RandomAnime.org
—A simple niche site that taught me front and back end development, SEO, and much much more.
Project Summary
A simple side project that turned into so much more, this website is my pride and joy. Coming out of college, I wanted to learn more about running a website from top to bottom. I combined my love of web design with anime, and created this niche site. The goal was to have this site rank for a couple key phrases, and learn all I could from the process. The site launched in late 2015. Today, it is number 1 for all targeted keywords and has a wonderful community that utilizes it as a key tool when finding new anime to watch.
Random, Custom Lists
Randomized lists generated from user inputted criteria are the backbone of the site. They can be created from genres or a source anime and have a ton of filters to allow users to narrow down their options.
Anime Like Page
A collaborative page with some fellow anime fans, this page uses machine learning algorithms to generate lists based off the source anime and recommendation type.
Fully Responsive
It’s kind of a must nowadays, right?
Desktop
Laptop
Tablet
Mobile
Device vectors made by Macrovector
Challenges
I launched this website coming right out of college. I learned quite a bit by the time I earned my degree, but I still felt like there was so much more I needed to learn. The simple answer would be everything on this website was a challenge. Keyword research, database design, compression, redirects, etc. were all new topics for me. It seemed as if around every corner there was something else I didn’t know how to do.
Solutions
Dedication and a lot of Googling. Every time I came across something that stumped me, I would spend hours searching for solutions people had come up with. There were a lot of nights where I just had to walk away from it, and start fresh the next day. The funny thing about learning is it can be a wonderful, yet frustrating, thing. This website continues to challenge me to this day, and I often find myself spending nights researching to find the best solutions.