Exploring Blogger Opinions (Pt. 1)
Ah yes, you are back again. It's me, Bid back again with another episode of Bid's Things. Today we will be Exploring Blogger Opinions.
If you have read blogs before 2023, you would know this idea is a remake of @ChessPawn921's "Questioning Bloggers" Series. (I got permission from him a few months ago, so don't call me a ripoff 😐)
Today in this episode, we have @AstroTheoretical_Physics, (long username, I know) @EaglesStrike, @Nimzo-IndianaJones,
@Rodgy and @EthanJojy! 3 Top Bloggers, 2 Regular Bloggers (They still gave equally interesting answers! Don't underestimate the regular bloggers, they're improving at a fast rate)
Some of this will be satire and try to be funny, so don't be annoyed if the writing isn't professional and just looks goofy 😅
If you're interested in being one of these, I'll post another forum asking for more bloggers and you might be picked if you comment there!
About Them
Before we go on to the interview, I'd like you to get to know a little about them!
Astro is a fan of physics and mathematics, (if you couldn't tell already) he is heavily inspired by Steven Hawking, the man who changed physics and maybe even the world! Astro is also a top blogger. check out his latest blog The Habitable Hypermodernism. He also owns the Musical Chess Club.
He has also won various awards from The Blogger Awards. Those being:
- April and May 2023 "BEST THUMBNAIL"
- May 2023 "BLOG OF THE MONTH"
Eagle likes to analyze data and numbers for fun. He is active in Bloggers Way Up duels. He also likes birds, like penguins, keas, ducks, etc.
Check out his blogs here!
Nimzo is one of the three top bloggers on here, he is an intermediate chess player from the state of Alabama. He is trying to revive his chess coach career so check him out if you need a coach (not sure if he charges a fee or not)
His Discord is Nimzo1 and his Spotify is Nimzo so yeah go check out his blogs here.
He is also a judge for Blogchamps season 4 and owns Bloggers Way Up.
Rodgy is a very experienced top blogger. If you've heard of him and read his blogs, you would know that he is the best of the best. He is a former judge for Blogchamps. He plays lots of OTB chess too. You may also know him as one of the trolls on this site! 
Check out his blogs here.
Ethan plays chess, basketball, and the violin and likes to read books. He is also a fan of Luka Doncic, the famous Basketball player. He has a club called EthanJojy's Club. Check out his blogs here!
This will be interesting, I am excited to hear the diverse opinions from these 5 bloggers. Without further ado, let's get started!
Q1: Who/what got you to start blogging?
Eagle said: "The Chess Club Project"
I was a little confused when Eagle said this because I couldn't find any Chess.com clubs named "Chess Club Project" but then he told me that it was an irl chess club. Fair enough, but I am still confused about how an irl chess club got him to start blogging. I guess that's a question for another day...
Rodgy said: "@AttilaTurzo and @Cats4Sale inspired me with their thumbnails and opened my eyes to a new world."
Exactly, I was flabbergasted no other contestants mentioned those two greatest top bloggers. They all make wonderful and enjoyable content that you couldn't imagine if you didn't read their blogs. Attila and Cats will always be the best inspiration for the new generation of bloggers!
Nimzo said: "I started blogging in late 2021 after reading some posts from @Rodgy, @Lightning, and @Colorfulcake (who were my biggest inspirations early on in my blogging career). Plus, I had always enjoyed writing so I decided to give it a try."
Great stuff, Top blogger gets inspired by older top bloggers (lol) and those are three great inspirations for all you new bloggers out there, If you wanna take some stuff and learn some stuff I'd recommend reading their blogs and maybe adapting to their style and try to become a top blogger yourself!
Ethan said: "I saw @Lightning's posts and saw that he was a top blogger so I wanted to become a top blogger just like him."
Another person inspired by him lol. You should be proud of raising this new generation of bloggers @Lightning! Ethan's dream hasn't come yet but I'm sure it will in the next few months! He's improving rapidly.
Astro said: "I got into blogging when I discovered and read some blogs written by top bloggers, especially @Lightning's blogs, in September 2022. Then one day I was randomly checking @Lightning's clubs and discovered the club BlogChamps, I registered there and competed, which was when I wrote my first-ever blog."
