Anime Blogger Guide for Noobs!

I’ve recently noticed, for the past few months a lot more new anime bloggers have popped up. Maybe it’s just the new year, maybe it’s just Spring, but I’m hoping that this new wave of bloggers will keep rolling in throughout the year! The more anime bloggers out there the more opinions about anime are being shared. The more opinions being shared the more diverse the anime community becomes. The more diverse any community is the healthier and more stable it is and that can only benefit the whole anime world! Though so many of the new bloggers are really interesting and insightful, I also noticed that they seem to be going through the same pitfalls that I had to traverse last year when I started my new anime blog. And I would like to do what I can to support my kohai. Though I’m certainly not a expert when it comes to blogging about anime, I have maintained a website or blog on and off for about seven years, so hopefully I can lend some helpful knowledge to others that might want a little assistance. Or maybe some amazing anime blogging expert can leave some helpful tips in the comment area below (hint, hint).

Find Your Niche!

Finding your blogging niche is probably going to be one of the most important things you will do in your blogging adventure. You might be thinking right now, “find my niche? I already found it, it’s anime!” Well yes, and no. Being an anime blogger is just your general theme that you are blogging about, but the anime world is huge! There are a ton of things you could blog about inside of the anime world. And it is important to narrow it down. Keep in mind, globally there are thousands and thousands of people blogging about anime, finding your niche helps you stand out, and it makes it easier for people searching for specific content to find your content. For example, Scot from mechanicalanimereviews.com focuses on anime about giant robots and sci-fi anime. Anime episode reviews are also really popular. Once you’ve found your niche, strive to be the best in it!

A Picture says a Thousand Words, So you Don’t Have To!

For anyone familiar with my blog post, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to hear that I love putting images and videos in my posts. In fact, about a third of my blogging time is spent finding the perfect images to add to my content. The right image can really make your written content come to life! Images naturally add color to static black and white text. They can add movement to bland columns of words without having to actually add anything that moves. It allows the reader to have a visual resting place for their eyes in between large chunks of text. Much like adding white space into a document, images can help relieve eye strain caused by text dense websites and reduce the likeliness that the reader will skip parts of your blog, or even worse, not read it at all. Most importantly, adding images to your blog will help make what you are trying to say more clear, and isn’t the whole point of a blog is so you can clearly communicate your message?

SEO to Save the World!

Following good SEO practices might not save the world, but it could save your new blog from obscurity. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and it’s a way of presenting your website or blog so major search engines like Google can find your blog and point people who are looking for anime content to what you have created. Now, SEO can be quite complex, there are whole websites and professions just dedicated to SEO, but for your daily use here’s a few things to keep in mind.

1. Think carefully about the title of your blog post, try to make sure that your blog focus is in the title.
2. Always put in your meta data. WordPress will put in most of your meta data for you, but not all of it. Make sure all your images have “Alt Text”. Make sure you in put your Category and Tags fields. I’m not sure if a Featured Image improves SEO, but it certainly doesn’t hurt!
3. Try to put captions under most of your images.
4. Links! Use lots of links. If you mention a previous post in your current blog post, put a link to it. (Never title a link “Link” or “Click Here”)

To Otakus and Beyond!

Of course, it’s important to reach out to your anime community. Commenting on other anime blogs and interacting with the anime community is one of the most enjoyable and vital parts of having an anime blog! But you should also keep in mind that anime fans are everywhere and they might not always be blogging about anime. So try to spend some time reading and commenting on other genres of blogs too. This is a little activity I call Out Reach. For example, if you write a blog post about traveling in anime worlds, why not check out some travel blogs and leave a few comments? Mention how their content is related to the post you just wrote. They might check out your blog in return, and who knows, they might actually be anime fans too.