Only in Japan - Poke Out Somebody's Eye With That!

I glance over the Japanese News everyday. Usually there isn't much going on. We don't have stuff like the Martin - Zimmerman trial going on here.

Here is something that I saw in this mornings news that made me go "WTF?"

It seems that a 30-year-old girl fell down in between the opening on the train platform and the train (looks like the Keihin Kyuko going to Isogo - towards Yokohama way from Tokyo. I don't know what station this is). And, in order to get her out, the station workers had to ask for and enlist the help of passengers to push the train far enough away from the platform so that the girl could get out! 

Like I said, "What the....?"

"Heave ho!"

Anyway, this impressed me for two reasons. One; how in the hell does a 30-year-old woman actually fall through the crack between the train and the platform??? Now, I've seen some places where the gap was pretty wide, maybe 7 or 8 inches... But an adult falling through to the ground? I know lots of Japanese girls are really skinny, but that's ridiculous! (I have, in many drunken stupors feared falling through the cracks, though!)

The other thing that impresses me is that, in 30 years in Japan, I have never seen or heard of such a thing. Now, I don't mean that I've never heard, "Don't fall through the cracks!" But that's like something your mom would tell you that never happens (like when you are playing with a stick or a plastic sword) ala; "Be careful with that or you'll poke someone's eye out!"

Uh, no mom. That never happens, OK?

But this girl actually did fall through! And THE KICKER, in this internet and smartphone age, is that people were there to take photos of it and upload them to the Internet immediately.... So now, it's not just hearsay that someone fells through the cracks; there's photographic proof...

Maybe I will be more careful walking on the train platform and maybe I won't be swinging around my umbrella next time like Luke Skywalker... 

Might fall through the cracks,... but not before, of course, poking somebody's eye out!

Get a Top-Quality Professional Logo for Yourself or Your Company for $200 (USD)

People who read this blog often (thank you) will know that I am a member of many online communities. I do that because it is a good place to see what people are writing about SNS, Social Media, and Social Media Marketing (SMM). It is also a good place to see what the old school people are doing to try to make themselves look as if they are up on the Internet and the new media.

Guess how much this logo cost? A total of $200 (USD) Incredible? Read on.

It is pretty easy to pick the people out who are still stuck in the old ways at these "Marketing Online Professionals" communities. They write things like,

For this reason , I am convinced that SM works ONLY when being integrated inside a marketing plan, together with media placement, PR, promo, direct marketing and CRM. 

It is painfully obvious that the guy who wrote this is an old-school advertising guy posing as an "Internet and Social Media" expert. He laments the fact that his Social Media Marketing (SMM) plans fail consistently. He is trying to convince us - but more likely he is trying to convince himself - that the old way is vital.

In some ways he's right. The old media is vital if my product is targeted to to the 45 ~ 70-year-old crowd or if my product or service is for everyone in the family from the smallest kids to grandpa and grandma (think Disneyland, etc.) But when your product /service is for the under 40 crowd, I think you'd have to consider long and hard about spending a cent on old media... In many cases you would not be doing your client any favors to recommend spending huge budgets on TV or radio. I wrote about that in detail here and here.

Earlier today, I went to a different online professionals community and was so surprised to find people saying things like "First things, first! You must hire a professional to do your company logo!"

Of course a good logo is a must... But coughing up a few thousand dollars to hire a professional? And this advice coming from a community that calls itself, "Online Professionals"? Hmmm... Why would the people who are supposedly sold on online business be pushing the old-school ways?

Perhaps hiring a big-bucks professional will be necessary down the line, but I think us Internet types should try to use our creativity and brains before we just throw money at the problem like people used to do....

As I suspected many times, these online communities are often places where old-school advertising agents try to gain credibility as "Internet" and "online experts"... But they actually don't really do either (always ask any self-proclaimed "Internet" and "Social Media Marketer" for a list of their blog URL's and Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, U-Stream, Mixi (in Japan), etc, accounts. That's an easy way to pick out the frauds).

Click here and read at bottom for tips on how to pick out the poseurs.

I know many a small to medium business owner who has hired a professional and spent a few thousand dollars only to wind up with a handful of designs and they didn't like any of them. Foolish especially considering the fact that new businesses must watch out for every single penny and paper clip!

Well, now my friends, there is a solution! It is a company called Logomyway.

Logomyway is a new service that started in April 2009. At Logomyway you make a logo design contest and get 1,000's of artists to compete for your business... You pay nothing excepting to the winning submission. The cost can be as low as $200 (USD). You decide the winner's prize fee.

My company, "Universal Vision" logo... $200! Excellent!

