We’d love to pay you guys, and that’s one of our number one goals, but we’re going to need your help! So if you have any experience with Tumblr or if you think you can figure it out, let us know!
Google+ is in a similar boat, but I understand less about it than I do Tumblr. But numbers don’t lie, millions of people are plugged into Google+ so that’s where we need to be. Again, volunteers are wanted…badly!
Wanna Host a Twitch Stream?
Twitch streams have proven extremely popular so far and several of you continue to express interest in getting involved. I don’t know how many more weekly shows we can realistically support (we may have to start a sort of rotation) but anyone is still welcome to get in on the action. We’re becoming more and more experienced with different means of going about streaming on Twitch, so if you’re interested, drop us a line and we’ll work something out!
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
Besides the small badge expansion which we’ll be working to implement, the only thing really going on on the site in the near future is E3 prep – getting the necessary pages and infrastructure ready for the event.
I know that most of you guys and gals are gamers and not webpage designers, but Nerd Bacon desperately needs a mobile overhaul. If anyone out there has sufficient experience – and time – to help me come up with a mobile-friendly version of the site, I would be most appreciative. I’m not looking to create anything fancy, just something that’s manageable on the small screen, maybe one or both sidebars removed, an alternate menu for easier navigation, that sort of thing. It does have to be a major overhaul, just something that makes Nerd Bacon viewable on the small screen. Ideally we will need 4 layouts – 1) portrait ~ 3″ – 4″ screens, 2) landscape ~ 3″ – 4″ screens, 3) portrait ~ 7″ – 8″ screens, and 4) landscape ~ 7″ – 8″.
I have a lot of great data that members sent me a few months back, mainly screenshots and measurements to show me what The Bacon looks like on different devices. If someone out there with some serious know-how would be willing to work closely with me on this , I’d be absolutely thrilled.
Tips and Tricks
from NerdBerry
Own Your Craft! Be an Authoritative Voice!
One thing that drives me crazy is when I see a review littered with the words “sort of” and “kind of” and “I think” and “maybe.” Those words are appropriate in certain situations, but I see them most often when folks are unsure of themselves. For example: “I was racing with the mid-level kart and the controls were kind of bad.” I get what you’re saying. They’re not terrible but they’re not great. But overuse of those words can take away your expertise and authoritative voice. They make you sound unsure of yourself and not confident. OWN that review!
My example isn’t a great one. But the point I’m trying to get across is this: We brought you to Nerd Bacon because we saw the passion in you. Many of you had no writing experience prior to this, but your passion for games was enough to sell us. YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL gamer. You might not get paid for it (sorry lol), but you write professional reviews for a professional gaming website. So when you come off as unsure and not-so-confident, you lose your power and authority. If the world says Super Mario 64 is a great game, but you think it’s absolute trash, then tell us why! Have the power, have the strength, have the courage, and back up your words. But you are the expert. BE an authoritative voice and don’t back down from your opinions just because other people think differently. Own your craft people.
Did you know that…
Nerd Bacon has adspace for sale? Why not help us sell it!?
You’ve no doubt noticed Nerd Bacon’s existing ads; these are all provided courtesy of Google, who gives us a few cents here and there per click. However, we’re also willing to lease out this space at what we consider reasonable rates. Hopefully as we attract more and more traffic, this adspace will becoming more and more attractive to prospective renters.
If you’d really like to do Nerd Bacon a huge favor, go out there and sell some adspace for us! Don’t have a domain email yet? We’ll give you one for your travels! We’re open to pretty much anything that doesn’t involve pornography or warez (illegal/gray area file trading, torrents, “cracks,” and the like). Mostly what we have in mind are small arrangements with individuals and/or small organizations that want to get word of their product or service out.
Obviously it would be a good idea to chase down something related to video games since that what the site revolves around. If you ever stumble across a service or product or maybe even a game and you think the owner or creator might be interested in reaching customers through Nerd Bacon, give it a shot! Besides doing the site a huge favor, there may also be a modest commission available for you as well. For more details, contact us!
Please understand that we are not greedy or looking to line our pockets at your expense. As of right now, Nerd Bacon costs money to operate; we don’t make a cent. When we ask for help from our members it is not because we aim to get rich off of your sweat. It’s because we truly believe in being able to put a substantial amount of money back into the site to make it bigger and better for both you all and the readers!
