Having reached the one year point, I’ve decided to spend this week reflecting on what I’ve learned from blogging over the past 12 months, firmly keeping in mind I still have a lot to learn.
Interaction
We’ve reached the last post of the anniversary. If you missed any of the follower features or what I learned posts please check them out here. It has been a great week reflecting on the blog and where I’m going. It has also been great hearing from my followers about their own experiences with blogging.
Onto the last post of What I’ve Learned and I save the best for last: Interaction.
I’ve said so many times that one of the main reasons I started the blog, other than to get writing again, was to have someone to talk to about anime. To be a part of a community that appreciated anime and wanted to dissect it, praise it, criticise it, mock it, have fun with it, fall in love, fall out of love, and go through the whole process again during the next season. It is incredibly fun to swap ideas and thoughts with others and the people I’ve met since starting the blog are the reason the blog has kept going and will continue to exist.
Blogging isn’t a one way street. You don’t just write the post, publish it, and wait for all the readers to swarm in and tell you how amazing the post is. If I’m posting about Attack on Titan season 2, then I am reading what others are writing about it and engaging them in a discussion, I’m following comments on Twitter, I’m laughing at screen captures or wincing if someone caught the moment Mike… Poor guy. Whichever way, I’m looking for a discussion. I’m not just throwing my post up there and waiting. That kind of defeats the purpose of joining a community if you are just going to throw a comment out there and then walk away.
As part of building ongoing interactions I try very hard to ensure I visit the blogs of anyone who comments on one of my posts as my first priority when I log on in the morning. Next I hit up the reader and I used to open every single post that had come out from people I followed from the day before, however time constraints sometimes prevent me getting to every post from people I’m following (particularly if something happened the day before and I didn’t read as many posts then as I probably should have).
When I have free time I type the titles of anime I’m currently blogging about into the reader to see who else is tagging posts with these. This is the main way I come across new and fairly cool blogs to read. I don’t comment on every post I read and I don’t like every post I read. When I like a post it is because I had fun reading it or find it informative, insightful or interesting (all the good ‘in’ words really). If I have something I want to say then I’ll comment. I really try to avoid commenting just for the sake of it and I’ve regularly started writing a comment, realised I’m saying nothing and delete it, settling for a like instead. There’s certainly posts where I just read them and walk away.
I think it is really important to be genuine in your online interactions (though some degree of tact is probably needed as well). If you want to be a part of the community you need to contribute to it, you need to value the contributions of others, and more importantly, you need to just be involved.
I’ve met some incredibly cool people in the year I’ve been blogging. I may not know their real names or faces, but I know how they feel about different genres of anime, who their anime crushes are, and what their likely reaction to a new title is going to be. More importantly, I value their opinions and I know that even if we disagree, we’ll have fun talking about it. I truly value the interactions and discussions I’ve had since starting this blog and as this is my final post for the anniversary series I do want to send out one more big thank-you to all the followers.
What I learned from blogging this year is that the online anime community is alive and thriving and being a part of it can be an incredible experience (just know that every community has one or two issues).
I did ask this in my first anniversary post, but I do want to continue to give back to the anime community and create even more interactions between people. That is partly why I run the In Case You Missed It posts on Monday and also why I decided as part of my anniversary to feature some of my followers, but I’m open to other suggestions of ways I can make my blog a bit more welcoming and interactive. Share your thoughts?
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
One last congratulations on making it this far. I really enjoyed this week of anniversary posts.
Interaction is one of the best things about blogging and so many of you guys are amazing. I admit though that I had no clue how to reach out when I started. I still fumble with words while commenting on new blogs. And I’m always averse to putting forth opposing arguments to a post unless I know that the blogger in question will be receptive to such discussion.
But all that aside, it’s still one of my favorite parts of having a blog. I rely on e-mail rather than the reader though since WP Reader hates me. Like you said, it’s not always possible to get to every single post but it’s still a lot of fun to browse through other bogs and posts.
I’m dreadful at checking my email for posts. I see the alerts there and then kind of ignore it. I don’t know why given it is the same information as the Reader gives me.
I have to admit, I’m less likely to offer an opposing view on a blog where I haven’t interacted much before. There’s a few touchy people out there. But, you figure out pretty fast who is open for a conversation and who isn’t and you go with it.
One of the most interesting things about blogging, is interacting with people. I René,ber when I first started, that I was rather shy to give comments on other people’s blogs. But after a while I just became more comfortable, and started to respond to comments as well. It is a rewarding but also very humbling experience. I always find it incredible that people take the time to read a post grom me, let alone comment on it. I always try to return the favor as much as I can, but also because it is a great chance to meet new people and exchange thoughts with them on all kind of different subjects. Without interacting you would be missing out on a lot of things that make blogging so great. So I could not agree with you more on this, and because some things can’t be said too often: I am glad to have met you as well. This has been a very interesting week on your blog, and I have enjoyed it a lot. Glad to have been part of the ride 😊
The first few comments you make are fairly daunting because you never really know what response you are going to get or whether you’ve just said something incredibly stupid etc. After awhile though you just kind of get over it and you find lots of people who are happy to exchange comments and it becomes really fun and rewarding.
And because it can’t be said enough, thanks for everything over the past year and for taking part in the blog’s anniversary. Here’s to another year.
Totally agree, but I have yet to come across somebody in this community that responds badly. When I sometimes see the exchanges that happen on YouTube, and the comments shared here…it is just simply a completely different world. And that is why I love it so much. Everyone is just very friendly 😊
I believe that interactions is what makes people engaged and create memorable moments together to explore and understand each other’s ideas. putting it in my terms, which would be more interesting, you looking at a piece of art or talking to the person who made it and sharing thoughts about the art.
Interacting is something I really need to get better at, so your tips are certainly things I’m going to try. I may just dedicate a day or two out of the week to read blog posts or something as well.
This was a great post to finish your blogaversary off with! Really don’t have any ideas for how you could interact more with readers, I already think you do a great job at that.
Thanks. I’m glad you found the post helpful and thank you for following the anniversary week posts. Looking forward to discussing anime with you over the coming year.
I hope you keep making great content and share your thoughts with others, thank you for also checking out my blog
That was a great read. Interacting with readers and other bloggers is something I want to get better at, so thanks for sharing your experiences with it. I’ve always been better at writing than getting involved with communities, but everyone I’ve met through blogging has been great. Congrats on the anniversary!
Thanks, and I hope you have fun meeting some great bloggers.
Congratulations on your one year anniversary.
One thing I notice about anime bloggers……. they rarely interact, to be honest….. and worse, they just blog, but don’t read other bloggers’ posts. The numbers of readers I get are kind of fixed, the same regular readers, which I appreciate very much ( Like I always see you, and Otaku Judge , Cubbyhole, Disperser, etc. ). But, it’s okay, because I am able to write about my thoughts on this platform… I cannot write about animes/mangas on my other blogsite .
Of course, I understand if they don’t want to read my posts. Each to his/her own.
I agree with this. Even though the number of followers my blog has goes up, the number of people I actually interact with on my blog has stayed mostly the same for awhile, with one or two additions every now and then. A lot of poeple hit follow and then you never hear from them again.