Anniversary Special – Looking Back at The Third Year

Posted on by Karandi
morose13i

Earlier in the week I celebrated my third anniversary for 100 Word Anime. For me, that was really exciting because each year I kind of feel like I’m learning more and figuring things out and I also feel like my posts are written a little better than they used to be. Okay, there’s still typos and the like, but I feel like my posts are a little clearer and more focused than they used to be (for the most part, there’s still the occasional ramble that gets through).

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Today though I want to look at how the third year went on the blog and then set a few goals for the new year. If this is anything like previous years, other than the goal of ‘have a great time blogging’ I will probably fall short of most of these, but I’m still going to set them anyway. I love having something to work towards. Besides, I think as long as I keep kicking the goal of having fun I’m still coming out ahead.

blog stats 2 3rd year

2018 ended up being a very solid year for my blog. I wrote over 1000 posts and the number of comments and likes increased in general. of course, the length of my posts just keeps getting longer though I think I’ve kind of found the right length for my episode reviews so they don’t go on too long but also give enough information. Occasionally an episode needs more words and sometimes there just isn’t that much to say so I think it all kind of works out in the end.

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blog posts 3rd year

April of 2019 is quite literally the only month since starting the blog that a post didn’t come out everyday. Even July last year where I took a mini-break still had one post a day scheduled for the week. And in terms of views, it is very clear that I wasn’t posting in April as it is one of the worst months I’ve had in the last two years. However, I’m really proud of the fact that I’ve managed to maintain daily posting for all but one month out of the last three years and I’m really happy with the growth my blog has had.

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blog stats 3 years
Yes, April was a disaster.

Still, over the last 12 months I’ve had 4 months where I hit the target, or exceeded it, of 10,000 views in the month, so that goal was well and truly smashed and I can not express how excited that made me. I know it is just a number but it just kind of made me feel like I really can build this blog into something more sustainable long term.

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But now we need to set some goals.

Number One: Continue to have fun with the blog and anime.

This goal is pretty self-explanatory and is pretty much the same as every other year.

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Number Two: I’m going to tentatively set a goal of 20,000 views in a month. It will probably be a couple of years before I hit that, but it still seems like a nice target.

While I get views aren’t everything, realistically, the more people who visit or follow my site, the more chance there is of generating revenue through either ads, affiliate links, donations, or people choosing to become patrons and supporting the site. I’m very grateful to those who have financially supported the blog over the last year and this financial year at least the blog is on track to have earned enough to cover all blog related expenses.

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Number Three: Learn more about social media.

Over the last six months I’ve been reading a whole range of websites and guides about how to effectively use social media and while I just don’t have the time to put a lot of the advice into practice, I’ve been working on Twitter at least to build up the number of people who actually follow links back to my blog and that has worked fairly well (let’s not talk about April though). I’d like to continue to explore ways to use various social media sites to bring visitors to my blog and just learn more about what I could be doing.

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Number Four: This one is a very tentative goal, but I think I’m at the point where I need to expand beyond being a solo-blogger and need to look at bringing in some other writers to the site.

Over the last six months I’ve really been thinking about what I can do to improve and increase content and broaden the range of content on offer to readers but the reality is I’m doing as much as I can already. In order to do any more I am going to need to look at having other contributors in one form or another. This one is tricky because clearly the blog isn’t earning enough to pay anyone decently for their contribution, yet, and also because I do not want to lose what makes my site what it is so I have no intention of just opening the doors or rushing to expand at the expense of what I love about my blog.

Still, the first baby steps toward this goal are already in motion so keep your eyes open.

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And that’s it. That’s the current state of the blog after three years with some vague plans for the fourth year. I’d also like to throw in there that I’d also love to collaborate with other bloggers when I have the time for it as it is great fun reviewing a show with someone else and I also want to find more anime related blogs to read as I always enjoying finding more content. Hopefully everyone enjoys the next twelve months and as always, if you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to use the contact to send me a message or DM me on Twitter.

Reminder also there’s a couple of days left to enter the raffle for the giveaway if you haven’t already. Really looking forward to seeing who wins. The winner will be contacted shortly after the raffle closes and I’ll hopefully get the prizes in the mail soon after I get the mailing addresses.

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A Review of the Blog – 2018 – Part 1

Posted on by Karandi
fireworks

100 Word Anime is nearing the end of its third year and now it very much feels like this blog is an inseparable part of me. I honestly can’t imagine what I would do without it. As 2018 draws to a close and 2019 is just around the corner I’m taking a moment to take stock of the blog and think about next year.

