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.
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:
- Scott – Mechanical Anime Reviews
- Mei – Treasure Box
- Rossi64 – My Brain is Completely Empty
- Irina – I Drink and Watch Anime
- Remy – The Lily Garden
- Arthifis – Arthifis’ Place
- Aldael – Aldael’s Attic
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.
- Kendra Ressler
- Mark King
- Crystal Dennis
- Scott
- Ravenhawks’ Magazine
- Games Like Finder
- The Backloggers
- Mythos
- Kat Sade
- Astral Gemini
- Annie Gallagher
- Aaron
- Bannet
- And others who for various reasons have chosen to remain anonymous.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Consider supporting the blog by:
- Becoming a patron
- Buy the ebook ‘Thoughts on Anime 2017‘
- Use the affiliate link to shop Play-Asia
I won’t say happy birthday yet since it’s only next week! But I can say that I’m completely down and interested in the posts that are to come eheh
Also, congrats in your achievements!!! You realli work hard towards them so you really deserve them to be able to get those milestones!
Thank you.
It’s definitely confirmed that I’ll be away and have no internet next week so while I’m scheduling posts I’m going to have to go silent for the week. Glad I moved the anniversary forward.
Like everyone else here says, congratulations and good luck for the time to come! I was thinking of contributing to this anniversary week, but scrapped my final submission a few days out from the deadline and didn’t get back to it. That does mean a bunch of people I really respect in the WordPress community got in instead, so I’m excited to see what they have to say.
I applied for OWLS at the start of April somewhere in preparation for the Spellbook’s half-year mark, but I bet they’re over capacity already as I haven’t heard back from them…
They are probably just busy. I’m sure you’ll hear back.
Thanks and hopefully next year you can be involved in the third anniversary.
Happy Bloggiversary Karandi-san!
Here’s to many more!
Many thanks.
Congratulations! Although I am a relatively new follower, I am still excited to see what’s to come for the future of your blog.
Thank you. Hopefully I can keep working to improve the blog.
You’re blog is already amazing enough to me. I’m sure within the next year you’ll be able to improve to even greater heights with your blog.
I really appreciate that. Hope you enjoy the rest of the anniversary posts this week.
I’m sure I will!
Congrats!
Thank you for always stopping by the blog.
Happy anniversary. Yasss!!!! Keep up the great work.
Thank you.
Congratulations on two years! You work insanely hard (from those huge yearly word counts and post output) and are a great part of the community. I hope you get those 10k views soon!
Thanks very much. It would definitely feel really good to hit that target.
Very glad to see you becoming (or rather retaining the position of) the flagship of AniBlogging community. Congrats and wishes for many fruitful years to come!
Thanks Aldael. And thanks for contributing to the anniversary. It was great to have you involved. Hopefully next year as well.
It’s my pleasure to be able to help you celebrate even the tiniest bit.
Yeah, hopefully next year also.
When I started my blog, I wasn’t sure I’d last a month- and that was December 26 of 2017!
Almost four months ago…
I think I’m starting to understand why someone might really enjoy running a blog! (I know I am!)
It’s been really great to have someone to look up to…
*looks down*
*blushes*
Senpai~
…
Okay, that might be more cringe than I can handle, but really, thanks Karandi!
And congratulations!
I wasn’t sure I’d last a month when I started either. But I think by the end of my first week I knew I was already enjoying it and I just kept wanting to read more blogs and as I watched anime I wanted to write about it. Everything just kind of grew from there.
I’m kind of in this phase where I have no idea how long I’ll be interested in it, but I just keep posting whenever I have something I want to write about!
(I should probably follow your example and read more from other blogs- I’m only following 9!)
Reading other blogs is a really great way to meet people in the community and to find different views or ideas about the anime you are watching, and find out about anime you’ve never heard of. The Ani-blogging community are great so there are heaps of amazing people to meet.
Congratulations and happy anniversary!
Thanks.
Congratulations on your Blogiversary, Karandi You’re amazing and talented, keep up the good work!!
Thank you.
congrats on 2 years! it’s great having you in this community and i can’t wait to see what’s in store for us this week 🙂
Hopefully you have fun. The contributors have really written some great advice and hopefully everyone enjoys reading it.
Congrats with the 2nd year anniversary! :))
Looking forward to more awesome sauces and posts, and keep growing and having lots of fun!!
Wish you all the best for future developments and plans for your blog! 😀
Thank you.
