Famous US Governor, Chris Christie, Links to My Latest Lew Rockwell Article!...

By Mike Rogers


Famous US Governor from New Jersey, Chris Christie, links to my latest Mike in Tokyo Rogers' Lew Rockwell article (bottom left): http://tiny.cc/gdxwa

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Keywords: New Jersey, Lew Rockwell, Chris Christie, Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Koji Kamibayashi; Internet & SEO Expert

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Let me introduce you to Koji Kamibayashi. Koji is quite unique in Japan. And you will be glad you met him today.

There are many people in Japan who claim to be Internet experts or professionals in SEO, but I'd wager that there aren't many who can put proof behind their claims of expertise. One of the few who can is a guy named Koji Kamibayashi. I think it is safe to say that Koji is one of Japan's top five, if not the top, Internet expert in the entire country.

Koji Kamibayashi

Koji Kamibayashi was the founder and president of TV Tokyo Broadband (TXBB); which he started in 2001. Within 4 years, by 2005, TXBB became a company with over $50 million (USD) in revenue and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Market in 2005. This was truly an amazing feat considering the fact that every terrestrial TV station and network in Japan started up a Broadband network only to fail with tens of millions of dollars in losses.  Only Koji's TXBB was successful. See Koji's Wikipedia here.

During his time at TXBB, Koji was also talented enough, and had the foresight, to recognize that, if broadband were to be successful in Japan the ownership of the rights for the content would be critical. This leads to one of Koji's most amusing and fascinating success stories; it was Koji who brought Snoopy to Japan and put him and Woodstock on Junior High and High School girl's bag in the country.

When the people representing Peanuts first approached Koji about a partnership for Peanuts in Japan, they wanted him to take the entire group; Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Lucy, Linus, and the rest; along with the stories. Koji told them, "No!" He told them that he only wanted the dog and the bird. Initially the Peanuts team was insistent on the entire story being taken up, but Koji stuck to his guns. He threw out everything - even the stories - excepting Snoopy and Woodstock and now Snoopy in Japan earns five times the income that Peanuts earn in all of the United States.

Koji remarked, "Sometimes it's not what you keep that's important, it's what you throw away that matters."

Koji also worked the same sort of magic in Japan for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Miffy, and he was the one who resuscitated Sesame Street and brought it back from the dead in this country.

Alas, it couldn't last forever in one of Japan's oldest companies. Anyone who becomes president at a Nikkei related company in Japan can only be president for six years under ancient company rules. This posed a dilemma for Koji when he became president of TXBB in 2001.

"I didn't want to accept the position at that time as I was only 42 years old. Usually people who become president's at a Nikkei related company are in their mid-to-late sixties, so it's OK for them, but I was only 42... What was I to do in 6 years? I tried to ask them to change the rules for me, but they wouldn't... Those rules had been around for decades and this is Japan..." Koji related.

So Koji left the company. But it wasn't all roses then. TV Tokyo is a Nikkei Group company and another rule is that, after you leave, you cannot do any sort of marketing, PR, advertising, entertainment-related business... That doesn't leave a lot for a guy to do who had spent over 25 years of his life in that field.

So, Koji then followed one of his dreams and opened a Chinese restaurant in Sapporo. I've eaten there and it is fantastic!

Now that the restaurant is going well, he visits it once a month to make sure it is doing fine and then spends the rest of his time back in Tokyo with his lovely wife who is a professional Yoga instructor. In Tokyo, Koji is doing what he really loves and that is Internet related work.

"I often get offers from large foreign companies to join in their ranks, but I don't want to work in the confines of a large company anymore. I want to do my own thing and I want to have fun."

If you wish to contact Koji Kamibayashi, his Linkedin profile is here. Of course Koji also Twitters and does Pick and other Social Media.

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Keywords: Koji Kamibayashi, Internet, Japan, Internet expert, Tokyo, Chinese Restaurant, Chinese, SEO, Sapporo, Nikkei Group, TV Tokyo, marketing, TXBB, entertainment, PR, Broadband, Terrestrial TV, Wikipedia, Social Media, Snoopy, Pick, Miffy, Sesame Street, advertising,

Marketing Japan: Internet Promotions? Don't Make Long Sign-ups!...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


If you are running any sort of Internet service, business or promotion that requires people to sign up to join, then at least make the sign up as short and as simple as possible.


