First and most important, a big thanks to anyone who take the time to read this post. I appreciate it a lot. An even bigger thanks if you actually answered some of the polls or left a comment. It really does help me out a lot!
Well, you know how it is, when you live by the schedule, you die by the schedule. Although I do have a few posts all ready to go, none of them are supposed to be in this time slot so naturally, I can’t just publish them today! That would be insanity! So instead, I’m putting this post together and asking you to do all the work!
In all seriousness, I enjoy this blog and writing posts a lot and your opinions are important to me. It makes everything feel more collaborative. I will do my best to work in all your suggestions if I can.
First, let’s get some general blog stuff out of the way.
It’s no secret that I have a fairly serious screencap issue. I actually really enjoy taking screen captures of series and I find it useful for my review purposes. I figure that as long as I’m taking them anyways, I might as well share them with you. The thing is, I take A LOT. I worry that adding them all to my review post will make it way too long to load or at least just make the post itself too long.
I’ve been exploring several options to make the images available to any reader that may want them, but I still don’t know which platform most readers prefer. I’ve made a quick poll for you guys to vote on:
I think I care a lot more about this than anyone out there. I am really looking forward to the results. Even if I have a slight fear that no one will answer.
I also want to know if you guys would like me to integrate more outside media to my posts. YouTube clips or add in more links to official info when pertinent. Or do you find those useless and never watch/click them?
I have seen a lot of bloggers branch out to different formats. Although I’m not sure I’m ready or equipped to do so myself, I have thought of publishing script posts and I’m curious about the general level of interest in such things. Would you be interested in seeing my posts in a different format such as:
Of course, if you have any other general blog suggestions or requests, I’m all ears. Please leave them in the comments!
I also have a few specific post series ideas I would like to run by you. I haven’t properly fleshed these out yet but if I see people would actually like to read any of these, I’m pretty sure it will give me the motivation I need.
I was also thinking of housing some of these on 100word anime instead of here, this is why I volunteer Karandi a lot. Don’t worry, she knows about it. At least she will when she reads this….
Character AMAs (as in: Ask Me Anything)
A very long time ago I read a tumblr post that had a series of these based on Soul Eater. It was really fun to read, and it looked like loads of fun to write as well. The logistics are a bit tricky and for the moment vague, but I was thinking of having a place where readers could suggest anime characters for this series then I could pick one I’m familiar enough with and leave readers a week or so to send in questions I could answer in the persona of the chosen character. There would be some research required but I think I’m up for it.
If I can rope Karandi into doing this with me, we could take turns based on who knows the featured character best or even collab on certain ones. In time, I could see inviting contributors to this series when tackling characters, I know a specific blogger has an expertise on.
I’ve long been inspired by specialized bloggers that concentrate on specific genres or categories of anime. A few more projects of the type have cropped up lately and it’s revived my interest. One thing I have noticed is that people tend to specialize in genres they really love and watch a lot of….duh. Obviously, that’s the way to go, especially if you’re going to have a whole blog on it.
I thought it might be interesting to get a different point of view once in a while. I was thinking of a series of collabs or even of personally visiting other blogs to watch and discuss shows we normally wouldn’t pay attention to or talk about. Get bloggers a bit out of their comfort zone.
Again, there are a lot of details to work out. In my head, it was either collabing with another person and we chose a show we both would never watch normally and give a first impression joint review or having a collaboration where one person picks something the other would never watch normally and getting their novice impressions of it.
I make a Blog discovery post every month. I do like them a lot but I’m wondering if there are any ways to make these posts better. I actually don’t have a poll here, I’m just asking for ideas/advice if you have any.
Although I’m not an expert on the matter, I do have an interest in the mechanics of blogging, and I like to share what I find whenever I can. I’m curious to know whether any of you would like a more structured series on blogging itself and everything connected to it such as monetizing, marketing, writing, ect… A regular feature (either here or somewhere else) instead of random posts, where you could also ask questions.
Finally, I really enjoyed writing my The Promised Wonderland shaky pseudo science post. I do these little forays into anime on my own from time to time, but I rarely put posts together for them. Would you be interested in reading more of those?
Well, that’s all my questions for today. Of course, just like general blogging advice/requests, if there is a post series you would like to see or collab on, my comments are your playground! I’m not sure that made any sense. It sounded good in my head…
Once again, thank you to everyone that answered a poll. Have a great day!
Dammit. I don’t think I cast a single vote that wasn’t in the majority.
You are a man of the people
Askblogs (the AMA format) only seem to work on Tumblr if you have the art/graphics and the audience for it, plus maybe some wittiness to keep people coming back – I should know, I tried a text-only version in the past and had to delete it after a while because even if I had the wit, I didn’t have the other attributes.
