The Life of an Anime Website
Rant-ON
The Life of an Anime Website ————————————-
By: Alpha
There are many people who want to show their love for the hobbies they adore. Try searching for Anime or Manga in a search engine and you will see numerous amounts of fan pages. As you browse around, you will probably see a few pages that no longer exist. That is the thing about anime websites. They come and go, some having a longer life span than the other. Why do sites die? What are some factors that bring a site to its end? How can a person prevent their site from fading? All those questions could be answered by the person’s determination, creativity and effort.
I cannot speak for everyone, so I will use my experiences. If you have read the history of the sou, you will know that Animesou did not pick up until last year, the main reason being that I was lazy. Once I got myself together, the results were better than I had imagined.
Sites die, because the leader’s interests die. Some leaders are bombarded with so much work that they cannot manage things that go on in their own life. It is a decision the person has to make; either to use all their time on their site, manage their time so that they are able to do both things or stop their site and put priority on their life.
Life is important, but if you cannot manage a hobby and yourself, then the person should not have started in the first place. I think I am a one man team at times. Look at it, who has the most reviews, news posted, columns and created new features so that Animesou can attract more fans these past two months? I do not see this column as a complaint letter to my staff, so please do not lead your minds there. I am the site owner therefore it is my duty to do those jobs. I cannot really complain about anything. There have been opportunities that I have gained from creating Animesou that I never would have thought I would. Being invited to the Newtype USA launch party, receiving screeners from anime companies and talking to other anime fans; answering their questions that they have or me asking them questions are a few of the opportunities. It is always a pleasure to chat with fans and people that are in the business.
Some anime site owners want their site to be number one, the best out of the rest. Well… that is not reality and it is not like it will ever happen. Every site has its’ own uniqueness. Whether a special feature that only that site has or the sites’ ability to attract visitors which then become site regulars, they are all the things that make a good site. It is just like music. Some may dislike an artist and some may like that artist. It is all in the end, the way one perceives it.
There are impatient site owners who want immediate results. Unless you have the money and connections in the business, I do not think you will be seeing a site being popular during one year of its existence. I usually see sites that lived around three years to be quite successful. Their message board has a lot of members (but how many of those members are actual members who are alive?). Nonetheless, you can see that many people support that site from the amount of members of the message board and from their connections with anime companies.
An anime site cannot and will not be successful unless the leader puts work into it. When you leave all the work to your team it usually comes out another way or no way at all. That is why it is better to do things yourself. Put yourself in a position where your whole team is gone for personal reasons. What are you going to do? You cannot leave the work to them anymore so you will have to do everything yourself, being a one man team. It is a hard task, to manage time between life and anime, both are time consuming. So it leaves it up to the person’s own ability to do what ever it takes to keep the site going.
Main Idea of this Rant?! - Exactly what you have just read.
Closing Statement(s) - If you want to have a successful anime website, do not rush anything and always be prepared to be put up with loads of work. Things do not come easy, with hard work it is only a matter of time before your site becomes successful.