Hiring a professional designer right off the bat is old school. It is also the easy way to do things for salaried employees who have no problem spending the company money... They wouldn't recommend this is it were out of their pocket. The people people who were so quick to recommend throwing away $1,000 ~ $2,000 were from an online professionals group! I'm surprised that anyone would suggest the old way without investigating the new and exciting things going on online. Try Logomyway.

http://www.logomyway.com/

I have no investment nor business relationship with Logomyway whatsoever but have used it twice  and recommended to three other people who have used it. Everyone has been more than thrilled with the results... One friend was so happy because the professional that he had hired before - and paid well - gave him designs that weren't that good... He was worried that he was going to be out another $1,000 when I introduced him to Logomyway... The result? He spent $200 and got a killer logo.

And, if you don't like any of the logos... You don't pay!

All hail the Internet!!!!

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Keywords:
Logo, Logomyway, SNS, Social Media, SMM, old media, Japan, Mixi, Internet, Facebook, Twitter, blog, online professionals, Marketing Online Professionals, YouTube, Online Marketing, Universal Vision, Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, U-Stream, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, 

Write Down Your Goals to Achieve Them!...

"Life is difficult as it is so let us be good to each other." - C.S. Lewis

Today, I'd like to take a moment to highly recommend a book that has helped me greatly since the first time I read it and that is Brian Tracy's Goals!

I write down my top 10 goals everyday! Inspired by the author of Goals! Brian Tracy (I also recommend another Tracy book, Focal Point)

In Goals! Tracy talks about how, if you are to succeed in life that you need to write down your goals in order to be able to achieve them. "Sure!" Everyone thinks this but I know few who actually do write them down. Trust that writing them down does help your sub-conscious to actually remember and activate your  brain to achieve the goals you set forth for yourself.

I write down my goals everyday in the morning when I wake up and, not only does doing so help me to achieve them, it also helps me to relax and stay much more focused. Who doesn't want to stay more focused in this day and age when our "in-box" includes, for most people, several e-mails accounts that are constantly filling up as the day goes by and consistently altering our priorities? Or an Internet world filled with Social Media like Facebook, Mixi (in Japan) and Linkedin accounts (among others) to attend? Twitter and Pick, are no longer for just sending messages to your friends, but they too, have been co-opted into the business world and your boss orders you to use them, or blogs and SNS, to get the company message out...

How in the world can anyone get ahead of the pile in the "in-box"?

The book promises that you will "Get everything you want, faster than you ever dreamed." Sounds like grandiose claims but let me point out that writing down your goals and purposes is like having a sort of road map to where you want to go. When you write them down, they enter your subconsciousness, they cause your inner brain to focus upon the Law of Attraction. If you do not write down where you want to go - if you do not have a map - then how will you know where you are going?

The publishers write:

Why do some people achieve all their goals while others simply dream of having a better life? Bestselling author Brian Tracy shows that the path from frustration to fulfillment has already been discovered. Hundreds of thousands--even millions--of men and women have started with nothing and achieved great success. Here Tracy presents the essential principles you need to know to make your dreams come true.

Tracy presents a simple, powerful, and effective system for setting and achieving goals--a method that has been used by more than one million people to achieve extraordinary things. In this revised and expanded second edition he has added three new chapters addressing areas in which goals can be most rewarding but also the toughest to set and keep: finances, family, and health.

Using the twenty-one strategies Tracy outlines, you'll be able to accomplish any goals you set for yourself--no matter how big. You'll discover how to determine your own strengths, what you truly value in life, and what you really want to accomplish in the years ahead. Tracy shows how to build your self-esteem and self-confidence, approach every problem or obstacle effectively, overcome difficulties, respond to challenges, and continue forward toward your goals, no matter what happens. Most importantly, you'll learn a system for achievement that you will use for the rest of your life.

One of my goals are to become a multi-millionaire. Laughable? Maybe. But at least I have a road map and I am consciously working on that everyday... 

And I really do have proof! I have evidence that Tracy's philosophy and ideas in Goals! work.  I have shown myself that actually writing down goals are critical to achieving them. And my proof stands in something that, for me, is much more important than the Rat Race and making money: it's being the best dad I can be. 

It used to be my #1 priority was, "To make $15,000 a month..." then, one day, when I got a flash of irritation at something my son did - then thought about that flash later on - I realized that the most important thing for me was not money. By far the most important thing for me was to be a great dad. 

Now my #1 priority goal that I write everyday is; "I am a kind, loving and patient father and husband today and everyday" (with today's date added).

Folks, trust me. This really works! Since starting this habit, I have caught myself several times with a flash of irritation at my son - that  before would have caused me to get angry or upset and maybe raise my voice - but since I started writing down everyday my goal of  being patient and kind, my mind recalls that goal immediately and has killed that flash of anger instantly its tracks. 

Why ruin what could be a good learning opportunity and great memory with an out burst of irritability? What for? Life is too short to be getting upset at the small stuff all the time. 

As the great writer C.S. Lewis wrote in Chronicles of Narnia, "Life is difficult as it is so let us be good to each other."

Try reading Brian Tracy's Goals! Write down your goals everyday. You'll be glad you did. 

(This article was inspired by a meeting I had with a most interesting fellow named Roger Marshall. Thank you, Roger!) 