Survey results of over 10,000 Internet users (done by Nikkei Shimbun) show that if users must click a site or a banner link more than twice, they probably won't do it.

One of my good friend's tells me how he is working on a huge cross-platform Internet promotion that has all the great pieces to a fantastic Internet Social Media Marketing success… This promotion has everything built in! It has a dedicated website using WordPress; publicity integrating old media and print to draw new potential customers to their Internet sites (they definitely need the over-40 crowd in Japan as those are the people with all the money); A Pick and Twitter component and, of course, online video, blogs, blogging, vlogs, and keywords on Google Search and Yahoo! and much more involving a full spectrum of Social Media Marketing for Japan. This is a marketeers dream come true in the year 2010... Except for one tiny problem... My good friend laments that one of the partners is stuck in old fashioned promotional thinking that doesn't fit well a all with the Internet. 

My friend asked me if I could help provide some evidence that he could show to the partner as proof that the partner's ideas were out-dated and if I could help him to convince the partner to drop these ideas.

Well, I don't know if I can help him convince someone who is stuck in old-fashioned thinking, but I gave him some data and wished him well…

That's what gave me the idea for this blog today. If you come up against the same sort of obstacle, then I hope you can refer back to this particular blog for some ammo to help you fight back.

But first, let me give you some background and then tell you what the partner's idea was. 

The promotion was a tie up between three different companies. One company owns powerful old and new media; one company can give away free vacations; the the company can provide the transport to those vacations. All three companies have a need that overlaps and allows them to help each other out and not pay someone like Dentsu or Hakuhodo $180,000 for a promotion like this... If they cooperate, they can arrange a promotion like this through my friend's company for about $9,000!

The media provider can penetrate into millions of homes and is giving that piece of the puzzle up for free as barter (they want more people to use their media). The media partner also has a massive Internet mailing list and gets over 10 million unique users a month! The problem is, instead of just running a contest where all you need to do is sign up, one of the partner's (who needs all the free promotion they can get) wants to add a quiz to the contest that forces people who wish to enter to have to do some Internet searching and research and answer questions - along with filing in personal information on an Internet sign-up form… Not only will the users  have to click through to several pages, this idea takes them off the contest page… Which makes it a very bad idea.

My friend called me and wrote to me asking for advice. Here's what I wrote:

Dear Ken (not his real name),

This is a very bad idea. From past experience and from Internet research, I must strongly recommend against doing this sort of thing in your promotion. 

Let me explain why: 

This kind of promotional idea is very old fashioned (10 or 20 years old) and will result in a contest whereby less than a few dozen people sign up. As you, can suspect, we know this from experience from mass media promotions. 

It is well known that in Internet marketing that (with data research and user surveys of 10's of thousands of Internet users done by Nikkei Research) that people will not, on average, click on a site more than twice. This sort of idea presented by your partner will result in at least 4 clicks. This will cause a huge number of interested people to drop off immediately. 

If the contest is designed so that people sign up just their name and e-mail, you will get tens of thousands of entries and hundreds of people entering several times. Effective promotion is promotion that people think about often, and can enter often.

If people must go to another page and research information and then answer questions, you will get a few dozen entries. No exaggeration.

This idea is ancient; it is like some newspaper promotional ideas for the past. Also, remember that this is a partnership promotion with benefit to all, I can't imagine that the other two partners - especially the vital media partner - would agree to this. If this partner is paying for the promotion, then I doubt that anyone would complain… But this is a barter. This is a critical point.

Think about your own experience on the Internet in the past: When you had to sign up for something, if it was easy, you did it. If it asked too many questions or became troubles-some, you dropped it. I know I do.

This problem is also talked about on page 257 of "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" by Daivd Meerman Scott. It says, "Do not use a sign-up form that requires your prospects to enter lots of data - people will abandon the form." 

