Where Have I Been on My Blog?

Axel, a regular reader wrote in and complained to me. He wrote: "Why has this column/blog recently morphed into a self-help book? What happened to astute and witty observations on life in Japan?"

Axel is completely right. (Not so sure about the "... astute and witty observations on life in Japan?" part... But he's right about the rest!)

My excuse: Starting in April, I became the producer, director, engineer, writer, song selector, news person and promoter of a new radio program. I am doing the job of 4 people (at the pay of one). The show is called, "WTF?" ("What the Friday" and it is on 761. InterFM): 
http://www.interfm.co.jp/wtf/index.php?mode=fri&id=32

I'm not complaining (too much).

The radio station seems not too interested in promoting our show so I have taken that responsibility by myself completely. So now I do the job of 5 people for that show.

The job that takes the most of my time is promotion. The show is an unheard of 5 hours long live show on Fridays. This is a problem for promotion. The reason being is that if you want people to look forward to a show that is only on once a week, you'd better stick in their minds for the other six days a week.

This is the reason I have not found the time to blog too much. Axel, my friend, the self-help posts are recycled old material.

I spend at least at least two to three hours a day, everyday, writing information and interesting things for our "WTF?" Facebook page. This is the way, I think, that people can "stay with us" everyday of the week and I can ready them and get them to remember and look forward to our Friday show.... 

Frankly speaking, it is exhausting. I never consistently spent two hours a day on my blog! Let me tell you that this is hard work! Not only do I have to think up, research and write good content, I must write it in English and Japanese (I speak and write Japanese but am not a native-speaker so I make many mistakes!)

By starting this Facebook promotion, though, I began to get very interested in seeing what kind of posts draw huge numbers of reactions and views and what posts do not. This is incredibly valuable information that cannot be found in books, they can only be found by experience.

I have to say that I've learned a lot in just 10 weeks. I also have to say that blogging and my past experience with SEO work helped me greatly in figuring out the fast track way to do this.

The results? They are awesome! In less than ten weeks, our WTF? Facebook fan page has garnered over 2000 "Likes." (We average well over "15,000 People Reached" daily!) This is incredible when you consider that the station's Facebook page is nearly 4 years old and they have about 9,700 Likes. 

So a show that is on for 5 hours, once a week, garners over 2000 Likes in 10 weeks while a station that is on 24/7 and has a Facebook page for over 4 years "only" has 9,700? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this is an awe-inspiring feat. I thank our listeners and fans...

Yet, people need to be motivated to click. I want my WTF? Facebook page to give everyone something to look at and think, "That's interesting" or "That's funny" if even for just one minute a day. It keeps us fresh in the minds of the people. I want us to be what the daily newspaper was for me when I was a kid: I didn't read the newspaper my dad got; I only looked forward to reading the comics everyday - if even for only one minute. It was just one more small thing, if for only one minute, to look forward to everyday!

Everyone needs something to look forward to! 

That's what I want the WTF? FB page to be for you, our fans and everyone else; just one small fun thing to look forward to everyday of the week!

So it's the WTF? Facebook page, my other job at the research company (we just had a shareholders revolt and they fired the CEO!) and my bad habit of drinking too much that just, pardon my French, mind-f*ck me so much that I haven't the time nor energy to get back to serious commentary and blogging.

But I will very soon, Axel. I promise. 

If anyone would like to help me out by "Liking" our WTF? FB page, I'd sure appreciate it. We also, by the way, ran a charity for Children With Incurable Diseases and the FB page was a great help in promotion. Please help us out and "Like" our page! Please! https://www.facebook.com/WhattheFriday

We ran a promotion to help the "Children With Incurable Diseases" Charity and was rewarded with a huge write up in the Asahi Newspaper earlier this month. The Asahi morning news has over 8 million newspapers delivered everyday... Not bad promotion, I'd say!

Internet Funnel for Japan

I've come up with new terminology that will help people in Japan to understand why their .com domains are inefficient and not suitable for Japan. That term is "Internet Funnel" (for Japan).

