Making money from an anime blog, or “blogging” in general is met with doom and gloom almost every year.
I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve seen someone say “blogging is dead” or the equivalent.
It always happens in industries that continue to grow (like anime) or are big in general and have been around long enough.
But back to the REAL question.
Can you make money from anime blogging?
The answer is an obvious yes. A big FAT yes, actually.
Money can be made in anything and everything, as long as it has demand and interest.
That’s even true for anime despite the industry still having tons of room for growth.
I look forward to seeing anime grow, especially online over the years to come.
Whether you choose to start:
- An anime blog.
- An anime website.
- An anime shop.
The logic still applies.
Money CAN be made, and it can be turned into a business. Not just “extras” every now and then.
Let me tell you something
I’m Theo J Ellis, the owner of
I’ve been learning about
Anime Motivation started in May 2016, and now reaches over 1M+ visitors a month (it’s more than that).
In the beginning the most important thing was investing in the site, which made the rest easier.
I say all that to make a point.
There are only a handful of anime blogs or so (literally) in the 1-5M+ range to begin with.
This is especially true for those that are businesses and make money.
Despite being an independently run site, Anime Motivation is one of them.
So the advice in this post is from real experiences and from the highest level. As opposed to someone who’s still trying to figure it out and hasn’t done it.
Let’s get started.
1. Differentiate yourself
I always laugh when someone’s first thought is to copy and paste what someone else has already done.
That only gets you so far. And once it reaches its limit, then what? It’s over. Things backfire as they should.
I’ve had many people rip off the content from the site over the years. None have benefited from it in the end. And never reach the level they intend.
It leads to dead
That’s because no one is interested in seeing the same sh*t over and over again.
If there’s a bigger and more original alternative, then why would someone take you seriously if it’s the same?
These are the things you should think about, seriously.
- What are you bringing to the table that no one else has?
- What makes your content different?
- What makes your ideas unique?
- What makes your takes interesting and worthwhile?
My mind works like this: if someone’s going left, I automatically go right.
That’s how I started
So… I filled in the blank, and that’s why it’s at the level it is. It’s different by
The purpose is to make a difference in the anime community, so the motivation isn’t superficial.
I suspect that’s why Crunchyroll of all people reached out and ended up becoming a partner of the site (and many others).
Now, you don’t have to differentiate yourself (which can also mean being MUCH better). And that’s fine.
But…. If you wanna reach the highest levels, or you wanna turn it into a business or a lifestyle, standing out is a requirement.
Besides, it allows you to stay in your own lane and NOT have to compete anyway. Which you don’t wanna do.
You wanna eat the whole pie as opposed to fighting with dozens of others for just a few crumbs.
Relevant: How To Start And Build An Anime Blog In 11 Simple Steps
2. Figure out what you’re good at
There’s a reason some anime YouTubers are at the highest level. Where as they wouldn’t be IF they took a different route (like running a website).
You have to find your lane, similar to point #1. But in this case, you need to know what you excel at.
If you can’t do well at something, you can’t expect to make anything out of it. Let alone a business.
- Can you create good content? What type of content?
- Can you even write well?
- What triggers you?
For me I tend to be controversial and have STRONG opinions. But that’s not important.
What’s important is I have a method to express it as best as I can.
That method is obviously writing. And on a micro level, I know I’m good with opinion based content.
It’s where I shine, but it’s not the only thing I shine with.
I’m also good with original ideas and content.
I was the first to do a “Top 25 Countries Who Love Anime The Most” type of post.
It’s now one of the biggest, most consistent and sourced pieces of content on the site. A Reddit meme account and Akidearest shared it on Twitter.
There’s also the question of:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Selling
- Designing
And so on.
If you’re good at selling for example, you can incorporate that into selling merch on your site.
If you prefer marketing, then being an affiliate is an option to turn the site into a business.
If it’s designing, there are solutions to sell custom clothing through the site.
If it’s SEO and driving traffic, advertising is a good option because you’ll have the volume to justify it. Like all the 1M+ sites.
When figuring out what you’re good at, consider:
- Knowledge and things you understand better than most.
