Anime Blogging: Effort and Work

This is the look a blogger usually has on their face!

Almost anyone can have the chance to start anime blogging, or blogging of any kind, but I think it takes a lot to create and manage a good blog. When I first started blogging I expected many views in a short amount of time. I also expected a lot of guides on what to do and I thought these would pave the way to my success. Unfortunately, there weren't many. I realized as well that success is not always a straight path; simply reading a guide and following it word for word didn't shoot me straight to the stars, but it did help me get off the ground. I'm not sure if there will ever be a guide that can simply make anime blogging a quick success in such a way, as it's such an immensely wide topic, with many different things factoring in. A lot of it is in effort and working habits.

Despite this, there's a lot that makes your blog a hit or a miss. Sometimes it can just be your opinions, sometimes it's the topic you cover, and other times, people may just not want to read posts. I've learned to worry about some things and relax over others. A good example of a more urgent problem to address would be grammar. No matter what type of blog you are writing you should write to the best of the ability. Something to kind of feel laid-back about is your genre, if you're writing about something you love keep doing it! Even if it doesn't get a lot of views.

These are just simple tips, but there's other ways to look at blogging. Another way to phrase a blog or a website is an extension of one's life. In our lives we have to work and put effort forth to achieve certain things, and even get a little help along the way. The same applies to blogging, there's a lot of hard and smart work that goes into a successful website. Help is also a big plus.

Although effort is important, put too much into writing and your blog may suffer.

Writing posts is just one ingredient; there are many other factors to examine. A few being, layout, design, hosting, time management, and more. The thing that's the most important to remember is that others are also part of this. Writing isn't a solo job or activity, but a collaboration between many people, whether they are working on the the blog itself or not. A writer needs someone to read their writing, and the readers need something to read. If there's a lack of either side, it just doesn't work out!

On top of this, when it comes to such a broad genre like anime, a lot of work needs to go into it. We have many types such as romance, comedy, shonen, shojo, and other examples. When starting your own piece of work, you can focus on one or go wide and vast. Even though anime itself is vast, it can somewhat pale in comparison to other blogs covering different topics.

A point to keep in mind is that we don't have a large amount of people who generally read anime blogs, compared to something like a food blog. It's so broad and general that almost anyone could browse it. Everyone eats, but does everyone watch anime? The answer is simple.

To me, it feels like it's a little harder to blog about a niche topic compared to a general blog about a common norm. One major point in this is the lack of organized communities. For example, I did some browsing of the web and found a good amount of anime blogs, blog databases, and other such things.

However, there was a lack of a set community. If you go onto Google Plus, or even do a simple Google Search, you can find many writing communities. Not many of these will focus or even speak of anime. There's only a couple of them I know, otherwise such bloggers just comment throughout their websites and social media. Although many people don't have a problem with this, it's somewhat hard for others to connect and interact with many peers at once.

If you're good at art or graphic design, learn how to add your own elements to your blog!

Again, it comes back to something that is a normal everyday activity or topic, compared to one that only speaks to certain people. In a sense, anime writers might have an even harder time and require more energy to be put into their work, compared to others. Especially if you run a blog that focuses mostly on editorials like me.

Although some of this can seem pretty obvious, I only just thought of this recently as I was redoing my layout. It took quite a long time as I had to spend most of night to get things just how I wanted them. Even though this couldn't really be considered a job, I put my full effort into the blog. Not just for me, but for my amazing readers.

To sum things up, anime blogging isn't a one way project, it's two ways, and it requires a good amount of effort and work. Hard work alone won't suffice, but smart work as well. Despite this, I can say it's one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had. Looking at the posts that I've written, the website I've created, and the lovely people who come to visit my blog, it makes all the energy and time I spent improving Shooting Star Dreamer worth it. It's similar to how an artist would look at their finished work; it may not be the best, but it's their own creation and they are proud of it.