An Internet Funnel is the solution to foreign-base companies that are trying to do business in Japan but using a centrally run web domain such as a .com domain. A .com domain with a sub-folder for Japan is a very poor way to run a business here.

Almost every travel and airlines related URL in Japan is 6 years behind the curve. The biggest problems I have seen are that the URLs are sub-domains run from the overseas head office. Considering that Japan is the second biggest market in the entire world, it is curious that the central offices would think that a centrally-run web page would be sufficient for the needs of the Japanese and for penetration into the Japanese market.

Why? Because Google and Yahoo search engines in Japan are geared to give priority to local domains. Of course. Isn't that obvious?

Google and Yahoo need for their .jp sites to be successful. They are in a competition for market share just like any other company. Not only do they wish to give many  results in a search, but as competition gets tougher, they need to give QUALITY results on a search. This also means that, to do so, they need to support the local businesses in turn. So, a search engine in Japan will give priority to a .jp or a .co.jp site. A .com/japan site will be given a very low priority on a search...

When you realize that this is how it works, you wonder why home office will want to spend huge amounts of money for a site that gives poor results.

There are other problems with a .com domain. For example, consider this; Japanese kanji are two bits. The English alphabet is one bit. So, a search engine that is designed for the west - say, mikerogers.com/japan - even with Japanese kanji inserted in the SEO - will often return "noise" if a Japanese person searches for, say, "travel in Europe" when they write down the search in Japanese kanji... I'll try it for you here： 海外旅行... A computer not configured for Japanese will return this as junk. It might look like Hieroglyphics.

The answer is to create an "Internet Funnel" using a .jp link to lay next to, or on top of, the current .com domain and act as a net or a funnel to bring in the Japanese traffic. The funnel is completely set-up in Japanese with Japanese SEO and key words. It is for Japan only. It's a simple concept that works every time.

So, for example, my USA company URL in Japan may be: www.myUSAcompany.com/japan. This puts my company URL in a sub folder so google.jp searches will not prioritize searches for me.... This hurts my business.

But! If I create a www.myUSAcompany.jp as a funnel, it captures all Japanese traffic for me first, then directs to my .com. This increases my rating; and I don't have to touch my basic .com site at all... The www.myUSAcompany.jp funnels all local traffic to my main domain and then a click of a button delivers my traffic to the home base. Simple and deadly efficient.

If you are running a .com domain with a /japan sub-folder - or a sub-folder set-up like this in any other country of the world - save your job by getting the local areas to set-up a local funnel for your company immediately. If you don't do this quickly, someone else is soon to point this out to your boss and you will be out of a job.

Be smart and set up a localized funnel now. It's dirt cheap and you can get the results and sales you need. The local markets can mirror your main domain and everyone is happy. You get the results you need.

This is so obvious that it is painful. So, why aren't more companies instituting this simple fix? Good question.

More on kick-starting your SEO and blogging next time.

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Keywords:

Internet Funnel, SEO, blogging, airlines, travel, sub-domain, sub-folder, google, Yahoo, search engines

Marketing, Internet, SEO & SEM Experts? and CEOs? Charlatans Everywhere!

If you were to judge the amount of Tweets you get from people who claim to be Marketing, Internet, SEO and SEM experts or CEO's, you'd think the US economy was booming. Jobs galore. But it would all be just an illusion.

I often get Tweets from people who claim to be "Internet Marketing Experts" or "SEO Marketing Experts..." I wonder by what measure they use to give themselves this sort of classification? 

JERRY LEE LEWIS - YOUR CHEATIN' HEART

The ones that immediately raise red flags for me are the ones who claim to be "CEO" of some company yet, judging by their photo, they don't look to be much older than 25 or 30.

I've never met any good CEO's who were under 35-years-old. I'm not saying they don't exist, but the big guns and real players are not 30-year-old CEO's of little companies with classification of LLP, LLC or family organizations.

Those are the sorts of titles I hate. Why even bother with the title of CEO?  I mean, who are they trying to impress? Other clueless people? Clueless people usually haven't much money. Why impress them? 

