We write blogs, first and foremost, for ourselves. But it’s no fun to talk to yourself all the time. Eventually, you’ll want to find likeminded readers who are actually getting something out of what you’re putting out there.
In four years, I’ve grown Otaku Journalist from a blog that only my husband ever commented on to a blog that gets at least 400 unique views every day. Along the ways I’ve made friends, met colleagues and co-panelists, and felt like I was contributing to our community.
Here are the solutions I’ve been most successful with for generating more traffic:
Update regularly
My traffic isn’t very good on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday. But I can expect lots more hits on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Why? Because those have been my update days for years, and people know those are the days they’ll see something new here.
Here’s what Otaku Journalist’s traffic looked like last week. For reference, I updated on the 13th, 15th, and 17th. My plan didn’t work perfectly, but just look at that Wednesday!
Regular updates train your audience to repeatedly visit your site on specific days. You don’t have to update EVERY day, but frequency is key. Because if I know your blog updates on the first of every month or something, I’ll probably eventually forget about it.
Cultivate your personality
One thing I’ve never liked about the anime blogosphere is the way everyone posts a cute anime girl as their profile icon for blogs and networks. I get so bewildered meeting my Twitter friends in person and realizing, “You’re not a cute girl with cat ears!”
When readers are making a decision whether or not to stick around with your blog, they’ll want to try and figure out who you are. You don’t have to post a photo of yourself if you don’t want to; it’s just one immediate way to introduce yourself. You can express yourself through your writing by showing off a your sense of humor or even discussing personal tie-ins to blog topics (I did this last month with a post about how a show got me through a career slump).
Basically, remind readers that they’re not reading Generic Anime Blog, they’re reading your blog. I know you’ve got a unique point of view to share with the world. Do your readers know?
Be controversial
You have opinions. Stand by them. Nobody wants to read a review of Evangelion titled “Evangelion Was OK, I Guess.” They want to read “Evangelion Was Better Than Acid.”
Sure, not everyone is going to agree with you. Expect that! Which would you rather have—a few readers that have strong feelings of love and/or hate toward you, or to not ever be noticed by anyone? As long as you’re sincere and respectful about your feelings, there’s no problem in riling up the blogosphere every now and then. Some of my most popular posts have been controversial, like Maybe you’re the reason anime is dying.
Experiment with other mediums
Sure, you’ve tried blogging with text. But have you tried photo blogging your way through a fandom convention? Or keeping a video blog of your impressions of the latest anime season? If not, then how about a podcast? Heck, what about live tweeting the US premiere of the new Madoka movie? Writing is only one way to reach your audience.
This is an especially good way to get out of a blogging slump. Trying something entirely different will mix up your routine, and rev up your audience, too. You might find out you have a knack for audio/video/photos too, and make it a regular thing.
Promote!
At least since Google Reader dropped off the face of the Earth, you can’t count on readers to come to your blog on their own. Instead, you need to bring your blog to the places they hang out and remind them of your existence.
For me, that’s the Otaku Journalist Facebook page, my personal Twitter, and my personal Tumblr. Out of all of them, Twitter brings in the most readers, perhaps because I often promote the same post twice (with space between and different pitches)! I don’t think you need to have a special account just for your blog. I used to have @otakujournalist but when my WordPress app broke I never bothered to fix it. Who wants robot tweets, anyway?
And finally, don’t get hung up on traffic numbers. It’s no fun to spend your day visiting Google Analytics every morning only to notice numbers aren’t up (I know, I’ve been there). Blogging to yourself isn’t fun, but neither is running a blog purely for the hits. Write about what you love, and like-minded fans, and perhaps even friends, will follow.
(Screenshot via Saint Young Men OVA, in which Jesus and Buddha live together as roommates. And yes, Jesus has a blog!)
20 Comments.
Also helps to write about a topic that most people can only find on your site. As in, “Oh look, a site that only covers Seinen manga! Awesome!” Or something even more niche then that. Just in general, something people expect on your site and not anywhere else consistently.
@Justin, thanks for your input. These posts are really the first draft of my “Blogging and Branding” digital guide, so I’ll think of a way to add that in.
Well it basically revolves around finding an audience. There is an audience out there…but what are they looking for specifically? That just helps narrow things down :)
I would mention how good SEO can help build some search traffic. Mostly because search does make up a decent percentage of traffic. An article I wrote about incest in 2011 suddenly got a huge traffic spike.
Sometimes, if you’re able to predict trends, your traffic can go up when the time is right.