The Complete Collection of NB Graphics
Our collection of official Nerd Bacon graphics and imagery has been substantially updated! Why would you need these? Well, for any situation where it might be prudent to show off that you’re a part of The Bacon! The package has received a complete overhaul from previous versions, so even if you’ve downloaded these before, you may want to check them out again.
nb_complete_images.zip
(Click to download) – Contains all official NB graphics, ever! (Including all the contents of the files below.)
nb_logos.zip – Contains all logos, current, seasonal, and very early versions.
nb_watermarks.zip – The complete set of NB watermarks and seals, useful for branding any original work you may do for The Bacon.
nb_badges.zip – Complete set of badges, both current and potential future badges, in large, small, and “sized” (25×25) variants.
nb_misc.zip – Miscellaneous graphics – Twitch, menu graphics, header icons, etc.
Nerd Bacon recommends…
…for all your compression and extraction needs!
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Current Members Area Password:
- Only available through email!
Drop by the Members Area any time to check up on the latest site developments, leave a comment, or just to say hi! This is the new password which went into effect on May 1st.
Badges Earned
April 26th – May 9th
Frog (Jr. Author)
- Action Zero
Golden Leaf (Twitch Host)
- The Watchman
- ChronoSloth
- The Cubist
Carrot (Sr. Contrib.)
- Rhutsczar
Boomerang (180 Posts)
- NerdBerry
Bacon Badges v3.0 is Out Now!
That’s right, all new badges are available for the taking! (Or earning?) We’ve got 11 new icons to offer up in addition to some minor restructuring of existing badges. Be sure to check out the Bacon Badges page for more specific info. If you don’t notice any changes right away, don’t be alarmed, it may take us a couple of days to get everything updated. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, be sure to look over the above link and let us know if there are badges you’ve earned but haven’t been awarded!
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!
- UsernameRedBlue (Lloyd)
Welcome to the meat grinder!
Meet Our 2 Newest Editors-in-Training!
Long-time head reporter The Watchman and the somewhat-new but prolific Doc Croc have stepped up to the plate to help us with one of our most time consuming activities: editing. So if an article of yours sits in pending limbo for a while, don’t be alarmed. We’re just getting these 2 ready to venture off on their own. Both of them are rapidly learning the ways of The Bacon, so expect an official annoucement regarding their status as full editors in the near future.
Member Appreciation
by NerdBerry
Hey Baconeers. We want to take a moment to recognize the outstanding efforts of a particular Baconeer, Sam, aka ZB. He’s fairly new to the team, having published his first review in mid February. ZB exemplifies the true Nerd Bacon spirit by actively inserting himself into the NB community with positivity and enthusiasm. With 13 published articles under his belt, he is one of the most active members over the last 3 months. Not only has he been an active game-reviewer, but he has contributed photos to our ongoing efforts over at Flickr. Furthermore, in lieu of cancelling our Wednesday Twitch stream, ZB stepped up and filled in during a time of need, helping maintain the weekly schedule. ZB, good sir, we thank you for your efforts and we appreciate having you here with Nerd Bacon. Congratulations.
Articles
April 26th – May 9th
- Duke Nukem II
- Shrek Fairy Tale Freakdown
- Kirby: Squeak Squad
- Sidemeat – 18th Slice
- Silent Hill Reboot ‘Silent Hills’ Canceled
- Five Nights at Freddy’s 4 Coming Halloween 2015
- New Guitar Hero and Rock Band Games
- Mario Kart 8 Ver. 4.0 DLC
- International Sensible Soccer
- Might No. 9 Release Date
- Girls Make Games Scholarship Contest
- Napoleon Dynamite: The Game
- Sidemeat – 19th Slice
- Club Drive
- Sidemeat – 20th Slice
- April’s Foolish Games 2015
- A Virtual Life in Plastic: An Overview of the Barbie Games
- Suikoden II
- Resident Evil: Revelations 2
- MKX’s Jason Gets a Release Date
- Final Fantasy: All the Bravest
- Mario Kart 8 Ver. 2.0
- Donkey Kong Country
- Mario Kart 8 Ver. 4.1
- Is “Heroes of the Storm” the Best Gateway for E-Sports?
- MKX – Jason Voorhees VIDEO Demo
- No Sega Booth at E3 2015
- Yandere Simulator (Debug Release)
- New Assassin’s Creed Game to be Announced
- Try Splatoon Free This Weekend
Technical Focus…Excerpt
Excerpts are one of the coolest things we ever discovered about the website. They give writers a chance to write a concise summary or hook based on their article. Whenever your article is represented elsewhere on the site, this excerpt is the only text that readers will see, so make it pack a punch!
