One Year Anniversary!!!

A second attempt at something doesn't necessarily mean that it is guaranteed to be a success. In around 2003 I started a blog and it never really caught on, after about two years I called it quits and closed the blog. Since then I have been out of the blogosphere. Early last year, I tried another hand at blogging and the outcome was totally different. Today is a special day for the blog, if you have looked at today's date, it is the one year anniversary since I started it. As of right now the blog has had over 60,352 hits and over 113 articles on a variety of different subjects. I will examine why this blog is a success that is read by hundreds of people a day and I will look into a couple of blog factoids.

Currently, my blog would have more people reading it over the course of a day than my previous blog in over an entire year. Here is why I believe that this blog is very successful:

• A strong central theme: My previous blog was a general blog that had me opine on every issue under the sun. It was a blog where I talked about everything, but it never really went into depth on any issues. In contrast, this blog is successful in that every single article on here is related to the four central themes: anime, manga, video games, and cosplay. If it is not related to those four subjects it will not be on this blog.
• Deep thoughtful quality articles: This blog aims for articles that go in depth on any subject. Every single article written is a combination of my wisdom and experience working in the Anime Industry, my encyclopedic knowledge of the hobby, and thorough amount of research that goes into every article. If my article doesn't challenge assumptions or teach people something new, it doesn't get published.
• Doesn't talk down to the audience: I am a graduate student, having a blog with esoteric words is not unusual. I believe that this is part of why the blog is a success, I believe my audience is an intelligent audience. If my sesquipedalian prose is difficult to understand, then I believe my audience are the kind of people who can pick up a dictionary and find the meaning within the context of the sentence. I believe that people who read this blog are smart people, so there is no need for me to hold back.
• Experience and Education: When I wrote my original blog, I was just a kid who was fresh out of high school. I didn't have any experience in the real world. Here I am many years later, I already have a college degree and I am only a couple of quarters away from getting my master's degree. In between the time I wrote my original blog I have risen through the ranks in the largest Anime Convention in North America and I have many connections all over the anime, manga, and video game industry. The combination of working with a variety of industries and the high level of education behind the blog makes it a very different experience.

The combination of these four are why I believe this blog has been a major success. I believe it is these four unique aspects which will also push this blog to the next level in the world stage.

Looking at the success of the blog, I have to consider a couple of neat little facts about this blog over the past year:

• The most popular article in the past year is my review of Hyperdimension Neptunia with 5,284 hits. I can attribute the popularity of this review because it is probably one of the few reviews out there that doesn't completely trash the series. To me, I ended up liking the game far more than I expected. The second most popular article was my article on Valkyria Chronicles 3 not going stateside with 5,228 hits. This article was popular because I predicted this would happen based on a couple of sources long before the real announcement was made. The third most popular article of all time was my article on Tsundere characters that continue to push high numbers.
• Obviously since I am from the United States, it makes sense that a massive number of people reading my blog comes from the United States. What is surprising is the next three spots. The largest number of  non-American readers comes from our friends up north, the Canadians. The second most popular place where this blog is popular came out of nowhere, my homeland, the Philippines. For the third most popular country that reads my blog, it comes from across the pond to my friends in the United Kingdom.
• Speaking of the United States, about 50% of my blog's hits come from the United States. It seems to have quite a following in the USA where it is linked and referenced.

I will end this article saying "thank you" to all my loyal readers. This blog has been successful beyond my wildest dreams. While it is a personal blog, I aim for high quality so that every time you come back, there is a deep, thoughtful article that will challenge your assumptions and open your eyes to an amazing world out there. It makes me very happy when people comment, critique, criticize, and provide feedback so that I can continue improving myself. Thank you everyone, you have made my second venture into blogging a far better experience.