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Certification Achievements
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Why I Still Blog
You ever had times where things just get so rough that you want to give up? No matter how much self-confidence you have, there will always be trouble and the seeds of doubt begin to pop out. But then you get words of encouragement like these:
It’s messages like these that still keep me going. As I said earlier, blogging has defined my life and is something I can proudly say “I made that”.
Plus, there’s this old lady who I hope is doing well out in Canada.
Proud to say that I’m one of the few manga blogs out there doing something.
To all the anibloggers out there, what motivates you all to keep doing what you’re doing?
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Be Right Back - Undergoing Fujoshi Therapy
Amazing words, Akagi-senpai. You go, girl!
My brain feels fried and I need some pretty men to get me going again. So I’m taking a break this week.
Some upcoming entries will be about Kuroko no Basket, Pandora Hearts, Blue Exorcist, Kuroshitsuji, and Gintama (Yes, I want to discuss that “Rule 63”/Dokobekko arc going on in the manga).
Now if you excuse me, I’m off to play otome games for further inspiration.
What? I…it’s not like I’m enjoying fujoshi material because I want to, ok!? I just find it a fascinating study for research purposes, ok!? You should be thankful……..
IDIOT ONEE-CHAN!!!! *runs away in tears*
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Hitting the Big Trifecta! Manga Therapy Hits the 3rd Year!
Scary that I can probably pull off the Junpei Hyuga look, but I digress.
This week marks the 3rd year I’ve been blogging. Good god, has it really been that long? I remember starting off as just a nobody trying to share some experiences with a few folks. About 1,000+ Twitter followers, 1,000+ Google+ followers, 700+ Tumblr followers, and 350+ Facebook fans later, here I am.
One thing I have started to realize that my blog is becoming my life. Hell, manga and anime are my life. It’s sad that I sometimes take my blog more seriously than my job, though I’m still trying to do a better job in promoting it. Getting a writing gig at GoBoiano helps, but I want to do more, as AnimeNews.biz’s Humberto Saabedra suggests, to become bigger. If you ask me, blogging is 10%-20% producing content, 80%-90% promoting it.
I actually spoke to Humberto via Twitter about the business of blogging a while back. Our brief conversation made me think about the book that got me into blogging in the first place. I am a personal brand and that I should treat myself as a commodity if I really am serious about cashing in on my passion.
With that said, I am thinking of setting up a little online shop that sells merchandise with my logo and some quirky taglines related to various anime/manga tropes. Don’t worry, there will be no copyright infringement and no brand name series/character/studios/publishers will be harmed during the making of the products. I also have some thoughts about setting up affiliate programs on the blog, but I want to make sure they don’t look too intrusive. Though both ideas are ten times better than advertisements, right?
I will go with the shop idea at the moment once I get some designs up and running. I have some interesting ideas flowing in my head, so you guys will see what I have in mind soon.
This will be fun balancing what I have planned for the blog with all my other responsibilities. I don’t know if I can quit blogging. Maybe it really is therapy for me and not just to my readers. It is the first creative thing that I can proudly say, “Yeah, that’s all me.” and I want it to be a big foundation in my life. More importantly, I want more folks to see the powerful positive effects and lessons that Japanese pop culture media provides.
As much as manga is still struggling in the U.S., I still see a future trend where big manga series could come from non-Asian talent. When I was at NYCC 2012 for CBLDF’s “Defending Manga” Panel, Charles Brownstein, Executive Director, said that manga fandom will continue to grow worldwide over time. Though we have to see what people like Danny Choo can do to impress the rest of the world about Japanese pop culture.
Speaking of Choo, he gave some advice and inspiring words when I saw him during his NYCC 2012 panel that still resonate with me today.
“Discover and live your passion and the rest will follow.”
Let’s make the 3rd year full of wonderful and enlightening passion together, shall we?
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An Anti-Social Gathering - Interview with Organization ASG
Yay! I am getting more Internetz-famous!
Just wanted to give a heads up that I was recently interviewed by Justin S, the editor of a blog filled with abundant anime/manga content (which is ranked highly on Technorati too), Organization Anti-Social Geniuses.
Here’s a brief teaser to give you an idea of what I was grilled on during the therapeutic session:
“Justin: So talk about yourself a little bit and how Manga Therapy was conceived.
Tony Yao: Manga Therapy mostly started out of a desire to talk about how manga can be used to motivate people mentally. Back in late 2009, I was given a book called “Crush It!” by famous social media entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, on my birthday. I didn’t read it right away, but when I did, I decided to start Manga Therapy since the book convinced me that the Internet & blogging will definitely get you to where you want to be.”
It’s been a long while since I was interviewed, but this interview was pretty fun and you get to understand the process I go through to provide dosages of manga psychology medication to you, my darling readers. :)
You can read the interview below at:.
Thursday Lab Report #27: Interview With Tony Yao From Manga Therapy
Also, follow Justin on Twitter. He loves Gintama.
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Off For The Week
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up that no entries will be posted for this week. I’m going through some educational training right now. Stuff on Neon Genesis Evangelion and a Jiro Matsumoto work will be up next week.
In the meantime, here’s something EVA-related that I hope you EVA fans will like. This picture does have some tie-in to the article I am writing on EVA regarding Shinji Ikari to a certain degree.
See you guys next week!
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Two Years of Manga Therapy - Where To Go From Here
This week marks the 2nd year of Manga Therapy. I don’t know what to say, honestly. I’m very amazed at myself for keeping at it for so long. Though right now, a few things bother me.
