From time to time, we here at Sea Slugs! get emails asking for a link, or a mention, or a partnership. Since most of the time I am the point of contact, I make a point to try to be friendly so that no one realizes what a jerk I really am. Recently, I got an email from Anime International:
Hello Sea Slugs,
I first of all want to commend you on your comprehensive Blog Entries at http://www.seaslugteam.com I have enjoyed reading your comments. My name is Aaron Polmeer and I am the webmaster for the Anime International Community. if you look at our site you will see its constantly in development. We are currently growing the site by adding new elements. We are excited to have our own Blog Zone as well. We are looking for volunteers that can contribute their blogs to our Blog Zone. Would you be interested in helping our community grow by joining our Blog Entry team?
Hear from you soon.
Now let’s forget for a moment that Aaron actually linked Jeni’s page by mistake. I just don’t see why we would want to be absorbed into some new goliath anime page, especially after almost two years of operating as an autonomous unit. I looked through the page, and while it was ambitious, it had very little real content (mostly just ads). There is no anime content on the Blog Zone page. To put it bluntly, I don’t see how this would benefit us in any way whatsoever. Ok, well no harm in asking, right? I politely replied back:
Aaron,
Thank you for the kind offer, but we are not interested in joining the Anime International Community at this time. We are happy as an independent entity, but good luck with your project.
Kabitzin
I didn’t figure to get a reply back, but this came back almost instantly:
Well, that is a shame. I see by your Stats that you are getting tiny traffic. So the Anime Community is not able to benefit from your Blogs due to minimal exposure. Helping our community would solve that problem as the returns and flow through traffic back to your site as well as increase of Google PR would help your independent site to grow in size.
Now that’s just mean, cause we all know that the cold water causes our traffic to shrink T__T. We’re not even 2 years old, we still have a growth spurt coming. Besides, not everyone likes sites with full-bodied traffic. I swear I’m going to cry now.
This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1970 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Team Seaslug,
I’m a lazy cunt but I need money. I’ve noticed your not as lazy as me and actually write some stuff people might want to read. So I thought instead of getting a job, I could benefit from your work by putting many ads on my website and let you provide the interesting content. Interested? If not then I think you’re really mean and your site stinks anyway, nyan!!1
This outfit approached me as well. Obviously, I wasn’t interested, so I just trashed the e-mail. A couple of weeks later, I got another message asking why had yet to respond to the original message. I was in Tokyo at the time and up to my eyeballs in work, so it left me a bit perturbed (to say the least). I shot off a quick “Sorry, but I’m not interested,” e-mail; thankfully, I haven’t heard from them since. Honestly, had I gotten a response such as the one you received, Kabitzin, I would’ve told them to stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Ironically, thanks to your link, his website will get more traffic than it has ever gotten before. I have NEVER seen that site before, and I spend A LOT of time online.
True, but I did add the
rel=nofollowjust out of spite.That traffic comment is just harsh. Maybe you should hide the counter?
Haha, I don’t mind, since it only measures how many hits come to the front page (so I don’t have to log in to check AWStats). It’s actually quite inaccurate due to the number of people who hit category specific pages through Google.
It’s not how big your traffic is, it’s how you use it!
That site will never email since I don’t have it anywhere near my blog. I’m at least happy with the amount of traffic I get but in terms of comments, I’m not so happy. Why don’t you people comment on my blog? *Complaint mode off*
If you want a hundred thousand hits per hour on your page, let me know. I can arrange that. XD
Be happy you get enough traffic to be asked to join massive blog conglomerates :p
There are a few places that harvest my entries without asking, I’ve discovered – I don’t mind as such, as long as people are reading them, but it’s a bit unnerving to follow referral links to discover a page that’s archiving your blog o_O
So a huge blog comglomerate is asking for your participation in their “blog Zone” content? That’s a rare opportunity.
Their reponse to your traffic flow is rather harsh. I agree with you there.
I think they just didn’t realize that the 32-bit hit counter wraps around several times a day.
lol feenix it cuz yu0r blog r sux!!1
Actually, I don’t comment because your Bleach and Futakoi Alt. entries are pretty much just summaries… and I’m not keeping up with anything else you’re wacthing. :/
Oh. I guess I need to contribute something to this actual entry… well, hmm, Aaron Polmeer is retarded. Is that good enough?
Hey Phoenix,
I agree in so far with Nunka that I usually skip the summaries and just read the part in which the author writes about his impressions – what he liked, disliked etc. Your summaries are also pretty long. I don’t know how others think about it but personally I don’t like to read such long summaries. If I’ve watched the episode, I know what happened anyway. If I haven’t then I probably don’t want to know the whole plot yet. One exception are Kabitzin’s summaries (at least on a good day) when he makes fun of the plot or characters. Sure, that doesn’t work with all shows. Demo…ganbatte nyan!
Going along with what others have mentioned, I like your blog Phoenix, but I have also found that long summaries tend to dissuade commenters. There’s nothing wrong with that style of blogging, but as Chris mentioned, it will mostly appeal to people who haven’t seen the episode, but want to know exactly what happened. In general it seems that the longer summaries on Sea Slugs! are much more appreciated after the episode is no longer new. On the flip side, shorter entries tend to be more popular with regular visitors who keep up with entries as they come out and are more likely to comment. Naturally there is some middle ground between these two approaches. I do try to break up the monotony of a straight up summarization by poking fun at noteworthy bits, but of course that tends to make my summaries less accurate and understandable. More facts make the post more valuable in the long run, but more feelings make the post more inviting and discussable.
A few other points: We really didn’t get many comments at all when we first started, and it’s only been recently that the comments have picked up. It’s always frustrating when you spend time on a post and there is no feedback, but you know that if you’re getting traffic that people are still reading and appreciating (quietly) your blog. Another thing I noticed is that people don’t usually like being the first and only person to comment. So once you get a few devoted commenters, more casual commenters come in at an accelerated rate. You could always pose some questions for readers in your posts, too. One thing that may have helped out over here is that Kungfucius, Ender, and I tend to comment on each other’s posts, thus lowering the pressure for saying something truly profound in the comment.
Anyways, I don’t claim to be a commenting expert, but hopefully these observations help you out. Don’t get discouraged, you’re doing great work!
First of all, thanks for the suggestions and comments. With Bleach and Yakitate Japan, I already know what happens since I read the manga. I can’t really give what will happen scenarios since I already know what happens. I really want to add more insight but I’m still trying to improve upon that. The long summaries won’t stop since it’s something for me along for the readers as well.
>>but of course that tends to make my summaries less accurate and understandable
Hey, at least *someone* got your ‘Nascar’ joke
BEST anime blog site i have ever come across.
Obviously, they were out to exploit you. Stick to being autonomous, i’m sure your site will definitely become big soon then you can sell for millions of ka-ching.
Hm, let’s see…when I search for “anime blog” on google…I finf your page in the top positions…
I’ve never seen their site before *lol*
But I’m sad they did not ask me ^^
@Phoenix: I did not know your blog so far, but don’t give up. I have almost no comments at all but so many visitors I can’t believe it. So there are always many quiet readers, that’s as wonderful ^^
if you go to the blog section in their site you will see the most boring blog. it is like this alok guy has nothing better to do than put his thumb up his sphincter