Also read: 

Pocket Notebooks: The Secret of Millionaires and People Won't Listen! 


One Easy Step To Becoming a Better Parent and More Successful at Life 

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keywords: Pick, C.S. Lewis, Twitter, SNS, e-mail, Goals!, Blogs, blogging, Youtube, U-stream, Brian Tracy, Narnia, Facebook, Mixi, Linkedin, Japan, SNS, Internet, business, Japanese, priority, Social Media

Leftist Liberal Environmentalists; People Hate Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook? (Or Are they Closet Racists?) Is It Psychology 101 - FAIL!)

This is humorous on so many levels...


I received a reader's comment that claims to be from Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame. While I figure that it's a pretty good bet that Mark Zuckerberg doesn't read my blog, the contents of the letter show just how far some people will go to confuse the issues and fail to discuss facts... 

This place's sushi was $1.20 a plate today. When their sushi gets to $15 a plate... They'll probably go bankrupt and the fishers will stop fishing for them.... Simple example of the law of Supply and Demand...

In yesterday's blog post, I turned an discussion from a typical self-righteous LL environmentalist on its head when I seemingly agreed that the fish should be protected and the best way to do that would be to start killing off Americans. In  They Call Fish "Brain Food" Because it is Supposed to Make You Smarter. More Americans Need to Eat More Fish; Just How Stupid Can People Be? I wrote: 

"We need to start decimating the population of all people in order to protect the environment! I think we should start with everyone in the USA since they account for 5% of the (world) population and (use up) over 25% of the world's resources. Anyone agree?

…

Maybe if we killed only 1/2 the population of Americans, we could make a huge dent. Especially since the average American's caloric intake is 2 ~ 3 times that of a SE Asian's… I say there's no time to waste. We must act now before it's too late!"

I imagine that my comments were a surprise to many white bourgeoise readers of Facebook. Such a surprise that one of the peanut gallery took umbrage and tried to write an intelligent retort. 

Here's their message:


I'm Mark Zuckerberg, and I Like (tm) this post. Every time you go on Facebook and share these oh-so-interesting opinions, I make more money because I now have a more complete record of your life and how it relates to others than you do. And so does the NSA. But yeah, posting on blogger (a Google-owned service) about what you saw on Facebook is above and beyond, and I'm sure your readers will also be fascinated to read second hand what you are doing there. Thanks Mike! I'm going to buy a new hoodie with the money I just made off you.


Enjoy your hoodie. I hope the NSA enjoys my information too since I don't live in the USA... Gee, is the NSA keeping tabs now on every single person in the entire world? Good luck with that! Let me know how that turns out for you guys! Also, cute use of the trademark sign after "Like."

If this was an American who was upset because I made comments about how dumb some Americans are, then I can let them slide... This person would just be proving my point. 


Bet you half a donut, though, that this person is a LL environmentalist that doesn't want me pointing out the illogic and absurdity of their ideas that completely misunderstand the simple concept of "supply and demand" on Facebook to the rest of the peanut gallery... 


(I always chuckle how LL environmentalists, for example, use cartoons as "evidence" of environmental problems. Cartoons? Sure, comic books; that's the extent of their reading habits).


Actually, my friends, I hurl my disgust and complete disdain at this person's "intellectualist posing," as well as at their ignorance and racism. That's right. You read that clearly; ignorance and racism. These people really irk me as they sit in their suburban homes and make ill-considered comments in places like Facebook (or wherever) about how we have to protect the environment - as long as, of course, it doesn't inconvenience them!


Yeah... It is really worrisome about the depletion of the ocean fish population... Americans should be the first to call the clarion alarm! Why, as of 2009, 73% of the American population is over-weight or obese (It's gotten worse since then) and people in South East Asia are starving! Don't believe me? From Think Quest:


In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called "absolute poverty." 


I find it the height of self-righteous hypocrisy that any American could even bring up the subject.


But that they and other western white Liberals can bring up this idiotic trash doesn't surprise me. George Carling spoke about it years ago. He said, 

"I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists; these white bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides environmentalists don't give a shit about the planet; they don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't… You know what they are interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that someday in the future that they, personally, might be inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me..."

Instead of debating my comments on the face and value of them, the writer wants to make fun of me and insinuates that I am stupid because commenting about anything on Facebook allows Zuckerberg to make money off of me. 


Oh, really? I wonder how much Zuckerberg made off me while I was railing on Facebook and warning people not to buy it before IPO? (Here, here, here, here and here - and there's lots more!)

Now, I think Facebook sucks and is a money loser and waste of time and I write about it too... But at least I do that on this blog in the (most probably) vain hopes of getting more readers. But this person purporting to be Zuckerberg has actually written a "letter" and I can deduce that they want me to be confused as to their purpose.