- Things that piss you off or get you excited.
- What comes natural to you.
- Your skills and talents.
- What’s easy for you.
You don’t necessarily have to be one to do the writing, but for that you’ll need great direction skills if someone else is doing it.
This is less about writing or blogging, and more about the nuances of it. And how you can leverage that to turn your blog or website into a business.
If you’re not good at any of these yet like SEO, then learn and study hard.
Related: 15 Questions You NEED To Ask Before Starting An Anime Blog
3. Choose your method of making money
As I mentioned a little bit before, there are different ways you can make money from a site or an anime blog.
It all comes down to choice, what fits your situation, your content, your skills, and so on.
When it comes to
- Affiliate marketing.
- Advertising.
- Merchandise.
- eBooks.
- Courses.
- Digital products.
- Subscriptions.
- Donations (Patreon).
- Service.
Affiliate marketing is basically this: “I promote your product, and if someone clicks the link and buys it, I take a cut.”
You’ve likely seen sites where Amazon products are displayed, T shirts, or in the case of
When you click the link and buy, the original site gets a cut for their effort in promoting it.
Example above.
Advertising can be running ads from platforms like Google AdSense, or doing direct deals with
Merch and eBooks is self explanatory. You run a shop alongside the blog or site.
Same with courses, subscriptions, and donations like Patreon (All Ages Of Geek uses Patreon).
ADS is the typical method of making money with an anime blog (or any blog) for larger sites. But you don’t have to limit yourself to only that.
Do what suits you. Building up your audience allows you to choose.
Related: The Best Anime Art Websites To Learn, Explore Or Make Money
4. Never stop experimenting
Ecommerce, online shops, affiliates, digital products… I’ve done it all. And continue to do so to this day.
If your goal is to turn a blog into a business, never stop experimenting and testing things.
That includes things that don’t seem related to money, but indirectly (or directly) impact your ability to make it.
For example:
- Headlines.
- How you organize your site.
- The menu’s.
- Tools you use to track visitors or “measure” things.
- Use of images, ads, and where you place them and how.
- How easy it is to navigate around your site, and how it’s set up.
- Communicating your message.
- Types of content (quizzes, polls, lists, guides, etc).
And pretty much everything you can think of. It all comes down to your imagination.
If you can think of an aspect, test it out before making assumptions. And then after a certain amount of time, test a different way.
You might wanna do quizzes, but you might find people enjoy a certain amount of quizzes per week or month.
Or that they prefer guides or recommendations instead.
Point #4 is something to think more about once you’ve made progress and you can see your idea (website) has potential.
It’s still useful and applies to any type of business regardless. Blog or otherwise.
Related: 12+ Unexplored Ideas For Anime Shows The Industry Hasn’t Done Yet
5. Create systems
No business is run without some sort of system of how it will work around the clock, schedules, and so on.
Running a blog and especially turning it into a business (with the intent of) is no different.
Let’s start with the blog itself.
- How many pieces of content a week or a day?
- What types of content?
- Categories?
- Where will you source images from?
- What tools will you use on the backend?
- When will your content go out?
Some of this isn’t needed in the beginning of building your site, for example the times your content goes out is irrelevant at first.
That becomes more relevant when you have an audience of sorts and you understand the best times to share content with them.
But these are things, regardless of what stage, that you have to think about and implement. And systematize.
That way it’s not so manual and in a sense, automated. And predictable as far as processes and how things run consistently.
Especially when you’re away from the business.
This especially stretches to social media and marketing overall.
There are tools like IFTTT that can automatically publish your content across all social networks… Without doing it manually.
Systems make things run efficiently and smoothly. And that’s what you need so you can focus on content, the most important piece to the puzzle.
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Make sure you read the “how to build a blog” articles I put into this post, since it’s along the same lines.
That should more than help you get started on the right path.
Nobody’s really talking about this in the anime space, especially the biggest sites, so that’s why I did it.
Plus it’s a question that comes up a lot anyway.
If you have more questions, let me know. And I’ll add more points if needed.
Recommended Next:
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