Archive for the ‘Helping Japan Bloggers’ Category
A lazy J-blogger’s hack.
On September 03, 2008 in Blog Improvements, Helping Japan Bloggers
2008 is moving along. Soon we will be looking at 2009 and you will have to update the little copyright date on your blog.
Not if you’re a lazy blogger.
This little php code snippet does the hard work for you year after year.
<?php echo date (”Y”);?>
This code works on any php page (a file ending with .php). It displays the current year.
If you have a self-hosted wordpress blog go to:
wp-contents/themes/YOURTHEME/footer.php and look for the copyright year. Replace the copyright year with the code above.
your done,
now go be lazy
Is your J-blog on the twitter group?
On August 29, 2008 in Future of the J-web, Helping Japan Bloggers, On the J-web
Neil Duckett over at NeilDuckett.com is twittering and invites you to join in if you have a Japan-related blog.
He has created a Japan-blogger twitter group and you are welcome.
J-tweets…
What will we think up next?!
Navigation for the navigationally challenged wordpress themes
On August 25, 2008 in Blog Improvements, Helping Japan Bloggers
It is good that certain things irk some more than others.
Nick over at LongCountdown had been bothering me for awhile about not having good navigation.
As the editor I know where everything is so not having great navigation doesn’t bother me (which is not good). I don’t think about it as much as I should, so it is nice to have someone who reminds me of how things are from the reader’s perspective. Thanks Nick.
So how about you, Japan-blogger? Is your navigation lacking?
If you use wordpress (self-hosted) and need navigation, today is your day.
Here is the code you will need to enter to help readers navigate to next and previous posts:
Instant navigation in Wordpress. First find single.php,(that's YOURSITE.COM/YOURBLOG/wp-content/themes/YOURTHEME/single.php)In single.php in your theme, find: <?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> and right below it, paste: <!--navigation--> <table style="width: 100%; text-align: center; border:0px; margin-bottom: 6px;"> <tr><td class="text" style="text-align: left; font-size: 8pt;"> <?php previous_post_link(); ?> </td> <td class="text" style="text-align: right; font-size: 8pt;"> <?php next_post_link(); ?> </td></tr></table>
Next I want to make my category list expandable/collapsible and make sub-categories under “interviews” for each of the sites interviewed. That way you readers can more easily find and read specific interviews. If I find it, I plan to let you know about it so you can use it for your sites too.
Have a great day,
DailyJ
great blogging resources
On August 17, 2008 in Helping Japan Bloggers
One of the first blogs I ever really connected with was Yaro Starak’s Entrepreneurs-journey.com
I first started reading him when I was in uni at Jouchi.
Anway, he started a site recently for new bloggers that has some free resources and I thought I’d pass them along to you J-bloggers out there. Here they are:
http://www.becomeablogger.com/resources.html
Focus and the backrub
On August 09, 2008 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers
Interesting bit of trivia for you…
What was the original name of Google before it was Google?
I’ll give you a hint, it was one of the words in this post’s title.
If you said “focus” guess what, you’re wrong. Yay! 
Google started as Backrub.
What does that have to do with Japan/DailyJ/anything you ask?
They called it Backrub because it was the first search engine to measure links between websites. Links (relationships) = I rub your back.
Anyway,
Let’s talk about FOCUS.
Around the j-web different sites have different focuses. Different sites have different styles and functions. There is probably niche room for all
And I also have a place. I need to focus more on creating the best search engine of Japan-related results. Nipponster.
Your J-site might have a different focus entirely.
But we can rub each others back by helping each other improve. I hope to use DailyJ (going forward) as a conduit for that; a conduit for helping others with their sites. And for receiving help with Nipponster.
So let’s share feedback going forward. Are you with me?
Attention J-bloggers: It’s party time!
On August 06, 2008 in Announcements, Community building, Helping Japan Bloggers
Hi All,
After a much much too long hiatus I’ve gathered the courage to show my face again and beg forgiveness for my absence.
But that’s not the important part. The important news is that some busy bees have been working away at reviving something really cool:
The Japan Blog Matsuri !!!
If you blog about Japan be sure to check this out!
Get the latest updates at the Japan Blog Matsuri Newsroom.
Why are you still here? Go already!
Video Tutorial of the JapanSoc Social Bookmarking Button - helpful guide for Japan-bloggers
On March 01, 2008 in Community building, Helping Japan Bloggers
If you haven’t yet be sure to leave your thoughts on the discussion about the Japan-related web!
Just a few days ago I posted a video I made in an attempt to guide people in putting a JapanSoc voting button on their blog (blog posts). The video didn’t turn out that great (and the audio didn’t work), but I will be making a second attempt soon.
But, the video did inspire Nick to make his own tutorial for another JapanSoc gadget, the social bookmarking button. And I must say he did a better job! Here it is:
I think it would be great if video tutorials like these became more and more common on Japan-related sites. There are many possibilities. We could have tutorials that teach newbie readers how to navigate the site or give them a simple self-introduction. For all of the Japan-related tools available it would be great to have screen-capture videos that explain how to use their more difficult features.
