Six years of anime blogging

Credit to linked pixiv user

A little over a month ago, Mainichi Anime Yume turned six years old. Unfortunately I was too busy in early October with getting settled in my new job to remember, so all I managed to do was a quick tweet about it last week. But I did eventually want to write something about being one of the long-lasting anime bloggers, and since I don’t want to repeat what I wrote about when the blog turned five years old last year, I thought I’d do something a little different and take a brief look at how I got started with blogging in the first place…

As I’ve mentioned before, my friend pkjd on the anime news blog moetron was my first inspiration for blogging. I had never even heard of a blog until he first started working on moetron sometime in 2005 I believe. I was a bit hesitant at first about starting my own blog as I was still content with the kinds of updates I would do on my old fan site. At some point I heard about Anime Nano and got a better picture of what anime blogging was like. Episodically reviewing new anime series or writing editorial posts about specific anime topics was new to me since my old site consisted of very objective, Wiki-like content. But for a while I had wanted to start writing more subjective anime material on my site such as reviews or other things, and I began thinking that a blog might be a good way to go about it. I liked the neat, chronological format of blogs and the fact that updating with a new post wouldn’t be as time-consuming and troublesome as the full-on manual updates I would do on my old site. It was fall 2006 at that time and I was busier than I had ever been with going to college and having a part-time job, so I was indeed having difficulty finding time to update my fan site. What finally sealed the blogging deal for me was the fact that my old server offered an easy blog creating tool through WordPress…so I finally decided to give it a go!

At first I was nervous because I thought bloggers had to know computer coding in order to give their blog a decent format and make pictures appear properly or even to make sure the posts themselves appear. As someone who had made every single HTML page on my old site from scratch, I thought I would have to manually create almost everything on the blog too. But technological times had changed since I started my fan site in 2002, and it was a brand new concept to me when I found out that blog hosts like WordPress do pretty much all the work for you! You just write the post, click on a few self-explanatory buttons, and the posts appear in their tidy chronological format. Once I realized how easy it was update your blog and make it look nice, I began favoring blogging =D

As for blog content, I knew right off the bat that episodic blogging wasn’t for me. But being a brand new blogger and lacking other ideas for posts, I compromised and did a lot of individual “first impressions” posts after watching 1-2 episodes of new series, sometimes halfway reviews of the series, and then full reviews. In between those I would do some game reviews, editorials, and news posts. As soon as I met the requirements, I submitted my blog to Anime Nano and have been indexed on them since November 13th, 2006. It wasn’t until around 2009 that I started to find out the kinds of posts I favor and fell into the format you see today – mostly editorial posts about general anime topics, first impressions and full reviews of seasonal anime (I now do all my seasonal first impressions in one post), and a few other kinds of posts in between.

Out of the six years I’ve been working on MAY, the height of my blogging was definitely from mid-2009 to mid-2012 when I was writing about three posts a week and gaining more and more readers. In 2007 I was still a new blogger trying to find what I wanted to write about and improve my style, and in 2008 to some of 2009, I was away at university and had to constantly put the blog on hiatus. And now, with my (semi)full-time job, I can only write a new post once a week. But despite that, I don’t plan on putting the blog on hiatus anytime soon. Even though it’s not easy coming up with editorial topics to write about on a weekly basis, I’m going to keep on keeping on because it’s my passion ^_^

As of now I’ve written 622 posts and am only about 50 comments away from reaching 10,000! As always, I want to offer a big thank you to all my visitors, new and old, who read, enjoy, and comment on my posts! I wouldn’t have had the motivation to keep it up without you =) Even though I can’t blog as often as I used to, I really appreciate your continued support regardless ~^_^~ Here’s to six more years of great anime discussions~!

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Myna says:

    Congrats on six years!

  2. Justin says:

    OBA CHAN!!!! Yumeka Senpai!!!! xD

    Congrats on making it to year #6. I hope you can continue to keep on blogging :)

  3. Cely_belly says:

    A happy b-day to Anime Yume!<3 Congratulations on the six years of ani-blogging :) I really must thank you Yumeka for your hard work because if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have learned nor grown as an anime blogger myself. Here's to six more years of awesomesauce!

  4. Frootytooty says:

    6 years already?! I still remember your 5-year celebration post like it was last week. Gah, how time flies, and it seems I’ve been reading your blog for quite a while now. XD Congratulations on hitting the big 6 and may you continue to make insightful and interesting posts in the future!

    • Yumeka says:

      I know, it does seem like time-flew doesn’t it? Maybe it’s because I had a lot of free time from mid-2011 to mid-2012. But whatever, thanks for being one of my long-lasting readers ^__^

  5. Shikon says:

    Congratulations on 6 years! I gotta say i’m still relatively new to anime blogging myself, I started keeping track of this site around summer of this year and have just recently really got into anime blogging. I really enjoy how casual this blog is, and not to mention the varieties of anime that i’m introduced to thanks to you =P and may you have many more years of ani- blogging!

  6. Kal says:

    Congratulations! 6 years is well… Nothing in human years, but quite a bit in blog years :) I don’t even remember how I found your blog, but it has been a fun trip, and keeps me checking your site every week :) Keep it up! and I hope to be here for the 10th anniversary, 15th, 20th, etc :)

    • Yumeka says:

      I think you’re one of my most long-lasting readers and most frequent commenter…so I greatly appreciate all that you’ve contributed to my blog over the years ^_^ Thanks for all the support and I hope to be around many more years~

  7. chikorita157 says:

    Congrats on making it to the sixth year. It’s surely difficult to keep blogging when life gets busy, but it takes a lot of motivation and passion to keep going. So, I wish you luck for the future and keep up the good work.

