Sunburned And Relaxed

It’s Easter Sunday morning as I write this.

I’m sitting on the veranda outside my room at a small inn, one minute’s walk from the beautiful white sand beaches of Boracay.

My wife took this picture just a few minutes ago as we came back from our morning walk across the beach.

Before that, I swam at sunrise with my daughter in the warmest, clearest water I’ve ever been in.

Breakfast – rice, chicken, corned beef and beef soup was less than $3.00 – total – for all three of us.

Beers here are 90 cents each – at the bars!

Absolutely one of the most beautiful and relaxing places I’ve been to in my life – so we’re going to stay for at least another week.

Best part is, I didn’t have to take time off from work to come here.

I just brought my Toshiba netbook with me. Even this Island has internet access – wifi here at the inn. I can manage all my sites and check in with my clients from here on the deck.

Only takes a few minutes out of my day.

Get the “work” part of your life – the income generating part – moved online. Then, you can be as mobile as you want to.

Tropical islands, hot sand beaches and cheap beers are real – and attainable.

I do it – you can too!

Sincerely,

James B. Allen

So much has happened in the past few weeks since I started working “out of the house” – much more than I expected. In fact, since my last post, all the following have taken place:

• I was invited to give a presentation in front of 30 plus people on making my living online – an awesome opportunity. The event took place on February 2nd at The Pink Cow in Shibuya, Tokyo and gave me an opportunity to meet and network with like-minded entrepreneurs and other talented folks. Many thanks to promoter Anthony Blick for inviting me to speak and arranging everything. Full details of my presentation are here.

• I’ve was contacted by Appliya – a company that produces iPhone apps. They invited me to attend several workshops and meetings with them. During these, I learned to create my own iphone apps – and I have started helping them with SEO on their English website. My first two apps have already been built and I’m currently waiting for Apple to approve them and place them in the iTunes store.

Building My First iPhone App

• I’ve met and started working with talented fashion photographer and media production company owner Ryan Bruss. Ryan takes amazing pictures of beautiful Japanese models. We’re now working together to find new venues for his content online. In fact, the second iPhone app I have developed includes his photos of a famous Japanese model and former Miss Universe Contestant. Ryan was kind enough to invite me to the Metropolis Glitterball last week – a Valentine’s Day themed night-club party at A-Life in Nishi Azubu, Tokyo.  Ryan’s media company Infrared Media was co-sponsor. I was treated like a VIP – incredible time.

At Glitterball - Photo Courtesy Ryan Bruss

• I also got to hang out with William and Jesse – the insane videographers and animators & all around multi-media production gurus who are the brains at Metropolis Media (and who also freelance – shhh).

• I’ve also gotten to meet and have one-on-one masterminds with other fascinating entrepreneurs living and working in the greater Tokyo area including Mike Newton, Brad Hall and Jason Ball – with plans to meet up with more in the near future.

• On top of all this, the #1 Shimbun – the monthly magazine for members of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (The Tokyo Press Club) just published an article I wrote for them on using blogs and online social media to help journalists increase exposure to their work. It’s the cover story in their February print issue and also available for download as a PDF. Thanks to editor Fred Varcoe for accepting my article proposal and publishing my piece.

Click To Download PDF Of This Issue

I went into the New Year with the intention of getting out of the house and out from behind the computer monitor, start networking with real people here in Japan and see what came of it.

I like the results so far!

Akihabara Maid & I Strike "TIGER" Pose

James B. Allen Looks 2010 In The Eye And Says, “Bring It On!”

It’s the year of the Tiger according to one of the calendars used by the Japanese. On top of that, my birth year was a “Tiger” year too.

Supposedly, this combination means it’s going to be a powerful and productive year.

I’m thinking, even without these superstitions, 2010 is going to be a blast.

Just to make sure, I’ve gone ahead and made an effort to start it off on the right foot, right away.

Instead of “Resolutions”, here’s what I’ve already gotten done:

1. No Longer A “Work At Home” Dad

I’ve spent the past seven years making my living online from the comfort of my home here in Japan. (With the occasional trip abroad.) I’ve learned to be focused and productive with a wife and child around me the whole time.

