Tales of a Blogging Noob Part 2: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Just Go For It
(continuation from Part 1) Part 2 is a vanity post about I, me and myself. Having established the fact that I needed to differentiate my product from the rest of the market to gain any sort of readership, I sat down and thought long and hard about what on earth I could do to achieve that goal. I couldn’t just write random posts and automatically expect people to shower me with ego-inflating praise. Come to think of it, I’d never even had any experience maintaining a site of any kind - I’m a hopeless noob, and have spent hours trying to fix broken HTML before (not on this blog, mind you). Oh well, gotta start from somewhere I thought.
I had (and probably still have) zero brand recognition in the anime blogging world - I don’t define myself as an anime otaku, don’t like participating in forums (too much bickering and inane fanboy/girling) and generally remain a pretty much anonymous figure, looking on from the shadows (i.e. lurking). The only ‘places’ on the internet my name gets recognised is music-related sites/apps like Last.fm (used to be an automod there) and Soulseek - I do Japanese indie compilations for Jpopsuki and generally have a music collection that fills people with awe ^^;
A little OT: Maybe some think it’s cool to call themself an otaku. Not me. I certainly don’t discuss my hobbies with most of my friends IRL, and definitely not the Japanese ppl I know. They’re aware of the fact that I’m into anime & stuff and think it’s damn weird but as long as I don’t talk about it it’s OK. I just prefer not to see people rolling their eyes at me ^^;
Back on topic: So I initially started posting about the two things that interest me most - Japanese music and seiyuu. Couldn’t be bothered with posting caps & opinions on individual anime episodes cos I find it rather tedious, and I doubt I could come up with anything original to say anyhow. No editorials for me, I have an innate inability to write anything remotely serious without inserting lame comments and going off on a tangent about something completely different.
I was initially concerned that I’d attract a readership of 0 and get no comments, but once the blog got indexed by Google things went a bit better. I check up on my stats now and then and am amused by how quite a few get here by searching for Kadomatsu Kanori… I don’t blog about soft porn so go search for it on a p2p app for goodness’ sake (Hint: footage exists, so look harder!).
I get more comments when I blog about seiyuu, so I end up posting more on the subject. Consumer feedback has more or less decided for me what my main product should be, and who am I to argue? The customer is always right after all. I’m pretty much happy with the small readership I get - it makes for better interaction with ppl I know who share the same interests. Is it better than getting a 100 ‘me-too’ comments that you see on some of the bigger blogs? Dunno, I’ve never been in that situation ^^;; I’ve never really advertised the blog (apart from tossing it up on the torrents I post on TT) so it still surprises me how some manage to find their way here.
So is there room for potential profit growth in the future? I doubt I’m breaking even at all, hah!
Break-even point:
The amount of work j1m0ne puts into a post = The amount of joy you get out of reading this
Impossible to measure either variable. But then I again, I won’t claim that I put a lot of work into my posts (underlined by the amount of grammatical errors and typos). This post was produced in an hour or so though I’ve been twiddling my thumbs waiting for Youtube to pull its own thumb out of its arse and get the uploading problem sorted so I can publish this.
Anyway, enough of all that boring talk and moving on to something a bit more light-hearted. The following vid i something that I dug up from my archive of rubbish which illustrates why I’d be mortified to be classified as a seiyuu otaku - I reaaaallly hope I don’t ever become like these guys ^^;; (just click on it to check out the other parts on Youtube - part 3 will turn up…when it does)
embedded by Embedded Video
It also illustrates why I love Hisakawa Aya so much - she was the single best thing about Tenjou Tenge. Though I don’t much fancy the idea of having her voice in my alarm clock - that’s just damn creepy.
Anyway, end of long & boring post. I’m keen to go and finish off Blue Gender, something I’ve been putting off for the last 3 years.
June 13th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
You are realistic. –; A Level Economics, too. I took it for one semester and sucked at it, bleh.
I’m a bit scared of watching these videos….
June 14th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Music and seiyuu are excellent product, so I hope you keep marketing them on your blog. ^^
I’m a lurker myself, so I tend to read blogs without commenting sometimes, but after reading your two blogging posts I feel like I should put forth a little more effort and comment more often in order to show some appreciation for the blogger’s hard work. That probably wasn’t the kind of effect you were looking for with this post, but oh well. ^^
June 14th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Wow, you were right about Hisakawa Aya being awesome. But I think these guys are… just as bad as any other kind of otaku? I’m inclined to say “slightly better”. Actually them making a fool of themselves is kinda cute. ^^;
Can’t stand those seiyuu system sounds myself, nor most moe, so, yeah….
June 14th, 2007 at 5:12 am
>> That probably wasn’t the kind of effect you were looking for with this post, but oh well. ^
Lol. Thanks ^^; I wasn’t really looking for any reaction - just me blabbing on & on about myself as usual - just wanted to get it off my chest heh.
>> But I think these guys are… just as bad as any other kind of otaku? I’m inclined to say “slightly better”. Actually them making a fool of themselves is kinda cute. ^^;
Some of them were OK, but the guy in the skirt - or rather guys cosplaying as girls freaks me out ^^;; Overzealous ppl of any kind scare me, rabid boyband fangirls included…..