Another Lightning one? I told you! This seems to have been a stroke of luck by discovering it in his club's list xD, I guess Blogchamps is where his journey started! and wow, this was a long response.
That was interesting, but that was only the first question! There is more to come next.
Q2: What is your favourite blog? Not just from your blogs, but any post.
Astro said: "I enjoy reading historical blogs the most, written by @Simaginfan and @Kahns. I think the blog 'Blackburne Blindfold Brilliancy' and Some Bonuses'. by @Simaginfan is my favourite blog."
Interesting choice of favourite blog, I don't think anyone else here would pick historical blogs! But I agree anything related to history/historical events is entertaining to learn. I'd have to check out those two bloggers though, they seem good!
Ethan said: "My favourite blog was the original Questioning Non-Chess Players by Lightning. He got an idea and made it in a way that the reader would enjoy. Everyone enjoyed it so he made more versions."
I think tons of people would pick that post too, it was an excellent and entertaining blog that was one of the only blogs I have ever read the entirety of. It also was the inspiration for @ChessPawn921's "Questioning Bloggers" series, which inspired this series! Overall, I might have to somewhat agree with Ethan here. (Something tells me Lightning will be mentioned again)
Nimzo said: "Favorite blog hmm. That's a great question. It probably has to be @Colorfulcake's "Adopting the Holiday Bots" series because it was one of the first posts that really ignited my passion for blogging. It was probably the first blog I read that made me want to create something worthy of being on the blogs page myself. I've also enjoyed @Lightning's "Questioning NCPs."
I told you that Lightning will be mentioned again here. But Cake's blog was actually really nice I had forgotten about that one, it was another one that I kind of read through the whole thing. I can't disagree with Nimzo here. They're both excellent posts and deserve to be on the blog page!
Rodgy said: "https://www.chess.com/blog/KCARROW123/life-hard-deal-with-it"
That was short, but he gave us an answer, a great one at that.
Eagle said: "Probably @SheldonOfOsaka’s chess club cheater story, it was very captivating to me as it was the first tb blog I read"
True, Sheldon's blogs are underrated. There's a reason he's a top blogger. He has some great posts and you should check him out, it'll definitely entertain you!
Lightning is once again featured. Could he hit a hat trick of being mentioned? Let's see.
Q3: What is your favourite part of making blogs? (e.g., Writing, Creating thumbnails)
Nimzo said: "Probably creating thumbnails. I feel like that's the one part of the blog where I'm able to express my creativity the most."
Fax, I like creating thumbnails (not because it's the thing I'm best at with making blogs) But also because I just feel creative and free to do what I want. I feel like I get adrenaline when I start working on a thumbnail. It's a short but fun process!
Rodgy said: "My favourite part is getting views and money from chess.com."
I knew it! They have been hiding something from us. Top bloggers get money from chess.com! Is it enough to make a living? Any top bloggers reading this right now can you tell the secrets of how much they pay you?
Ethan said: "My favourite part of writing blogs is the thumbnails. I like trying to convince the audience to read my blog and trying to do that is pretty fun."
Once again, excellent answer that is completely facts and that I agree with. I wonder if someone is gonna say a different answer though... (foreshadowing)
Eagle said: "Writing, I enjoy it, and thumbnail creation takes too much effort imo. Sometimes I just want to slap a picture of a chess piece or something on my blog."
I completely disagree. Writing is the most stressful part for me because I have no clue whether my audience would like the word choices I use or how I word my sentences. But you have your opinion and I have mine, I guess.
Astro said: "I think the most fun and my personal favourite part of making blogs are thumbnails. Because this is where you can actually use your own creativity. "
See? Another top blogger agrees with me! Thumbnails are just GOATed fr fr
These were some interesting answers, what we got from this question was that thumbnails are GOATed and top bloggers earn money xD
Q4: How do you think of your topics/ideas?
Eagle said: "They just hit me. Sometimes I have four ideas at a time and sometimes I have idea droughts. I just let the ideas flow instead of dedicating a certain time to it."
