The State of the Podcast: January 2010 Edition

Greetings, and Happy New Year everyone! The Otaku no Podcast staff and I wish you all a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

We started off the New Year in true Japanese fashion with a traditional cleaning of the house – or, in our case, the Otaku no Podcast website. The site has needed a redesign for quite some time, and so I switched to a new theme that offers much more flexibility without the need to go in and directly hack on the code. I’ve also installed some caching code which should (theoretically) improve performance (i.e. faster page load times).

And now, on to the financial report. People have asked me how much money I make on this, and I’m sure many others have wondered the same in silence. Well, today I am here to tell you that, including all of the income generating items on this site — Amazon affiliate links, Google ads, etc. — I have made a grand total of… drum roll please… $0.00. So no, I’m not making any money on this. No trips to Tahiti or the Bahamas, no off-shore bank accounts, etc. This is very much a hobby and labor of love for me. Still, I’m not one to turn down any additional income, so if you DO happen to click on some Google ads or Amazon product links, well, you’d have my eternal gratitude, and you’ll help keep this boat afloat, so to speak. Every little bit helps in this lousy economy. (Pro tip: you can still help us out, even if you don’t want to buy any of the products mentioned in the Amazon affiliate links. Just click through to the link, and then use Amazon’s search box to find whatever you are looking for. Any items purchased during this session (i.e. until you close your web browser or clear your cache) will be credited to us. Keep this in mind when you decide to finally purchase that 60″ plasma TV and home theater sound system. ) OK, enough begging.

Now, on to The Future(tm)…. Right now I have yet another of our famous Panel Discussions of Doom, talking about Anime Los Angeles in the pipeline, and should have that posted by the end of this week. No, I haven’t forgotten about Anime on the Cheap. Unfortunately the really hectic time I mentioned in previous posts and chibicasts is beginning – The Move of Doom(tm). Also my girlfriend and friend of the show Beep will be going in for surgery at the end of this week, and I’ll be taking a few days away from the Interwebs to visit her in the hospital and help her recover when she returns home. Please send her your best wishes for a fast recovery. So the next episode after our Anime LA recap will come… sometime. Sorry, I can’t be more specific than that.

As far as anime convention coverage, the next convention for me isn’t until July – Anime Expo. I always make it to AX, come hell or high water. No exceptions. And this year I’ll really try and actually cover it (i.e. actually attend events, get interviews, etc.) We MAY be going to the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival (which is usually around mid-April), mostly because that’s right around our anniversary time, and a trip to San Francisco is always a welcome anniversary present. If we do end up going, I will of course get some photos and video for you. Other than that, I probably won’t be at any other conventions until Anime LA 2011. Maybe MikomiCon, which is sometime in the fall (September-October-ish). I just can’t afford to take time off from work to attend anything else. Also, hotel, travel, etc. is expensive, and I’m not exactly flush with cash these days. (see the financial report above). However, I will do what I can to cover major anime conventions (Otakon, NYAF, etc.) remotely, by slogging through the torrent of news articles, blog posts, etc. that come out of these, and condensing them down into pure unadulterated anime convention-y goodness. Of course, if you, the reader/listener, happen to attend any anime conventions, we’d really appreciate your thoughts on the experience. And pictures if you’ve got ‘em. Use any of the methods on the Contact Us page to get in touch.

Also, over the next few months, I’ll be working on some other interesting projects, including some Video podcasts. And no, this isn’t because TJX recently did one of their own. (okay, that’s a lie, but I had always wanted to do some video podcasts even before TJX did theirs. Honest.)

And, of course, I’ve got quite a few anime reviews in various stages of completion as well, so look for those to trickle out in the coming months.

Finally, I would like to thank you for continuing to visit our website, and for subscribing and listening to our podcast. If you could find the time to do so, we’d really appreciate it if you could rate us and/or write a review in iTunes. Just click on the iTunes subscribe link in the left column and use the “rate this podcast” box. Also, if you’re a Zune user — or even if you’re not — please submit us to the Zune Podcast directory. (Yes, the Zune directory requires the LISTENERS to submit podcasts to their directory, rather than the podcast creators. Very odd.) Simply go to the Zune podcast directory page and click the “Submit a Podcast” link in the lower left. It will ask you for the podcast RSS feed, which is