Thursday, January 5, 2006

   Questions Answered
Whew, received a lot of questions today. Here are my answers...

AzureWolf On: What I do in my free time

I actually have a day job. I work at a sexy advertising agency. It's a nice industry. When I come home, I usually go to the gym and then either read, watch a movie, or go out with a friend or two.

I work on the site late, late in the evening, usually from 10 - 1/2 AM.


CosmicSailor: Student information.

I actually have to update that. I graduated last year from college. I was an honors student in business with a triple concentration.

As mentioned before, I now work at an advertising agency during the day.


The Dazzling Snow Fox: Future Plans

theOtaku will be more of an evolutionary upgrade. We'll fix some nagging concerns, migrate portfolios from myOtaku there, and so on.

myOtaku will completely change. It'll be a more open platform and will be less about blogging. We'll still have blogs on myOtaku, but that won't be the focus. The focus will be on making a central page for you to "introduce yourself" to your audience, so to speak.

What role does it play in my life?
The same role as all my web productions I've had in the last 8 years. The network is a major part of my life, it's a release for all my creative/entrepreneurial energies.

Sure it'd be nice to have a huge company one day with offices, etc. But I'm far more interested in just creating very cool and amazing things.


The Sparkling Milky Cat On: Love Interest

Oh our Art of Otaku artists will always be #1 in my heart (except for you of course, since you have a spot reserved in your fiance's heart).


Linkin Park On: (Too Many to List Here)

1. Where is the myOtaku update?

That and theOtaku are the next two projects I'm tackling. I have a bunch of excuses for their delays, but it's better just to break inertia and start showing results. I really dislike excuses.

Also, it shouldn't be implied that Art of Otaku detracted from said upgrades at all. That simply wasn't the case, thanks to a wonderful effort by our artists and the way I managed the project.

2. How Much Money Has Art of Otaku Made and How Much Have The Artists Made?

I really don't like to get into the monetary aspects of the project, since that was honestly never a huge issue. All we wanted to do was create something very different and cool using our community.

We had so many risks. Our artists risked a LOT of their hard working in the blind faith that I could deliver an elegant finished product. And we all risked a lot because we had no idea whether or not anyone would actually buy the thing. It took 6 months to produce.

Remember, this was the first time we ever tried to sell anything on theOtaku. A flop was a huge possibility.

The fact Art of Otaku came out well was my most important metric for success. That it sold all right is a nice bonus, though we could still do a heck of a lot better.

3. Other questions...

As I said, we haven't updated theOtaku in a long time. Over a year. We have some work to do.

As for your question suggesting I'm a money-hungry vampire of sorts and that I should hand over the network to a passionate anime fan instead...

Huh?

Other than the silly insult, which isn't really grounded in anything, your question is akin to telling the President of Toys R Us:

"My little brother likes toys more than you, you should resign and let him run the company instead!"

This network is an incredibly complex animal. It's difficult for someone outside to see this, looking in, but it is. I wouldn't wish anyone my job of running it! (Nor would I even let them without a fight!)


John On: Giving Thumbs Up All Day

Let's just say I always win at thumb-wars...

*Waves* that's all folks. Thanks for your questions. Until next time.
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