Not everything has to be perfect
In April, I decided my blog’s appearance didn’t reflect me at all. It didn’t resonate with my content the way it used to. It got to the point where I decided to stop blogging altogether until I could devise a redesign.
This was a dumb idea. I’d gotten into this mindset that my blog had to be this perfect version of my online identity. As it turned out, what’s worse is having no online identity at all. Design is only a fraction of it; content trumps all.
I hope to continue updating the look of my blog every two years or as I get tired of it. (At least I’m better than I used to be: at 15, I redesigned my pitas.net blog every two weeks!) But I really don’t want to ever repeat a blogging silence that pronounced.
Ask and receive
The majority of opportunities don’t come to you when you “get discovered,” they happen when you ask for them. I experienced this firsthand in 2011. Over the summer, I wanted to try anime voice acting lessons, but I didn’t have a lot of extra money. So I called up Edge Studio and asked if I could have a lesson in exchange for promotion on my blog. They said yes. Within the month, I was on the phone with Dan Green, the master himself.
Sometimes it’s better to act than to think. I could have sat around wondering if my blog was good enough or well read enough or whether a review from me was “worth it” for the studio. Instead, I took action and let them decide. Even if they’d told me no, I would have taken comfort in the fact that I’d been brave enough to try.
Different platforms for different goals
When I started my NaNoJobMo project, I didn’t entirely understand how Tumblr was all that different from WordPress as a blogging platform. But this year, after I began using Tumblr on a more-or-less daily basis, I realized that it’s more of a step in between Twitter’s micro-blogging and traditional blogging.
As it turns out, Tumblr has never been redundant to my blog. I use it for link sharing, off-topic updates about my life and stuff that’s too short to turn into a blog post. Sometimes, if I write something on Tumblr and still have more to say, I bring it over to my blog. I like being on more platforms because it’s just one more way to connect with more people.
I’ve also changed the way I use Twitter this year, too. Since I started working for the Daily Dot, my follower count has doubled. With 1,100 people watching my every tweet, I try harder to share things I think my followers will find interesting, especially stories I’m reading or writing. It’s a constant temptation to use Twitter as my personal search engine, but I do my best to give as much information as I get out of it.
My blog is not my life’s purpose and that’s okay
Three years ago when I started my blog, I thought it’d be a portfolio builder to help me find a job. But as I got more familiar with the blogosphere, I started having a lot of what-if thoughts. What if I could build my career around blogging? What if I amassed an audience of fifty thousand? What if it started making a profit?
Then I got my job at the Daily Dot and I couldn’t be happier. Gone are the days I used to dream about self employment, because the Dot lets me write about what I want when I want where I want. I started Otaku Journalist because the job I truly wanted, the one I have now— writing about online communities and subculture for a living— didn’t exist yet. I’m certain Otaku Journalist played a role in getting me that job. But in admitting that my blog was a stepping stone to my dream career, I’m admitting that my blog isn’t said dream career.
However, that’s exactly why I continue to blog. Just putting my work out there has opened up a host of opportunities— my guest post on Forbes being just the tip of the iceberg. Who knows what awaits Otaku Journalist in 2012?
Happy New Year’s Eve! My 2012 New Year’s resolution is to revive my blog and write two times a week, every week. For more about how I plan to do that, check back tomorrow.