This Is No Longer My Office

It finally dawned on me, since I’ve been able to achieve as much as I have in this very non-work-friendly environment – maybe I could get a LOT more accomplished if I had a separate office of my own.

It took a bit of searching, and a bit of a risk – but finally – just today – I moved into my new and first non-home office of my own. It’s in Chiba city – about a 40 minute commute by train from my rural home – and just on the edge of Tokyo.

In fact, I’m posting this from the new office right now.

New Genki Marketing Office in Chiba City, Japan

I always hang out in Chiba city anyways – nearest Starbucks cafes are here. (There’s 5 of them within walking distance of the train station.) Now, I not only have a quiet focused spot to work with high-speed internet access – I’m also much closer to Tokyo. In fact, my favorite district in Tokyo  – Akihabara – is just a quick ride on the train from the nearby station. Which brings me to…

2. Get Out And Network

For years now, my online ventures have all involved customers and clients abroad. Because of this, I’ve never done much to network and get to know people in the business, technology or social scene here in Japan.

My few trips out of the country – especially my incredible month last summer in Auckland working with Mark Joyner – reminded me that I really need to stop being such a hermit and change this.

And so I have.

For starters, last week, I went to a very interesting networking event in Tokyo at the Pink Cow in Shibuya. I got to meet a ton of great folks and learn about a new social networking gadget called the Poken.

Even got one for myself.

My Poken - Get Yourself One!

On top of that, my good friend Fred Varcoe, who is secretary of the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan and editor of their magazine #1 Shimbun, invited me up to the club in Yurakucho, Tokyo to meet fellow journalists and writers. I took him up on that offer and got to meet some more fascinating people and hear some great stories.

I’ve also met up in person with fellow internet entrepreneurs James Brown, Fiden Felix and Mike Newton in Tokyo.

To make sure I continue with this networking, I’ve made it a point to start interacting more with the “In-Japan” folks in my social networking streams, including my Twitter account and my Facebook account.

I’ve also joined several Tokyo networking communities including Tokyo 2.0 and several Tokyo meetup groups.

I’ve also offered – and will continue to offer – to do live presentations here in Japan on the online marketing skills I’ve used to make my living from the internet. I already have two presentations tentatively scheduled in the coming weeks. Certainly looking forward to those.

I plan to continue meeting and networking with the great folks here in Japan in the coming weeks and months.

3. Centralize My Business

While working from home was great – I got to be with my daughter everyday for her first 6 years – my online projects tended to be sporadic. Luckily, a good portion of them were also very successful! This year though, especially with a more structured working environment and office away from home, I wanted my “businesses” to be more organized too.

With that in mind, all my projects are now organized under an umbrella entity – “Genki Marketing”. This includes online ventures, along with coaching and consulting for clients.

I’ve already redesigned my main website to reflect this new structure. I can now announce new projects, link out to my business related social networks, and connect with visitors, clients and customers all from one site:

http://www.GenkiMarketing.com

Meanwhile, I’ll keep this blog going for posting my personal rantings and ravings.

To help bring this online world into the real word – keeping in line with #2 above – I also had business cards printed up in English and Japanese with both my Genki Marketing URL and the URL to this blog, along with my iphone number on them.

Passing them out at every chance I get.

4. Get New Projects Rolling

Of course, all the above is wasted effort if I don’t start launching and promoting great new products and services for 2010. I’m no slacker though – I may have only moved into my office today, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t already getting it done this year.

In fact, I’ve already built and launched one new service website – Marketers Junction – a site where online entrepreneurs can post ads for their internet marketing related sites and services.

And what a launch! The site has only been live for a week now, but already 400 users have registered, posting well over 100 ads. On top of that, the site is already receiving over 100 unique visitors and thousands of page views each day.

Now, in front of me here in the office, is a stack of notebooks and paper covered with my next projects that are underway and ones I want to get rolling with ASAP too.

All in all, I’m pretty impressed with the way the first 19 days of 2010 have gone. What I’ve been able to accomplish these first few weeks has made me even more enthusiastic about the coming days, weeks and months ahead.

Here’s hoping that you are roaring your way into the New Year as well!

Sincerely,

James B. Allen

P.S. If you’ve just read this, be sure to leave a comment, say HI and let me know how YOU are attacking the New Year!

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