I gather that the sender thinks that the receiver of such a message might get so mad that "Zuckerberg" sends a comment like this that they quit Facebook (or quit railing on dummies). Maybe they would. I have pointed out that there are a lot of stupid people running around.... So it might not be someone who hates Zuckerberg at all... It might be one of these dummies who I railed on in that blog post....


Well, it's impossible to quit being white; it's pretty tough to stop from suffering from "White Cultural Superiority Complex." Decades of conditioning aren't apt to change just from reading a few blog posts. And it's nearly impossible to quit being an American. It's difficult to quit being a Liberal or environmentalist because of government imposed public education that doesn't teach analytical thought process....


But you could quit being as dumb as most of these people by reading some books... 


Of course, not all Americans are stupid... Just most of them. I think that even intelligent Americans agree with me... The biggest problem is the really dumb Americans don't know (realize) who they are - how could they? They are too busy posting on Facebook and watching TV.

Destroying My Blog - I Don't Want to Be Dishonest Like Getty Images

The Internet was supposed to be this wonderful playground for us all to explore and make friends... But it isn't that at all. It's full of traps and minefields that one must be ever mindful of. If you blog, you must be particularly careful as, if your blog becomes popular (and that is the point of blogging, right?) then you will become a target.

Recently, I've destroyed my daily pages views numbers. A few weeks ago, I got a particularly nasty email from a lawyer representing Getty Images (insert booing here) who claims that they want to sue me for use of their images (well, no... That's not right. They want to sue me for use of one image). This is the trap.


Why is it a trap? Well, I guess I must be confused, but if you have something that you want protected, but you don't protect it, then you are negligent if someone else comes along, picks it up and borrows it. 


I certainly didn't steal it. They still have it to use as they wish.


Say you left a baseball bat on a baseball diamond and some kids came along and started using it... Then you come along and then you think you can claim that they owe you money for rental fee? Ha! 


If you go to Google image search and search for some particular picture (all blogs are nicer with pictures) then you will see lots of pictures that are watermarked, "Getty images" or the like. Many aren't. In fact, after I checked, you'll see the exact same images that have the Getty Watermark and some that don't.


Being stupid (or thinking like most people would think) then if they aren't watermarked, they aren't copyright protected. WRONG! You could get sued. As I was threatened with. I think that Getty's way of doing business is quite distasteful and disturbing (I can see them asking that you delete - but aggressively and threateningly - like Yakuza - screaming at you over the phone over court? And for one image on a freaking blog!???)

Two men playing Chinese Chess. This looks exactly like a Getty Image...

But it's not. I took it. Use it all you want!

So now there are no photos on this blog at all unless I or my wife or friends took them. No Getty Images at all... My company will never use Getty again and I will make sure our designers at the media and broadcasting section never do again either...


I think Getty is sneaky and dishonest... I do know that their way of doing business is very bad business and they are getting tons of complaints from people all over Japan. I don't like it. I especially don't like their lawyer (who talks with an Osaka Yakuza accent) screaming at my wife (who has no idea what they are talking about) over the phone. Sure, it's nice that someone is out protecting the rights of artists (well, hell, they're getting paid to do so)... But the tactics are deplorable.


Getty Images in Japan is run by a bunch of a*sholes... Poor public image will ultimately result in very bad business. You'll see, Getty. (Here is the horrifying story of someone who has dealt with this in Japan. Use Google translate: http://blog.livedoor.jp/kiku0319/archives/4314460.html)


That also means that if you see an image you like on this blog, then use it as you wish. Just call it my little war with Getty. Over time, I will have thousands of images (and I hope that you will do the same if you are a blogger) that people can use freely as they wish.

Businessmen at Tokyo intersection at lunchtime (use this photo free!)

Blogs need photos. It's no big deal to take your own as I do from now on. Please use any images on this blog as you wish.


This has also caused me to go through this entire blog and delete every single photo that I didn't take (and even some that I did because I wasn't sure)... That means the cheesecake photos of the sexy Japanese girls won't be appearing anymore.


And that brings me to the next part of this missive; I've written many times that this blog is an exercise and study in how the Internet and Google search works. I've pretty much figured most of it out until Google comes out with a new algorithm for its search engine.


And that's where I've destroyed my blog page views!


They say that 70% of all Internet users are guys. They also say that 70% of all Internet surfers surf porn. Well my research bears this out!


Before the hassle with the photo Nazi's at Getty Images (insert booing here) this blog consistently rated between 7,000 ~ 9,000 page views a day, every day. Now after deleting all the photos of sexy girls, as well as a few hundred others, where do we stand?


I'm down to about 2,000 a day... (But the number has been steadily rising these last 2 weeks.)


That's OK, though. This blog is about Japan, marketing and the media.... Guys sitting at their computer and looking at hot girls and masturbating are not exactly my target audience...


I mean, I don't look at this particular blog for that, I don't expect that my readers do either.


I've also found out how to turbo and "double" my page views simply by using a different format for the blog, but I find that sneaky and dishonest too. That's why I am now back to the old format (sort of) that I used for the first 1.5 years of this blog's existence.


