When we’re passionate about our hobbies, and there are so many things we want to share with audiences who have the same interests, creating a blog seems like a satisfying activity. It’s where your restless genius can finally have its peace, after sharing the overwhelming surge of thoughts to your readers and followers. Otaku blogs would fit people who love anime, comics, gaming, and other related stuff.
Blogging may seem fun and carefree, but it’s easier said than done, especially for those who are doing it for the first time. Moreover, there are unforeseen challenges that could cross paths with a blogger, and any of it might make one start-up website owner quit before he can get started.
Otaku Fantasy is our subject for this article. We spoke with their team, and they provided us with enough data to complete our list of challenges. It looks like they’ve gone through all, making their hardships in managing an otaku blog a perfect case for our content.
OtakuFantasy.com started under a different name with its website supported by a free Blogspot domain subscription. Their social media endeavors began with a Facebook page, and they’ve been around since 2014.
So what are their team’s challenges in managing an otaku blog, and where is it right now?
First Challenge: Starting At Zero
“No idea, no money, no knowledge about blogging, no social media following,” said the owner of the site who would like to keep his name undisclosed. “I only want to write about anime and games, and probably earn from it soon.”
Without concrete plans, the one-person team, as of that time, decided to use Google Blogger and registered a free silly domain name (as what they described).
“It was careless of me to not think about a name. Or maybe I was too excited, so I just went ahead with anything.”
The site owner began writing fanfictions, blogs about episode reviews, and other thoughts. He seriously thought that an otaku blog would pull him out of the 9 to 5 life.
“Unfortunately, I must admit that it did not generate the money I expected it would. I gave up my job and pursued another business, but it’s not about an otaku blog. I will work for some clients, then go back to working on the anime site if I have free time.”
The site owner further confessed that with very little time and resources, he had no choice but to give up developing the site. He gets back to it if the situation would be kind enough.
A lot of bloggers would relate, especially those who are building a channel with the intent to earn so they can escape the everyday hassle of going to work and back home.
Getting Followers
Good or bad content, if you have zero followers, your efforts will go in vain. Every creator and marketer knows this. Of course, the Google algorithm could help, but for an office worker who spends the tiny bit of what’s left in his clock with writing, won’t be able to dissect search engines that quick.
Otaku Fantasy opened its Facebook account and attempted to flourish it through the S4S scheme, also known as Share 4 Share. However, he has done it at a later stage when Facebook is no longer giving pages a considerable amount of organic reach. Ads became prevalent, and money from then on is the name of the game.
Monetization
Another hardship a site might encounter would be the tight monetization requirement of Google Adsense, and even some third-party ad providers. Although Otaku Fantasy didn’t have a big problem over this, they pondered too hard about getting enough regular site traffic to earn more from ads and finding additional streams of income from their website.
Some Bloggers Don’t Have Enough Time And Would Need To Invest For This To Work
As someone who has got his hands full of work from multiple clients, the OF site owner had no time to lay out a new plan. Stressed by the pressure that everyone is going viral, even though it was evident that some of them used Blackhat, he resorted to utilizing some of his full-time employees from one of his businesses.
“I’ve been patient for too long. It’s high time to see results, and I need my men to help me grind on this website so we can turn it into something big, hopefully.”
“We give it a few hours every day, to grow the page, help the site get enough traffic, and probably publish new content,” he added.
Word Of Advice
For other bloggers, it may seem easy to continually grow a site, especially if you have no other priorities to juggle it with. But if you’re a no risk-taker, it’s just practical to do blogging as a side job to a lucrative income source until you find the right time, or you got enough resources to continue your dream.
Otaku Fantasy Facebook Page now has around 100,000 followers and increasing monthly traffic. It’s not yet within their desired range, but it’s entering a safe and promising phase compared to how it fared before. They are now ramping up in contents and marketing, so let’s expect something interesting from their team.
The young business owner did well in his other ventures, and when asked why he decided to continue his otaku blog, here’s what he told us:
“My life is a million times better now compared to what it looks like when I work in the office,” he continued. “But this is a pending battle I need to win, even though people who knew me would already consider me triumphant.”
“This otaku blog is unfinished business.”
