Once again I’ve been given a question that on the surface seems fairly easy to answer but there are some complexities involved. While I’ll give my best answer this one is definitely a question for the community so be sure to have a go at answering it in the comments because I’m certain it is going to get a conversation going.
I’d love to answer a question from you so fill in the survey or DM on twitter.
What do you think about self-promotion?
Anon
If I’m perfectly honest, I hate putting myself out there. In any real capacity. I can’t write cover letters, my resume is scant on details, and in interviews I generally play down any and all achievements. This isn’t out of a sense of false modesty or a desire to hide. It is more that I feel that what I do in my day to day job is nothing more than what should be expected and I don’t feel that I need a pat on the head for that effort. Likewise I can’t declare myself the best candidate for something when I don’t know who else has applied and in most cases any one of the candidates would actually perform as well as any other so should I really talk myself up all that much?
After starting a blog, and deciding that eventually I’d like this to be more than just a hobby, I kind of needed to revise this. You can’t just create content and hope that maybe someone will stumble upon it (even if you still happen to use Stumble Upon – which is apparently now called Mix for some reason). And so self-promotion becomes a necessary step in a way.
Admittedly, my blog experienced plenty of natural growth just by being active in the community. Not actually self-promotion, but engaging with other bloggers and commenting on their work and ideas just led people back to my content. But there is a limit to this kind of growth.
Affiliate Link – Card Game
So the answer would be that while I’m not going to scream “I’m the best!” from a rooftop anytime soon (or ever), I’ve come to the conclusion that a certain amount of self-promotion is necessary. My main focus over the past 12 months has been on using Twitter more effectively and by and large I have seen more traffic being directed from my Twitter feed to my blog, though it is still nowhere near as effective as the wordpress reader or search engines in terms of getting traffic to the blog. That said, I’m not very good at writing tweets, or using hashtags, or any of the other bits of advice people give about writing good tweets. It’s a work in progress.
One thing I am going to keep in mind no matter where this blog goes, is that the content and anime come first. It isn’t about promoting myself and it isn’t about promotion for promotions sake. It is about reaching out to anime fans and building a community that enjoy interacting with me. I might make a few mistakes along the way, but hopefully I won’t tread on too many toes.
Well, how do you feel about self-promotion? Of course if you want to ask me a question please DM me on Twitter or complete the survey.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
Self-promotion, eh? I’d probably be more comfortable dipping my foot into petrol and throwing a lit match at it. . .
That’s a graphic image.
I apologize.
No problem.
Self-promotion is certainly tough. I know I’m guilty of doing that with some of my posts talking about my other blogs or even in some comments. It really doesn’t help when it’s a topic of something I’ve reviewed for the most obvious example (ask Irina when it came to discovering her blog and how it involved Haibane Renmei). There are times that I feel bad because I don’t want to look selfish, but I still want to get the word about my blogs and several other projects out there whenever I can.
I think a lot of people feel like that. They want people to find their blog but don’t want to look like they are constantly talking about it. It is tough trying to find a balance that works for you where you feel you are promoting your work enough without being too obnoxious about it.
Is that so? I didn’t realize that feeling was so common in the blogging world. Finding that balance is an arduous task.
Well, you don’t need to scream you are the best, we already know that😊 And yes that was totally meant as a compliment.
I never promote myself to be honest. I like promoting others more, and really always like to help other people in the blogging community, that have either just started out, or are having a tough time with it.
That said, if no one would read my blog, that would become a little bit more difficult, so I think the only thing of ” promoting” that I do is tweet my posts. But erm that’s about it. That, and I don’t really like talking about myself about being good either so there is that😅 Honestly the way things are going right now, I’m quite happy with my blog growth. And if I gain a new reader that of course is always fun. Either way, I’m just happy to be apart of this community 😊
It is always hard for people starting out as bloggers because there’s nothing more disheartening than putting your heart and soul into a post and then finding three people read it (or no one).
Yeah that is so true. But then again, it’s also nice as a starting blogger when you get your first reader, or first follower. Usually when that happens the real magic begins so to speak😊
Yes, I remember how excited I was the first time someone left me a comment. Someone had read something I wrote and thought enough about it to write a comment. That was such a thrill.
Haha, that takes me back alright. I also know that at first I was pretty shy to even leave a comment. Lol…guess I have now grown out of that phase…maybe a little too much😂😂 Seriously though, every day I am still always happy when someone leaves a like or a comment: that’s what makes blogging so much fun😊
I know. I used to write comments and re-read them and re-write them before pressing send and then I’d still freak out that maybe the person would take offence. I kind of know now that most people are happy to get a comment even if it isn’t the most elegantly worded.
Haha…so true😂😂 I think the first comment I ever wrote was on your blog, in fact I’m pretty sure of it. I think I pressed send, and then turned of my Ipad not to turn it on again for a while afraid to see what the response would be lol 😂😂 Exactly though, people certainly love getting comments…well most people do that is 😊
I feel the same way about not promoting myself, because I do the same sorts of things on my resumes. I do have my posts automatically go to a Facebook group and Twitter and sometimes I retweet my tweets posts, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten with blog growth.
I guess I need to work on it too.
The other side of the coin is any time spent on self promotion is less time for watching anime, writing posts, and actually interacting with people.
It is a necessary evil, I’m afraid. There are those that don’t have the same internal cringe factor and will willing over sell themselves at every opportunity. Unfortunately the world is full of people under qualified for the job they have because they are able to blag they’re way in. As hard as it is, you’ve got to be prepared to sell yourself, no one else will. Also don’t undervalue your own abilities.
Yep, I definitely came to that conclusion and at my last job interview had the people I was managing write me a list of all the things they thought I had done well and took that as my script. I got the job permanently so apparently they are better at selling me than I am.