On the Importance of a Sustainable J-web Economy - An Open Letter

On May 26, 2010 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, Future of the J-web, Helping Japan Bloggers, On the J-web, Suggestions Please

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” — Samuel Adams

If you have any part in the J-web I beg you to suffer through this long letter. If I have done my job well it will be worth it for your time.

The Need for a Sustainable J-web Economy

A little while ago Nick was talking about revenue sharing on JapanSoc and basically summed up the conclusion that all of us who have started projects eventually come to:

Do we need ads? Yeah. Some kind of income would keep me sane when checking the daily batch of spammer registrations. I’ve got a dozen sites, but spend way too much time maintaining this one.

Today we need to talk sustainability. But first let’s talk about “why;” why is sustainability important? The answer will be very personal and different for each individual, but here is my “why” :

As the two or three people who used to read my blog know, at the end of 2008 I “went to the mountain” on a soul searching journey and asked myself some deep questions, like (among other things): What do I really want out of life? Who I am/ who do I want to be?  Why are Japan and the people who are tied to it so interesting to me?

When I completed that intensive soul searching I still was not fully sure of the answers to those questions but I was sure of one thing… I was much closer to the answers than ever before and my life was infinitely better off than if I had not taken the time to examine it.

It seems to me that few of us human beings ever take the time to really search ourselves, let alone continue to “soul-search” and examine. And that is a shame because as I have learnt firsthand it is one of the most beneficial activities one could ever make time for.

That being the case, I can only consider it an extremely fortunate thing that my pride/life took such a horrible beating in 2006 that I was forced to come face to face with that question. And I must consider myself even more fortunate for the “failures” and “setbacks” of the two years that followed which led me at the end of 2008 to stop and deeply examine life, who I am, what is important, and who I want be.

When I say that these “life shocks” were fortunate I mean it with the utmost sincerity, because I realise now that I was (/am) being forged. During forging, a katana’s steel is not rubbed lovingly in oil. No, it is thrust into a blazing furnace, quenched in the coldest water baths, and beaten by a thousand hammer blows. This creates a blade with a quality and tenacity unmatched,… and so too with the human character.

It is only a guess, but I imagine that you can related to that; that you have gone through “trials by fire.” I also imagine that growing up you might have often been asked “what do you want to be?” and now, you are asked “what do you do?” And yet, I am willing to bet others rarely ever asked you “who do you want to be?” which is much more important. Though others might never ask you,  please do not make the mistake of not posing the question to yourself.

And so I questioned myself in 2008. The answers I have found have been moving and personal. I cannot share all of them here but I will give you an impression of my mission statement:

My mission is…
through continual development of qualities of character to:

1) … Seek to understand the purpose for my life.

2) … Be fulfilled whatever comes my way (contentment). To be confident. (internal. not based on external circumstances)

3)… <personal>

4)… Create a mobile lifestyle; very few possessions. Continual language learning.

5) Live with excitement, joy, love and deep/helpful relationships with other people (like family and friends)

And, (through knowledge, continual learning, industry, frugality, focus, discipline, and systematisation) conduct business and live my life in a way that facilitates the above life purpose to the greatest extent possible.

Why does any of this matter?

My friends, I put to you the following questions: Who are you? And what do your interests say about you? Why Japan? Why the web? Why a community?

Is our interest in the Japan-related web, in building websites and in interacting with others of like-interest not greater than just what we see on the surface? Is there nothing deeper here? I believe (rightly or wrongly) that there is.

I believe that we are different. And that is why we have these interests. And that is why we long to be part of a community.

In 2006 I started the first incarnation of my web project, Nipponster. Like all versions to date, it was a failure But it successfully started me on my path.

In 2007 I created this blog, DailyJ, in a desperate effort to find and connect to like-interested individuals in order to feel that I was not the only one trying to create something Japan-related. I wanted to know that there were other people out there on the web with dreams and goals and missions. People with interests like mine.

And so I did something that I did not quite fully understand the significance of at the time: I began interviewing webmasters and bloggers of Japan-related websites.

I interviewed 22 of them in that year and it was so rewarding and fun!

At the time I did not truly understand why I liked interviewing them so much. And I did not realise why interviewing them was so emotionally rewarding to me or why I found each of them and their stories so interesting and special.

I was missing the point, the reason that was right there under my nose.

Now, after much thought, I think that maybe the reason was this:

We are people with a shared past/present, interested in each others endeavours toward similar goals and a similar desire for the future.

We share goals of life and travel abroad, of viable businesses or work that let’s us pursue our passion, of language and cultural learning, of excitement and adventure, and of sharing our experiences with others.

We are all looking for an unconventional life; a lifestyle free of the limitations of the past and the status quo.

We are all growing through - and with - our websites; and learning from each others websites.

We are all on a journey.