What's the point of being a CEO of a dinky company that has one or two employees? Bragging about it is even more embarrassing. If you do that, stop... It might be OK for picking up some witless boyfriend or girlfriend, but for picking up any investment, it is a detriment.

It certainly isn't any credit to your worth or credibility.

Would you buy a used car from this man? How 

about letting him set up your company SEO?

Do these people use the CEO title because they think they can fool someone into investing into their little company or throwing a big contract at them? Maybe. But I don't think that will work.

"Fools and their money are soon parted"... Most rich people are not fools. That's why they are rich.

I haven't really noticed any serious CEO's using Facebook or Twitter too often. I suppose they do, but not too much. I do know that, and I won't say his name, the CEO of AirAsia X uses Facebook. We became friends that way... And I did arrange a few promotions for them in Japan because of it...

But I think he is the exception to the rule.

I don't think most CEO's have time to bother with this Social Media stuff. The CEO's I know avoid this, if they can, and I know from experience that they try to avoid even looking at their email if at all possible.... Spending time on Facebook and Twitter?! I don't think so. 

I get these invitations for Twitter and such, and, if the photo looks like a young guy and his title says "CEO" or "SEO expert" I know it's BS.... But I'm a nice guy, I friend them anyway... It's just quicker that way and I don't have to think about it for more than a second. Friending them takes one click. Deleting them takes two clicks. Friending them is faster. 

I check their photo and go to their Twitter page. If I don't see at least a blog or a company page, then I know they are bullsh*tters. That's OK. Everyone needs to start somewhere... Maybe they will learn some useful lessons along the way. I certainly have.

One of the big lessons I learned was not creating idiotic titles like CEO for myself when there are only one or two employees at my company in order to impress people I don't even know. Impressing people who haven't a clue is a waste of time... People who do have a clue will know it's BS, so it is actually self-defeating to do so.

Here's a good test for you. I never claim that I am an "SEO or "Internet expert" yet go to Google Search and search the words, "Japan China." You will get 1 billion 380 million results. On page one of search results you will also see two articles that I wrote. See here: http://bit.ly/rjaMbu

Even with that, I do not claim to be an SEO expert. 

If you are a customer, and the guy is telling to you to give him him your business because he is an "SEO expert" then give him this test:

1) Do they blog? If so, check their blog and see when they started. 


Blogging for six months is nothing to brag about. That's not even a rookie. Search some generic titles and see if you can find any results where they show up at the top of the list (and, no, I don't mean specific searches for the exact title of that particular blog post. I mean, if they write an article about, say, "Sicily pizza"... Search "pizza" or "Sicily" and see if you can find their article on the first few pages of results. If they are hot at SEO, you should be able to).

1a) If they do blog, check to see if they post everyday. Posting everyday for at least a year shows dedication and resolve (and that they are crazy). If they don't do that, or haven't, then they are poseurs and not players or, at best, students of the game.

2) Go look at their Facebook or Twitter account. Check the dates when they began. Is there a corporate page for this person's company? If not, forget it.     

On the other hand, If you are one of the many who are guilty of making these wild claims on expertise or being a "pro", then I suggest you stop. There are far too many charlatans running around as it is. If you get the label "charlatan" it will be quite hard to shake. 

Building trust and a good reputation takes a long time... It isn't made in an instant by creating a Twitter account and claiming, on the spot, that you are an expert. As former Soviet president Michale Gorbachev once said, "A lie told even ten thousands times never becomes the truth."

Stop claiming that you are "Internet savvy" if you are not. Just being able to do Internet searches or use G-mail does not make one internet savvy. Stop claiming you are a "CEO" unless you have a company that has at least, say, ten employees minimum...

And stop claiming that you are an "SEO expert" if you are not. It's easy to find out if it is all BS or not. You make the rest of us poseurs look bad....

You can become these "expert" things but just saying that you are or reading one book doesn't make you one. It will take a few years of effort and study.

The fastest and simplest way? Start a blog and start writing. Do that everyday, religiously. Use Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic to your posts. Write everyday religiously. Before, bowing to the east every morning, blog... Blog before that and after that... 


And blog before and after that!  


