Sunday, July 31, 2011

10,000 Hits!

Credit: Snorgtees.com

      10,000 Hits! Actually over eleven grand now. I find it amazing I've gotten this far since August of last year when I started this blog. Only had 496 for the month of last March then it spiked to 3497 in April (This was due to the "popularity" of a Call of Cthuhu review I did in February.). This dropped to 996 in May I think due to the bin Laden hit earlier that month (Everyone looking at that instead of just "net cruising".), but picked up to 2869 in June. Up to that time, the vast majority was due to the aforementioned article.

      July turned out to be an interesting month. The hits on the Cthulhu article dropped to a trickle, other articles (Particularly the Azumanga Daioh/Peanuts comparison. Over 600 hits!) took up the slack with over 2600 hits. It's gratifying to see other articles (Some written months ago.) being looked at.


More of the Peanuts gang as anime characters. L-R: Violet, Peppermint Patty,
Marcie, & Patty.
      
      I've learned a few things:

1. When using illustrations, rename them. They're more likely to be found on image searches with the name(s) of the show(s)/characters in the name. A lot more effective than say, 123xyz.jpg.Yeah, it does attract those only after pictures. But a hit's a hit & helps the "visibility" of ones' blog. I'm sure SOME of them actually stop to read the accompanying article.

2. Same for article titles. Putting the name of the show/subject in the title makes it easier for anyone interested in the subject to find it.

3. Be as complete with key/search words as possible. List as many titles, characters, episodes etc. mentioned in the article as you can. The more "clues 'n ques" the better for search engines to point out your article.

      Anime. I love anime. Or at least the anime I love. I'm quite selective & shie away from most of the "flavor of the month". If it's The Attack of the Angst Ridden Giant Robot Magical Lesbian Schoolgirl, I'm not interested. As Theodore Sturgeon is reputed to have said: "90% of everything is crap." That goes double for anime (And no, I'm not saying anime is 180% crap!).

      I became cognizant of this "artform" when I was just a kid in the 60s', long before it was even called "Japanimation". I knew there was something different/fascinating & what little I could get to view, I enthusiastically took in. Central Ohio TV offered VERY little in anime. As we couldn't get cable out where I lived, I was stuck with the rare movie (Panda & the Magic Serpent, Jack & the Witch, etc.), or Marine Boy Saturday mornings on Ch 10. Visits to the grandparents in upstate New York intro'd me to at lot of  it (Gigantor, 8th Man, etc.). It was in the early 70s anime trickled in on central Ohio TV. I was older & in the workforce then, not having much time for it. Come to think of it, I don't have much time for it now but I indulge anyway.

      Though I'm picky about the anime I view, I will say the artwork of even the dumbest of them to be usually superior to most of the crud U.S. animators serve up. There seems to be an ugly "aesthetic" prevalent in "our" cartoons that I can't bring myself to stomach. Spongebob, Chowder, Flapjack  & Sym-Bionic Titan are perfect examples. Even the work of a Bruce Timm I don't find appealing as much as I used to.


     
      Old movies. Pre 70s in particular. My first love & always will be. My criteria for a great flick: Black & white, & at least half the cast are long dead. The style. The fashion. The "sensibility" I can't get enough of. The good guys always win. True love never dies. Yeah, plenty of exceptions, but they were handled better. Oh yes. Old cars were popular then.

      If nothing unforeseen/traumatic happens in the future, I intend to keep this blog going. As for you, I hope you keep "watching".

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3 comments:

  1. I watched the anime versions of Iron Man and Wolverine the other night. Not too shabby.

    The Thundercats reboot on Cartoon Network was a source of concern for me, but it turned out to be amazingly good. The character design was top-notch, while keeping the feel of the original style. The voice work was parsecs beyond the original. I recommend it.

    My recommendation plus $5 will get me coffee at Starbucks.

    Congrats on the hit count! I and my many, many reader are happy for you!

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  2. Congratulations on the 10k! Comparing your blog to mine (with your 2011 to my 2010), you've actually had more hits in these months than I then :v

    The bad thing about images is sometimes, they just suck your traffic away. Half of my traffic (literally) comes from one badly written post with a stolen pedobear image (I didn't even write the post, btw) that everybody clicks on in google. As for article titles, there's a fine balance you have to strike between making a title relevant and making it interesting - for episodic posts, everybody generally uses 'NameOfAnime episode', but for editorial posts, it's much harder, I guess.

    Your last point is very very questionable, though. No matter what, I stand by my decision to completely separate traffic-grabbing from the quality of my posts. Yes, I'll spam other people's blogs (derp, I wonder what this comment is), yes, I'll cram a shitton of tags into every post, but no, I will not write any post with the intent to generate more traffic.

    (That said, I've probably written about 15 of those posts in 2011 alone. Whoops.)

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  3. "Your last point is very very questionable."

    Old cars weren't popular then? :)

    ReplyDelete