Blog Shop Talk: How “5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts” Helps Anime Bloggers — Like You!

A Feature for Bloggers and Readers

My Blog Shop Talk series looks at our craft — how we write and promote our posts. In this case, it’s all about promoting your sites. As an anime blogger, I think it’s important to support the community whenever I can. One of the ways I do that is that every week, I compile a list of the posts that caught my attention and that I think deserve a wider audience. I call that compiled list my “5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts.”

It’s pretty obvious the posts are designed to link readers to posts they may have missed. Did you know, though, that Other Posts to Crow About have been scientifically crafted to give featured bloggers and their blogs the maximum exposure possible? I’d like to introduce you to those features, as well as open the floor to suggestions to make 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts even more useful.

Note: This is a revision of the original post I wrote back in November 2019. Some things have changed, and there’s a new generation of anime bloggers doing their thing. I thought an update was in order.

Even Before the Post

I review the Massive List of Anime Site (my listing of all the anime blogs I check out) on Friday night and sometimes into Saturday afternoon. When I find a post I intend to include in 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts, I’ll use that site’s Tweet share button to write what I hope is an enticement to visit the site.

Marketing isn’t my strong point, but I try to emphasize how interesting the post is. This usually happens Friday night into Saturday.

I might consider using Pinterest and/or Mastodon in the future. I’m getting solid traction there with my other posts. I’m not sure what form that’ll take, but it’s something I’m actively working on.

One thing I lament is the loss of Twitter as a viable platform. Engagement is down, advertisers are fleeing, and that means engagement will drop even more. I’ve provided Twitter with free content for years, so seeing what it’s become is a real disappointment. It used to help my blog succeed. Now it doesn’t, and I’m not sure yet what will replace it.

The Headlines

When I write the actual post, the craftsmanship (and yes, I know the shtick will wear out its welcome — I’ll stop soon) starts with the two headlines for each article I’m highlighting, as well as the masthead from the originating site. Let’s take a look at this example from 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts From 2023 Week 47:

The process starts by presenting two paths to the highlighted post’s site. The masthead is also clickable and will take the reader to the originating site.

Here, I’m calling attention to a delightful post from The Infinite Zenith. The goal is to give the reader maximum opportunity to get to the site, so I start with the site’s title. It’s clickable (though not, of course, in the image above). The first opportunity is the site’s name. Clicking on it will take the reader to the site’s home page. The second opportunity is the article’s title. Clicking on it, of course, takes the reader to the highlighted article. Not only does it maximize the potential for clicks, but it gives the site’s name some clear exposure.

The Body

I try to match the tone and tenor of the highlighted post as I describe it. The goal is not to shoot for an airy and light tone to draw attention to a post about a weighty issue, for example.

Beyond that, I find that I try to channel Guy Fieri from Food Network as he hosts Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. If you think about it, it’s the perfect model for 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts. He tries to find amazing restaurants that may have flown under the viewers’ radars, then entice those viewers to visit. I try to do the same thing for anime blog posts.

If the post is about a series, I’ll try to increase interest in the post by linking to My Anime List’s page for that series. In this case, the series was Infinite Stratos.

I try to relate the posts to Crow’s World of Anime’s vision, or to a post I just wrote, or to a series I’ve enjoyed. Since it’s my post, I still want to connect to my readers and give them something of myself; but the ultimate goal is to get them to click away from my site, so I don’t keep the focus there.

If the post is about a particular series, I’ll try to increase interest in the post by linking to My Anime List.

You may have noticed that generally speaking, I’ll try to mention the post’s author by name, then mention their site again. Sounds simple, right? Well, the site name is simple. I just repeat the main headline! But the author? Not so easy.

Some writers have a Twitter presence. Some have a byline that links back to their blog, or a Facebook page, something else entirely. My goal is to give the site (and author!) maximum coverage, so since I’m already giving the blog coverage in the headline, if the writer has a Twitter handle, I’ll reference it. I’ll say this: fewer and fewer bloggers have a Twitter account anymore (and I really can’t bring myself to call it “X”).

Identity’s getting harder and harder to establish with the collapse of Twitter. Most sites, though, have an author page, like this one from The Infinite Zenith.

If the writer doesn’t have a Twitter account, I’ll link to the author page in the blog. For some sites that have many writers, like Anime Feminist, that makes the most sense, because the Twitter account is for the site itself, and each author has their own page. I have a sense this part of my process is a bit messy and unscientific, and I’m always looking for ways to improve it. Especially with social media in such a flux right now.

I end the section with “Check out the Post Here!” It’s the same link as the highlighted post’s title in the headline, and it’s just another opportunity for the reader to click. I use a button instead of text to make the call to action more clear and tempting.

Social Media

This is where I tried to put the most thought, because marketing is important, but I suck at it. However, I think what I’ve come up with is actually reasonable.

On average, I find about five posts to crow about every week. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but it’s usually five. My goal is to to give these posts as much exposure as possible, so I don’t list every site in the Tweets I send out to announce my post. The reason? The blog titles tend to get lost in a long list. So I rotate through them. In the case of 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts From 2023 Week 47, I highlighted posts from 5 sites:

• The Infinite Zenith
• Kvasir369
• LESLEY’S ANIME AND MANGA CORNER
• Merlin’s Musings
• Umai Yomu Anime Blog

The first Tweet looked like this:

I didn’t want the blog’s names to get lost, so I limit the number in each Tweet. With one exception…

I used to try (where possible) to include the blog or author’s Twitter handle. However, with the decline of Twitter as an effective mechanism to promote our posts, I’m dialing back on that. I don’t want to give up entirely; there’s still some relevant activity there. I’ll continue to monitor the situation as it develops.

For the next three Tweets (about 3 hours apart), I’ll remove the first blog name and add the next in line. In this case, here’s what the next Tweet looked like:

I’m trying to increase the blog’s exposure by rotating through the names in successive Tweets.

I should also mention that I also post to Facebook and Pinterest. I only post once to those two social media networks, because I use the “final” Tweet format (see below). Plus, Facebook seems to better reward a single post per day, while I get really good traffic from Pinterest with only the single post.

After I cycle through all the names, I issue one more Tweet. This one shows the sites in a bulleted list:

This is a the last Tweet in the series supporting the Other Posts to Crow About post.

The Facebook version looks like this:

The Facebook post usually cuts off the last two entries until the reader click on “See more.” This is also what the Pinterest post looks like.

It’s a Great Community

The anime blogging community is packed with talented bloggers who take their craft seriously. They deserve to have their work read and enjoyed. I know it’s a thrill when people read and comment on my posts, and I want 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts to spread the love.

This is one of those situations that I find all too rarely: 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts helps readers by drawing their attention to posts they might have missed. It helps bloggers by driving at least a little more traffic to their site. It’s literally a win-win!

Do you think I have the bases covered in how I’ve approached 5 Favorite Anime Blog Posts? Do you have ideas for improvement? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!