In part one, I’m looking just at stats for the year and part two I’m going to look at posts and content. In terms of goals for 2019 I have two. Continue to have fun and continue to try to make the blog something that I can do more full time. I am happy to say that 2018 has allowed me to make the blog break even and I’ve been able to put some money into a few things to try to improve the blog in the future, but I’m definitely not at a stage where I can consider leaving work for my blog (not even close). But I do greatly appreciate those who have supported the blog in some way in 2018, whether that was a donation, ko-fi, or those who continue to support the blog in an ongoing manner on patreon. It has all helped enormously.

thank you

Though, perhaps the best thing about 2018 is that people in my life started taking this endeavour as something I was serious about. As I built up a following and people who supported the blog online, people in the real world have seen how much effort and time I am putting into it and I’m getting a lot more support in the real world. So 2018 has been a really good year for me in a lot of ways despite a bunch of other issues.

Alright, onto the stats for the year. These were taken on the morning of the 31st so don’t include the final day of the year.

2018 blog stats

Right so in 2018 I apparently posted 1,222 times. That seems crazy to me but I’m not going back and counting. My average comments per post hasn’t really gone up and that’s probably because while features and top 5’s generate a lot of comments normally, episode reviews don’t after the first one or two of the season. And my word average per post continues to go up this year rising to 637 making the whole 100 Word Anime title really a lie at this point, but you know, 100 x 6 is kind of fine too.

2018 posting activity

I continued to post every day even when I took a bit of a break in July I still scheduled a post every day. At this point it would feel weird to not post every day given I’ve done it consistently for nearly three years. Most days I post three times a day, though there are certainly times when more posts go out. Still, I’m not looking to increase the number of posts next year. I’m very much just wanting to keep my three posts a day and work on improving the content rather than increasing it.

2018 Views

Lastly, I am super excited to announce that December saw me just scrape over the 10,000 views in a month target for the second time in 2018. That was really fantastic to see. I’m tentatively setting a goal of 12,000 views in a month for 2019 as I think that would be reasonable growth based on past trends but we’ll see how things go. I didn’t really think I’d hit the 10,000 and I was thrilled in August when I realised how close I was getting and then finally tipped over.

That’s the end of part one but later part two will come out looking at some of the top posts for the year. If you actually have plans for New Years Eve and won’t be reading my blog later today, have a great night and I hope that 2019 brings you happiness.

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Welcome to the Anniversary Week: 100 Word Anime Turns 2

Posted on by Karandi
anniversary

Hooray!

Okay it is early but that’s because I’m likely not going to near my computer next week and I really want to celebrate with everyone. So we’re just going to pretend the anniversary is this week and party like I’ve made it two years blogging.

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I would like to kick things off with a huge thank-you to my followers. Without you, I know this blog would never have gotten off the ground and I wouldn’t have made it past the first year. I was fortunate in that I hit 2000 followers just last month which meant I hit one of my goals for my second year blogging. Dare I set my sights on 3000 by the end of the third year? I particularly want to thank those who have offered their contributions for this week as they’ve taken time out of their busy schedules to share some advice with the anime community.

Contributions to this anniversary come from:

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And I also need to give a huge thank-you to those who have chosen to become patrons. With your support I’m hoping to keep growing this blog and making it bigger and better. I’m half way to the first target of $50 a month and once I hit that I am going to commit to video content for patrons periodically (though not overly frequently at that stage). I really do appreciate the support that my patrons have given me, their advice and feedback, as well as their willingness to help me achieve the dream of making this blog more a full time thing rather than an all consuming hobby. A thousand times thank you.

And if you are wondering what is in the future for 100 Word Anime be sure to check out my feature on Friday where I’ll outline some general goals for the next 12 months.

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Okay, we’re up to some basic facts about 100 Word Anime, which due to scheduling reasons are taken from the 21st of April, so aren’t as up to date as I would like. For my second year, I’ve managed to keep up a daily post schedule and even my overseas trip last year for work didn’t stop that, though I did run the 30 Day Challenge during that period to ensure that there were posts scheduled for days when I couldn’t log on. Hopefully this will continue again for the third year as I feel consistency has been a big part of the blog’s success so far.

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While I haven’t reached all of the targets I set last year, I have continued to grow my blog and the community I interact with and I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. There are some really amazing people out there and it has been an absolute pleasure sharing thoughts on seasonal anime, discussing completed series and just throwing around ideas about anime. Over the last two years the average number of comments per post and likes per post have continued to rise, as have the number of words per post (I put that down to more full series and book reviews as well as slightly longer features, rather than just over shooting my 100 word target on every single episode review). A friend suggested, mostly in jest, that I’ll have to change the name of the blog to 1000 Word Anime, but I’m kind of hoping it doesn’t come to that. Particularly with episode reviews, I know people don’t have a lot of time and for a twenty minute episode it seems brevity is more appropriate.

