Mad’s Personal Blog!

Tagging

Only the first five tags that you put will appear in the explore tab, so those are the ones that count. So, if your character belongs to a particular fandom universe, use those first five tags for that purpose.

Above, in the first five tags, I’ve included tags about the blog and Boyfriend to Death. After that, I’ve used more personalised tags. I’d also recommend that if your post contains content warnings, to include those first in your tags, but this doesn’t really effect blacklisting (example below).

(I’ve gotten rid of the actual gore because I want this post to be accessible. I’ll link to the original post here.)

It’s also really important that your ask blog is your main blog, because then you don’t have to rely on tags alone for popularity. Seriously, this is probably the key bit of advice I’d give to anyone starting out.

OC Blog vs. Fandom Blog

There are certain advantages to each, and it really depends on your preference. On the one hand its far easier to get people interested if the character your ask blog is from a fandom, as people will have a prior investment in the characters. However, if you have an OC blog, you get a lot more creative freedom. Sometimes you can compromise by making your OC a part of the fictional world, or by giving your character a world to exist in that helps people get invested. A really successful OC blog I really like is Wren’s @fangsandthorns universe (18+ if you wanna check it out).

How often to post

The key to success (in any blog really) is consistent uploads that give your target audience content they will like. The problem with ask blogs is that your productivity relies on the input from your audience, which is very difficult to achieve in the early stages. 

There’s no shame in getting a second blog to send yourself asks - if anything, it will keep your blog active and give your audience an idea of what kind of content you’re going to deliver.

Above is an example of an early ask I sent myself from another blog.

When just starting up a blog, it pays to answer every question you get. I’m in the fortunate position where I can afford to be a little selective if my mental health takes a dip, but it’s best to be non-selective and punctual in your responses (at least at first).

On the same note, the majority of the asks I get are anonymous. I wouldn’t be able to keep my blog running without anon, honestly, and I don’t think I’d want to. Turning on anon is a good call if you want more asks.

How well should you know your character?

Especially if you’re doing a character that isn’t yours, you should research the crap out of them. When I first started up, I played BTD nonstop until I really got a feel for the character’s motivations and thought processes. It helps to get a character you can relate to on some level - for me, Rire echoed my own opinions on hedonism and the subjectivity of morals. This doesn’t mean to say that you have to be exactly like them: Rire is raping, murdering, demon king with yellow eyes. I am not.

However, don’t be afraid to get a little bit out of character. Its your blog, do whatever the hell you want with it! If you want to make a blog where Darth Vader has his own cooking show, where Hannibal Lector is secretly a nice person, or where Chidi Anagoyne is a crime fighting double agent, go and do it!

Blog Design

You don’t need to be good at art to have a successful ask blog. If that were true, I’d have about 2 followers. I used a still from the game as my icon for a long time before I ended up commissioning artwork, and it was fine! 

Here is the first Rire fan art I ever produced for this blog, to prove my point:

Beautiful, isn’t he?

That being said, there’s no down side to being a good artist. It certainly helps if you can produce artwork, particularly if your ask blog is an OC blog. @idealmori​ ‘s contibutions to my blog have improved its quality so much and I love her to bits for it!