Most recently, when my company did a media promotion (on a TV station and radio station) for a week whereby people only had go to the Internet contest page and  enter their name and e-mail, we got over 9,000 entries. In another campaign, when we required them to go to another page and research a question (That campaign was for a world famous automotive parts company) and all people had to do was go to the auto parts maker's homepage and answer a question we got only 14! Fourteen!? Yes, 14. You read right.

Also, once again, I seriously doubt that your media partner, a company that is a trend leader in Internet marketing will agree to this sort of out of date promotion... After all, they are giving you access to millions of people at a barter. I don't think that you or your partner are in a position to demand this sort of thing from them.

Lastly, think of the damage to you client's name when people think, "Oh? I can win! How nice." Then they go to the contest page and see that they have to do a bunch of things to enter; answer questions, provide personal data, click a bunch of times  to enter in a contest where the chances of winning are about 1 in a million? No way.

The average person will think two things about you and your client. They will associate these two things:

1) You and your client's name

2) Troublesome

You can't have that. The Internet is quick… Buzz on the Internet is fast and it is not forgiving if that buzz is bad.

I strongly suggest that you either convince your client to change their mind, or, if they are insistent, find another partner. There isn't a company in the world who isn't interested in the new way of Marketing, marketing in Japan, and the new rules of PR.

Then I signed off.

I wonder if what I wrote and the data I sent will help at all...We'll see.  

But for you, my dear reader,  if you get anything out of this blog, then make it this: Have online contests as often as possible but do not require people to enter too much information. Ideally, just an e-mail address is best.

Notes: Here is an article about a newspaper in the UK who required an Internet sign-up - for contact that is free - and it seriously damaged their readership numbers. See here. http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/06/incipient-paywall-costing-newspaper-online-readers.ars

There's many companies out and about that are making these mistakes for you so you don't have to… Just pay attention and learn the lessons from them. Now that's intelligent marketing!


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Mike in Tokyo Rogers (me) New Music Videos Japan on U-Stream

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I remember an old saying that prudish grandmas would say, "Don't jump into the pool until you learn how to swim!" Well how are you going to learn how to swim if you don't get into the pool?

How are you going to learn how to blog, video blog, or do Social Media until you jump into the water?

I do Internet marketing and SEO services in Japan now, but, in my former life, I was a TV and radio producer, director, and caster... When it comes to U-Stream, I am just getting my feet wet.  I've had a YouTube channel for a long time as YouTube is more like traditional TV, but U-Stream is different.

To learn how to do U-Stream well, I've been helping George Williams on his daily show for about 7 months now and started doing my own weekly do a weekly underground new music video show on www.georgewilliams.jp where you can find the weekly Top 5, where I find and play totally new and undiscovered cool artists and play them for you.

As I mentioned many times before, you need to consistently blog or video blog (vlog) at least 3 times a week to be successful on Social Media and using it to do marketing in Japan...

I make the video and, before it airs live, I use Twitter, Pick, Facebook, Mixi and my company web page at Universal Vision to notify people that it is about to air, then, after it is over and recorded, I do the same.  The link is here:

It's all a part of keeping on top of the game for Internet Social Media Marketing. There's no real rule book, it seems to me, the best ideas will come to you from just doing it and thinking up new and creative ways to market your self or your product.

So, instead of just waiting to start because you don't know what to do... Just jump into the pool! You'll learn as you go. The water is great!

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Keywords: video blog, Mixi, Social Media, Facebook, YouTube, Japan, Internet, U-Stream, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Twitter, blog, Mixi, Social Media Marketing, Universal Vision, George Williams, Marketing Japan, vlog, New Music Videos Japan

Get High Google Rankings: Blog and Write Everyday!...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

It is my purpose to get my name and the name of my company and service out to the public in the most effective way possible; and the best way to do that is to use the Internet. The Internet is targeted marketing and media and it allows me to focus my message to the audience; and it does it for free. I cannot think of a cheaper price than free, can you? 

I go to the Internet to get great information with a focused message; and I get that information for free. I hope that this is the same reason some of you good folks come to see me everyday. I'm trying to give you all tips on how to empower yourselves and increase your business in Japan everyday. 


