Feb 11

How to start an anime blog part 1

Tutorials

Related tags: Anime, anime blog Written by: Otaku

How to start an anime blog is a question that people ask me once in a while. I do not mind sharing some of my experience with you, but first of all you have to ask yourself why you would like to start an anime blog. Try to work in three simple steps: concept, creation and realization.

Part 1 is all about having an idea to start an anime blog and that is also the most important step in a project. I have been working as a freelance webdesigner for a while and it is all about knowing your clients. When somebody contacts me for a website they usually have some horrible ideas in mind for that website. But does he really need a website is question number one. Keep in mind that a website is just a medium or platform to share messages. The same can be achieved with other medium, for example a book or a poster.

What someone wants is to achieve a goal and that is definitely not having a website. Webshops for example are usually build to sell something, it is not about having a webshop, but it is about using a webshop to sell something. Then we might ask why he wants to sell something. He wants to make money obviously! But why? So he can buy stuff? But why does he want to buy stuff? The answer is simple he wants to buy some expensive anime figures. But we are not there yet! Why does he want to have figures? Maybe he wants to make his fellow otaku friends jealous? In this scenario his goal is not about having a website, but his goal is making his friends jealous. Do you really need a website for that? Probably not! Why is a simple question, but hard to answer. Think about it and keep asking yourself “why” to help defining your goal.

A great concept and planning is the key to succes. Concept is something that most developers and IT guys lack. Never ask an IT guy about starting a website, they are developers after all. Most of them only think in code speaking from my personal experience. Internet Marketeers are even worse, they usually know zero about coding. However some are really good in het concept part of the process.

Do not worry about technical problems, lack of knowledge or money. Those things will only stop you from achieving your goals. All succesful people have creative minds after all!

What do you want to achieve with an anime blog? Try to answer that question for yourself before you think about concept, creation and realization. In the next part Otaku will help you defining a great concept.

I hope you like this article and we are looking forward to help you starting up an anime blog.

You might also like these related posts:

Tokyo Mew Mew, funny and cool

The most kawaii anime opening ever

Guilty Crown

Asobi ni Iku yo!

About Otaku

Web-designer, blogger, otaku and expert in Communication & Multimedia Design. Founder and web-master of Anime Onsen. Design, development and marketing aspects of websites are also part of his interests and hobbies. Otaku is also a hobby photographer.

http://www.emptyblue.it/ Feal87

Hey man, I’m a developer, but I have a website. :E

http://www.animeonsen.com Anime Onsen

yeah most developers have websites, but most of them are horrible looking or a modified free theme. Funny that you have a random header image. AO used to have one too you know. How many unique visitors a day does your pagerank 3 website get?

http://www.emptyblue.it/ Feal87

Pagerank has nearly 0 importance in this (I was pagerank 3 since the first few months), but well…

around 3000 visitors and 8000-9000 views.

http://www.animeonsen.com Anime Onsen

wow those are good numbers

http://www.clanrain.com/ Pearz

“Internet Marketeers are even worse, they usually know zero about coding. However some are really good in het concept part of the process.”
I resent this line D:

Being in that industry and in charge of coordination of the website aspects of the company, I oversee many things. Just as you mentioned developers usually have a narrow scope on how website design is done, so as I feel Some of the points you have here.

For example: ”Keep in mind that a website is just a medium or platform to share messages. The same can be achieved with other medium, for example a book or a poster.”

Websites can have many other objectives too, many clients are are still “low tech” use the website as a cheaper alternative to printing brochures and pamphlets. There are a great deal that see a website as a “Digital Store Front” as they still work hugely on referral basis for income.

“A great concept and planning is the key to succes. Concept is something that most developers and IT guys lack”
This is also why their are a rise of people that do nothing but design concepts for websites. Split the website task between the design concept and then give the developer the task to code it. Where I fit in is making sure the 2 extremes of artsy and 1 and 0s are able to meet eye to eye so I need to be able to see it from both standpoints. Plus neither side understands the elements needed for making the site more usabile, but that is a different can of worms. Regardless, their are many many elements that go into creating a website that you (and probably me) still lack to make it perfect.

Btw: you never actually touch on how to mane an anime blog, just websites in general XD

~Pearz

http://www.animeonsen.com Anime Onsen

About the business part: Of course having a website is cheap in costs compared to for example printing 3000 businesscards and leaflets. However keep in mind that time is also money! Also everyone is using the same SEO techniques and stuff and everyday there are more and more websites from the same niche as yours.

A modern designer and maybe also developer does not only type code or does not only use Photoshop anymore. They combine creative ideas with user experience design and interaction design. Just making things what the client asks for will result in something like this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

http://www.clanrain.com/ Pearz

Not sure about pricing you charge for websites, but anything custom shouldn’t be too cheap. Regardless, 3000 business cards only cost a good ~$100-150 around here, not sure about leaflets, never printed those. Most people just come looking to hop on the digital banwagon and need a website.

Not really gonna discuss SEO side since any of the good ones at least know to keep anything that works a secret. Clients that try to take control of the whole process like that will always occur. Reality of any business. Still, by splitting the process up, rather then have 1 person design and implement it makes sure you can have the designer focus on what looks good rather then thinking about how things work. It leads to better designs overall since what you notice is the average designer constantly uses the same few “styles” and can’t branch out as much. ~Pearz

http://www.animeonsen.com Anime Onsen

I agree with you

Addition to second part:
Having multiple people working on same projects will most of the time result in higher quality…thanks to creativity of several people.

Well design is not only about how it looks anymore. Its more about how it feels or how it interacts! The UX design as I mentioned before is not only visual. Very simple example are buttons, how does it interact with the user?

Also I like designers that know about code and developers that know a little about design. They usually have horrible understandings of each other!