Curiously Dead Cat went live on 11/29/17 (hurray!). Since that time, I, your humble host, NegativePrimes, have focused on providing what I hope is substantive content with some entertainment value. There’s more to a good site than that, however, as browsing your own awesome blogs has made abundantly clear to me. So without further ado, let me ask all of you more experienced anibloggers a question:
What advice do you have for an aniblogging neophyte like myself?
What have you found most useful or useless, most or least enjoyable? This could be advice on technical aspects, like WordPress plugins to try or avoid; or it could be more content-oriented; or just an instructive story from your wealth of experience. Whatever you want the next generation* of anibloggers to know. 🙂
* Granted that I’m probably older than most of you, if not all!
I believe reading, commenting, or just interacting in general is a big part of the experience. Well, I’ve only been active for a month and a half, but feeling like a contributing member of the community is probably the highlight of the experience for me.
On a side note, it’s weird, but I was unable to comment on your post when using a laptop (just like I wasn’t able to follow you the first time). Just with you specifically too…
Heya, Moyatori! 🙂 Thanks for commenting! I agree, and I definitely enjoy interacting with the community. Honestly, I wouldn’t enjoy just throwing my thoughts out into a void! It’s the give-and-take that’s fun.
Thanks for letting me know you’re having trouble with my blog on your laptop. Can I ask what kind of system you’re running? OS, browser, that sort of thing?
I use Windows 8 and Google Chrome. Actually, looking at Irina’s comment below, I see that I actually can comment – it just requires my email and website. I guess the thing with that is that it requires more commitment/effort, which can dissuade some people from commenting. I don’t know much about website management and stuff, but I feel like your blog is currently more geared towards the non-WordPress population. If it were easier for WordPress users to directly comment and follow, that might help with community interaction. I’m not really sure how though.
Thanks for reading my comment, and happy blogging! If you’re ever interested in a collab I’d be happy to participate!
Thanks, Moyatori! This is incredibly helpful! I’ll try turning off that requirement (if I can figure out how!). Can you clarify what exactly makes the blog seem “more geared for the non-WordPress population”? That certainly wasn’t my intent, and I’d like to make the blog as WP-friendly as possible.
It’s really just the commenting part, and maybe the fact that you only get an excerpt on WP and have to click another link to read the full post. With your writing, I believe you deserve a lot more WP followers.
A lot of blogs are like this though, so it really comes down to what you want out of it. It’s easier to interact with the community if your posts are a little easier to read and comment on, but if people know who you are and enjoy your content, clicking an extra link really shouldn’t be an issue!
(Take what I say with a grain of salt though – I really know nothing about website management)
I guess this would depends a lot on your ultimate goal. Since mine was to improve my writing and get a general sense of community, I’ve really enjoyed doing collaborative posts and would encourage anyone to try it out, at least once. Also maybe not have required name and email for commenting?
Thanks, Irina! I’m still thinking over your comment: I think there’s a lot of food for thought here. Hadn’t considered doing collaborative posts, but now I will!
What would be the reason for not requiring name and email when commenting? Just asking because other people recommend the opposite.