RoKtheReaper.com 2013 Changes/Aspirations

2012 was honestly a pretty good year for me on this site.  2012 has been the most active year I have had to date and I feel like 2013 will bring about more success and even greater content with my ambitions in tow.

This article is primarily to tell people my aspirations for  RoKtheReaper.com for 2013 and the new direction I am planning to go (It covers articles, networking, and aesthetics).

Please, stick around and read and let me know how you feel about the changes by leaving a comment below and anything else you may like to see added or changed to   RoKtheReaper.com.

The main thing I think needs to be addressed in my site for this coming year is content.  While I am up a good number of articles ( I believe I posted about 40 this year), it needs to be more than that.  I find the reason why I visit websites constantly is because they constantly have new information and articles available to me, and you want to continuously check them out to not miss anything and have something important to you buried beneath other editorials.  However, with my site because I am only updating once or twice a week no one has the urgency to visit my page all too often and can even forget about it entirely because they are not use to coming regularly, that has to change.

My plan is basically to begin posting a lot more often, 3-5 times a week with a yearly goal of at least 200 new articles published by the end of 2013.  In order to change this I am going to need to change my approach to how I have been posting things.  I love anime, manga, and gaming, so I do editorials, reviews, and interviews on those given subjects but that will not be enough because of who I am.  Most of the bigger sites deal with only one out of those three genre (Manga, Anime, Gaming) and also they do not post in as much detail as I do, meaning that I get less post because I am the sole owner of this website with no assistants and it takes longer to write because of my attention to detail.  Also, I have a big problem with procrastination and articles I should have finished months ago are still in their starting stages and halfway done, existing only as “drafts” and would not take more than 3-4 hours or less to complete each.  I need to set a clear objective and follow through to the end.

Also, as far as reviews are concerned, I plan on only doing reviews for things I like and have had an interest in.  I do not mind writing a negative or positive review dependent on the game; but I do not plan on writing or reviewing something I am not interested in unless it is for a greater cause.  I find that I can do things I do not have an interest in just as well as things I am passionate about, but it feels like agonizing torture when I’d rather be writing on things I am passionate about.

I am going to begin to post more of my personal experiences on certain things and embrace it more as a site/blog rather than a professional site alone, though I have had success with it, it is not going to work as well as blog/site for what I am planning.  Even though I type in a professional manner I am still an individual and marketing myself as such would be the better way to go.

While I did fairly well with most articles I did, getting over 200 views at the bare minimum which is a huge improvement over the previous number, it was much lower than I should have gotten.  I have figured that my  facebook page plays a pretty decent part in my overall views and I have not dedicated the time nor the resources to promoting it as best as I possibly can (That or the advertisement of my website in general).  Not only that, but networking on other sites and with other people will help me out greatly.  Alone this year I have worked with someone who was impressed by my website and my  Husbando & Waifu article will be featured on an online otaku culture magazine called “Genki Life”.  I know that I have the talent and the writing capability fueled by passion, but I have to get it out there for everyone to see it and enjoy it.

In order to make my plans come to fruition, I will have to talk to more people in the same industry as I am in order to make use of their resources and to seen as a reputable figure within the community.  My friend  OtakuDante is probably the first reviewer friend I have made and has been an invaluable source of knowledge, motivation, and determination.  I was taught how to contact developers and how to stay persistent until an answer was received; it has really helped me a lot and for that reason I was able to do my first review (Which happened to be my  Bejeweled 3 article).

All-in-all, my main goal is to get up to 1,000 individual views per day, and for every article to get at least 2,000 views by the end of 2013, to get over 3,000 followers on twitter and 1,000 likes on facebook.  This is going to be difficult to accomplish but I figure if I give it my best I should meet or surpass my goals; but those are my expectations.

Aesthetics

As far as the look my site goes, I think it has gotten way more presentable and user friendly than it was when I originally got it.  However, doing everything myself is a lot of hard work and it is still not on the level of an actual professional site, I still have to make improvements and move forward.  I know that it already looks better than a lot of blog sites, but I am driven to have it on professional level to be the standard.

For the future I would like to add a place to watch my YouTube gaming videos here on the site, and a more professional “Contact Me” section.  Not only this, I would like to have a random news headline that tells things that are too insignificant to talk about but still very important that is going around the communities of anime, manga, and gaming (Since I rarely post about news unless I can make a theory about the plot unfolding or it makes a big enough impact to warrant an entire article dedicated to it).

I want my site to look better than the mainstream and to have more meaningful content than the mainstream.  That is my goal.

The Verdict

All-in-all I feel that 2012 was a pretty good work.  2011 when I made the website was a small stepping stone into what I could potentially have, 2012 allowed me to see what a little hard work could do and show me that giving up is not the best thing to do, and 2013 will be the year I make my major moves and attempt to shine.  I wish only to move forward and to do everything I planned to the greatest effect possible.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read this article and to please provide feedback and suggestions for future improvements.  Arigatou & Sayonara!