Basically this post is just an update on what’s been going on behind the scenes with the blog. Thanks as always to all my followers. Your support is appreciated.
Since the blog’s one year anniversary and having achieved the goal of sticking to a daily post schedule, I’ve been thinking about what the next steps for my blog are. Now you might be wondering why there needs to be a next step and why I can’t just keep doing what I’m doing and that’s a fair enough question to which the only answer I can give is that I can’t sit still.
That isn’t a literal statement, obviously, but it is a defining characteristic of how I have approached everything in my life. Once I start something I keep thinking about how I can do it better, how could I do more, what could I do with that, and the number one killer of my enthusiasm for any hobby is seeing zero growth. Once I realise there’s really no where left to go or that I’m not interested in going any further with it, I start to lose interest.
So the fact that I’m wanting to keep growing the blog, expand the content, connect with other bloggers, and just see what I can actually do is a sign that I’m completely still in love with blogging. This is becoming an all consuming enthusiasm to see what I can do next without compromising what I’ve already achieved (where possible).
However, blogging is a bit different from previous hobbies because basically my successes and failures are on public display and that has made this an interesting learning experience. It isn’t like when I became obsessed with Sudoku or jigsaw puzzles. Pretty much my failures were my own with those. It’s a little bit like being on stage for music or dance, only again, most of your failures occur during rehearsal and seldom get quite the public scrutiny. Not to mention, unless someone’s mum was filming it is unlikely any evidence of the error exists beyond the moment.
Last week I made the move to start a Facebook page (and I sincerely thank everyone who offered advice or suggestions about that process). I still don’t really know long term how that factors into what I’m doing with the blog, but I do know despite only having 29 Followers more people come to my blog via my Facebook page than my Twitter. So clearly the advice that your blog should have a Facebook page makes some sense.
The ongoing project that I’ve been working on as part of my Patreon page is a video blog. This one is killing me just a little because I want to do a decent job but with real life commitments and my current blogging load I make tiny little steps in the few hours once a week I can pay attention to that project. Basically, I have some music a real life friend put together for me for intro and outros in one of the best displays of support for my weird anime fixation I’ve ever had, and I have several attempts at recording the audio.
I say attempts because I made the mistake of asking someone in real life their opinion after I finally didn’t hate the recording (so about go 25 or similar). Why I did that I will never know because they gave me their opinion. Which, is probably better than having it publicly launched online and getting much the same feedback in a barrage of comments. So back to reading the various user manuals and help guides that come with the programs and microphone and playing with settings and lets go again. That was as far as I got before work exploded on me and now I know I won’t be able to do anything more for at least a couple of weeks.
That said though, even though it feels like one step forward and three steps back, and even if I’m not certain I’m actually getting anywhere near where I’d like to be due to time constraints, I’m having a lot of fun. People online and in the real world are supporting me and offering advice, I’m learning new skills and new ways to stuff up on my computer and also learning that sometimes failure isn’t the end of the world (so yes, the recording where the cat decided the microphone was hogging my attention did get deleted but it wasn’t the end of the world and the cat is still in one piece and eyeing off the keyboard as I am typing wondering why it is getting more attention).
There’s also been some chatter between myself and another blogger about doing a small collaboration or something similar next anime season, which would be awesome if either one of can find the time to fit it into our schedules.
Overall, what I feel with this blog is that there are so many more opportunities, so much more to try and to do, and so many more anime lovers out there to meet, so I’m thinking that means the blog still has many, many years ahead of it. And in the meantime, I just need to keep taking small steps where I can and continue to work on getting better at what I do.
Thanks for reading.
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Thanks,
Karandi James.
Even considering how large your blog is and how far your network expands, it’s never too late to try new things. I’ll continue to follow you wherever, so if vids show up, I’ll watch! If it’s just posts, I’ll read! Just do whatever would make things interesting and fun for you.
Thanks.
It’s really nice to see you looking for ways to expend your scope and accomplish more with this. People always appreciate new ideas, so I think you have a great attitude about things here.
One thing that I think keeps some people from trying things out is getting caught up in trying to get it perfect the first time. I can certainly understand wanting to have every detail just so, but I think even with audio/video it’s okay to not have like a high quality professional finish on it the first time out.
You can start small, make improvements, and constantly perfect your process. It’s better than getting hung up on something and getting discouraged when it doesn’t meet your own high expectations.
True, you aren’t going to get things perfect first go. But, for me, there needs to at least be an attempt to reach some kind of minimum quality before putting things out there for a public audience.
I think the real issue is that it is a fairly new thing for me to be trying. With writing posts it was different. I’ve had things I’ve written scrutinised by the public for a lot of my life in one form or another. New is always scary but a lot of fun at the same time.
It’s impressive and admirable that you have the drive to always strive for improvement. Okay, I can see how that could backfire at times but on the whole, it’s amazing. I’m excited to see whatever you’ll do for this blog. Good luck with vids and recording – I know it’s not easy.
The cat part made me smile. I’ve long since lost count of the times my dogs decided to make a bed out of my gadgets.
What is with pets and knowing exactly what it is you are about to try and do? Even the chickens in the yard know when I want to change their water and somehow end up sitting in the containers.
You have chickens? I confess to being vaguely terrified of chickens. And cows. They both always stare at me like they’re plotting my imminent death.
Cows I don’t like. Or goats. Goats are really horrible. Chickens though are reasonably fine because the worst they get up to is attacking my boots and that’s more amusing than a problem unless they hit the laces.
I think I’ve had better luck with goats so far. They haven’t tried to attack me at any rate though who knows how long that will last.
Fair enough about that. I usually wear flip flops or loafers and well, they don’t offer much protection from sharp beaks.
Cats <3 (I got more out of this post than simply "cats," but I had to say it.)
Yeah, I love my cat, but right now she’s trying to cuddle into my lap while I’m trying to reach over her to type. In a minute she’ll attempt to steal the keyboard’s attention by swiping at my hand. I love her to pieces but sometimes she’s just a little bit in the way.
Great post
Productions values will always differ from person, find out what works for you. For audio, I suggest Leth, JuJu (he does a podcast on YT) or even shoujou. They seem to have got the hang of recording audio.
Wanting to get better and better at something you enjoy is always a great feeling! I never thought of making a facebook page for my blog, when I have one for my music. I guess I’m more protective about my blog writing than I am my music and like to keep it to myself but you may get me to make a facebook page for at least one of my blogs (the one I would actually want to promote lolol).
Also, if you ever need any sort of audio cleanup, I’d be happy to help! Well, help as much as I could, sometimes if something is in the recording you just have to re-record lol.
Yeah, that is interesting sometimes what you can manage to clean from the audio and what you can’t.
Then I also got told I sounded like I was ending every sentence with a question among other probably well meant and helpful feedback. Try again.
Good for you. Wanting to improve our blogs is the one of the reasons why we love blogging. Go for it! Both failures & successes are learning experiences. Cheers!
Thanks. Hopefully I keep slowly making progress forward.