Transform Your Business Blog

Ever wish you had a place to submit stories about Japan and vote on them? Now you do.

I recently stumbled on JapanSoc, a new site that looks like it’s putting a pretty good idea to work. On the site’s about page, it simply says, “JapanSoc is a social bookmarking site, devoted to news and stories about Japan.”

Creator Nick Ramsay has created a platform that anyone who uses Digg will find familiar. The idea is simple - when you come across a story you like that’s related to Japan, submit it to the site. Users then vote for the stories they like and the cream floats to the top.

Given the explosion in the number of Japan-related blogs and sites in English that we’ve seen over the past two years, this is bound to attract some attention. There don’t seem to be a whole lot of users on JapanSoc yet, but that will change once some of the bigger Japan blogs start linking to it and talking about it.

And then we’ll just be waiting for the Japanese version!

Recently I had someone ask me for some examples of blogs with content focused on Japan that I thought were well done. Two examples came straight to mind: Clast and What Japan Thinks. I think these are two good examples because they have such different styles. Clast is a corporate blog, which updates only a few times a month and takes a decidedly academic approach in its writing on marketing. Anyone whose work involves marketing in Japan should already be reading this blog, though it is certainly built for a wider audience. W David Marx’s recent piece on trends in Japan is certainly worth your time. My only complaint about Clast is that I wish it were updated more frequently.

The second blog I mentioned, What Japan Thinks, is also written by a single person, though it’s not a corporate blog. Ken Yasumoto-Nicholson updates his site frequently - almost on a daily basis - and provides one of the only sources for Japanese opinion polls that have been translated into English.

What Japan Thinks covers the serious, silly, consumer and even sometimes political angles. It’s an interesting read because although the blog is obviously filling a niche, it does not get too narrow and has plenty of space to breathe and be able to provide social commentary.

Well, those are the two blogs I wanted to introduce this time. What are you still doing here? Go read them!

Cnet.com is a rocking site if you’re into the latest technology and gadgets. However, Webware, Cnet’s little cousin, is one of my favorite places to find out about the latest web-based software and productivity tools.

A short while ago, Webware announced the winners of the top 100 Webware sites for 2007. They’re divided up into categories: Browsing, Communication, Media, Mobile, Publishing, etc.

I see some of the products I can’t live without: Firefox, Gmail, Skype, Digg, BitTorrent, You Tube, Last.fm, Feedburner, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Adobe, Wikipedia, and of course: Word Press.

Webware’s users have voted on an interesting list, with a few products I haven’t used before but might give a whirl: Poll Daddy looks appealing, though I’m wondering why it might be better than using (or programming) a plug-in for Word Press. Any Poll Daddy users out there to tell us why it’s a winner?