A big congratulations on 2 years, Karandi! As ever, I’m amazed by what you’ve accomplished. It’s been a treat to watch this blog grow and I’m happy to see you reach this milestone.
It looks like I’ve missed out for the second year in a row on your anniversary events? I must have missed when you announced it. Wish I had caught it, but I’m looking forward to what you’ve worked on with the others.
Happiest wishes for your blog anniversary!
Thanks, and sorry you missed out.
I did post a couple of reminders but I know with so many posts on my blog, I do end up burying posts and people miss them. I’ve been trying to figure out how to make sure announcements don’t get lost but can’t think of a way to do it other than sticking the post to the top and I think that would annoy people who would then have to scroll down to see new posts. Any suggestions?
It depends on the blog theme. For yours, you could put a section on one of the side menus that make announcements really stand out, as I agree sticky posts aren’t ideal for your layout.
I struggle to relay this kind of information myself though, because it seems like most people see content through the Reader, so if they pass your post by for whatever reason, then you’ve lost them. For example: I think most of the people who view my April posts don’t know there are participation rewards :p
I could make an announcement link in the sidebar provided I make it stand out from the clutter. I’ll have to think about that one. But most people saw the countdown when I had that up in the sidebar so that’s probably a good idea.
Thank you.
Whew! Look at all that blue in the posting! I wonder if I will ever get to posting daily haha! You have enough words that would make many authors jealous. This is so awesome and I’m happy to get to be around for this anniversary.
Yes, my excuse that I don’t have time to write for not writing anymore has kind of become obviously an excuse. Of course, I kind of think I prefer writing my blog to writing fiction at this point in time. At the very least, the blog is far more interactive.
Glad you are around for the anniversary as well and hope you are around next year to celebrate the third year.
Congrats on your anniversary and your blog’s continued success! Wish you continued success in the year to come!
Thanks very much.
I am very thankful for you being one of my first followers and suplorters on my own blog, and how your content has helped me learn how to captivate an audience. Being featured by you is also always fun!
Congrats on the anniversary, and here’s hoping the both of us are still writing a year after this, and the year after that.
Definitely hope we’re both still going for many a year to come. I’m glad I found your blog as you have some great content. Thanks for joining me for the anniversary.
Happy anniversary!
Thanks
OMG HOORAY indeed! You can’t forget that you can further achieve your 4th goal by being a hella active beast on Discord! 😛
Maybe I should wait to snipe contributor’s seat for your third celebration — 3 is my lucky number, after all.
I keep forgetting discord is a thing and then my email tells me I’ve missed messages. I really should figure out what I’m doing with that.
Well, looks like I’ve already been throughly beaten to it, but congratulations! Really wish I could have contributed something, but school has been getting in the way of a lot. Hope everything goes well for you in the next year Karandi!
Thank you. I know lots of people have been super busy lately so I’m thankful for the people who did have time to contribute. Hopefully next year you can get involved – the more the merrier.
Hooray indeed – especially for goal 5! Can’t wait for the rest of this celebration
I think goal 5 is the most important one for everyone to remember with their blogs. It will definitely be on my goal list for year 3 to continue.
Glad to hear it
Congrats! 😀 I’m sorry I didn’t get to contribute like I would have liked, with everything going on I just couldn’t get it in this time T.T Definitely next time if you do this though 😀
I’m planning on an anniversary week every year (why have a day when you can have a week). Hopefully I’ll even get to do it on the real week next year and not early.
Awesome! 😀 sounds great.
Congratulations!!!! 2 years and 2000 followers is mental but I wouldn’t expect less as your blog is awesome!
Thank you. I certainly never even contemplated that when I started and I really appreciate those of you who have joined in on the journey along the way.
Congratulations on your anniversary! Here’s to many more!
How was your experience with Lulu? I’ve been looking into ways to get some of my stuff in hardcopy format, but a lot of self-publishing places seem to be prohibitively expensive if you have any more than the basic number of pages.
I really enjoyed Lulu. They were helpful when my first version wasn’t quite formatted properly and the two questions I’ve had to send them were answered promptly and easily. However, I only published as an ebook and I think one of the issues with hardcopies through Lulu is the price they end up being and the author is supposed to buy a proof copy. I also didn’t pay for any additional services and put the book together myself, so I honestly don’t know if any of the ‘services’ they offer are worth it or not.