“To all who dare to stand in the presence of this certificate, beware that [ NINJA NAME ] has successfully fulfilled all the requirements prescribed by the Council of Shadows and upon the recommendation of a for real ninja master is hereby declared awesome at [ NINJA SKILL ] and is entitled to wield the full kickassitude of this skill righteously and with unyielding force at all life forms who step to him.

Signed and branded into the wall of the Temple of Sharp Flying Objects by Grandmaster Kudamono.”

Also load up on the I.O.N. Hoodie, Ask A Ninja t-shirts, and of course the Ask A Ninja DVD.

If you’re following along on Twitter, you haven’t missed this good stuff:

• Despair’s latest vividly demonstrates awesome longer-form storytelling via video (here you go, Mr. Eisner), parts 1 and 2;
• Ask A Ninja isn’t shy about anything talking web video;
• Rooster Teeth has launched Red Vs Blue: Reconstruction;
• Laughing Squid captured the world’s largest lolcat;
• SoHo has a 20′ Lala;
• Diesel Sweeties celebrated a six-year undiversary. Congrats, yo!
• AppleGeeks honored Memorial Day;
• Kris Straub has opened his sketchbooks. So cool.
• Go inside PAA Episode 1.

More soon. Promise.

Apple gives props to the newest pioneers of podcasting by naming their best podcasts of 2007 (both new and “classics.”) Dozens of certifiable undies abound. Ask A Ninja, Tiki Bar TV, Mondo’s Happy Tree Friends, It’s Jerry Time and Joe Cartoon to name but only a few.

• Rooster Teeth at the 2007 European Machinima Festival
• Ask a Ninja Question 57 “Ninjazines.”
• Though I love what I do, I can also Dare to Dream with Wondermark.

Your store links: Rooster Teeth; Ask a Ninja; Wondermark.

He offers a cool, quick exhortation for everyone to get in the game.

Future broadcasts will be acts of pod
[They are] looking to make a profit on their shows, creating brand identities and even Internet TV networks… Some podcasters are already quitting their day jobs and doing their shows full-time; there are only a select few, but they’re out there… trying to figure out how to monetize podcasting. No one quite knows the answer yet, but they’re getting there. By the time they do, podcasting will no longer be a hobby, it’ll be a mainstream business model.

If all this is pure newfangled new media nonsense to you, if you’ve never heard of Ask a Ninja or Dawn and Drew and you only know Adam Curry as the 90s MTV VJ with the blond feathered locks and not as the Podfather – don’t fret. These are the entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who are pioneering what some day will be considered the standard.

…So you can go out right now and jump on the bandwagon…Why not make your own?

Why not, indeed.

• Ask a Ninja question 56 “Back in the Day“
• Despair busts undependent.com and millions of others;
• Eepy Bird takes note (Digg it);
• Richard Stevens of Diesel Sweeties on undependence;
• Join this community, or the Ninja might have to, well… you know;
• Have you seen Tiki Bar TV’s “The Wedding” episode yet? It rocks.
• Don’t miss the Web Comics Weekly episode about channels;
• Rooster Teeth talked with CNN.
• The latest from Perry Bible Fellowship. Genius. (NSFW)
• JibJab’s launched another Starring You called Unnecessary Force. Undie and friend of the Undie Aaron Simpson has created his own. Why don’t you?

We like trying out new Undies, and we hope you do, too. Enjoy.

Feel free to recommend your favorite Undies to us. Thanks.

If you would like to support these Undies, here are your store links: Ask a Ninja; Despair; Eepy Bird; Diesel Sweeties; Tiki Bar TV; Rooster Teeth Productions; Perry Bible Fellowship; JibJab; Cold Hard Flash; and the four good folks behind Web Comics Weekly — Scott and Kris, Kris and Scott of Half Pixel; Evil, Inc.; and Sheldon. Undies need your support; buy directly from these creators and enjoy all their great stuff.

Ask a Ninja smartly boosts online sales by advertising their own store at the end of their videos.  Sometimes, they even share coupon codes in these ads as well.  I’m pretty sure that they use CastFire for these ads.  The best trick is that when they update their ad, it plays at the end of every video in their entire archive.  That’s great because as more new fans continue to discover the Ninja, they all get to learn about the great stuff available in the Ninja Mart.
Thus, viewership isn’t the only stat that climbs when a new episode is released. Sales rise, too.

Successful community strategies vary as widely as the Undies themselves. For instance:

• Despair, Inc. lets their fans build their own Demotivators. In addition, Despair offers excellent promotions to members of their Wailing List.
• JibJab has a massive community presence and lets fans star in their own clips;
• Penny Arcade has forums at their site, and they host their own monster convention, the Penny Arcade Expo, that this year brought together almost 40,000 fans for three days of gaming festivities.
• Rooster Teeth Productions has built perhaps the greatest Undie community site around. Check these amazing stats:

The web continues to evolve new ways to build and manage your community. TechCrunch has reviewed nine such tools. I like Ning a lot myself.
Ask A Ninja has announced an upcoming upgrade to their community platform. We’re eager to see what the Ninja unleashes for fans.
Creators, how do you encourage and engage your tribe?

Fans, what community features do you like the most?

–JLB