Sexy Japanese girls photos and others do not exist on this blog site anymore. I do not use sneaky blog templates that double or triple my page views. I've bled lots of page views (readers?) because guys don't come here to masturbate to photos anymore.

Unless, of course, you like long, hard things like subway trains in tunnels (use this photo free!)

Making a blog and using tools to drive people outside of my target audience to this site is dishonest and sneaky.


I don't want to be dishonest and sneaky. I don't want to be like Getty Images. I don't need people masturbating to the images on this site.


If my writing can't make them feel good or feel like masturbating, then maybe my writing isn't good enough for 9,000 readers a day. That's OK. 


At least it's honest.

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Read the follow up to this article: Why Getty Images Cannot Sue You For Damages in Japanese Court and Win; Why Japan Doesn't Allow For Damages Claims in Court  

Woman Kills Polar Bear Hunting Then Posts Photos and Story on Internet - Big Game Hunting Woman a Public Relations Nightmare?

UPDATE BELOW


A good company and public image is so very important. Here's a true story that's going on right now. 

But first, since this blog is often about marketing, imagine this with me, if you will:

Imagine if you ran a world-famous company. Imagine that your company is deeply concerned about so-called "Corporate Social Responsibility." Imagine if your company makes an effort to be genuinely concerned about protecting the environment... I'm not talking about Global Warming; I'm talking about a genuine concern for not polluting the air, lakes, oceans, and keeping our world cleaner and nicer for our children and our children's children.

Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Imagine then, if you had an employee (or executive) who was a big game hunter and killed an endangered species of animal and then posted it all over the Internet. 

I think I might be a tad bit upset and wonder about that employee's lack of common sense.

My Japanese wife saw this picture and heard the entire story. 

Her reaction? "Is this woman dumb?"

Well that's what happened and it is just now, as you read, becoming a topic on Facebook.


Her name is Michele Leqve. I name her publicly as she is a already a public figure and has announced on the Internet through her Facebook community, and with articles she writes - that include photos - of the animals she kills on her hunts. 


Here is public information about her hobby on a site called, Women Hunters - For Women, About Women, By Women:

Michele Leqve has only been bow hunting for the past 11 years, and in that time, she has taken many, big game animals and has 9 different species!...

...To date, Michele has hunted for 10 North American Big Game species which include: Elk, Antelope, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Coues Deer, Black Bear, Polar Bear, Quebec Labrador Caribou, Central Canadian Caribou and Woodland Caribou (this does not include any of the African species she has hunted.) 

Think she could ever get or keep a job at Disney? No? 

How about other companies that serve all ages and groups? 

Unfortunately, for her and her company, besides showing photos that are sure to upset a lot of people, Michele names her employer on Linkedin! I can bet that this might become a nightmare for that company. The noise is brewing and building up over at Facebook. 

Now, I have no problem with hunting. I did it when I was a kid. But we always ate what we hunted. I do though have a bit of a problem believing that this white woman eats the polar bear she hunts. If she were an eskimo then maybe. Someone correct me if I have a double standard here.

You know this lady would hunt elephant or Rhino if it were legal.  

Why is this woman's "hobby" a possible public relations nightmare? Well, check this out the chatter that is starting on Facebook:

This is Michelle Leqve an air hostess, who judging by the amount of self publicity is relishing her new found notoriety and proud achievement of being one of the first women to slaughter a polar bear with a High Powered Bow and a lot of help from dogs.

The exhausted Polar Bear was chased across Miles of open snow and finally brought to Bay by a team of Husky’s on her hunting trip to Canada.

According to Michelle’s own Publicity and testimony she loves animals but unfortunately this alone was not enough to save the Polar Bear so she decided instead to shoot a number of arrows into his body, While the Bear was trying to fend off the dogs.

The Polar Bear Died amidst the onslaught and is now a stuffed exhibit in a Sport shop in Canada

Canada is the only country in the world to legally allow Trophy Hunting of Polar Bears.

The Facebook poster who uploaded this picture and comment has asked that people complain and raise hell about this woman. There is also a listing of how to complain to her employer. 


There's all sorts of things people do that some people don't like. People can do as they please, I believe... (I have a problem with killing endangered species, though...) But this post is not about personal freedoms or the rights of humans. It is about corporate public image, stupidity and the sh*t storm that follows when someone puts photos like this up on public forums like Facebook. This is like those fools who take videos of themselves doing 250 mph in their cars then load it up to Youtube then get upset when they get arrested later on.


If I were her employer, I would certainly demand that she cease placing photos like this on the internet and making this "hobby" public domain - or at least demand that she have enough brains to not list me as her employer...


Yes, dear, this woman is dumb to place photos like this on the Internet.


Like I said, I can imagine that this could become a public relations nightmare for her company which is probably one of the biggest and most famous companies in America!