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Reflecting on the last 12 months is something I really do appreciate about the anniversary. It gives me a chance to really consider what I’ve done and what I failed to do, and what I’d like to do. I had five goals and I think I’ve done reasonably well.

Goal 1: Was to produce some sort of video content. Technically yes, but definitely no. I was almost there and finally comfortable using a particular editing program when my computer died and my new computer was not compatible with the program. So as of January this year I was back to the drawing board of learning something new all over again. That said, I produced a trial introduction video and got some great feedback and am in the process of reviewing and recreating that. The bottom line is that I don’t want to just put out video content for the sake of it. If I’m going to do video content, I want to work on it to make it worthwhile. Unfortunately, that takes time and while I made some progress on this goal, I’m definitely not there yet.

Goal 2: Was to hit 10,000 views in a single month. Again, I missed this target but January came so very, very close. That said, April was looking pretty good a week ago, so we’ll see what happens when we reach the end of this month.

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Goal 3: Was to continue to post daily. Check.

Goal 4: Was to find more ways to engage the community in conversation and to interact with my followers more. I think I’ve achieved this. I’m trying to be more active on Twitter and joining in the conversation there, which is easier some weeks than others. I’ve collaborated with a few different bloggers over the past 12 months. I also introduced my inquiring minds segment and have had a lot of fun answering reader questions. And I finally joined OWLS and will hopefully be involved in one of their blog tours soon. Still, this is something that I think will remain an ongoing goal for my blog.

Goal 5: Was to have a lot of fun with anime and with the blog. To this I can only say, “Absolutely.” I honestly don’t think it would be possible to watch as much anime as I do and write as many posts each week if I wasn’t having an absolute blast doing it. This is something I genuinely love and wish to keep doing for a very long time.

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This year I also launched a compilation ebook, ‘Thoughts on Anime 2017‘ that put together my series reviews and some of my features and top 5’s from 2017. I felt that was a worthwhile project, not so much because it sold very well, but because it gave me an excellent change to reflect on a year’s worth of content and what I’d like to change or work on. Thanks very much to the people who did buy a copy to help support the blog. I do plan on putting out a 2018 version in January as again, even if it doesn’t sell very many copies, it is a nice record of what I’ve been doing on the blog.

To people who have been with me since the beginning, thanks again for coming on this journey with me. For people who are newer to my blog, I hope you’ve enjoyed joining in the ongoing discussion about anime. Make sure you check in during the week as there will be more anniversary posts coming out all week. All of the posts will be added to the anniversary category, so be sure to check it out at the end of the week in case you missed anything. Hope you have a great week and I looked forward to blogging for a third year and discussing anime with the community.

Thanks for reading.

Karandi James

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Welcome to the Anniversary: 100 Word Anime Turns 1

Posted on by Karandi
anniversary

Yay!

We’re finally here. May 1st 2017, which means I have officially kept this blog going for 12 months which is about 11 months more than I expected when I first started, and I’m really not seeing any end in sight. I’m hooked on blogging and I love the online anime community. Which is why I decided to take an entire week to celebrate my blog and to reflect on how the year has gone. If you would like the full post schedule for the week of anniversary posts, check it out here.

Party

Firstly, I want to thank all of my followers, particularly those who take the time to like and comment on my posts. It really is kind of daunting when you first start a blog and you are putting your thoughts out there. There’s this question of whether or not anybody is going to read what you write, whether they’ll like it, whether they’ll hate it, whether it is exactly the same as everything else already out there, and if you think about it for too long you can paralyse yourself and end up never hitting the publish button. However, since starting the blog I’ve met some incredible people, mostly other bloggers, who share a passion for anime and are incredibly supportive. Even when there are disagreements about opinions, the conversation is usually lively and entertaining rather than negative (there’s always a few exceptions though). Basically, blogging over the past 12 months has been an incredibly rewarding experience because of my amazing followers and so I cannot say thank-you enough.

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There are however six followers I’d like to give an extra-special thank-you to. A while back I asked for volunteers to participate in my anniversary with the condition that they take time out of their busy schedules to write 100 words about anime or my blog. Over the next week, each of these fantastic people are getting their own featured post but in the meantime, if you aren’t following them already, you should definitely check out their blogs because they are all well worth reading and following. The other thing they all have in common is that they are all highly active participants in the online anime community so if your reason for blogging is to connect with other fans, this is a good place to start.

