Showing Love for All Bloggers – Experiences and Advice from an Unestablished Blogger
Posted: February 14, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized 38 Comments »
Since it’s getting close to Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to return some love for the old farts and spread some love to the new ones just emerging from the metaphorical aniblogger buttcrack of life by presenting some information that might be useful to them. To that end, over the last few minutes I’ve been typing this post about my experience as a blogger and what advice I have for those doing things wrong and those following in their footsteps. I hope that this post will provide some inspiration, tips, and encouragement for anyone who is failing at blogging and doesn’t realize it because they’re too busy being (or wants to be) omguberpopular in the aniblogosphere.
Foreword
As someone who is [self-proclaimed] new at blogging, having started in March, I’ve sometimes thought about how some other bloggers can fail so badly, yet be praised for their blogs. When I look at the community I see some figures that have been around for quite a while and it almost seems inconceivable that in the past they started out just like I did, thinking up ideas for their first entry, struggling with technical issues, unaware of much of the wider online anime community, and step by step learning more about each. But everyone in the community did start at some point, believe it or not. They dealt with the same issues that face new and prospective bloggers now: ‘what style of writing should I use?’ ‘Should I start my own site or write for a team?’ ‘Episodic coverage or editorials?’ ‘How many entries per week should I aim for?’ ‘Is this post even going to reach new and prospective bloggers, or am I posting something almost completely useless?” etc. There are so many things to think about and the prospect can be intimidating, but blogging is worse than you can imagine. You can have a lot more fun with the anime you watch, delve deeper into its details, and even meet fellow anime fans from around the world, but in the end, you’ll live in the shadows of those who’ve made “names” for themselves and wonder why your unique blog isn’t doing so well. There are haters out there who just like to beat down anyone not up to their ’standards’ and idiots who think that not conforming to standards makes for popular anime blogs, but truly the community is about HUGE POPULARITY CONTESTS. It is my hope that this post gets people thinking – or even better, gets people angry.
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.
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fangzhao – Mikotoism
– Why did you start blogging? Dumb question
– What influenced the development of your own blogging style? I wanted to be unique, but nobody looks at my blog
– Do you have a personal philosophy, motto, or focus for your blogging? Posting things that don’t get views
– What would you say is the most important skill for a new blogger to develop? Ability to get hits
– What’s the one thing a new blogger should avoid? Blogging
– If you could give one sentence of advice to a new blogger, what would it be? Save yourself while you still can
– Char warned us about the ‘mistakes caused by youth.’ What was your biggest newbie mistake? Who is Char? Character? Charmander? You know what, screw your stupid questions. I’ve got a few things of my own to say.
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fangzhao’s tips for bloggers of all ages, races, and weights
Don’t keep a blogroll.
It’s a pain in the ass. I don’t visit many of the blogs on my blogroll, but I like their input. What to do???
Don’t whine about the good old days.
There’s going to be fresh blood in the aniblogosphere every year, and if you keep looking back at the past, you’re going to get overtaken by people like me. See “The two-year death and history repeating itself in the aniblogosphere” for consequences of not following this.
Blog about stuff you want to blog about
Yes, you should say “fuck” if you want to, even if it prevents your post from showing up on AnimeNano.
Don’t do episodics unless you’re dedicated, stupid, or me
I can think of a handful of people who are dedicated, a crapload of people who are stupid, and one person who is me. So you’re probably not dedicated, you probably don’t want to be called stupid, and you probably aren’t me, so go write some editorials or something.
If you’re going to stop blogging, don’t go out with a bang
Because you’re probably going to regret it. Take it nice and easy, posting less and less each week. Also, I hear that if you post less, you’re more popular anyway.
Post less
It makes you popular.
Steal ideas and say they were your inspiration
If you call other peoples’ ideas “inspiration” for your own, you’ll be praised. If you steal it and call it stealing, you’ll be flamed. Or people will call it meta. It’s a 50/50 chance, but I wouldn’t take it.
Don’t use categories or tags
I don’t use them, so why should you?
Name your blog something really mundane
That way, when people talk about your blog, they can say: “The blog title is so ordinary, but what he/she posts is really, really awesome and cool and I want to date him/her”
Don’t make up for your lack of content/skill with shiny things
aka “Don’t make your blog layout so amazing that it overshadows what you’re actually posting.” It’s like dressing up Mikuru in a bunny costume. No matter how good the clothes look, Mikuru is still the nice, big-breasted character that nobody cares about. I would rather see Yuki in her school uniform.
Don’t call yourself an ‘otaku’
Or Candle”elimination”jack might get y
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Further Reading
- The inspiration and half-trolled target of this post: ExecutiveOtaku’s post at THAT
- Meta about good and bad blogs: “Your favorite anime blog“
- We Remember Love, the blog from which this “further reading” idea was taken, manipulated, and turned into a pile of garbage.