So, her employer does a great job upping their public image... Michelle then posts photos on the Internet that are sure to piss off the masses. Her employer is a good company I wonder how such as person like Michelle who shows zero common sense ever got a job there?


I just wrote yesterday how people need to do more to protect their privacy. That this woman would place photos like this on the Internet, just shows, to me, a total lack or common sense. And why brag to people she doesn't even know at Facebook?


There's a heck of a lot more people reading about this over at Facebook than read this blog! If I were her employer, I'd be furious. I wonder how this is going to turn out? If you were PR director of her company, how would you handle this?


UPDATE: I mentioned the dummies who take videos of themselves speeding then posting on Youtube? What timing! I just saw this right now:

YouTube Ferrari driver faces speeding charges

A doctor in Japan has landed himself in trouble with the police after posting footage of his drive in a Ferrari sports car on YouTube. He is facing charges of exceeding the speed limit after the footage showed him driving at 124km/h (77mph) in a 40km/h zone, police say. The 50-year-old doctor, from Okawa in Fukuoka Prefecture, was reported to police by angry YouTube users. He reportedly said he "wanted people to understand the beauty of a Ferrari". (BBC)

UPDATE 2: The timing couldn't be better. Now, just four days after I wrote this article criticizing this woman's judgement and common sense for placing photos of herself with a polar bear she killed on the Internet, here's a scandal about the Trump boys doing the exact same thing that I wrote about. If this doesn't prove that my point is 100% correct, I don't know what does! 

Yahoo! reports in: Donald Trump’s sons criticized after brutal hunting photos released

At least Donald Trump's sons don't have to worry what employer's think.

Giving Away Things For Free is the Best Promotion and a Key to Making Money

Yesterday, I went to the barber for my once-every-six-months haircut. As I was talking to the girl who cut my hair, I was amazed that here was this 25-year-old woman, cutting hair, who understood more about the Internet and the new media than 90% of the company executives - especially at big media - that I meet. Perhaps it is because she was young that she can easily grasp simple concepts.

The first simple concept is that giving things away for free is the future of marketing and advertising. We see successful companies and people around us doing that all the time, but far too many organizations cannot make the logical connection in their heads and make the jump to that end in order to help their own company.


Giving away useful items or content for free is the best (and cheapest) form of promotion you could possibly get. When she had finished cutting my hair she gave me a freebie. It was a plastic business card carrying case that had her hair salons name imprinted on the top. Every time during the day that I give out a business card I see that name. Now, many people would think, "I wouldn't be caught dead with a plastic business card holder that had some other company name on it!" But not me. I find it wonderfully useful and smart.

Simple, cheap, effective. I look at it several times a day.

I went to a meeting at a huge television content, DVD sales, marketing and distribution company yesterday. I showed it to them. They were marveled at the simplicity and low-cost (and effectiveness) of this promotional concept (I mean, once I explained the logic).


Most company executives cannot get their heads around the concept of giving things away for free in order to make more money. But think about what I have always said, "Google is one of the most profitable companies in the entire world today and they give away everything for free! Now, how do they do that?"


Google is one of the most profitable companies in the world, right? So why don't you and your company emulate them?


I often go to TV stations (alas, they are all sinking ships!) and ask them why they don't monetize their web pages. Every single major broadcasting station in Japan still has a web page that looks like it was designed in 1999; it is just a digitized company brochure.


I have to explain to them the concept of Web 1.0: Digital brochure; Web 2.0 using blogging and two-way communication with bloggers and users; Web 3.0 user generated content like Facebook or Twitter.


Web 1.0 was popular between 1999~2003. From 2003, smart companies started instituting Web 2.0. From 2005~2006 very smart companies started instituting Web 3.0.


Today's major broadcasters in Japan? ALL of them are still using Web 1.0 concepts. They are losing money on their web pages. Seriously, it's all I can do to stop crying (or laughing).


Think about that Google quote again, folks; "Google is one of the most profitable companies in the entire world today and they give away everything for free!" Can you imagine for a second the massive advantage a TV station in Japan has over Google? Google didn't have a broadcasting arm that they can use that is already in the homes of over 130,000,000 people! The TV stations did! They do! But they don't use that to their advantage!


It is even more ridiculous when you consider that the initial phase of designing something like the basic Twitter platform probably cost in the neighborhood of $150,000 ~ $200,000 (USD) but to make and produce a 30 minute TV show for 6 months costs about $400,000! 


It is even more ridiculous when you realize that almost every old TV station  person you talk to thinks that if they give away free content on their webpage, no one will watch their TV shows anymore. Talk about not seeing the forest because of the trees! What in the hell are these TV people thinking about?


The real question could be, "Do these mass media people really understand the market as much as they like to claim they do?" I don't think so.


Here's a good example of a TV station (in the USA of course) that understands what I'm talking about and now 1/3 of their profits are derived from the Internet: http://espn.go.com/


The major broadcasters and media in Japan refuse to entertain the idea that their web pages can become a profit vehicle. They know their businesses are dying but they insist that, "We are a TV station" or "We are a magazine"... Why don't they realize that they are "media" and "consultation" to provide sponsors what the sponsors want to buy?


