Nobody blogs at Otaku Journalist but me. But that doesn’t mean it’s a one woman show. My process is made infinitely easier by a variety of blogging resources I’ve found online.

From hosting to posting, here are a few of the tools I keep going back to for my blog:

The Back End

BlueHost

I pay about $70 every year to Bluehost, and they give me unlimited storage space for photos, digital guides, other blogs, etc. Bluehost also has a one-click install option for my blogging service of choice, WordPress.org.

I’m such a big fan that I’m also a BlueHost affiliate, which means I make money whenever somebody buys BlueHost hosting through a link on my site. And while supporting a company like this can be uncomfortable for some, it hasn’t burned me yet. Look at how quickly support responded to my complaint a few weeks ago!

WordPress.org

Blogging platform WordPress comes in two flavors—dot com and dot org. With dot com, you’re hosted on WordPress’s server, but you have a limited amount of storage space and design capabilities. With dot org, you control everything, but you have to host it yourself.

Dot org works for me because I like having total control over the look of my blog, which I tend to redesign every two years or so. I also like being able to organize and store big files, like my digital guides, right inside my blogging platform.

WP-DB-Backup

Once, when I accidentally deleted my blog, Bluehost restored it from a backup. But as master of my own domain (literally), I try not to depend on them. I set up my blog with WP-DB-Backup, a plugin I recommend to everyone, to create a weekly restore point.

If I could only have one plugin on my blog, I’d be hard pressed to choose between this one and Askimet (a default spam blocker on WordPress). No matter where you’re blogging, I think it’s a important to think about backing up your blog so the worst doesn’t happen.

Writing and Editing

Google Drive

I mentioned I do all my journalism work in this free Google tool. But I also use it for blogging (and Drive’s folder organization helps me separate work and play). I like that it’s right there in my browser, no matter which Internet-connected device I’m using.

The only thing I don’t like about Google Drive is all the formatting it puts into my blog posts if I just cut and paste them into WordPress. So my method now is Drive → TextEdit (or Notepad on a PC) → WordPress.

Evernote

This is a relatively new development. I’ve been using this free desktop app to better organize my blogging goals and editorial calendar. Here’s how that’s going so far:

I created an Evernote notebook called Otaku Journalist. In it, I have a note for each month, along with themes, events, and ideas I have for posting those months. I have another note where I store all my links for the Otaku Links series. And then I have another for entering in ideas I have that aren’t fully fleshed out, or I’m not sure what to do with yet. It’s a work in progress, but I’m already feeling more on top of my blogging routine.

Thesaurus.com

My browser says this is one of the six sites I visit the most often, right up there with Gmail and Twitter. But when I’m blogging, I almost always have this site open, the better to select the most perfect possible word for what I’m trying to convey.

My thesaurus use isn’t about finding big words or unusual words, just words I’ve forgotten about after getting in the habit of selecting certain ones while speaking. I’m not trying to impress anyone, just make my words as clear as I can.

Photos and Art

Flickr

It’s really important to me not to use images on my blog that I don’t have the permission to use. So I love Flickr, which has advanced search options so you only browse Creative Commons licensed art. Google Images has this, too, but when I use it I usually end up selecting results that it scraped from Flickr!

And of course, even if the image’s license doesn’t call for it, I always credit the creator at the bottom of my blog post. Beneath The Tangles is another blog that’s really good at always giving image credit where it’s due.

Big Huge Labs

If you’re wondering how I manipulate my photos into collages, like I did for this 2013 recap post, this free tool is it. Big Huge Labs has a lot of different layouts you can use to transform your photos, some of which I think are tacky, and some that are downright awesome.

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I’m certain that I use more tools than these, so list your favorites in the comments and maybe it’ll job my memory. What tools make your blog run?

(Photo by kodomut on Flickr.)

We write blogs, first and foremost, for ourselves. But it’s no fun to talk to yourself all the time. Eventually, you’ll want to find likeminded readers who are actually getting something out of what you’re putting out there.

In four years, I’ve grown Otaku Journalist from a blog that only my husband ever commented on to a blog that gets at least 400 unique views every day. Along the ways I’ve made friends, met colleagues and co-panelists, and felt like I was contributing to our community.

Here are the solutions I’ve been most successful with for generating more traffic:

Update regularly

My traffic isn’t very good on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday. But I can expect lots more hits on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. Why? Because those have been my update days for years, and people know those are the days they’ll see something new here.

Here’s what Otaku Journalist’s traffic looked like last week. For reference, I updated on the 13th, 15th, and 17th. My plan didn’t work perfectly, but just look at that Wednesday!Regular updates train your audience to repeatedly visit your site on specific days. You don’t have to update EVERY day, but frequency is key. Because if I know your blog updates on the first of every month or something, I’ll probably eventually forget about it.

Cultivate your personality

One thing I’ve never liked about the anime blogosphere is the way everyone posts a cute anime girl as their profile icon for blogs and networks. I get so bewildered meeting my Twitter friends in person and realizing, “You’re not a cute girl with cat ears!”

When readers are making a decision whether or not to stick around with your blog, they’ll want to try and figure out who you are. You don’t have to post a photo of yourself if you don’t want to; it’s just one immediate way to introduce yourself. You can express yourself through your writing by showing off a your sense of humor or even discussing personal tie-ins to blog topics (I did this last month with a post about how a show got me through a career slump).