Such a useful post once again for one who is trying to get her butt moving on getting one of her blogs up and running. Also happy that tied in with one of the things I posted in your thread asking for things people would like to see in a series of articles on blogging. You completely sold me on a schedule for posting each week and sticking to it.
The posting a pic of myself, while I see the pluses of it, is something I’m timid about. You, personally, know why. It’s why my avatars on social media are always anime or characters I like that have been done in a manga/anime style.
Interesting that twitter drives more traffic for you than Facebook. A good thing to keep in mind, plus the way you post twice about it with time in between and different plugs.
Going to be sharing this one on Facebook once more.
One thing I wanted to point out is that there are some privacy browser extensions which block Google analytics. Ghostery is one and I run it with both FireFox and Chrome. I prefer to not let Google know every place I visit as it’s so widely used.
Does Bluehost offer analytics through C-Panel, assuming they use it like many hosting providers. The hosting service I just left and my new one, Dreamhost do (I think when my one year for $19.95 is over I’ll switch to yours since you speak highly of them and hopefully I can get you a referral bonus.)
“One thing I’ve never liked about the anime blogosphere is the way everyone posts a cute anime girl as their profile icon for blogs and networks.”
“You don’t have to post a photo of yourself if you don’t want to; it’s just one immediate way to introduce yourself.”
There’s a contradiction – no one post their real picture (except Crunchyroll and ANN since it’s well-known throughout the world), but places like http://www.animenano.com is an exceptional for those who writes for fun and not for businesses like CR and ANN (once again).
But just gotta be creative on our to attract more viewers to your site and stuff. And redesigning the site, is important (unless if it’s already look good). People who visit a website must get the “Feel” when entering a website. If it’s a good design, then that means the content is good as well.
Thank you for posting this! I have my own blog but I just couldn’t figure out how to create an identity without conforming to what’s associated with the industry. You’ve renewed my conviction to be true and honest with my content and style. I’ll keep going.
“You’re not a cute girl with cat ears!” – My WHOLE life is a lie.
To be entirely frank, I like my cute anime girl avatar—but I did intentionally make a choice to choose a character NOT from an actual series.
My most popular posts have opinion or perspective posts that invited disagreement and discussion. These are also some of the most fun posts to write. I get to get something off my chest, whether it be about a show or the fandom’s response to a show, and people invariably have their own thoughts. I wasn’t really trying to be controversial with those posts, but express an opinion and there will certainly be someone there to disagree with you!
You’re running about an order of magnitude more traffic than I am, so you have good reason to be proud. :D
[…] traffic has simply leveled out. Gone are the MWF traffic spikes I grew to expect thanks to my regular updates on those same days. I’ve been pretty vocal about […]
I came across your blog while searching for “how to increase traffic to your anime blog” :) It’s really a useful resource and not many other bloggers are providing marketing tips to the anime niche. Thank you for your information. I’ve been blogging off and on for years, but as you say, blogging to yourself isn’t fun, so I usually lose motivation and abandon sites, only to create new – or try to revive dead – sites over and over. For about the last 2 months I’ve been pouring a lot of effort into reviving my blog at http://geekysweetie.com which covers anime and other geeky things for a female audience.
I agree that you don’t need a separate twitter for your blog. I tried that route once but then it felt like that twitter account was purely for promotion and not really for talking about what I already love and talk about on my personal twitter anyways, so I switched everything over and it’s a lot easier to just maintain one twitter account too :). I did the same thing with tumblr and my flickr and youtube other social media sites. I do have a facebook page for the blog, but that’s it.
Anyways I was wondering if you could provide some advice on directories, blogger communities, or even just good websites to guest post on that are specific to the anime (or gaming) industry. I find this to be the most challenging part of my marketing efforts right now. It’s hard getting collab projects and guest posts when you’re first starting out. What are some good places in the anime world where I should be either reblogging (like medium.com, tumblr, etc) or trying to partner with or write for to increase my visibility? Thanks ahead of time for any advice you can provide :)
@GeekySweetie:disqus thanks for commenting! I don’t really check old posts, luckily saw this. So send me an email for more custom advice!
This was a super helpful post for someone like me, who just started a gaming / anime focused blog! http://filledwithdetermination.wordpress.com for those interested!
Great Article and i agree that if you wanna traffic write good things and write about what people likes and search for!!
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This is great thanks for the advice, by the check out my blog (Anime Stuff)
https://animehothotties.blogspot.com/
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