I can relate, it's annoying to me when I have multiple ideas then as soon as I think about them again I forget what they were, and they could've been good potential blogs :/
Rodgy said: "I just think of controversial stuff or things that I would find interesting to write about."
Not sure if this is satire or an actual serious answer 🤔 What do you guys think?
Nimzo said: "I either write from my own experience (in the case of my OTB recaps), or I write about something I'm knowledgeable about (in the case of my more educational articles)."
Honestly, OTB Recaps are kind of mid but no one hates a good ol' educational blog. Those are always fun to read because you try to search for misinformation in those blogs, and then cancel the writer! 😃😄
Ethan said: "My ideas are mid as I have lots of ideas but none of them really stand out so I just write using the best idea I have."
Fair enough, I also can relate like the reason why I always forget the blog ideas I have are because they all don't stand out, and if one of them stands out all of them do 😶
Astro said: "I usually enjoy writing on long-range topics (Aspects in chess that had a beginning and which either had an end or are currently going on), and I try to revolve my topics around chess games, events, or players. Topics generally flow quite easily through my brain these days, but I tend to focus on my strengths while deciding a topic, and what people might enjoy reading."
This was very detailed for such a short question. Especially the part where he talks about his strengths in thinking of topics, xD! But I wonder how Astro gets topics to flow so easily.
Astro is getting way too Theoretical, I know it's his name but the detailed answer might be too complicated for my average reader to comprehend, especially since my reader's IQ is probably below average.
Q5: What do you think is the best thing to focus on to become a top blogger?
Astro said: "Just enjoy blogging do not be too stressed about "Oh my god what will the readers think" or any stuff like that. Great things happen when you do them for fun. Try to write on unique topics that you feel no one has yet written about. However one should focus on balance within their blogs, the thumbnails, flow of the writing, formatting, and editing, are the constituents that make a blog good or bad. If the quality of all these aspects is in good proportion among themselves, then congratulations, you have written a great blog. Don't hesitate to ask for feedback from experienced or top-notch bloggers. "
If this is what a top blogger thinks, it's probably true. And I think this is just correct in general whether or not you write on chess.com, if you write somewhere else it's also important not to stress too much about what your readers/audience will think. Just have fun making it and it will become a success.
Ethan said: "The best thing to focus on to become a top blogger is to try to get the reader's attention and make the blog enjoyable to them. Then you can get people to recommend you for top blogger, which gives chess.com a bigger chance of accepting you for top blogger."
Even if Ethan is not a top blogger, he is still somewhat correct, even if you don't stress about the reader's opinion, You should still think about what they think. Simply means that you should think, but don't stress because ultimately you won't have fun making your blogs.
Nimzo said: "Definitely consistency. Take your time and make sure every single one of your posts is as high-quality as possible and you'll be on your way to becoming a Top Blogger in no time."
Yeah, focus on being consistent with high-quality posts, if half your posts are good and half your posts are garbage it doesn't really make much sense does it? I will make a part two to this blog after I obtain a top blogger, so I can cover the more advanced skills and steps to become a top blogger.
Rodgy said: "Posting blogs every day with no thumbnails"
Eagle said: "Thumbnails, or maybe widen my chess knowledge. I mean I could always just grind chess 24/7 to hope for the titled player and Mickey Mouse tb."
Get title and then get Mickey Mouse tb 💀💀 Nah like Mickey Mouse TB actually crazy tho fr fr not to name anyone but there does seem to be some unjust decisions from staff to give low-effort bloggers top blogger just because they're a titled player 😐
That was an important one, Roger and Eagle's answers were funny fr, but I think its time to come to an end at this blog.
Conclusion
Every blogger is great in their own way and has factual opinions. But top bloggers seem to have the longest, most detailed and most education answers, (As seen by astro and Nimzo) Roger was just being satire.
The thumbnail on this post might be a little weak cuz it's hard to think of something for this. Also all credits go to ChessPawn921 for this idea make sure you go read all his blogs and I hope he doesn't sue me for copyright 
See you again in the next Bid Thing! 😎