Study why some articles get many reads and why others don't. Practice and rearrange...

It will take you between one to two years to get a basic understanding of how it works and how to jolt your writing and titles to get high SEO results.

It's a close guarded secret by those who do know how to do it..

This stuff isn't written in a book. You only learn through sincere and dedicated effort. 


A jawbone is never a replacement for a backbone. Get started.

More Tips For Better Google Rankings!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Once again, here's an article that can help you get better rankings on Google. I've written about that before here also. And here is information concerning the value of consistent blogging. 

There is also very critical information that you need to know here about Google Caffeine here. Caffeine is Google's new search engine.

But today, here's another quickie that can help you with your blog writing. Originally from American Express, the 4 tips for writing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly blogs.

The 4 tips are:

1. Always Include Search Terms in Your Post’s Title

When Google reads a website to index it, it reads the code directly, not the snazzy presentation that humans see. The way most blogging platforms are built, the headline or title of your blog post is among the first things Google sees, and Google generally assumes the words that appear earliest are the most important. That’s why the title is the most important part of your blog post when it comes to SEO.

2. Link Important Words to Earlier Blog Posts

Search engines generally assume that a blog post that has been linked to has more authority than one that has not. They also consider exactly what word or phrase linked to the post; a blog post about the iPhoneis going to be more likely to show up in Google searches on the subject if another page links the word “iPhone” to the post.

3. Hit the Tagging Sweet Spot

Most blogging platforms let you apply tags to your posts. Tags help organize your blog so both humans and search engines can find what they’re looking for. They’re terms like “consulting,” “local” or “technology” that reflect the topics and content of the post.

4. Use Google Insights to Find the Best Search Terms

You don’t have to play a guessing game about the best tags or search terms to link or put in your post’s title. Since Google is the most popular search engine, it makes sense to focus your efforts there. Whenever you’re not sure which terms to go with, hit up Google Insights, a web-based tool that compares the popularity of any search terms you want to know about.

For further details nd complete article see here.  

http://mashable.com/2010/09/01/how-to-seo-blogs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+Mashable+(Mashable

Airplane 4! Adventures of .com Domain with .jp Sub-Folder Fools in Japan.....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I am often simply astounded by the foolishness of companies from the west that come to Japan and think that they can control what is going on here from 6,000 miles away.

As is well-known, "Japan is a different animal altogether." What I'm talking about is how many companies have .com domains that they use for Japan and add a /jp subfolder.

I could give you a litany of examples of foolish companies that do so, there's hundreds of them in Japan. Why do they do this? It defies theory, logic, simple math and common sense... (It also completely ignores what other companies are doing and doing so well as is shown by a simple comparison of competitors on a Google search).

I wonder if the supposed "experts" on the Internet running these .com domains back in the States or Europe bother to read what Google has on their blog everyday. It seems that they don't. You'd think that they'd keep up with the latest information, but, alas, I guess not.

I found this mistake in execution the other day on a very famous airlines web site in Japan and pointed it out to their Japanese staff, who, in a flabbergasted fashion, threw their arms in the air, shrugged their shoulders and said, "We know. But HQ won't even discuss changing it."

Well, I see a problem on two sides here. One, is an HQ that is not keeping up on current information and may have a control-freak problem and the second is a Japanese staff who do not have the desire and drive to succeed enough to study up on the problem and the balls to stand up and explain such a vitally important problem to the HQ. (But, to cut the Japanese staff some slack, perhaps this is a problem of company culture). How could anyone, if they understood the problem, not be able to explain to HQ why a .jp or .co.jp site is critical to success in Japan is beyond me. It is so very simple.

I mean, seriously, whatever side you look at it from, what's the point of having boots on the ground in a local area of they do not, or cannot, report faithfully the facts on the ground to HQ?

I've heard this same sort of thing before from other airlines, "Oh, HQ absolutely won't do it...." But when we took the time to explain it to the in-charge here in Japan, and they expressed an intense interest in understanding why, once they understood then they had the guts to demand an audience with HQ...

Guess what? Those companies do have domestic domains now.