- Mikotoism (give me more hits plox)
*clicks the last link a couple of times* It says “further reading”, but it’s so familiar I feel like I’ve already read it! TAT
Hmm…your advice is sound…which means I’ve been doing many things wrong. Fuck!!1
Haha, I tried to make this as funny as possible without compromising much of the material. Most of my tips are honest suggestions (or at least things I’ve witnessed during my time in the ‘sphere), just delivered in a… different way.
Everybody’s a cynic. I’m just more so. Fuck!
No, actually a lot of the advice is fairly nice. The post’s existence is awesome as well.
Posting less making you popular is surprisingly/sadly true, too…
Why oh why is the blogosphere all about being cool and not necessarily about posting well?!
“Life isn’t fair” pretty much means “Life is a popularity contest, and you’re not the popular one”
Ah, I knew I was doing some wrong by doing episodic posts. Too bad it’s the only thing I’m interested in blogging about…
Well then. Obvious it’s time to stop posting!
Damn straight! I think we (excluding me, of course) should all stop doing episodics and let Omni handle it. He’s Mr. 50 million views, after all.
My goal is to make my word usage so incomprehensible that people who read my blog are forced to agree with every entertaining thought that goes through my head. I think that’s something all bloggers should strive for!
Just goes to show who’s the Muggles around here.
I stole that bit from Iknight, who doesn’t seem to mind. Another tip: be nasty to commenters, they’ll love you!
But even better, don’t read comments. If you do, make sure you write follow-up posts that read as if you’ve never even paid attention to comments in your life.
That’ll make you a badass.
lol, I dont know why, but that advice cracked me up. Has to be golden!
Shut up, shut up, shut up!
God, I hate it when people do this “comment” thing. Why do they even bother to do this? Commenting should be against the law.
This is the best thing ever from the opening picture. Nice job. 🙂
I aim to please.
Also, I couldn’t comment on your other comment because the month-long comment period has ended. Bah.
Writing about what you like is fine, but I don’t like what you like, so… D:
Mmm, delicious protips. Delicious meta.
I kind of question whether the obsessive focus on hits in the community is healthy.
I kind of question whether the obsessive focus on pleasing other bloggers in the community is healthy.
I kind of question whether the obsessive focus on PLEASING EVERY SINGLE PERSON OUT THERE IS healthy.
Wait, wait, I take it back. I don’t aim to please.
Whenever I do meta, it ends up looking like it’s supposed to be funny. Well, it’s not. I’m totally serious about this stuff, and all you guys think about is blah blah blah pleasuring other bloggers blah blah.
But seriously, I write this for the heck of it. I wonder if all meta can be classified as “focus on pleasing other bloggers”… Though aren’t bloggers our target audience anyway? Who else reads anime blogs? confus.jpg
The best advice I would give is:
Do whatever the fuck you want and anyone who doesn’t like it can go fuck themselves.
Amen to that.
Fuck year
Fucking fourth’d
jibai
Oh man, I’ve been half-trolled. The community is really starting to accept me *sniffle*. In a strange way I kind of feel honored.
A very thorough half-troll at that, I got a good laugh out of the way you re-wrote most of it and even used the same image base. Tips for bloggers who hate other bloggers, heh. Though nonetheless info that others will find useful and interesting.
Thanks!
I think I should keep on doing this type of post. My first one on Scamp’s post was fun to write (and read) as well. Though I can see it getting really old really fast. Hmmn.
Well, it’s all good if I just insert new (and [arguably] improved) content.
[…] Half-trolling (wtf) the previous post [->] […]
wtf yourself, you stupid trackback.
Oh, that’s right. You never saw a blogger respond to a trackback before, huh? Well, you probably never saw a blogger as desperate as me for higher comment counts either!
Goodness, a blogger who proofreads sub-headings.
We grammar nazis are out there…
(Us? We? Jesus, this grammar thing is a pain)
‘If you could give one sentence of advice to a new blogger, what would it be? – Save yourself while you still can’
best advice ever! though this post is already great from the start (with the forewOrd, LOL)
I think the Higurashi logo had that red letter because they were pointing out a typo, and forgot to take it down later.
Oh you lovable troll you~
For blogrolls, the ideal method would be to include 100+ blogs on there, with over 50% of them being dead, because then not only do all those people then put your blog on their blogroll but then nobody ever feels like clicking on any of the blogs on your blogroll. That means your get hits from all the blogs on your blogroll but nobody gets hits from you. A perfect win-lose situation
Sounds like Drastic My Anime Blog‘s blogroll!
I always knew TheBigN and his cronies were evil deep down…
oh that’s why I never get approved by AnimeNano…
Actually, it got fixed! I think Hung saw this post and decided to get it through just to spite me.
and you are on animenano? Im not ’cause my blog isnt entirely anime related. Anyway, I find myself posting less and less but that doesnt makes me popular.. Lol.
Eh, I think your blog could be on AnimeNano. I’ve seen some pretty weird non-anime-related things posted on that site…
“…but what he/she posts is really, really awesome and cool and I want to date him/her”
What if we want to date you regardless of what you post?
???