When, oh when, will these people open their eyes?


But I digress....


The other interesting thing this hair-stylist told me about was that she and her friends have come to stop looking at the very top results of a Google search. Why? Because everyone and their sister have figured out it's a paid advertisement at the top that's been highlighted and no one believes in paid advertising anymore!


I thought that was very telling about the way young people think and perceive. It was the same for us long ago with the Yellow Pages, right (remember them)? We knew that the paid ads were not from the best services or products but from the ones that had big budgets. Everyone knows that big budgets do not necessarily equal good products... Just look at General Motors cars for evidence of that!


As an aside, here's a funny example. Below is a screen capture of a Google search for "London Flight":

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

At the top of the page you'll see a paid ad for British Airways, Air France and Lufthansa. These paid ads cost about $15,000 (USD) a month (maybe more) average. British Airways pays more as they are at the top. Everyone who sees this page knows that those top three are not the cheapest, nor necessarily the best flights or deals... In fact, since they are paid ads, they are viewed with, for lack of a better term, suspicion by most people. People have become smart enough and sophisticated enough in 2012 to recognize that those top three are paid advertising. People today, no longer look at those. They will look lower down the page, to the top 5 or so after the paid ads.

In this case, who do we see? www.cheapflights.co.uk. Guess what? Cheap flights shows me that they are most probably the cheapest and best deal: they didn't spend a penny to get the true #1 rankings on a Google search! I won't tell you how they do this (I know - and you can find that information in this blog in many places as I have written about it extensively before)... But you can bet that a company, like British Airways that is spending, in Japan alone, a few hundred thousand dollars on this sort of advertising cannot be cheap (nor smart?)....

Oh, but you say, "What about people who want better service or flights?" Folks, don't misunderstand. I'd wager a donut that cheap flights also offers those and I'd like to point out that British Airways does not need to advertise to their existing customer base. Advertising to a new customer base and getting new customer is the Holy Grail and entire point of advertising.

Bad marketing campaign's don't only happen in real world

Oh, but I've gotten off the point here again. The point is giving things away for free in order to get new customers. Think about that. How many, especially Internet, companies offer free services then, once someone likes the product or service, the upgrade costs a bit of money and membership?

Aha! Those are everywhere! That's right. Google does that; Linkedin does that; there are too many to name.

Find a way, THINK of a way to give away free content and product or service in order to gain new customers. Actually make an effort with your team in doing that today! Get out of the old fashioned mold and the old fashioned way of doing things.

Find that FREE! and you might be finding a goldmine! 

Thanks to Ed Jones for the FREE blazing sun red with glitter Gibson air guitar! I will always cherish it, Ed!

Reasons Why I Don't Believe in it Anymore - Be Skeptical of Everything You Hear

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan (1986)

I don't believe anything I see or hear on TV or radio and read in magazines anymore. Thirty plus years in mass media will make anyone very jaded and skeptical of everything coming out of the mouths of newscasters, scientists and politicians.

You wouldn't know it to read what I write about these days, but when I was a university student, I was pretty much a hard-core socialist, perhaps even a communist. Many people today are that way too but they don't like to use those words. Many people have been confused from decades of government run schooling.

I used to think - and I was taught in school - that the government is benevolent and needs to provide for people because the people are too useless and stupid to provide for themselves. That the people are stupid and useless is a pretty solid argument. But as I grew older, I began to learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch and for the government to take care of someone means that they are taking money from someone else.

You cannot keep taking money from the productive part of society and keep giving it to the unproductive part of society. We've been doing this for decades and not that's how we've gotten ourselves into the financial mess we're currently in.

Yep. Learn to live with it... Or marry a rich guy or girl.

For example, the idea that the government should provide medical care, retirement care, or a so-called "free" education to everyone was some of the ideas that I believed were the duty of government. I believed those ideas because I went to government run public schooling. Of course, in government run schools, they will teach you that government run schooling is the best. That's what government's do. Is there a government in the world today that tells their public, "We are not the best government for you. Vote for another party!"

I clearly remember my 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Demuth sitting us in class and saying, "The United States has the best and the freest government in the world. And the proof of that is that we have had the same government for 200 years." That, my friends, isn't true. We've had the same political system for 200 years, but not the same government for 200 years. If longest running means that it is the best (typical American exceptionalism type of twisted thinking and logic) then I don't think America even comes close. The longest running government in the history of the world is probably Mao's China. Can anyone verify that for me? Not that it matters.

Cooler than any US president. How many of them can say "Warhol did me"? 

