Blogger Recognition Award

Ah. Senpai noticed me… multiple senpais, apparently.

Okay, this is really, really late because… I just never know how to respond to any of these. And this one is kind of unique because it doesn’t operate the same way as a typical award thingy does? I guess? Not that I’m used to, anyway. Also, I got it three times. So there was the pressure. And… ah. I’m just gonna stop rambling, now. Anyways, I’ve been recognized! So my thanks to Yomu, iniksbane, and Lynn Sheridan! So now let’s take a look at the rules.

1. Say thanks to who nominated you and leave a link back to that person’s blog. (ah. well. check, then)
2. Give the story or history of your blog. (Wait, this one or the main one?)
3. Give two or more pieces of advice for new bloggers. (oooh no…)
4. Nominate 10 other bloggers and link their blogs. (I’m sorry, in advance)

The History Of My Blog(s)

Right. So this is the easy part. It’s pretty straightforward in both cases. During college, I was working on putting together a personal brand while working on my stories. Back in high school, I was part of this website that was basically an assembly of internet personalities that made videos on nerdy things. I did my series on movies, comic books, and whatever struck my whimsy at the time.

Slowly, I fell out of that, though. Basically just because college was… incredibly busy. Obviously. I still had the itch to make videos, though. And that’s when, at some point, I got the idea for Bulletoon. But having created that show, I reminded of something I learned while a part of that original site. It’s best to have a place to drive your traffic to. I had a lot of stuff I wanted to do outside of just that webshow. So I created a blog for all of my little endeavors.

Working with Bob – who is a friend from college – I eventually made a lot more cool stuff and soon we decided to make a website to act as a hub. Buuut we underestimated how much time and money would go into a lot of our initial projects. That’s when we decided we needed to fill the site with some sort of content. And we settled on reviews because I’d already been familiar with that. Written ones would be faster, of course, than making a new video for everything, so that’s what we went with. We wound up gravitating towards anime for two reasons.

One, it was the most convenient option available to us. Movies are more expensive, much more bursty in terms of search statistics, and far fewer of those come out that cross our field of interest than you might think. I, myself, pretty much only watch animated movies and movies about superheroes, barring some exceptions. Videogames would take too long to make content around, for my liking. I don’t have the time to burn on tons of games, at once. Especially since I really only like RPGs/JRPGs and Open World Adventure games (a la Spider-Man PS4 or Just Cause).

The second reason is that, frankly, the anime stuff was just doing better. It was easily our most popular content, for some reason. I can’t exactly pinpoint why that was. Especially early on, we weren’t really doing anything that I can think of to make it stand out. But eh.

And that’s basically the story of the main site. I went on about that one longer because it’s a more storied site with a more interesting and intricate backstory. Now, the site’s revamp was aimed at making it into more of that hub that I was getting at while starting to treat it a bit more like a blog. It’s a difficult balance to manage, just because of how much time we don’t have. But I think it’s been working okay, so far.

As for this site, the story is much simpler. Last year, I had a really, really bad week in… I wanna say October? A guy at work (who thankfully isn’t there anymore because apparently I wasn’t the only one who had a problem with him) was giving me a hard time and I was not in the mental headspace for it. For context, I haven’t had to deal with anything even resembling that level of derision since, like… middle school. Not in person. Going to a creative arts college, I have immensely thick skin… when it pertains to my work. I think we’ve all seen, by now, that I am my own worst critic. But personal attacks like that just… I’d grown unused to it, after so long. And dealing with that… person brought up a looot of things I hadn’t really felt, in ages. Because I’d been in a comfortable space for so long.

I can’t say, for certain, if I deal with clinical depression. I’m seeing someone about that very thing. I’d like to think I don’t because of how periodic my episodes tend to be. But that could just be my own misunderstanding of how that condition works. That said, I do know that I suffer from anxiety problems. Very, very serious ones. And while I’ve gotten okay at managing it to an extent, it’s still rough, at times. And while I was getting that looked into, it was brought up that I should keep a journal. Well… that isn’t the first I’ve heard that suggestion. But I know myself. I’d never do it if I wasn’t held accountable to it. And as my sporadic posts here have made apparent, I really haven’t been. The blog was an experiment to see if making that journal semi-public (particularly personal posts are protected so only specific people can view them) would make me do it regularly. It obviously didn’t work out that way. So we’ll see what I do about that.