I’m wondering whether I should change my writing style, move the blog to a Wordpress.org account, and how to promote my blog further. At times, I do look at my site analytics and say “Well, damn” to some of the numbers. Sometimes, the numbers don’t bother me since blogs can take a while (two years may not lead to instant success) to become successful.
Guest posting will be on my agenda. I have only guest-posted only a few times, mostly for Ani-Culture.net. However, they were just reposts from my blog. I want to focus on stuff that I usually don’t have time to talk about on my blog and thrown to the side. I have received a few offers to guest post and I think I should take up on them. The problem is that I’m afraid of what to talk about at times and whether my writing is good enough.
Another goal is to possibly create an e-mail newsletter where I add thoughts to certain happenings around the anime/manga industry and also add some inspirational quotes from the characters. I know many blog advice sites suggest that creating a email subscription database can do wonders, but I wonder how useful it may be for my blog since I am not selling a product and a service. Any thoughts about this?
A fun idea that I thought about was video blogging. The problem though is that doing psychological analyses of characters can sound boring if dragged out too long. I’ve been on camera before, so I think this could be an interesting venture. Video content is going to be even relevant than before and if I can create a professional-looking manga video blog, perhaps I can get a bigger following. Of course, this all depends on how the manga industries handle themselves in these crazy economic times.
I have been thinking about putting advertisements and affiliate banners on the site. I’ve had some interesting discussions with a friend about making money from blogging. The traffic I get is isn’t always consistent though. I do wonder about using ads/banners on Tumblr, when it seems like I can do it much better on another service like Wordpress.org.
Speaking of Wordpress, the future of Manga Therapy might be at that platform. As much as I love Tumblr, I’m starting to seriously think that Wordpress will greatly help my blog even more. I will still use Tumblr though to post up wacky pictures, along with my Pinterest page. When writing for Shoryuken.com during a trial period, I really began to see the beauty of Wordpress.org.
I think that’s all I have to say. I want to say “Thank you” to everyone who follows my blog. One of the best blog comments I read was from an old lady who said my blog was good and that she’ll always be a loyal reader. It’s very nice of her to say such a thing. I learned many things from blogging that I plan to apply to my job and my future.
If you guys have anything you want to say or advice to give me, feel free to comment below. Time to make the third year a charm, ya?
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Manga Therapy on Pinterest
If anyone wants to know what I’m interested in (in the form of lovely images), be sure to check me out on Pinterest at:
http://pinterest.com/mangatherapy/
As you can see, my profile isn’t swarming with many pictures. Maybe I should post up pictures of pretty boys to please all the fujoshi since Pinterest IS mostly catered towards women.
Pinterest is still invite-only. If you want an invite, post a comment below or e-mail me at tonyyao82 (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll try to send one to you if I can.
If you don’t believe in the hype, here’s an article on the popularity of Pinterest.
Maybe I should be known as the “male who provides fujoshi fan-service to women” on Pinterest?
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Manga Therapy On Break
Hey everyone, I just want to let everyone know that I will be on break for this week (& maybe more). There’s a lot of stuff that I have to deal with right now. I’m moving out to another area in Brooklyn, NY this weekend & having my hands full with packing, address changes, etc.
I also haven’t been feeling too well as of late. There are some personal issues that I have to combat and my job search is not going so well. I have some insecurities to address & deal with and I must crush them for good.
However, I will be on the Facebook Fan Page & my Twitter account if anyone wants to chat. I will be attending New York Comic Con next month, so blog updates may resume around that time.
See you guys soon. I will be back, I promise.
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1-Year Anniversary of Manga Therapy
(Yup, that’s my celebration picture. Back when SNL was super-awesome overall.)
February 24 is a special day as this is my first-year anniversary at blogging on something that I’m passionate about. Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect when starting the blog.
I mostly started the blog because I’ve been psychologically moved by anime/manga/video game characters during my high school-to-college years. You can say I didn’t have too many close friends back then. I also had a variety of inner demons to deal with as well. I was also influenced by reading Gary Vaynerchuk’s CRUSH IT. That book gave me belief that I can do something and hopefully make a living out of what I love, if I work my ass off for it.
At first, I didn’t know what to write at first. I decided to go with the Shonen Jump titles (particularly One Piece/BLEACH/Naruto) at first. Out came my entry on Sasuke Uchiha and I was particularly nervous about other people’s reactions. I later created the Facebook fan page and changed my Twitter username to the blog name.
There was some down time when I first started. However, around late March, I decided that if I was going to go through with this, I have to be serious and post frequently. So I did and here I am today, with lots of Twitter followers and knowing members of the anime & manga blogging community. I am surprised at the traffic I got for some of my entries. Two of them are in the 10,000+ hit range.
As of right now, I am in a state of flux & currently searching for a new job. I am currently using this blog as another resume. Life has been a little hectic on my end & I am trying to figure out how to balance the blog/work/life/friends/etc. If anyone knows a company/employer hiring for marketing positions around the NYC area, do let me know.
I might put this blog on WordPress in the near future and as you can see, I installed an article widget from LinkWithin. A new layout might be coming in the future, though it’s a wait and see. Another goal I have in mind is to do more panels in the future relating to certain anime topics. Eventually, I want to make my blog my living with some ads/affiliates/etc.
What’s left to say is thank you to my Tumblr followers, Twitter followers, and all my readers for paying attention to my blog. I’m very, very much appreciative of your support. I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for you guys.
My blog schedule might become a little erratic soon, but don’t worry, I still have a lot of content to talk about. Later!
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My business cards, which I will be handing out at this weekend’s New York Comic-Con/New York Anime Festival. What do you think? Special thank-you to vivdesigns for the cards!
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