I’m back, everyone! I apologize for the lack of updates aside from the huge Gundam 101 feature that wrapped up last month. (The biggest article ever written! ). Taking time off from posting articles, I’ve decided to update vital parts of the websites-most importantly the Comment Rules. But first, the exciting news!

On Saturday, May 30th, CEN.TAKU.ME hit the 100+ subscribers mark! 105 subscribers to be exact in the picture above, and the highest count recorded so far. This is also a momentous occasion as July 17th will mark the 2nd year anniversary of CTM.

Back in December, the blog hit 50 subscribers. This was only 6 months ago. How did I get double subscribers in just six months?

• Visitors from Otaku.fm – It’s thanks to Otaku.fm, owned by fellow Otaku, Danny Choo, that the blog broke though the 50 subscribers mark in late 2008. As of June 2009, this is a continuing factor in growing readership. If you have an Anime or Otaku related blog, then you should take a look at Otaku.fm as an instant alternative to Google.
• JapanSoc, AllTop, and 2JPN – Another source of reader support comes from the kind people over at JapanSoc. It’s due to their engaging community activities that CEN.TAKU.ME is becoming the most read blog in the Otaku and Japan-related blogosphere. CEN.TAKU.ME is also listed on Alltop‘s Anime and 2JPN‘s JapanSoc listings, which have added to the growing readership.
• Twitter – Another tool in my success. By simply keeping up with my fellow Twitterers (370+ of them) and posting blog updates as they are posted to Twitter was another factor in my goal.
• Members of Boogie BAM Anime Jam – Being a part of Chattanooga’s first Anime Club is another added benefit of being an Otaku and a blogger. Not only that I’ve met some awesome people around my neck of the woods, and it’s also the first opportunity that I have gotten to promote the blog offline. A big thank you goes out to Nick of BBAMAJAM and Zippy (@TokyoTowerWAWL on Twitter) of Tokyo Tower FM for spreading the word!

Continuing with the site updates: The Comment Rules have been updated thanks to the growing number of comments and then some (Thanks! And no thanks to the trolls…). It’s also embedded into the comment form, just in case a comment of your goes missing with no warning.

Next up is the About Page, which really needed to be updated. The page should be easier to understand than before. I may update the page again within a couple of weeks, but it already has key points of how the blog got started, and who reads it.

Finally, two more pages have been updated: Privacy Policy and Disclosure Policy. The Privacy Policy was important as Google recently updated their Terms of Service for the AdSense program, letting publishers know to update their own policy. A link to the page is also embedded into the comment form, next to the Email Address field, as a reminder that I will never, ever sell your email address for a profit.

Thanks again to everyone for reading and here’s to another 100 subscribers and another year of CEN.TAKU.ME! ^_^