Otaku no Podcast is now on Patreon; become a Patron & help us bring you a better blog & podcast!

I’ve been putting out this blog and podcast for over 8 years now, and in that time, I’ve had a lot of fun, met a lot of really cool people, and even managed to learn a thing or two. But it’s also left me with one major regret — not being able to bring great content to you on a regular basis.

The reality is that, unlike some of the big-name podcasters out there, I cannot make my living off of the podcast alone. Which means that, in order to keep a roof over my head, put food on the table and pay those oh-so-pesky bills that tend to show up regularly, I have to keep up a Real Job™ just like the rest of you. This leaves me with very little spare time in which to do the podcast, and almost no money to put towards it (remember those pesky bills?) And this really upsets me.

But as I was thinking about this the other day, an idea suddenly hit me: why not do the trendy thing and crowdfund? It seems that every day more and more anime and video game projects are jumping on the crowdfunding bandwagon, and for the most part they have been quite successful. So, never one to shy away from the latest trend, we’ve set ourselves up a Patreon campaign.

Patreon is similar to the other crowdfunding sites out there (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc.) except it is specially geared toward creators of episodic and/or periodic media-type content – books, music, TV shows, movies, YouTube videos, and, yes, podcasts as well. Rather than just a simple one-shot contribution, Patreon contributions are regularly reoccurring, either episode-by-episode or month-by-month. The idea is that if you support your favorite project on Patreon (such as Otaku no Podcast) you in essence become a patron of the arts, similar to how, in the olden days, artists, sculptors, painters, musicians, etc. would find themselves a rich benefactor who basically supported them in exchange for them creating works of art for them.

Similar to Kickstarter, etc., there are multiple levels of funding available to choose from. You can donate any amount, as low as $1 per month; but if your donation meets or exceeds a certain level, you get certain perks. For example, donate $1 or more (the base amount) and we will add your name to the Patrons’ Wall, a new section on the Otaku no Podcast website where we’ll put the names of our wonderful supporters. (Not much there now, so don’t bother going to it yet.) Donating $5 per month or more will not only get you a spot on the Patrons’ Wall, but we will also announce your name and publicly thank you on an actual podcast episode. And so on.

“But what about the ad banners?! What about the affiliate links (Amazon, etc.)?!” you might say. Unfortunately these just don’t generate the kind of steady source of income that I would need in order to bring about the improvements I’d like to make around here.

What sort of improvements? My first priority is to get some more regular content — both blog posts and podcasts (audio and/or video — and for that I’d need to bring on some guest bloggers and co-hosts. Ideally I’d love to be able to pay them, either a regular monthly “salary” of sorts, or to pay them for each contribution (article, guest apperance, etc.); or at the very least I’d like to be able to buy them an anime/game/whatever for them to review, etc. I’m also looking to fix up the website. It leaves much to be desired; it definitely needs some work behind the scenes (improving the code, loading speed, etc.) And we could use some new artwork for both the website and the podcast itself (album art, etc.) – ideally, I’d love to be able to commission some custom stuff (that we would legally “own.”) And — this may be pie-in-the-sky, but one can dream — maybe, just maybe, we might be able to afford equipment upgrades; or maybe even give us an actual travel budget, so that I could start bringing you coverage from the other great anime cons and other Japan-related cultural events out there (or find people to go do that for us.)

So please, become a Patron today and help support this blog and podcast. You can help us out for as little as a paltry $1/month. There is no contract or anything like that; you can change your contribution level, or even cancel entirely, at any time. And if you’re not up for a regular monthly commitment, there are plenty of other one-time ways you can help out – by purchasing products from our various affiliates, or with a donation. All of those can be found on our How You Can Help page. Finally, if you are unable or unwilling to help us monetarily, we would still appreciate your help in other ways as well; spread the word about us, post about us on your blog or on forums and so forth, and rate and/or review us in the various podcast directories (e.g. iTunes) and app stores. However you choose to help us, we very much appreciate it. You guys (and gals) rock.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you