In my post “back from the mountain” I wrote that I was looking for my “why,” why I wanted to do DailyJ indefinitely (despite the obstacles)

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

It took me longer than expected but I finally found exactly why I want to do DailyJ and what I want to do with it.

DailyJ is about the web as medium for empowering us, the Japan-enthusiasts of the world. Empowering current J-bloggers to continue J-blogging. To empower current foreigners in Japan to stay in Japan if that is their goal. To inspire and empowver people (like Jamaipanese) who have a dream of visiting or living in Japan, by giving them some of what they need to get there.

I now consider my mission with DailyJ to kickstart the AA of the Japan-related web.

That might seem like a strange statement, so let me explain. I think of the decentralised nature of organisations like AA. They are support groups made up of people who are all at the same rank, there are no leaders or bosses. At a support group people with a common background come together to help one another toward a shared goal; in AA’s case sobriety, in our case a freedom.

A freedom from constrained lives. A freedom to dream and strive toward a place that we long to go to, or to stay in. And more than that, toward perhaps a life where we choose where we live and on what terms. The internet has greatly enabled the possibility of these unconventional realities: the possibility of freedom from being tied down to one place; the power to overcome the limitations of the past; the opportunity to learn and to grow in new ways.

When a person blogs about their experiences in Japan I get excited because I remember my first year in Japan and how much I wanted to share my awe of that experience with the world (motivation enough at the time to teach myself HTML).

When a blogger or a commentator talks about their desire to go to Japan or to learn Japanese I get excited.

When a webmaster or blogger relates to readers about the life he/she is able to build in Japan and inspires those readers to be different, I am grateful because I know that I needed similar inspiration.

I enjoy the J-web.

I am glad that I have been able to make my own small contributions to it too. And I am glad that it is growing more and more all the time.

But mostly I am eager to see if we cannot make it into more of a place where the participants are empowering and being empowered by one another. (I know “empowering” is a bit of a silly word but I cannot think of another that conveys accurately what I mean)

Let’s share with each other the story of what we are trying to create (i.e. why we have created our blog, business, lifestyle). Let’s inspire one another to achieve our project’s goal. Let’s inspire one another to be different.

And surely we are different. Many of us, when the two roads diverged in the wood, took “the one less traveled by.” We have fought hard to do what we have done. We have strayed far from conventional and beaten paths. We have learnt impossible languages. We have learnt web development skills that others lack. We have a love for reading and learning that many do not. And we have a desire to create something of great value through our blogs, through our ideas, and through our hard work.

The problem comes in continuing our work. It is one thing to develop a wonderful concept and start a project, but making it sustainable is the challenge. So many great ideas and great blogs fall by the wayside. Life is too busy; their founders burn out.

When I started my web projects I made a conscious decision to not include advertisements. That was partly out of a disdain for advertising in general as a revenue model. And it was partly because I felt that many of the ads on the larger (mainstream?) Japan-related websites promoted stereotypes of Japan that are counterproductive (there is more to Japan than bizarre anime, “WTF products,” and pocky.)

I admit that I am a bit of an advertising snob; and who am I to judge. One can put whatever ad they like on their own site.

The real problem I found was that there was little in the way of other alternatives for advertising and revenue generation. In reality potential opportunities are everywhere, but we just might have to develop them more.

If more creative revenue sources can be developed that offer real opportunities to J-bloggers, a sustainable J-web economy might just be possible. And I see absolutely no reason why it should not be.

What I am proposing is that we dig deeper. That we engage Japan-related product and service websites and build real relationships with them. That we develop better ideas and services that generate more opportunities for Japan-enthusiasts in general.

I look at models like SenseiSagasu.com (FindATeacher.net). It is a web service that connects Japanese who need language tutors with native speakers who need students. How many Japan-enthusiasts has a site like FindATeacher.net helped to sustain as they live in Japan? This is one example of the type of economy I am suggesting.

Taking from that example I had one idea awhile ago and I am giving it away here because it deserves to exist more than I in particular deserve to make money from it:

What if a FindATeacher.net style site was created that connected foreign residents (especially students) in Japan with tourists wanting to see Japan “first hand.” The residents would essentially become part time tour guides guiding tours to their favourite places. Japan has near perfect dynamics for such a venture. The train system makes it possible to conduct such a tour without needing a car/bus. The foreign residents know the area like a native AND can communicate better with the tourists. Bloggers who are residents would be perfect candidates to become guides because they could offer pictures and video of part of their tour and describe it in detail online.

This is just one of possibly endless ideas that can be developed to offer more opportunities that support our online lifestyles/projects/goals.

So, I have rambled on a bit.

You are the community. You are the beneficiaries of an economy. What are your thoughts? What have your experiences been?

I want this to be a discussion. And I hope that more solutions will come from the dialogue. Please comment here, talk about it with others elsewhere, promote your ideas about it to others, etc.

Thank you

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