I’d love to collab sometime but the fact you collab so much with other people, blog for yourself and blog for Karandi makes me wonder if adding my own pressure to that workload is a bit too much…
I actually find that most collabs are easier and quicker than solo posts. Maybe I’ve just been very lucky
The AMA idea sounds great fun. If there are a few you know well enough to do it with, I’d say go for it.
I think there may be one or two.
I take HELLA screen-grabs too. I’m sure that my number of SG for Fruits Basket alone is way past 100 (but that show is also wicked irresistible). I tried out doing a character appreciation post in order to share my excess screen-grabs, so that could be something to try out? I’ve another planned to go out later this week for Dororo. I don’t know anything about character AMA, but they sound like fun and I’ve love to check them out. If I could think of any character to do AMAs for, it’d probably be for most of the Skip Beat cast as I’m more obsessed with that manga/anime than anything else… Or Initial D haha.
My final tally for this season’s Bungo Stray Dogs is 601, which is less than I would have thought…. Still you can basically do a stop motion of the season.
Ooh nice! I’m sure by the time Fruits Basket ends, I’ll have a whole HDD’s worth of s’grabs. I haven’t seen the newest season of BSD (holding off until a re-watch of 1 & 2), but I know that will be another series I’ll get screen-grabby with lol.
Feedback? Well, your light novel title game is strong.
Also, I would like to collaborate with you in some part in the future. I know you’re great at recommending anime to me, so would you recommend something we could talk about together? Or maybe talk about Grambelm if it’s going to be available for you to watch next season? I don’t know, something.
That’s sounds amazing Scott
Only if you aren’t too busy though. You seem to have a lot on your plate and everything.
I’m going to write posts anyways, it’s more fun to do it with someone else!
Ok 😁. I would like to see what streaming service Granbelm lands on to see if it’s available for both of us. If not, then we can brainstorm together!
I almost always voted positive, but if you’re actually doing all this it’s probably going to be a bit overwhelming.
Things I didn’t vote positive on: other formats (I’m a reader, but when listening I have a very short attetionspan). And I find the blog discovery posts are fine as they are: I assume they come when a bunch have accumulated. Discovering new blogs is fun, but eventually I’m gonna feel swamped.
I love those faux science posts. They’re extremely fun to read.
Thanks Dawnstorm. I plan to try new things little by little now and then to keep it manageable
“I have seen a lot of bloggers branch out to different formats. Although I’m not sure I’m ready or equipped to do so myself, I have thought of publishing script posts and I’m curious about the general level of interest in such things.”
I feel like this is something that we, as your readers, can’t decide. It’s up to you if you wish to branch out onto other platforms. Only do so if you really want to and if you feel ready to. I’m sure everyone will support you on whatever platform(s) you decide to use!
Still, it sounds like you have a lot of cool ideas. I’m sure we will all see some more great content soon!
Thanks Amelia!
You can use the crowd signal feature for polls, karandi uses it quite often. Podcasting, it’s prolly the cheap option. Only need a condenser mic (for beginners) and audacity. Or… go to tumblr muwhahaha
Regarding your screen caps: Does your hosting plan charge you for outbound traffic? If so, then hosting all the pics on your site might get more and more expensive! Pinterest might help to not only off-load the content, but to help other folks discover your site.
About branching into different formats: As a reader, I think the blog’s enough! I think the question is, what’re your goals? Podcast might be a good first step outside blogging if you’re looking to expand. You may already have these skills, but I’ve found that working on podcasts refine my scripting and my sound editing abilities. It introduced me to intro/outro music options and distribution options.
“I make a Blog discovery post every month. I do like them a lot but I’m wondering if there are any ways to make these posts better. I actually don’t have a poll here, I’m just asking for ideas/advice if you have any.”
That’s a good question. I love those posts — they introduce me to a lot of new content. Since that’s the goal, it feels like they’re a complete success! I suppose you could add the masthead graphics or favicons to help the visual appeal, but there are so many different formats and aspect ratios that even getting the layout right would take a lot of time (it would me, anyway). Create generic graphics for each? That doesn’t feel right… I think I’ve talked myself into saying that the posts are great the way they are!
I’m so happy someone enjoying those discovery posts
sounds like a lot of great ideas! id be happy to help with some of them if you’ll have me. im not a genre specialist, but talking about pseudoscience or general blogging mechanics sounds fun. not sure how well id do at getting in the head of a character, but it sounds like an intriguing idea.
That is amazing! I would love to!
If you ever want to do a collab on a psuedo science post, send me a line (animescience101)
sure, but I’m not sure you’ve read mine, the style is very different from yours