Basically, remind readers that they’re not reading Generic Anime Blog, they’re reading your blog. I know you’ve got a unique point of view to share with the world. Do your readers know?

Be controversial

You have opinions. Stand by them. Nobody wants to read a review of Evangelion titled “Evangelion Was OK, I Guess.” They want to read “Evangelion Was Better Than Acid.”

Sure, not everyone is going to agree with you. Expect that! Which would you rather have—a few readers that have strong feelings of love and/or hate toward you, or to not ever be noticed by anyone? As long as you’re sincere and respectful about your feelings, there’s no problem in riling up the blogosphere every now and then. Some of my most popular posts have been controversial, like Maybe you’re the reason anime is dying.

Experiment with other mediums

Sure, you’ve tried blogging with text. But have you tried photo blogging your way through a fandom convention? Or keeping a video blog of your impressions of the latest anime season? If not, then how about a podcast? Heck, what about live tweeting the US premiere of the new Madoka movie? Writing is only one way to reach your audience.

This is an especially good way to get out of a blogging slump. Trying something entirely different will mix up your routine, and rev up your audience, too. You might find out you have a knack for audio/video/photos too, and make it a regular thing.

Promote!

At least since Google Reader dropped off the face of the Earth, you can’t count on readers to come to your blog on their own. Instead, you need to bring your blog to the places they hang out and remind them of your existence.

For me, that’s the Otaku Journalist Facebook page, my personal Twitter, and my personal Tumblr. Out of all of them, Twitter brings in the most readers, perhaps because I often promote the same post twice (with space between and different pitches)! I don’t think you need to have a special account just for your blog. I used to have @otakujournalist but when my WordPress app broke I never bothered to fix it. Who wants robot tweets, anyway?

And finally, don’t get hung up on traffic numbers. It’s no fun to spend your day visiting Google Analytics every morning only to notice numbers aren’t up (I know, I’ve been there). Blogging to yourself isn’t fun, but neither is running a blog purely for the hits. Write about what you love, and like-minded fans, and perhaps even friends, will follow.

(Screenshot via Saint Young Men OVA, in which Jesus and Buddha live together as roommates. And yes, Jesus has a blog!) 

So you’ve set up your new blog, or you’re just trying to breathe some new life into your old one. And that’s when it hits you, “What do I even write about?”

But that’s thinking about it backwards. To write a good blog post, think about your readers. When they type a search term into Google, it almost always takes the form of a question. So websites that answer questions show up at the top of Google searches because they’re considered—by Google and users alike—to be the most valuable.

If you want to best serve your readers, the trick is to only write blog posts that answer questions, either by providing information, education, research, or strong opinions. Here are several formats these types of useful posts can take. By the end of this blog post, you’ll have (at least) 20 new ideas, guaranteed!

Instructional posts

These posts answer Google queries like “How to X” or “How do I X?” The best ones rely on your own experiences to teach people something new. Fill in the blanks:

• How to build the best [media server/manga library] the world has ever seen.

• How to get your life in order and finally [organize your game collection/clean your figures/self-publish your first fantasy novel].

• How I learned to stop worrying and love my [anime backlog/checkered weeaboo past].

List posts

These posts are easy to write and fun to read. Whether about resources or ranking, they share several points quickly and all in one place. Once again, let me get you started:

• The 10 best [cheesy live-action shows/bargain games] that money can buy.

• Fourteen things every [European Gundam fan/Whovian] should do in 2014.

• My top resources for [fandom news/video game tutorials/ legal streaming anime].

Reveal posts

These are posts that get personal. I feel like nobody actually writes enough of these because “I don’t want to bore people with my boring life” but people stories are the most interesting stories of all.

• The [sci-fi convention/video game] that changed my life.

• I was a teenage [cosplayer/employee at a comic book store].

• How I’ll be a better [convention volunteer/anime fan] in 2014.

Other types of posts

• Series posts. Got A LOT to say about a subject? Instead of writing a novel, break it up. It’ll be easier on your readers and you’ll have multiple posts for the week. They don’t have to take the form of Part 1 and Part 2 (though I’ve done that before). For example, this post is part of an informal series on blogging advice.

• Interviews. As I said before, people loves stories about people more than anything else. If you get the chance to talk to somebody with an interesting story or point of view, make the most of it. You can write it as a Q&A or paraphrase it into article form.

• Guest posts. Here’s another way to get other perspectives on your blog while giving you a break. Ask friends to contribute guest posts on specific topics. Here’s how I pitched potential posters on my blog. Even better—do guest post exchanges with a fellow blogger, and you’ll both get interesting new content!

• Link roundups. These are so easy to do, but so useful to readers! The way I do it is by keeping an open sticky note on my desktop all week, to which I paste the URLs of interesting reads I encounter. Then I put them all together for Otaku Links.

For EVEN MORE prompts that are useful but not fandom-specific, I can’t recommend Alexandra Franzen’s 88 fill-in-the-blank prompts. She’s one of my favorite writers, and I’ve definitely used some of her inspiration for my own posts before.

Finally, if this post inspired you to write something, let me know! I’d love to read it.

(Screenshot of Akiyama Mio from K-On! season 1, episode 5).