What do you think? Once I gain a little more skill with the software I might go on a tutorial making rampage.
Screen capture tutorials for JapanSoc
On February 22, 2008 in Community building, DailyJ Mission, Helping Japan Bloggers
Hi All,
I am creating some tutorials to help Japan-bloggers install some of the tools that make submitting your posts to JapanSoc easy. If you are new and don’t know about JapanSoc (been under a rock? ) here is a link where you can learn all about JapanSoc
For the acquainted, let me begin by warning you that these tutorial videos were made as examples of what could be done (i.e. they are not polished works of art).
Hopefully people with more artistic talent than myself (that’s probably anyone) will make better ones from scratch or add to these.
If you want to give it a go, here is a website that let’s you download youtube videos. So you can download these tutorials and edit them if you like. Unlike with all of that music you’ve been pirating, this time you have permission. 
I made them using this screen capture tool I found on tucows.com (a great site by the way)
I am planning to make a tutorial for each of the items on Nick’s JapanSoc Toolbox page. So far I have done one for the “voting button” and tried to do one for the “bookmarklet.” They are not as easy to make as I had hoped. It took me three attempts and about four hours to get a half decent one but I like JapanSoc and I want to learn how to make these so I don’t mind spending the time.
Sometimes it is hard to follow only written instructions and if you don’t know how long it is going to take (or how hard it is) it can be frustrating to do something. And then you get lazy. That’s why I am making these. Hopefully they will help combat that. Let me know if think this will be useful.
Here is the one I struggled to make today (couldn’t get the audio to work 
):
Helping J-bloggers: feedburner part 2 - FeedSmith and some free stylish rss icons
On February 16, 2008 in Helping Japan Bloggers
It’s that time again. Time for “Helping Japan bloggers.”
If you have any helpful tips that you’d like to share be sure to tell everyone about them in the comments! Let’s spread the love!
So far there have been some great ones, like the ones from Nick and Chris I mentioned in this post.
I have been giving many wordpress tips so far. I need to give more general ones because I know not everyone is on wordpress. But for today it’s wordpress again. But I also found some free RSS icons for you that any blog can use (see below)!
In the last feedburner post I shared a tutorial video from a site called becomeablogger.com.
One very important thing they left out of that video is the feedburner “Feedsmith” plugin for wordpress.
That plugin lets you keep track of your pre-feedburner RSS audience. So anyone who has been using your old RSS feed to subscribe to your site will still show up on your feedburner statistics. And feedburner has nice statistics!
Free RSS feed icons
These are some really nice RSS feed icons that I found the other day and I thought someone might like.
They come in a variety of colours and with or without a reflection! You can download the whole pack here.
Hope that helps some Japan-bloggers. Let me know if it does!
The Japan-related Web: The Future
On February 06, 2008 in #The Japan-related Web Debate, Future of the J-web, Helping Japan Bloggers
| If you are just joining us, Bill from Rising Sun Of Nihon has invited me to use his blog as a platform where we can all come together and discuss the Japan-related web! |
For the last few posts of the Japan-related web series I mention three web projects that I think are leveraging innovative web technology to build community and help webmasters/bloggers.
#1 Japanopedia
#2 Japan-Hopper
#3 JapanSoc
Number 1 and number 3 have been mentioned before on DailyJ (and I will be talking about them more later). Right now I want to talk a little bit about number 2 and then an idea about how all three can work together.
Japan-Hopper.com:
I contacted Kiyotaka, the owner of Japan-Hopper, and asked him a little bit about the project (there will also be a full interview with him later here on DailyJ). You can read what he said in the original article. Basically Japan-Hopper is a site where anyone can add a “placemark” (some info about a location) on a map of Japan.
The great thing about it is that it is perfect for you if you are a Japan-blogger and you have posts about specific places in Japan. You can take a snippet or a summary of your post, add it to Japan-Hopper as a placemark, and add a link back to the full post on your site! Extra traffic.
Now my idea, and it is just an idea (i.e. don’t kill me if you don’t like it)
JapanSoc, Japan-Hopper and Japanopedia if used together could amplify the community building work and send even more traffic to blogs. Here is my thinking:
Japanopedia is like a blank open slate. Anyone can start a project there. Currently there is a project on it to help JapanSoc. A similar project could be made for Japan-Hopper. Maybe a project for bloggers to talk about their favourite places in Japan. Or maybe a project to add screenshots of Japanese monuments on SecondLife to the right places for them on JapanHopper. What do you think about that?
Whatever the case, once it is on Japan-Hopper maybe then it could be highlighted on JapanSoc! You could take your Japan-Hopper placemark’s address and submit it to JapanSoc. If it is interesting and gets “soc’ed” you get exposure for your post on two sites! And you support both projects at the same time.
Of course I am not advocating spamming either site with worthless junk, so I hope you make your contributions meaningful. And have fun too!
Last words?
Tomorrow the last post of the Japan-related web series on RisingSunOfNihon will be posted. But it’s my hope that this series is just the beginning.
As always, I am eager to hear what you think. So let me know!
And have a great day
