Scary that I can probably pull off the Junpei Hyuga look, but I digress.
This week marks the 3rd year I’ve been blogging. Good god, has it really been that long? I remember starting off as just a nobody trying to share some experiences with a few folks. About 1,000+ Twitter followers, 1,000+ Google+ followers, 700+ Tumblr followers, and 350+ Facebook fans later, here I am.
One thing I have started to realize that my blog is becoming my life. Hell, manga and anime are my life. It’s sad that I sometimes take my blog more seriously than my job, though I’m still trying to do a better job in promoting it. Getting a writing gig at GoBoiano helps, but I want to do more, as AnimeNews.biz’s Humberto Saabedra suggests, to become bigger. If you ask me, blogging is 10%-20% producing content, 80%-90% promoting it.
I actually spoke to Humberto via Twitter about the business of blogging a while back. Our brief conversation made me think about the book that got me into blogging in the first place. I am a personal brand and that I should treat myself as a commodity if I really am serious about cashing in on my passion.
With that said, I am thinking of setting up a little online shop that sells merchandise with my logo and some quirky taglines related to various anime/manga tropes. Don’t worry, there will be no copyright infringement and no brand name series/character/studios/publishers will be harmed during the making of the products. I also have some thoughts about setting up affiliate programs on the blog, but I want to make sure they don’t look too intrusive. Though both ideas are ten times better than advertisements, right?
I will go with the shop idea at the moment once I get some designs up and running. I have some interesting ideas flowing in my head, so you guys will see what I have in mind soon.
This will be fun balancing what I have planned for the blog with all my other responsibilities. I don’t know if I can quit blogging. Maybe it really is therapy for me and not just to my readers. It is the first creative thing that I can proudly say, “Yeah, that’s all me.” and I want it to be a big foundation in my life. More importantly, I want more folks to see the powerful positive effects and lessons that Japanese pop culture media provides.
As much as manga is still struggling in the U.S., I still see a future trend where big manga series could come from non-Asian talent. When I was at NYCC 2012 for CBLDF’s “Defending Manga” Panel, Charles Brownstein, Executive Director, said that manga fandom will continue to grow worldwide over time. Though we have to see what people like Danny Choo can do to impress the rest of the world about Japanese pop culture.
Speaking of Choo, he gave some advice and inspiring words when I saw him during his NYCC 2012 panel that still resonate with me today.
“Discover and live your passion and the rest will follow.”
Let’s make the 3rd year full of wonderful and enlightening passion together, shall we?
No comments:
Post a Comment