by @MaddFM_
The life of a Football Manager blogger can be a lonely one. Interactions are often few and far between; conversations are generally a one-way street, and the inspiration that comes from things like Follow/Sub alerts, chat interactions or the infamous “comments below” is very much a pipe dream, a distant fruit that remains constantly out of reach mainly as, let’s face it, blogs just aren’t as much craic and by design naturally limit the propensity for positive interaction and stimulus from those few that continue to read our collective ramblings (for which we are of course eternally grateful).
So why do we do it then? The answer is simple - FOR THE LOVE OF THE GAME.
The truth is that blogging Football Manager is simultaneously one of the most and least rewarding ways of enjoying creating content for this magnificent football simulation game. While a blog is often the best way to communicate specific tips, insights, strategies or data-led analysis - it’s no secret that written FM content is one of the least ingested mediums of content consumption out there particularly in comparison to platforms such as Twitch or YouTube. Reading simply isn’t for everyone, nor do people have as much time or attention as they once had to consume written content - the modern age has made digital video media far more accessible, often easier or more enjoyable to digest/immerse in, as well as enabling the viewer to better connect or relate to the creator at hand, and our brains are increasingly more likely to be stimulated by more aesthetically pleasing content with high quality graphic design and production. Similarly - from a creator’s perspective, verbal and/or visual content creation is often far more suitable depending on personality, showmanship, communication style and/or technical ability hence why many of the top FM creators are drawn toward streaming or video production (and rightly so looking at the quality of the content being produced at present).
Having said that, there is a market and an audience for everyone and whether you are a creator or consumer of content online it is clear that the nature of human behaviour means some of us are naturally drawn towards the written side of media content rather than more visual or interactive productions. As a blogger, writing probably comes more naturally to you or better suits your lifestyle/content creating capacity, while as a reader it is likely that you have a history of reading be it books, newspapers, magazines, stories and of course all of the excellent written media one can find and access with the click of a button in this day and age.
I myself definitely fall into this bucket having grown up reading hundreds of books as a kid as well as being a frequent flyer with written football content (the likes of Match, Shoot and Sported all jump to mind) - probably the reason I always wanted to become a journalist as a teenager although I wasn’t overly willing to study for it 😄. When I first discovered the Football Manager community and started to toy with the idea of creating my own FM content, streaming and video production of course crossed my mind however I quickly accepted that the only people who should have to listen to me are those who get paid to do so in work and I was naturally drawn towards blogging as a means for me to express some creativity in my FM saves, wherein I could narrate my adventures/misfortunes as well as enjoy and become more immersed in my own Football Manager saves, and since I published my first ever blog post (what feels like 10 years ago but was actually Sunday January 27th 2019), I have never looked back and each of the 4 full saves that I have played and blogged since are without doubt my best ever saves in all my 25 years of playing Championship Manager/Football Manager games (no disrespect to Messrs. Samba, Duff, West, Kerr, Bakircioglu, Saviola, Tsigalko, Svindal Larsson, Moukoko, Madeira and Adu - you brought me years of entertainment lads, never forgotten 🙌).
The Glory Days
Bloggers are certainly talkers though as you can see by the fact that it’s taken me four paragraphs to get to the point - in this post I will attempt to document and articulate some of my top tips for blogging Football Manager that I have picked up or observed since I started a couple of years back, which by no means will guarantee success or reveal anything game-changing but rather I hope will help you if you are either an aspiring blogger (Football Manager of course) or even if you have already dabbled or have experience in blogging and are looking to hear the perspective another slightly over-zealous, FM-addicted, should-know-better written content creator of the greatest game on Earth.
1. What’s in a Name
The quality of the writing is usually what makes for a good blog and the main reason for people to read and come back for more. Getting them there in the first place is the main challenge, and while we bloggers usually steer clear of click-bait titles and thumbnails etc, you can’t underestimate the power and draw of a really good save title and graphic to accompany it. This title will be repeated throughout your series so making it catchy and memorable is the first step in creating that sense of intrigue and uniqueness for your save, while a quality save graphic helps to build that familiarity and recognition which entices and attracts interest from prospective readers of your work. Naturally us bloggers are not always the most creative or talented in this regard, so don’t be afraid to ask for help if needed.