Additionally, I have to thank my patrons. I started on patreon in January and I am really thankful for the support these guys have offered. My current goal is $500 a month, which I’m a long way off, however that goal exists because at that point I will be able to shift roles in my real world job which will give me more time to develop content for my blog. Long term I want to look at some video and audio based blogs but at the moment I’m not happy with what I can produce in the time I have available to me and I’d rather not put out substandard content so am sticking with text based posts (which mostly aren’t substandard although there are a few exceptions). Still, I am continuing to work toward this goal and I greatly appreciate the people who are getting behind 100 Word Anime. Hopefully I can produce something video related that I don’t hate later this year.

So, some basic facts about 100 Word Anime and how it has gone over the last year. I know that May 2016 disappeared off the timeline this morning, but I have posted every single day for the entire 12 months that 100 Word Anime has existed. Mostly 3 posts a day, but since the spring season started, some days I have 4 posts scheduled due to my large watch list. Just as an update though, in July I am taking 2 weeks off from episodic reviews. There will still be daily posts during that period but I won’t be reviewing currently streaming anime and will catch up on any new shows and episodes at the end of those 2 weeks (everyone needs some down time occasionally).Posting Frequency.JPGDuring the 12 months I have posted 1,158 posts apparently and overall views and visitors are as seen below.

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Lastly, April was my best month with the blog getting 7000 views.

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All of that brings me to goals for the next 12 months.

  1. Actually post some sort of video content that isn’t dribble on the blog (hopefully I can achieve this goal though this is the one I am most iffy about).
  2. I’d like to hit 10,000 views in a single month. I think that is a reasonable growth expectation in the next 12 months.
  3. Continue to post daily.
  4. Find more ways to engage the anime community in conversation and to interact with my followers (working on this though suggestions are welcome).
  5. Most important – continue to have a lot of fun with anime and with the blog.

Thanks for joining me for the anniversary of 100 Word Anime and hopefully you check out the other anniversary posts as they come out this week. I’ve really had a fantastically rewarding 12 months since starting the blog and I’m looking forward to another year. Hopefully, you will all still be with me when I’m celebrating my 2nd anniversary.

Are you a fan of 100WordAnime.blog?

If you like this site and you like what I do, consider becoming a patron.

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Thanks,

Karandi James.

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Reflections on February

Posted on by Karandi

There is no doubt that February was a great month for my blog. The number of visitors to the blog increased (though views went down a bit). I also gained some new followers, found some new blogs to read, and had a great time writing posts.

The real world wasn’t so kind in February and between work and some health issues (nothing serious, just annoying) as well as life in general I’ve really had my work cut out for me finding time to look at ways to build on my blog. My routine for my three posts a day is fine, and I’m not struggling with that as it is just kind of what I do, but I really do want to look at a wider range of content.

Off and on during the month I’ve been playing with audio and video but as I just haven’t had enough time to consistently work on this nothing much is actually being created and to be honest the quality stinks so probably nothing along these lines coming out any time soon. That said, there are lots of ideas I’m kicking around at the moment and eventually I’ll produce something along these lines.

On that note, I’ve been really thinking about my patreon site and what I can offer there to try to encourage more supporters and to actually make it worth their while. I still don’t know what the long term answer is at this point but in the short term I’ve created a small anime challenge for March.

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It’s a simple thing but if anyone wants to try it they are welcome to. However, given this isn’t a part of my normal blog schedule I am going to be posting my 7 responses on my patreon site for patrons only between Sunday 5/3 and Saturday 11/3.

Not sure about the idea yet and whether it is worthwhile repeating a similar thing next month or not but I’ll see how it goes this month and certainly listen to any comments followers of my blog have or patrons reading the posts. Then I’ll think about what I can do in April.

As to the blog itself my features did quite well this month with the two Valentine specials getting quite a lot of views. On Romance in Anime and On Bad Romance in Anime both got quite a few comments and it was great to really engage with readers. And of course, the Yuri On Ice review came out on Valentine’s Day though I think with the OWLS tour going on during February and the thousand other Yuri posts, people might finally be hitting their saturation point for Yuri.

That said, I am only a little bit out from my one year anniversary on my blog (by a little bit out I mean 2 months given the anniversary is May 1). I’d like to do something to mark the occasion and I’m kind of wanting to work with my followers on this a bit. Basically if you follow my blog and you’d like to participate (by participate I mean write approximately 100 words about anime, why you like it in general or why you follow my blog) let me know through my contact. I know it is 2 months away, but life happens fast and it is always good to have some advance notice of things.

As always, I’d like to thank my followers and particularly my readers who regularly take the time to comment.If you ever have any suggestions or ideas for the blog please let me know. March is going to be another great month so let’s get into it.

Are you a fan of 100WordAnime.blog?

If you like this site and you like what I do, please consider becoming a patron.

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Thanks,

Karandi James.

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