Building a Sustainable Anime Blog + Blog Updates

Uh oh guys, I’m throwing around the word “sustainability”. That must mean I am using my random engineering terminology. Well, only sort of. In this post, I am only using it toward continuing producing content for a blog. This post is an expansion of what I wrote for Karandi’s anniversary week in some ways, because I felt like I had a lot more to say about the matter. If there is anything that I’ve learned from blogging for a couple years and reading other blogs, maintaining a blog is one of the hardest things that someone can do. It’s a lot more then just having stars align to some one having a good blog. There are a lot of variables that go into this equation.

I am not writing this post because I think that I have all the solutions for this matter, but I want to help people to start thinking about our content. I am having some trouble with this too, so I would like all of us to discuss what we can do to see what the best model of producing content for our blogs at the best possible rates. All of this is up to all our individual interpretations. That’s the fun thing about blogging, right?

Content to write about

I don’t think there is a single one of us who blogs without having a reason to do so. There must have been a show or a concept in a show that was an inspiration. Something we all wanted to talk about that we couldn’t speak about normal people at the time. This resulted in the building of a blog, the writing of our first post, and the rest is history.

Still, how do we keep a blog going off our first post? Well, finding more things to write about of course. That means watching more anime, whether it’s seasonal or otherwise, reading more manga, playing more games, then writing about them at a pace that makes sense to us. It’s harder than people realize. Finding a balance of watching stuff and writing stuff isn’t the easiest thing. I do admit that writing about seasonal anime can be considered easier because you can just go one episode at a time, but there are so many shows to write about. Choosing which ones to watch can be such a hindrance.

Time and scheduling, time and scheduling

Now that you want to write about anime, manga, games, or whatever, what about finding a balance in doing those activities and writing about them. I don’t know about anybody else out there, but I have watched less anime due to need time to write about the anime that I watch. This doesn’t bother me too much, because I don’t mind watching less content. It makes anime feel special that way. I used to over saturate myself with anime by watching episode after episode when I was younger, so pacing myself has been a good thing. Especially since each seasonal show I am watching has been a lot of fun.

Still, there are more things to balance around writing then just watching, reading, and playing stuff, right? We all have our own individual lives that revolve around working, social activity, and who knows what else to do our blogging stuff around. There are no solid answers to this, because this is the reason why a lot of people stop. Still, this brings another topic into play.

What to post and when

So no, I do not have any solid answers to the last point, but I can bring up something interesting that will make the whole experience easier. Choosing when to blog and how much to blog during a given week can take off the edge off the balance act quite a bit. If you want to write three thousand-word posts, maybe try not to post every day? Once a week might do it. If you want to post daily, find a shorter, more sustainable word count that helps you produce the content that you want.

There is a lot of wheeling and dealing behind the scenes that will help a blogger find a better balance on when to post, what to post, how to post, and how much post. Remember what I said about variables? Yeah, those are most of the variables. Unlike a lot of complex math problems that eventually churn out the right numbers, these variables don’t have full answers. They have a tendency of changing all the time.

Some updates I’m trying

Here are some of the ideas that I’ve come up to keep content going on Mechanical Anime Reviews. I feel like I am slowly running out of ideas of what to write about, so here are some adjustments I am making to squeeze more content out of my blog.

1) No more “Netflix Watches”

You may have noticed this one with my AICO review this week. I thought that Netflix Watches would something unique that I could do to talk about Netflix shows in a shorter amount of time, but I don’t think I can do that. Especially since I am watching Netflix shows at a much slower pace that would allow me to do this at a sustainable rate. I’m happy with this decision too, because I feel like each show has something that I want to say more about it then something I try to get across in a couple paragraphs. I don’t know why I decided to do that in the first place.

2) Last week in Space and Mechs

This is an idea that appeared in my head recently. Since a lot of space and mech shows are airing this year, I want a way to talk about a lot of them other than tweeting about them. This will be my Monday thing. Having one set thing every week will also help reinforce the schedule I am going for and will help me bring out more original or focused content for the rest of the week. I have no idea how this post project will work as a whole, but I think it’s worth trying.

Conclusion

I feel like I have said everything that I need to say already. Blogging is hard. Really hard. I am in awe with all those people who post daily with great content, because I know that I can never do that. At the same time, I am sad so many bloggers have disappeared since I started. Not that I blame them, because they all have too many things going on which they don’t have to share. Still, it’s nice seeing more personality in this blogosphere. It’s not like there is a limitation to how many people can be in this circle. It’s just that when some of them leave, it’s perfectly understandable why. I only hope that some of them come back some day.