2. Home or Away
So you’ve decided to start blogging, now you are wondering where do I start? If your own site is what you are after, there are plenty of free options out there to get started which have enough functionality for you to put together a really decent blog and shape it how you would like it - this first part can be a bit time consuming to get the right look and feel, but in the long run is well worth it to set you up for success going forward. The likes of Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace and Medium (other platforms are available) all offer free versions with which you can get started - I wouldn’t recommend paying for any type of plan unless you are clear on what you want and/or are at a point where you are ready to advance your site as well as obtain your own domain. Take your time, build up a catalogue and readership first - the rest can follow.
Alternatively if building your own site isn’t for you there are plenty of places and bloggers out there willing to host your content - the FM Community on Twitter is a great place to start, otherwise feel free to drop us a DM and we can point you in the right direction.
3. Screenshots, Screenshots, Screenshots
One of the first things I learned; screenshot EVERYTHING. Even if there is only a small chance you might use a specific screen-grab or graphic, take it - often once you hit that Continue button or once a few weeks have passed in-game, you can’t go back so getting into the habit of frequently taking screenshots of important or interesting events is essential for when you go to actually write a blog or season review etc, especially League Table standings which are next to impossible to wind back to a specific point in the season if you don’t grab a screenie at the time (I also highly recommending having 3-file auto-saving enabled in case you need to jump back for screenshot purposes). FM league tables do give the option to go back to the first or second half of the season if needed but this might not get you to the exact point in your save narrative needed to capture the moment.
Print Screen is useful for this and Snipping Tool also makes it quick and easy to screenshot as you go, however I would highly recommend downloading apps like Greenshot or Gyazo (great for GIFs) which offer a number of additional functionalities and editing tools as well as being slightly more user friendly.
4. Clickable Images
There is a lot going on at any one time on a Football Manager screen let alone in the game itself. The FM skin neatly condenses a lot of data and info in front of us however when it comes to screenshots these can sometimes be difficult to view without zooming in - let’s not forget that a lot of people consume content on mobile devices rendering images with detail or text almost impossible to read without expanding (we will talk about mobile devices shortly). You would think that most blog sites would automatically allow the reader click to expand all your images, however this is often not the case so it is essential to hyperlink or ensure that all images link to their original media file to allow for zooming in. Some sites also have plugins or lightbox effects for this but again these either need to be installed or enabled so be sure all your images are clickable before you go live!
5. TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
It would be hypocritical for me to talk about blog posts being too long if you were to look at the length of some of my previous articles (@FridayNightFM likes this) - however the fact of the matter is - if your post goes on for ages or requires a big commitment from the reader in order to digest from start to finish, you’re probably in trouble. The reader doesn’t need every single bit of detail on your thought process, the buttons you’ve clicked, commentary on each game - we all play FM therefore you can be forgiven for skipping over the minor unimportant parts. Ideally a blog post should only really take about 5-10 minutes to read (note: FM blogs make for ideal bio-break reading 🚽), otherwise you run the risk of losing the reader or making it too time consuming for them to engage and absorb your content. Attention spans in the 21st century are thinner than ever, the easier it is for them to digest your story and navigate the narrative, the more likely they are to enjoy it and want to return for more. Less is more, quality not quantity, size doesn’t matter etc etc.
6. Continuity & Regularity
The nature of written content is that it can be difficult to maintain over the course of a long period both from the writer and the reader’s perspective. Ever picked up a book and had to go back a few pages to remember where you left off? Blogs are no different therefore it is important not to assume that the reader knows exactly where and when we are in the narrative. A quick recap at the start of each blog does no harm to remind readers where you last left off, and similarly a quick summary at the end sends the reader home with a more memorable experience of what it was they just read and enjoyed. A decent menu with links to each episode/chapter is also super helpful for readers to navigate through your story.
From a regularity perspective - similar to the above, it is very difficult to captivate your audience if you post very infrequently or if there is no indication of when your next post will follow. It’s not necessarily about how frequently or quickly you publish, but more that you should establish some form of consistency in terms of routine or schedule that suits your blog/life balance and gives readers an expectation of when they can expect future content which will help them to mentally commit to becoming immersed in your save narrative or adventure. Even if they know it will be only one post per month, that reliability and confidence goes a long way in terms of repeat readership and commitment. Blogs may be a one-way street but they are a two-way relationship 😄.