One reader asked me how it was possible that I was able to get my name at #1 on a Google search if someone merely searched "Mike" and "Tokyo" (remember that there are millions of foreigners in this country and there's been many many famous Mike7s to come here; think Mike Tyson in Tokyo, etc., etc.) Well, let me tell you that you can do the same thing too! You can get high rankings on a Google or Yahoo search in the most cost effective way possible. But, just starting a blog or a vlog and letting sit there isn't going to do it.


You can either buy search words like BP did for "Oil Spill" etc., or, if you are on a limited budget, then you can put in the effort. Elbow grease is the answer, my friends!  


I believe that the only way to get great Google or Yahoo search results is to keep hammering away at putting out a lot of good quality stuff on a consistent basis. You must keep at the blogging and writing and to continually put up good quality, useful stuff, for your readers. You need to put up new information at least 3 times a week and you need to keep the message focused.


But how to keep the message focused? That could be tough, especially if there are so many topics that interest you. Like me. I'm interested in many things Japan. So I write for three different places; my blog, my company blog, and on wwwlewrockwell.com 


This blog (my blog) is targeted to foreign businessmen wanting to sell their products and services in Japan to the Japanese... Only. (If that seems obvious or absurd, realize that there are many foreigners in Japan trying to sell their products and services to the other foreigners living here. I do not deal with those). That's why this blog is called, "Modern Marketing Japan." 


On my company blog, Universal-vision.jp, I mirror items on this blog, but I also place Japanese language news releases there too. Here's a recent example. The final place that I try to blog consistently is at Lew Rockwell. Lew Rockwell is the most read Libertarian site in the world and ranked by Alexa in the Top 15 of the most read sites in the entire world. 


Blogging, making YouTube videos, Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Mixi and doing U-Stream are all important but remember that just setting up a blog or a YouTube channel and then putting up new information on it once a month or once every two months is just not going to get you the results you need. You need to put up new blogs, information or videos at least three times a week.


As David Meerman Scott wrote in the bible of new media marketing, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, when he quoted the president of The Concrete Network;


"You need to think about how a series of one hundred news releases over two years will benefit your business and then commit to it, understanding that nothing is an overnight thing." 

Of course, this is all a part of my ever continuing opinion that, if you want to succeed in Social Media, Marketing and the Internet, then you must continually produce content by writing and on your own blog and give it away for free. 


Write a lot but keep messages focused... By the way, I have another new article on Lew Rockwell about silly things in Japan here.


I hope you get a laugh.




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Marketing Japan: Six Basic Rules for Effective Internet Blogging and Intelligent Social Media in Japan and Beyond...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Here are the first six rules that absolutely should be followed if you wish to build up a good following for your blog or other Internet activities. Do these today (they're easy and free) and you will be way ahead of the game immediately.

1) Think about your name and use a unique and effective name every time try not to deviate! I use Mike in Tokyo Rogers which makes me much more unique than Mike Rogers, of which there must be millions of and I know that there are a few who are famous. One is an athlete, a politician from Michigan, one is an actor, one is a musician and another is a K-1 fighter. Try to use your online name in your e-mail address to make it easier to find you. Anytime you see my name on the Internet is is Mike in Tokyo Rogers. 

2) Take a real photo of yourself to use as your avatar and use the same one everywhere possible.

3) Create online bio's using this name and avatar everywhere you frequent on the Internet: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Youtube, Myspace, Mixi, Pick, Linkedin, U-Stream, and on your video blogs and vlogs, etc.

4) Comment on other people's blogs and, this way, people will begin to see your name and avatar and bio. It helps you to build a reputation and a brand and image. This is not just good business, it is smart and intelligent marketing.

5) Always add keywords to any and all blogs you write for the Internet. ALWAYS rename any images for your blog to specific titles. Do not use generic names like 11100342_34.jpg. Why? Because no one searches for that. Use your head and give your images a unique name that might drive traffic to your site. 

6) Whenever you upload a new blog, vlog, U-Stream or Youtube, make sure that you announce it on your other Social Media Marketing tools. For example, announce new blogs at least 2 -3 times within the next 24 hours of putting them online. That way you can drive people to you.

Do these six tips religiously and you will be way ahead of 99% of the others. Now that's smart marketing!