Just two of the big names include:

* Virgin Airlines (no surprise there for aggressive and smart marketing)

* Air New Zealand (ditto - painting naked ladies!? See the video that wowed over 5 million people here.)

(Also let me put in a plug here for my favorite European destination, Croatia, too)

* Croatian Government Tourism (www.croatia.jp)

Why have these organizations jumped in front of the pack to setup .co.jp or .jp domains before the rest of the foreign companies and organizations? It's just plain smart business.

How an HQ in 2010 could be so dense and protective of their jobs that they actually damage the company profitability, by being so obstinate, is a crime in my mind. The only explanation can be that they don't understand the problem.

Make no mistake about what we are talking about here. We are not talking about company politics or protecting someone's position; what we are talking about here is the absolute bottom line. We are talking about company profits. How in the world someone could be so obstinate and closed minded that they would not hear out rational argument on a subject (especially a subject that changes and evolves as fast as the Internet) is no less than incompetency or gross dereliction of duty.

Let me put on my corporate hat here and say that employees need to sacrifice and go the extra step for the good of the company. Sitting on their duff and shrugging their shoulders is not getting the job done. The Japanese staff are definitely smart enough and should be aggressively compiling irrefutable data to build their case.

You'd also think that these airlines companies that all lost huge amounts of money last year would be actively seeking out more and better ways to better their service and increase passengers while increasing profit per passenger. Especially since online bookings very profitable for an airlines... These airline's  online booking business in Japan must be hurting from these poor setups.

I wrote the basic theory about this concept about .com versus .jp here. It is written so simply that I suppose even the people at airlines HQ's can understand it.

Now, I will explain mathematically why a .com/jp (or even a www.jp.airline.com site) is not effective. A .com/jp site is not effective because .com/jp is a subdomain. It is not given priority in any search. There is a good reason for it.

This is very simple math, so please pay attention airlines folks. There won't be a test after this article, but it could save your job because if you are here and do not demand this to be fixed (or, if you are in the USA and are dim enough to insist that your .com domain with a sub-folder or sub-domain is sufficient for world-wide use... Get ready for a job change, because someone is going to come along soon and bump you out of a job.) This is not just theory or wishes anymore, this is simple grade-school mathematics.

It's called persistence and striving for excellence.

But back to the problem...Google search engine, for example, uses an algorithm for search. (The new Google algorithm system is coming online in Japan in a few months. Read about the US version here. When that new system comes to Japan, companies operating in Japan had better be ready.)

If a .com is the domain, then on a Google search it gets 100% priority (this is why .co.jp and .jp sites get 100% priority in Japan)... If that very same .com domain has other languages as sub-folders, then that means each sub-folder shares in a percentage of that domain. If the .com domain is setup with japanese as the basic language - and not a sub-folder or sub-domain of English - then the .com domain works fine.

But this is a problem of language and bit space taken by hierogylphics... er, I mean kanji.

Understand? If there are five languages; then the sub-folder will give them each 20% on a search for a certain term. If there are ten languages, each will only get 10% returns... And so on...

In the case of most foreign airlines in Japan, they have dozens of languages in their sub-folder so Japanese gets about a 5% weight (if that much) in a Google search using Japanese language here in Japan. That means that these airlines voluntarily throw away 95% (more actually) of their possible Japanese customers who do random searches, using Japanese language and kanji, on the Internet.

People who search "航空" (Airlines) will get domestic airlines using a Japanese language based search as their #1 result. (Of course, but this doesn't serve the foreign airlines goals well at all.)

Try any foreign carrier and insert their SEO into a Google search (on Google.com or Google.co.jp - it doesn't matter)... The English based .com with /jp sub-folders won't even show up the foreign airlines in the top ten page returns.

Of course, in a search for a very common term such as "航空券"(airline ticket) the top four results of 24,200,000 are:

Japan Airlines: www.jal.co.jp

SkyMark Airlines: www.skymark.co.jp

Kokunaisen (a ticket aggregator): www.kokunaisen.com

All Nippon Airways: www.ana.co.jp

Notice anything special about these top returns? By the way, Kokunaisen, the aggregator site is 100% in Japanese, there is no sub-folder or sub-domain for Japan. Kokunaisen.com is the Japanese site. Like I said, any foreign carrier using a sub domain or sub-folder set-up will not show up in the first ten pages of a search.