I knew, even then, that what my teachers were telling me wasn't true. That's one reason why I don't carte blanche believe anything that teachers say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

Then, in high school, I was president of the Science Class. We were told that the entire world was heading into a new Ice Age. Scientists were absolutely sure about that one too. There were even some scientists who said that we should put ash and salt on the polar ice caps to melt them so that would warm up the earth. That was 1975. I even wrote a 140 page thesis on it for my senior year. I was proud of that paper. But guess what? Even though the scare last a few more years, the Ice Age never happened. I became skeptical of science.

I became a devout disbeliever when, not trusting the media I worked in, I studied the subject. This from the Business and Media Institute of America:

"Many publications now claiming the world is on the brink of a global warming disaster said the same about an impending ice age – just 30 years ago. Several major ones, including The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek, have reported on three or even four different climate shifts since 1895."

Yes. Big disasters sell advertising space and create revenues. Follow the money if you are ever wondering about the validity of anything you are told on the mass media.

I makes sense when you think about it; they can't even predict next week's weather with better than a 50% chance of accuracy, what kind of fool thinks they can predict the weather 50 years from now?

A few years later, I became old enough to vote. The very first time I had the chance to vote for president. I voted for Jimmy Carter because I didn't want war. Carter won the first time. I was happy. Then, during his tenure, inflation hit 22% and I was a university student. I realized that, at that rate, there would be no jobs even if I did graduate. Then when it seemed like he would lose re-election to Ronald Reagan, he committed a crime by sending the military into Iran to try to rescue hostages. The mission was called Operation Eagle Claw. It was a disaster. Two of the helicopters crashed into each other and eight US servicemen died. The mission was called off.


This was the guy I voted for!? I voted for him because I didn't want war yet he was sending our military in on military adventures in countries that we weren't at war with? I have never voted again, even once, since then.

Political hypocrites! That's one more reason why I don't believe anything that politicians say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

After that I worked for a Republican congressman from California named Bob Largomarsino. I was his chief staff cameraman. Congressman Bob was a nice guy. I travelled around with him and took photos of him visiting old folk's homes and shaking hands with people or going to lunch with other people. In the two years I worked for him, I never once took any photos of him actually doing an work besides schmoozing people. Then Reagan invaded Grenada.

This photo was congressman Bob's favorite. Him sitting between Reagan and Bush I.

This photo hung in his office. I didn't take this one.

They said they were invading Grenada because US students were being held hostage. We'd find out later that this wasn't true at all and many nations, including our allies like Britain were angry and upset about the USA breaking international law.

"What's the land of the free doing invading tiny Caribbean nations?" I thought. That was one more reason why I don't believe anything that politicians say and am very skeptical about their pronouncements.

The litany of being told one thing but later on finding out that the facts are different from what we were told is long. I could never name them all. Rick Gee had a good short list of government lies: 

• Woodrow Wilson: won reelection with the prevaricating slogan, "He kept us out of the war." (Well, at least he did until after the election. Typical politician).
• Bush I: "Read my lips: no new taxes." (Well, maybe just a few).
• Ronald Reagan: knew nothing of the Iran-Contra shenanigans. (The Teflon President, indeed).
• Bill Clinton: "I experimented with marijuana a time or two and I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale and never tried it again." (Do you know anyone who tried it but didn’t like it?)
• Bill Clinton: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." ("Hey, I just sat there; she did all the relating herself.")
• Vince Foster committed suicide (how convenient).
• Richard Nixon: "I am not a crook." ("I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.")
• Marijuana has no medicinal benefits. (Tell Peter McWilliams’ survivors that).
• Children are being molested in a compound in Waco (to protect them, we must kill them).
• "Let’s Roll." Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania because heroic passengers thwarted the hijackers. (That the U.S. Air Force shot down Flight 93 seems far more likely).
• Bush II: We must take the war on terrorism to Afghanistan because the Taliban are harboring Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks (never mind that the U.S. government had already planned to invade Afghanistan long before 9/11).

There's all sorts of others too (for too many to name) but another short list: Flouride in the water is good for you; the IPCC (a government agency by the way) says there is a "consensus on Global Warming" but there isn't at all; Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons; the USA is spreading democracy; we are the "good guys;" the Japanese government saying that there was no problem at Fukushima; being the news director of a major Japanese broadcasting station and telling people that SARS, Bird flu and Swine flu were going to kill well over 250 million people worldwide (in total, until today, the three of them together have killed less than 300 people) the list goes on and on... 

These are all the million and one reasons why I am very skeptical about the pronouncements of teachers, scientists and politicians. 

Photoshop did wonders for the Man Made Global Warming movement...

That's why whenever I hear some politician say that they need to tax us to "help the children" or "save the environment" or "stop global climate change;" whenever I hear that we must go to war to stop some country from harming their people (as if bombing those same people is helpful) or that, in the worse case of an Orwellian nightmare, that "We must go to war in order to have peace" I am very skeptical.

I think, in this modern age, we need, we must to have a very strong and healthy skepticism about anything we hear, see or read on the mass media and that includes the Internet.

To do otherwise is to be foolish and completely ignore the historical record.