Blizzard Watch Podcast Uncut: The waiting room for patch 11.2

I have some thoughts on the issues with engagement. 1. Discord web hooks. I know I looked sadly about those in the past, as Wowhead has them, and I would add a Blizzardwatch feed to my Discord in a heartbeat if I could. That web hook is great for targeting your intended audience - articles piped directly into Discord. If it exists, point me to it, and I will set that up today. 2. Opt-in marketing emails directly from Blizzardwatch (ie: not through Patreon). For this, I am referencing The Lever. They have several kinds of emails: Supporter targeted, featured articles (which also have links to additional articles), site news, the occasional fund drive and a few others. This is good to get directly into people's field of view. Most of these kinds of newsletters have daily and weekly roll-ups. For the Lever, the newsletters go to everyone, but the site is subscription-locked, and you know what you're getting into when you sign up, so it's not a bait-and-switch. 3. It's a long-shot, but the possibility of a name rebrand (keep the phoenix). I wonder with, between Blizzard no longer being king of the hill, and Blizzardwatch branching out to other games, a name that is more open-ended might help gain the interest of folks who are not interested in Blizzard but are interested in the other games that are covered by the site. I think of, again, The Lever. David Sirota first started the site as "Daily Poster" and at some point, he rebranded into The Lever (probably because Daily Poster sounds janky). I mean, I think that's a nuclear option, but you might want to keep this one in your back pocket. Don't forget, Wowhead is owned by ZAM Network LLC, which does business as Fanbyte, and is a subsidiary of Tencent. They have the money to fund Wowhead through such challenges (and WoW is still huge in China). As an aside, I find it remarkable that Wowhead was able to white label. Most fan sites consumed by Fanbyte are branded as a Fanbyte site. But I digress, There are also tips and tricks to prevent AI bots from stealing the site's information. While I am no coder, a quick search brought up a few sites with some tips and tricks. My gut tells me though, that direct-to-Discord feeds and leveraging more traditional "newsletter" email outreach (especially if it's opt in) is the low hanging fruit.

Jacqui Tulley