Anyone with the most basic understanding of how SEO works (with an understanding of how Japanese language is 2 bits per character and Roman alphabet is 1 bit per character) would know that this situation for foreign carriers in Japan is intolerable. Why this continues in a tough market whereby airlines are losing passengers by the day is inconceivable.

The purpose of this blog is to help you to market Japan. I have shown the gross mistakes of many companies in the past including Pepsi, Universal Studios, Wendy's, Burger King, Carrefour, and many more. I explain the mistakes that these big companies make (and, incredibly, keep repeating over and over) so that you don't have to.

Perhaps someone at the airline's HQ in the USA or Europe will see this and wake up the troops. They should. They are losing money with this set-up...

Hopefully, they'll thank me... Doubtful... 20 years ago Otsuya Seiyaku didn't thank me either when I went on a popular late night radio program and said that their product, "Calorie-Mate" tasted like cardboard (Two years later they released Strawberry and Chocolate flavors - while improving the taste of "cardboard" and their sales of Calorie-Mate quadrupled. You know they paid R&D millions to come up with something I could have told them, and did, for the cost of less than a half-a-sandwich).

Anyhow, foreign carriers, I've pointed out that your tires are leaking air in Japan.... What are you going to do about it? Keep driving around on them? Be my guest.

This coming weekend, I will layout more mathematical evidence from a language based perspective why a .com English based site using sub-folders or sub-domains in Japan is a poor way to run any Internet site.

For a hint: Imagine that your site is in hieroglyphics... How is it possible that an English based site, with sub-folders or sub-domains, could possibly return as high of results as a site built on hieroglyphics? This is what your English based .com with sub-folder is doing... Your priority is low, so your will not show up at the top page....

If you are not in the top 5 on the first page of a search, you are not even in the game.

Japanese kanji are like hieroglyphics.

In the meantime, for proper background information that you need to comprehend this problem, (especially if you are not bilingual Japanese/English or Korean/English) see Wikipedia about Altaic languages of which Japanese is one...  People who do not speak two languages probably will have a hard time grasping this concept. It is important to understanding the problem.

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Keywords:

Google search, airlines, Japan, Yahoo, Burger King, Japan airlines, Skymark airlines, Google, Universal Studios, ANA, All Nippon Airways, Wendy's, Delta, Otsuya Seiyaku, Calorie-Mate, Pepsi, Carrefour, SEO 

The Advertising Scam in Japan

This is a letter I wrote to a business associate....

Don't Waste Money Going Through Old Ad Agencies

Before your company goes and spends a bunch of money on old media through the old channels, please read this.

We specialize in repairing client websites in upgrading to web 2.0 (most are still web 1.0 - so they are 6 years behind). This involves getting bloggers aboard, SEO and daily updates to build community. You can see by the bio that my partners are experts in this field.

Once we do fix the web problems, then we integrate an intelligent Mortar and Click plan that drives old media users to the new media. It is extremely cheap and cost effective under our method.

You can use this info or think of using it in one of two ways: Firstly, we don't mind if you middle-man in the deals, so, say, a TV ad campaign that we charge ¥2.2 million for, you can charge your client's, say, ¥3.2 million for and pocket the ¥1 million (up to you on margins, but I recommend keeping them low, that way word spreads fast). Or, two; using us to represent your projects.

Now, we only focus on travel and airlines (we will expand into fashion later this year).... So that may or may not be your business focus. That's OK. We only work with people we like and trust, so if you are interested, then that's great.

An important point about all of this is that we have to keep it under our hat the prices that we can buy this media for or our connections might get into hot water at the TV stations or magazines. We do not involve the station of magazine/newspaper sales departments in our negotiations; we go directly to hensei (programming department). Since we are media insiders, we know exactly who to talk to, how it works, and when to get the dirt cheap campaigns. Like I mentioned, say, twenty-five 15 second commercials a week on TBS or TV Tokyo, 6 am - 11 pm, normally about ¥16,500,000.... We can do that (and already have many times) for ¥2.2 million.

