Home > Aly & AJ Russia’s Story
Aly & AJ Russia’s Story
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Maria
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Aly & AJ Russia (also known as Michalka Fan Russia from 2011 to 2016) was launched on October, 30th 2011. I had been a fan of Aly & AJ for 2 years, since June, 16th 2009, before I decided to create a club of the Michalka sisters’ fans. I did not care that I knew English very bad and decided to create a club of Russian fans on English. Why did I do so? Because I thought it would be better to speak English that many people know. All the more, this is a mother language of Aly & AJ. So, I have been posting updates in English, but it does not mean I would not speak Russian if I get something on this language.

The first tweets of our community that was called Michalka Fan Russia was:

“Welcome to fan page of Aly & AJ Michalka (@78violet). We, the Russian fans uniting a common interest and let’s go will follow each other! Yes, and fans from different countries may also have following!! Good luck, guys)) Xo @Michalka_Fan_Ru“.

– @Michalka_Fan_Ru (Michalka Fan Russia’s Twitter).

You can still find these tweets, checking out the tweets I liked/favorited. Yes, my English was so terrible, and I feel ashamed for the people I was talking with on this language. They definitely thought I was a little bit crazy…

My first mission was getting a follow from Aly & AJ. I remember how much I tweeted them and said I loved them… And I finally got a follow from them on November, 3rd 2011. But on March, 5th 2012, I got the first answer from the girls on Twitter.

“HI to the amazing & perfect @78violet and our #VioletBuds friends:))) Hope you have a great & perfect day:) Love all so much:) xoxo MFR”

– @Michalka_Fan_Ru (Michalka Fan Russia’s Twitter).

And they replied (and also made me very very happy):

“@Michalka_Fan_Ru, We had a perfect day…we pray you have a beautiful day and thank you for your kindness and love…Violet Buds we are! xo”.

– @78violet (Aly & AJ Michalka’s Twitter).

At the same time, I was thinking about creating a fansite about Aly & AJ for a long time. However, I did not have any experience in HTML, CSS, and other things about that. I had a failure when I tried to create a site on a Russian hosting and left that mind. But later, I suddenly began to think about it again. And decided to try again. On June, 27th 2012, I created a site on Blogger, michalkafanrussia.blogspot.com. I did love my site too much and was working too much to make it better. I did not even get upset because not many people visited my site. However, the other sites about Aly & AJ always inspired me not to stop. I created a Facebook page, a YouTube account (and made a few birthday videos that neither Aly or AJ have not noticed yet) and an Instagram account.

2013 was much better for Michalka Fan Russia. We changed our domain to michalkafanrussia.tk and got the first answer and like from Michalkas on Facebook, the first like from AJ on Instagram, the first repost of our Instagram photo to Aly & AJ‘s Twitter, the first repost of our photo by Aly on her Instagram, her first like on Instagram, the first repost of our photo by AJ on her Instagram, and a birthday tweet from them both (they did not mention my personal account with “@” but wrote it). 2013 was a hard year for me, but doing what I love helped me to survive all the bad things and feel better. Also, I opened the photogallery (michalkafanrussia.freezoy.com) but stopped publishing photos in the end of the year.

In 2014, nothing special happened, but I finally got a follow from Aly & AJ on Instagram. AJ followed me on May, 4th 2014, but Aly did that on July, 30th 2014. All the more, they wished me a happy birthday the second time on Instagram. This year was great to me because I finally graduated from school after passing all the exams. In 2015, we only got the first retweet of our tweet on Aly & AJ‘s Twitter and got Aly & AJ saw our birthday wishes on Instagram (we sent them via Instagram Direct).

2016 was a time of changes! I got a birthday wish from the girls and got them like and answer what I sent them on Twitter/Facebook. And after thinking a little bit, we decided to move to another hosting and re-open our site. So, that happened when we opened a beta version of the new site (michalkafanrussia.epizy.com) on April 2016. I do not know if people liked it, but I decided to officially re-launch the site on the birthday of our site – June, 27th, change the domain to alyandajrussia.tk and open the Lyrics Center (alyandajrussia.tk/lyrics). All the more, I began to update the photogallery again and changed the domain to photos-alyandajrussia.tk. The site had had the Russian version for a few months before I had to take it down because of some problems with a hosting.

Then, on the start of July, I got a message from one person, who purposed me to change the community name. I was thinking about that because I knew Michalka Fan Russia sounded weirdly and did not know how to translate and explain it. So, I started a pool to know people’s opinion. And they decided I should have changed the community name to Aly & AJ Russia. I finally did it on July, 10th 2016. But I did not escape “Michalka Fan Russia” and called my site “Michalka Fan Russia by Aly & AJ Russia“.

Nevertheless, I changed the name to Aly & AJ Russia in February 2017 when I decided to change a layout. Also, I changed the domain to alyandajrussia.tk (site) / photos-alyandajrussia.tk (gallery) / alyandajrussia.tk/lyrics (lyrics center) and kept alyandajrussia.tk (site) / photos-alyandajrussia.tk (gallery) / alyandajrussia.tk/lyrics (lyrics center) as added domains.

On June, 27th 2017, we celebrated the 5th anniversary of launching our fan site and the 1st anniversary of relaunching this one (moving from Blogger to a new hosting and opening the site based on WordPress/Coppermine). After Aly & AJ released their brand new singles “Take Me” and “I Know” and then announced and released a new EP “Ten Years“, we got quite many likes/retweets on Twitter/Instagram/Facebook from August 2017 to November 2017. On September, 1st 2017, we put up the better layouts (supporting a mobile version) on our main site, Photogallery, and Lyrics Center and removed the domain alyandajrussia.tk — so, our site is available only on alyandajrussia.tk. About our Lyrics Center (alyandajrussia.tk/lyrics): we made a brand new and more comfortable one you to find all the lyrics of Aly & AJ‘s songs and update it immediately after we get some information. You can find all the lyrics on this section and come back there again and again. On September, 10th 2017, we set up the Russian language on our site. So, since that time, Aly & AJ Russia is available on English and Russian. Unfortunately, after we had gotten the Russian version, we lost many visitors, and get only about 1-5 visitors per day. Quite sad, but I hope we would get much more visitors one beautiful day and become one of the best sources about Aly & AJ Michalka. On October, 1st 2017, we opened the new Media Center (alyandajrussia.tk/media), the place where you can see some arts made by me and download whatever you want (wallpapers, CD covers, calendars, etc). Unfortunately, I did not get a birthday wish from the sisters this year after getting it a few times every year. But it’s okay, I’m not upset at all and keep working on what I’m doing.

Our story has been continuing for more than 5 years. We are getting better and trying to think up something interesting and become one of the most informed and best sources about Aly & AJ, even if do not have many visitors every day and not so many followers. Everything I’m doing for Aly & AJ Russia is all for you, guys. I will keep doing what I’m doing and believe something good and great will happen someday. There are so many plans that I want to make come true to make this club better and better. Thank you to the people, who support us and find my work good and needed. I will be working on what I’m doing for you…

To be continued…

Lots of love, Aly & AJ Russia / Michalka Fan Russia.

Updated on December, 15th 2017