7. Structure, Narrative, Motive
It’s all about the #narrative. As with any content, if there is nothing unique about it, there is nothing special about it. It is very easy to simply narrate a season or save month by month talking about fixtures, results, transfers etc - however if you truly want to make your content stand out and appeal to a wider audience, having an interesting and engaging narrative in your save goes a long way towards how readers will engage with your story. Whether it’s bringing in rules, objectives, storylines, fiction, data, tips & tricks, nostalgia - if you enjoy writing it people will usually enjoy reading it. You are what you eat -> write what you would read.
If views, likes and follows are what you crave then perhaps blogging isn’t for you. Motivation is obviously essential when it comes to FM blogging (as it is in FM playing) however as stated above the nature of blogs is simply that they attract far less numbers and are much harder to get out there. You have to be patient, find your niche, write what you enjoy and enjoy what you write - if a writer can achieve this then it is very much tangible for the reader as they absorb and consume content; the rest will soon follow, so make sure you are in it for the right reasons.
Bonus tip: try not to play too far ahead either - it’s tough to write a season review if you are already halfway through the following one!
8. Something for everyone
It’s important to remember that just because you write a blog on a PC or Laptop doesn’t mean it will be read on one. After writing a masterpiece, you may review and be completely satisfied with the flow and layout in front of you however it is essential that your blog post is suitable for all devices - things such as galleries, columns or tables can look great on a computer but appear very differently on a mobile or tablet so when proof-reading be sure to check how it appears on a tablet or mobile device. You’d be amazed how many people consume content on the go, not to mention the bio-break theory already mentioned above 😄.
Thankfully Wordpress and most other blog platforms allow you to preview how your blog will appear across all versions - if you know you know.
Bonus tip: the Twitter Wordpress reader is pants and often doesn’t do your blog justice when readers access your blog directly from the Twitter mobile app (often making blogs look quite uniform and generic). It does no harm to include a link to your post at the top of each release which allows readers to access the full-fat original version of your post in the format which you intended it to be displayed.
9. Space, man
Ok, so I might have a snippet of OCD when it comes to layout, neatness, structure and spacing in blogs. As mentioned earlier many blog sites are a law unto themselves in terms of how they present written content, and often they are limited in terms of how they present lines and paragraphs so much so that they simply just pile blocks of text or images on top of eachother making it difficult to read and certainly not easy on the eyes.
Hitting the Enter/Return key usually won’t suffice - most sites require and offer the ability to use spacers in order to have space between paragraphs and images etc, while a lifesaver for me in Wordpress was a small piece of HTML code that can be entered in order to add spaces between blocks as desired (<p> </p>). We are getting into pedantics now, but what would you expect from a blogger?
10. S p E l l i N g
A big shout out to @FM_Grasshopper for the time he kindly informed me it’s spelled “Colombia” and not “Columbia” (stupid outdoor brand). As discussed earlier, if someone is reading your blog it’s likely they read a lot, so there is nothing worse than having spelling or grammar mistakes in your blog which can instantly take away from the quality or enjoyment of the content itself. Spellcheck, Grammarly, a family member - whatever you need in order to ensure there are no mistakes, do it. Our lives have become increasingly reliant on autocorrect however blogs live outside of autocorrect law and therefore require an extra layer of precision and caution when it comes to good diction. Where do you think the word dictionary came from?
There you have it, my 10 tips for Football Manager blogging which had I known at the start of my writing adventures, I would have saved a lot of time and energy having since migrated my website and had to go back over all my posts to correct various mistakes and imperfections mentioned above (I told you, OCD). Hopefully you will find at least one of these to be useful in your own blogging adventures, and of course please feel free to share and/or reach out with any thoughts, feedback or questions if desired (try the comments section if you dare 😄). I take my hat off to all the FM bloggers out there who have been raising the bar each year with the quality and standard of written FM content being produced, so much so that the team at Sports Interactive have kindly invited many of us to contribute our writing to the official Football Manager blog site (The Byline). While FM content continues to improve in quality and popularity across all platforms, there will always be a place for blogging and if you are reading this and thinking of starting your own one, now you have no excuse - as the saying goes, you decide the story.
Thanks for reading,
Be sure to follow WeStreamFM on Twitter for reaction to the latest FM21 updates - you can also get involved in the hype by joining the WeStreamFM Discord where you can find hundreds of like minded FM enthusiasts as well as some of your favourite WeStreamFM streamers, bloggers and YouTubers all gearing up for the next edition of the beautiful game.