Anyhow, that's basically it. If you are interested in hearing more, just let me know.

About keeping our deals hush hush; let me explain. The reasons for doing so might surprise you...

For many years Dentsu & crowd have dominated the ad agency market, as you know. They have totally corrupted the process so that there is no transparency between client and agency at all. The bizarre part is that new ad agencies follow this model.

For example, you go to Dentsu to buy a TV commercial. They tell you it costs ¥50,000,000. Then they also tell you it is a 40% margin. You pay ¥70,000,000. The commercial airs. When it is over, you never see the bill from the TV station. You never really do know what the ads cost. 

One thing about this ad business deal that you probably do not know is that the TV, radio, print, etc. they all hate Dentsu also. Why? Because we know what they are doing when they sell the commercials. From the station perspective, they  WANT to discount. But Dentsu has had such a hold for so long that they have frightened the Japanese companies into submission.... This is the big reason we work only with foreign companies. Foreign companies, generally speaking, don't care about Dentsu. There are people inside the broadcasting and print industry who want to take down this Dentsu system and we work with them...So we must stick with foreign companies for now. 10 years from now? Expand into Japanese companies. (Currently, even if a Japanese company wanted to work with us, some old fashioned thinker in marketing would quash it. Why? The Dentsu system has been around for 100 years. Us? 1 year. The old guys are worried that, if they piss of Dentsu, then Dentsu will not help them anymore - not that Dentsu is doing anything for them now!) 

We hope to provide the solution. Koji Kamibayashi and I are industry insiders. Koji and Tim are internet experts. We see an opportunity. We will only deal with foreign companies who are trying to do business in Japan (I mean foreign companies who are trying to sell to the Japanese).

Also, I arranged many barter deals for clients through another new system we developed whereby we have created a sort of "inkai" among our clients and satellite partners.... This was about ¥20,000,000 ~ ¥30,000,000 worth of promotion that I arranged for retainer fee only (¥1,900,000). There was no money passed between our client's and stations for this stuff.

Japan is astronomically high. Dentsu wants to keep it that way....

Dentsu has had such a tight hold on this business for so long that they have frightened the Japanese companies into submission.... Even if Denstu is selling no commercials at all for a TV station, old habits die hard, and the people-in-charge at the stations are afraid that, if they go outside the customary way things have always been done, then Dentsu might get mad at them. 

The key to the future and breaking down the old-guard are the foreign companies in Japan. Foreign companies, generally speaking, don't care about Dentsu. There are people inside the broadcasting and print industry who want to take down this "Dentsu system." 

These are the companies that I like to work with. 

10 years from now? Expand into Japanese companies. (Currently, even if a Japanese company wanted to work with us, some old fashioned thinker in marketing would quash it. Why? The Dentsu system has been around for 100 years. Us? 1 year. The old guys are worried that, if they piss of Dentsu, then Dentsu will not help them anymore - not that Dentsu is doing anything for them now!) 

We hope to provide the solution. Koji Kamibayashi and I are industry insiders. Koji and Tim are internet experts. We see an opportunity. We will only deal with foreign companies who are trying to do business in Japan (I mean foreign companies who are trying to sell to the Japanese - not companies that deal in the Metropolis magazine crowd - no offense intended).

I arranged dozens of barter deals for clients through another new system we developed whereby we have created a sort of "inkai" (business association) among our clients and satellite partners.... This was about ¥20,000,000 ~ ¥30,000,000 worth of promotion that I arranged for retainer fee only (¥1,900,000). There was no money passed between our client's and stations for this stuff (there's lots more, but this is a sample).

Anyhow, like I said, if you need more details, I can come see you. Maybe we'd be good, mutually beneficial partners.


See you,


Mike


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---Keywords:
Ad agencies, Dentsu, inkai, broadcasting, bloggers, SEO, travel, airlines, TBS, TV Tokyo

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,