Wow, people are reading my website now!

I had three replies to my last post from people I'd never met. That's very encouraging. Of course, I don't know how people are finding my site, because other than typing "Irasshai irasshai irasshaimase" into Google I'm really not coming up much anymore. :)

Anyway, gotta go. I'm on a call at work, and I won't be on hold forever.

But I will try to post more segments on my site as I have time. I have three darling kids and a beautiful wife that hold priority.

It's a long hard climb, but I'm gonna get there.

Wow. I'm moving up. I'm on the seventh page of Google now for "Free Japanese Lessons." I think it must have a lot to do with the way I laid out my site. The thing is, it's not even barely legible to humans--the background is too transparent. I'll hopefully fix it some time this week. I'm movin' on up!!

We're #92! We're #92!

This morning the Japanese: The Game site reached #92 on a Google search for Free Japanese Lessons--even without quotes around the phrase! That's up from #106 last weeek. (The site comes up as result #61 with quotes.)

We're gaining ground, but that's good news and bad. The site isn't complete. There are severe navigation flaws. But the closer you get to #1 the harder it is to progress, so I think it'll hover around #40 until the site is complete. Once it's ready for real traffic, I think it'll be easy to start making money with it and pay for "real" hosting. :)

I'm excited! It's going to blow up!

WE ARE LIVE! (Again)

WOOHOO! The http://japanesethegame.com/ website is LIVE and There are several articles (I call them segments) up already! There are currently segments about:

Japanese Culture
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_Japanese_Culture.htm

Japanese Phonology (the sounds of Japanese)
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_The_Sound_of_Japanese.htm

The Origin of Japanese
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_The_Origin_of_Japanese.htm

Politeness in Japanese
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_Politeness.htm

Japanese Vocabulry (Part I)
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_Japanese_Vocabulary_1.htm

Japanese Grammar (Part I)
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_Grammar_1.htm

And the Japanese Alphabet (really two syllabaries calles KATAKANA and HIRAGANA)
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_Katakana_and_Hiragana.htm

It's all so exciting! I can hardly contain myself! Oh, yeah, and there's one more:
Japanese Grammar (Part II)
http://japanesethegame.com/Segment_Japanese_Grammar_2.htm

I'm finishing the segments--there are 15 in all--and once those are done I can put up Google AdSense ads on the right to monetize the site along with Amazon products like the Japanese dictionaries I like. Commissions on those should be pretty good and I feel good recommending them because every student needs about three dictionaries: a pocket dictionary, a Wa-Ei/Ei-Wa dictionary (English-Japanese/Japanese-English), and a Kanji dictionary. I have one good dictionary, the Wa-Ei/Ei-Wa type. I keep asking for the best Kanji dictionary for birthdays but I haven't given anyone the info on the book (so here it is):

The Original Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary: Classic Edition (Tuttle Language Library) (Japanese Edition) (Hardcover)
Hardcover: 1112 pages
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing (March 15, 2004)
Language: Japanese
ISBN-10: 0804819653
ISBN-13: 978-0804819657
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.6 x 2 inches

I like the red cloth binding. :)

Progress!

Life is moving along at a fair clip. I'm in a Bachelor's program through University of Phoenix, going for a degree in Marketing. I'm excited that I'll be able to do it online and spend more time with my family. It's pricey but the trade-off between time and money is something Clair (my darling wife) and I always weigh very carefully.

Once I have the degree finished I'll be working for another year or so before I start a Master's in Japanese Linguistics. My major could be a few different things, depending on where I get accepted. I like Japanese Linguistic Pedagogy and Japanese Linguistics and Applied Japanese Linguistics. If I have to do something else then so be it. I'm just stoked to be on the right track. It's fantastic.

When I move I won't be able to keep my job so I'll have to do something else to support my family. Perhaps I could be a marketing director or business manager or something else. I'll have five years of experience in Marketing and a Bachelor's degree in it as well, so I think I'll be rather employable. The job market in college towns can be rough, so I have to have an edge, but I think I've honed some pretty valuable skills by now and I'm sure things will work out.

During that year I'll be brushing up my Japanese and hopefully producing three products:
1. Japanese: the Game - The card game I've posted about before.
2. Japanese: the Game: the Website - Probably not in so many words, this is just an online tutorial.
3. Japanese flash cards - I've only found one publisher with a full JouYou kanji flashcard set. This must be remedied, along with the less-than-optimal format of the cards. What's more, those cards run about $130.00 for the 2000+ cards, which I'm sure is not a competitive rate. Granted it's a lot of work for me, but once it's compiled all I need is half an hour with an advanced CIS student to get the data from a spreadsheet to a printable format.

Anyway, those three things combined should bring in money, too. It's just a matter of time, really.

I never post on this blog anymore.

But I'm okay with that.

The site is on the move!

I'm finally getting on with the site. I've been doing beautiful things with my time lately, like planting a garden with my lovely wife, and getting ready for our second dear child. But I'm still dedicated to getting my site up, so I've figured out how to do image maps and found out the coordinates of all the corners of the disc segments! How wonderfully nerdy!

And soon the world will have a way they can access the wonderful world of Japanese in a logical, free, self-motivated format. Woohoo!