At the bare minimum, we recommend copy/pasting the meta description into the excerpt box, and while this may be enough for short news pieces, we strongly encourage you to dig a little deeper for reviews. Meta descriptions have a strict character limit, so we’re more focused on squeezing in the requisite information while saying as much as possible. Excerpts, on the other hand, have no upper limit. While we don’t want this area to get too lengthy, there is more than enough space to write something attractive and appealing to draw readers in. Be creative! And be informative: this could be the difference between a reader deciding to click on your article or pass over it.
Some things to remember about writing Excerpts:
- They can be creative, but not abstract. Make sure you mention major things like the name of the game being reviewed.
- One approach is to hook the reader in by asking questions that only your article can answer and driving up their potential interest.
- Another approach is to provide a more straightforward summary or introduction to your article.
- Don’t include anything too important in your excerpt that isn’t already in the article – your excerpt won’t necessarily be read in all circumstances.
- Although copying the meta description text is acceptable, these 2 areas should be regarded as discrete entities and we strongly encourage you to treat them as such.
For the complete rundown on Excerpts, click here!
Upcoming Twitch Events
Tentative: May 10th, 11th, or 12th: Special Event
The Cubist will casually stream a couple of hours of Forza Horizon 2 for the Xbox One. Stay tuned for details!
May 13th – 7pm EDT: Nerd Bacon Plays!
InfiniteKnife will tentatively be playing Super Mario 64.
May 14th – 7pm EDT: Girls Got Game
Game TBA with Sarus Vakarian & Nerdy Friend
May 20th – 7pm EDT: Nerd Bacon Plays!
Game TBA with InfiniteKnife
May 21st – 7pm EDT: Girls Got Game
Game TBA with Sarus Vakarian & Nerdy Friend
A big thanks to InfiniteKnife for sticking it out through Mega Man X3 this past week despite his sickness. Way to keep the schedule alive!
Follow Us!
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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 (April 2015)
April started out really well when it came to visits, but we gradually began to taper off near the end of the month. Time and time again we’ve proven that people will read our content but part of our job is get it out there to them! We still need your help. There’s only but so much that David and I can. A few of you have the ability to post on the Nerd Bacon Page on Facebook which can really help put our articles on the map when we’re not around. Also, getting a couple of you to truly manage our social networking presence would be great too! Between writing, editing, recruiting, maintenance, and everything else, it can be hard to get around to pumping all of our articles like we should. But you guys can help us out!
Remember it all boils down to a very simple formula: more traffic = more ad-clicks = more money = your chance to get PAID!
For any of you experienced with social networking sites (even ones we aren’t on yet!), please considering donating a little more time to us and help us pump those articles!
| Visits – April 2015 | ||
| TOTAL | UNIQUE | |
| Hits | 7,334 | 6,437 |
| % Increase over March | -15% | -11% |
| Average Per Day | 244 | 215 |
| Page Views | ||
| Total | 40,551 | |
| % Increase | -11% | |
| Average Per Day | 1,352 | |
Until Next Time…
Keep the reviews coming whenever you can, but also be thinking more seriously about E3. For the remainder of May and especially during the first part of June, we’d be glad to start accepting anticipatory articles regarding the event. Maybe it’s a well informed guess about what the biggest unveilings and announcements will be, or maybe it’s something you’re looking forward to. You may even want to kick things off with a recap of some of last year’s biggest moments or some of last year’s unanswered questions! Anything you can think of to get us and the readers into the E3 spirit would be great.
One of our main goals regarding traffic is to hit a cool 10,000, consistently, each and every month. We edge a little closer or a little further each and every month, but a big push from you guys could make all the difference in the world! Spread our articles around! Help us manage one or more social sites! Help us bring in new members! Let’s make a real effort to bolster our traffic during the rest of May!
That’s it for Issue #3 of Greased. Come to us as always with any thoughts, questions or comments about the site, May, E3, the newsletter, or anything else on your mind.
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.
Authors
- The Watchman –
TheWatchman@NerdBacon.com – Current affairs specialist, head reporter. - Gingerbot –
Gingerbot@NerdBacon.com – Reporter. - Justicescooby –
Justicescooby@NerdBacon.com – Senior writer.
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