Thursday, November 16, 2006

Question Mark
For a lot of news posts, we use the same dull question mark. Do any anime/graphic artists want to draw a manga-inspired question mark? If it's good we'll start using that instead.
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Monday, November 13, 2006

I'm testing something that could be big (or insignificant).

Starting today you can download wallpapers from our mega-popular wallpapers site without being a member.

To support this endeavor, I've thrown up some ads on the wallpaper download page.

Here's my prediction:
(1) We'll have fewer overall myOtaku registrations, but the people who do register will be of a higher quality.

(2) More people will visit the wallpaper site, since a % of visitors probably left rather than be forced to register.

(3) Our ad revenue will go up very very slightly, but enough to support the increased bandwidth.

We'll see...
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Friday, November 10, 2006

Hm...I'm giving serious thought to creating the most amazing fan manga, actually just manga, ever conceived. I don't know if I have the extra time to do it, but now it's in the back of my head.

Hm...
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Thursday, November 9, 2006

Important Day
Whether you're a Republican or Democrat, the events of today should have been grounds for celebration.

Balance is a very good thing. With balance comes more discussion and debate, a wider spectrum of ideas, and, most importantly, accountability.

Having one party--either one--control the entire government is just idiotic and I'm happy voters realized this.
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Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Subtle Improvement
I increased the number of comments per comment page from 10 to 50. I hate clicking "next" and "previous" over and over again - now you don't have to...
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Tuesday, November 7, 2006

As I said, I have two jobs: To increase our unique audience and to increase the number of people who buy into the new Art of Otaku.

In this post I'll talk about how I plan to increase our audience. Because our traffic is dispersed all over the place and since we already have so many visitors, it's no easy feat.

I have a four-pronged approach:

(1) Form partnerships with high-traffic websites that can complement theOtaku.

(2) Improve and Streamline theOtaku/myOtaku to bring visitors from all our sections together and deliver a better experience to all current visitors.

(3) Promote share-able and "take with you" content. An example of this is our quiz results, which can be posted on your myspace/xanga/deviant art pages.

(4) Plug the heck out of our fan manga section. More than any other section, this will encourage daily, engaged readers.

You'll see these approaches play out in the next few months...
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Sunday, November 5, 2006

- I have a really cool announcement in waiting for tomorrow.

- The fanmanga site now hosts over 100 comics and unique manga series. Can't wait until we get to 1000. What's your favorite series?

- I spent a lot of time on the new Art Of Otaku tonight. I might scale down the # of my "big bets" so I can spend even more time on it. I see my role as two fold in the future: Grow our audience and grow the # of people who buy into the new Art Of Otaku.

- I predicted that our newsletter 2.0 would get about 10,000 subscribers out of our original 300,000 list. Right now we're at 9,400, so we'll be at 10,000 sometime next week. Love it when things go as planned.
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Friday, November 3, 2006

OtakuPop
A few people have asked me what I think of Tokyopop's site relaunch as a theOtaku/myOtaku clone (with a small dose of Digg). This happened a few months ago, but I'll chime in now.

To be honest, I love it!

The ability for anime fans to create blogs that link to their fan works to build an audience is something we pioneered *years* ago. The fact that a company like Tokyopop wants to copy us validates our position.

I also love competition because it will help us evolve and grow faster.

Furthermore, by turning their entire site into a theO/myO clone, they're growing our audience. Every member they register will look for new ways to submit their work and build an audience. We'll be the direct beneficiary of that.

So, Tokyopop, I'm flattered and no hard feelings.

...Let the games begin!
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Thursday, November 2, 2006

Art Of Otaku Re-Imagined
The "core" of the new Art Of Otaku will be done this month. It's a big bet for me and the network's future. What's a little scary is that a lot is out of my hands. I just have to wait and see :-).

Also, the fan manga site continues to improve. I hope the other sites don't get too jealous...
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Monday, October 30, 2006

Now you know another of my seven big bets:

(1) Fanmanga is PART of this
(2) Art Business Book
(3) New Art Of Otaku
(4) Newsletter 2.0
(5) ???
(6) ???
(7) ???

Curious...

What are you dressing up as for Halloween? If it's anime related, why not post in our cosplay site?

The big question I ask myself again and again is whether, after all my big bets and initiatives, there will be "enough there" to support exponential growth.

I guess we'll find out in six months (one month has passed since I first talked about the seven big bets).

Congratulations, myOtaku on 450,000 members.
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