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Keywords: U-Stream, Pick, Internet, smart marketing, Marketing Japan, Social Media, marketing, Youtube, intelligent, Japan, Intelligent Social Media, blog, Yahoo, vlog, video blog, Facebook, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, unique name, effective, avatar, Google, Twitter, Social Media Marketing, Mixi, Linkedin, Pick 

60% of Twitter Users Quit in First Month

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


Holy cow! Pay attention all you marketing, bloggers, advertising, PR, Social Media, people who U-Stream, Pick and video blog (vlog) and business in general people in Japan, I just stumbled upon this article from Nielsen Ratings that show some big trouble for Twitter down the road.

It seems that Twitter has a very poor retention rate for new users. In fact, Twitter's retention rate is worse than Facebook or Myspace and both of those Social Networking services are dying a slow death in Japan.


From the article:


Currently, more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah, Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.


The problem with this retention rate is that it means that Twitter's long term growth is in serious question. It means that Twitter can only hope for a 10 percent reach. That's not good at all.


I have mentioned before that I think, in Japan, that Pick will blow away Twitter as Pick allows a photo to be placed right on the tweet (whereas Twitter forces the user to click a link)...


Could Twitter also face the problem that the entire Internet faced during the times of the dot-com bubble burst? That was when the Internet turned off lots of people because it was becoming too much of a tool for just selling things? Could Twitter be getting that sort of bad rap?


If Oprah Winfrey blabs about Twitter on TV and then, even she can't retain more than 60%... Could Twitter as a product or a service be in big trouble down the road here very soon? 

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Marketing Japan: Increase Your Google Rankings by Use of Keywords...

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Just a quick piece of great advice for you bloggers who - with quite understandable frustration, believe me - get discouraged because they see no quick results from their blogging or video blog (vlog) efforts.

Remember that every time you blog something, anything, you need to use all the Social Media tools in your toolbox to drive people to your blog and increase your rankings. That means when you write a new blog, then I suggest that you go to Pick, Twitter, Facebook, Mixi, U-Stream, whatever and announce that you have some new blog that you would like people to check out.

Always be thinking... Well, about something useful, if possible.

I write about Japan at Lew Rockwell.com and then announce all of those everywhere I can - even here at this blog - and I plug my modern marketing Japan blog (this blog) at the bottom of my Lew Rockwell articles.

I suggest announcing new items at least twice (on Twitter, Pick and other Social Media); once immediately after writing and then, once again, five or six few hours later (perhaps once more 24 hours later?).

It is also advisable to go to related sights and post the information there. This particular blog is about smart marketing, advertising and PR using the Internet and intelligent media in Japan, so I will also go to Linkedin and announce my new musings on the marketing groups that I belong to.

OK, so maybe, even with that, people won't follow your blog and sign up. Not to worry. Here's another piece of great advice that will get you high rankings on a Google search.

You might notice that I always put a list of keywords at the bottom of my articles and blogs like this:

Keywords: TV, focused message, Google, product, radio, Japan, business, Japanese, buzz, radio station Twitter, vlog, U-Stream, Internet, Social Media, Mike Tyson, intelligent, Pick, White House, GDP, Mixi, video blog, smart marketing, rankings, solution, Linkedin, vlogging, blogger, advertising, Google search, TV station, service, video blog, Facebook, japan, japan's, blog, blogger, intelligent marketing,  marketing, 

You have to do this every time on every blog to get great Google search engine results. Just to show you that I am right about this. Go to Google and search "Mike" and "Tokyo." Yep, that's me at #1 on the search results. Pretty amazing if you consider the fact that there must be over a million Mike's who've ever been to Tokyo... Notable ones include even Mike Tyson in person and on world-wide TV(Hey! I beat Mike Tyson in Tokyo! Rah!)

Make sure that when you do a keywords listing that you change the order of the words in your keywords so that they do not appear in exactly the same order that the do in the body of the article.

Also! One last important note. Make sure that you use the same name for yourself everywhere on the Internet and make sure you use the exact same avatar (I mean a real one with your photo!) Remember that you are selling yourself when it comes to the Internet, so branding and image are critical to your success.

That's smart business with a focused message and intelligent marketing!

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