But I also wanted to use the blog as a means of just… existing on the internet as myself and maybe trying to figure myself out. I certainly hope it’s fairly apparent, by I’m playing a character on the main site. Several, in fact. Either a happy-go-lucky little demon of a person, or a hyperbolic and cynical arse with a smart mouth… that second one is somewhat closer to reality, but still. Here I don’t have that. I just… do me. And I suppose that’s kind of the essence of this place. Maybe that might have something to do with why there isn’t more stuff here. I’m still figuring out what “me” means, in a sense. So I’m not entirely sure what all to even do with myself here, at times. But I named the place Anime Voyage, not just because of my internet handle. I did that because… well… the site’s a voyage. A journey. An adventure. Where does it lead? Not a clue. But I’m along for it anyway.

Give Advice For New Bloggers

…um… I don’t really know. I mean… outside of the kind of obvious things that pretty much everyone would say. If I’m honest, I’m not really sure how we got to where we are, currently with the main site. I can obviously tell people stuff like “be consistent” or “don’t worry about what others think, just post what you want.” But that’s just… easy. You know? Be genuine and transparent. Those are obviously important. People who follow your blog will want to know they’re not wasting their time. I can throw all manner of marketing jargon your way, but it’s not especially helpful and I’m not sure anyone would want to hear that from me since I don’t even really follow it very well, myself. I could just as well say something like “take your time” or “be patient,” but those are also pretty obvious.

So I don’t know what to say. I suppose if I could just laser in on pretty common ones in terms of what I think is important, I’d just say the following.

Be Transparent

Life is hard. There will be times when things get in the way. As much as people say to be consistent, I think it’s more important that you just be up front with people. People will understand that you can’t do something if you tell them. But if you don’t tell them, and something they’re expecting never comes… well… trust is a difficult thing to regain once it’s lost. This goes for if things are going to be late or if you simply can’t deliver on a promise. That isn’t to say you should make excuses. Just be honest and, if warranted, apologetic.

Don’t Be Afraid To Try Things

Yes, I’m sure this is hilarious, coming from me. But that’s not what I mean. I mean if you have an idea for something that might deviate from your typical content… go for it. Fear of the response from others certainly isn’t going to lead to anything productive. And if it does need some polish, who better to tell you than the people who are going to be… you know… reading any future attempts at it.

Engage

…I have no real defense on this one. Just talk to people. Try to collaborate (But don’t force it. Make sure you think it’d be a good fit). Put yourself out there and make sure other bloggers know who you are. As much as I’d love to say it’s because of friendship or something, I’m not that pure. It’s purely marketing speak. It’s advantageous if you actually want to grow your blog. If you don’t, then hey, not necessary. But if that’s your end goal, you couldn’t do worse than to exist on an island. If you build it, some will come… but not many. Comment on others’ posts, like them, make blog responses if that’s your thing (respectful ones, of course). And, for the love of all that is good and holy, share the work you enjoy from people you like. No one says you’ve gotta bump every post they make. Heck, it’s entirely likely you’ll violently disagree with posts even from people you otherwise love the work of. But if something resonates with you, signal boost it. On top of just being a nice thing to do, that door opens both ways. You might make some friends that way if they already follow that person and see you enjoyed a thing they also liked.

Nominate 10 Other Bloggers

Oh. Right. Uh… okay. If you’ve already been tagged for this, I’m sorry. I got this months ago and couldn’t really get in the headspace to respond until now.

1. Keiko
2. Mallow
3. 9 Tailed Kitsune
4. K at the Movies (RIP)
5. animeandanfiction
6. Inskme
7. Pinkie
8. The Infinite Zenith
9. Lita
10. Aria

And now I guess that’s it. That wasn’t so bad. Ah. I need to post here more often. Okay. Well, I’m gonna sign off for now. Enjoy the posts of the tagged peoples!