    • Yumeka says:

      And thank YOU for all the times you’ve helped me with my blog! =) I appreciate all the support you’ve given to MAY over the years. I hope to continue blogging despite my busy schedule in real life ^^,,,

  8. Congrats! Six years is an awesomely long time to write a blog, particularly for anime. I think yours was the first anime blog I ever read and I am still reading it. =D

  9. Alterego 9 says:

    That’s a lot of years.
    Congratulations!

  10. Tara says:

    Congrats on your 6th year of aniblogging, and may there be many more ^^

    • Yumeka says:

      Thank you! I know you’ve been one of my best readers despite not commenting much ^_^ I appreciate it and I hope you’ll continue to read and enjoy~

      • Tara says:

        I get noticed despite my lurking? I had no idea haha xP
        And no worries, so long as you’re posting I’ll be around reading and very much enjoying ^^

  11. Kai says:

    Grats on your 6th year!

    Never knew yoou had been doing this for so long, I read some of your old posts and see that you had pretty much been expressing your views in the internet even before this blog started, and altogether, it hit even around 10 years (holy sht)

    It’s good to know a bit of HTML or CSS though, you can modify a bit of some WP premade themes (something I really want to do) to suit your need, or even make your own theme altogether. The thing with premade themes is that no matter what you choose, the theme is bound to have one or two things which you just don’t like D:

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, I’ve been in the anime web site business since mid-2002 when I started that old fan site you probably saw. Blogging is quite different from the kind of work I used to do there…but I like blogging better =) The old Anime Yume site just isn’t necessary anymore in this day and age of Wikis and other large database anime sites.

      Heh, due to my lack of any compute coding knowledge besides basic HTML, I got friends to help me do a few things on the blog such as the image banner, the Twitter sidebar, and a few other things. Thankfully you don’t have to know much of any computer coding to make a blog, and obviously the more knowledge you have, the more you can make the blog suite your tastes =P

  12. Adziu says:

    Many congrats to you! And please do continue making interesting posts for us all to read and comment on!

    • Yumeka says:

      Thanks! I’m glad I discovered your blog too ^_^ It seems like you’ve been expressing yourself online for quite a long time as well. I hope we’re both able to keep it up =)

  13. CoolCARTGuy says:

    Congratulations on 6 years! This is a milestone few reach; six years of blogging is nothing to sneeze at, especially with webhosting and the economy being what they are. Be proud. :-)

    • Yumeka says:

      Thanks! As a fairly new reader to my blog, I’m glad to have you aboard ^_^

      Webhosting has gotten much cheaper since I first got my animeyume.com domain name in 2002. I only just moved to a cheaper server this year, but the fact that anyone can start a blog and have unlimited space for images, and sites like YouTube can operate for free, is a testament to how much cheaper bandwidth is than it used to be ;) Who knows what another six years will bring?

  14. Lovelyangel says:

    Woo hoo! Congratulations! Your blog remains great fun to read (even though I peek in on an erratic schedule, oftentimes too late to contribute to threads). Please keep writing as long as it’s fun for YOU!

  15. Arktavious says:

    Congratz to six years! Six years is a long time and a lot of effort must have been put into it from start to now. The passion you have for this definitely shows in all the time and work you’ve put into your blog. Here’s to another six and another six and another! (because we’re counting by sixes now XD )

    • Yumeka says:

      Thanks! I’m glad you started reading and commenting on my blog ^_^ But don’t feel like you have to read and comment on everything. Just the posts you want to is good enough for me =D

  16. Superasil says:

    Oh god, 6 years!? (tad late here, but it’s the thought that counts right?) I remember when i found this site, about 4 or 5 (maybe longer? :x) years ago, when i was heavier into anime (not as much now sadly, too much uni work D:), and i used to find wallpapers on your main site, and get music for my old MP3 player. Great stuff, i still try and check here every once and a while, so keep up the great posts! :D

  17. Metal says:

    Congrats on the 6 years! I have been reading your blog for the past year and have been loving it. Even though I haven’t commented on this blog, I enjoy reading your thoughts weekly. Hopefully your semi-full time job goes well and give you more free time in the future to bring out more content for us.

  18. Desheerts says:

    Congrats for the six years! As I was reading your post, I’m now having an idea on what I will do on my blog. It is so difficult to have an episode reviews. Who knows, I might not be able to complete all the episodes.

  19. AviJii says:

    Congratulations in your sixth year as a blogger. You inspired me a lot to learn and to implement things that I’ve learned in blogging, since I am just new with blogging. Do you mind if you can answer this question?

    1) What do I need to learn in Anime Blogging?

    2) What are the things to remember when writing a post particularly in the world of Anime?

    Thank you your answers would really help me :)

    Kind regards,
    Avi

    • Yumeka says:

      Hi AviJii, I usually don’t reply to comments on old posts, but since you asked nicely, I wanted to help you out ;)

      1) The only thing I’d say you’d need to learn, besides having good writing skills, is maybe some basic html codes. If you use a site like WordPress or Blogger for your blog, they’re pretty self-explanatory and do most of the work for you, but if you want to do some extra tweaks to your blog to make it look nice, html knowledge helps.

      2) All I can say for this one is to always remember that blogging is supposed to be fun and you should write for your own enjoyment and not worry about how many viewers you have. It takes a long time to build viewership, and if you work on building your own style of writing and kinds of posts you want to focus on, people will eventually flock to you (promoting yourself on other blogs helps too).

      Hope this was helpful.

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