Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Reality Check The US Dollar vs The Japanese Yen: Then and Now

Then was 1966, the year I first came to the sunny island of Okinawa, Japan. One US Dollar was worth a whopping Three Hundred and Sixty Japanese Yen.


                Now, in 2011, one US Dollar is worth maybe, Eighty Japanese Yen and falling.

This is a post I did May 13, 2011 over on my Ning Blog.  That was one of those days somebody fell asleep at the switch and this blog went down. Today, the Ning Thing took a break, for whatever reason so, I'm dragging some of my stuff off of there and updating it here, on the blog I like best.

Over the past week I've had a couple of Reality Checks in dealing with this blog and my website.

I have to tell you, that reality thing really happens.  It will pop right up outa the grass and smack you like a lawn rake, right between the eyes. You ever done that?  I have.

Remember my brilliant plan OUTA YOUR FACE ADVERTISING?  Well, I've had to modify it. 

It was a great idea that the world just isn't ready for yet, I guess.  So, I've been sneaking some advertising into the sidebar of this blog.  I'll still try and keep it outa your face.

There will only be top-notch advertisers, no pop-ups, girlie ads or any other thing I deem sleazy here.

When I do a Product Review, if I like the item, I'll stick a text link in my post so, you can check it out.  And, I hope you bookmark my post and buy through my site so, I can get my percentage for the advertising space I give the merchants.

The folks you see advertising here, so far, are people I trust because I've had extensive dealings with each of them in the past.  I'll tell you more about each of them if you're interested.

That's something I'll do at a later date.  Holler if you need to know more in a hurry.

The real eye-opener for me was when I looked through my website galleries, real closely, and pretended I was a customer ordering one of my photos.  Dang, I guess I should do that more often.

With the US Dollar being what it is worth now vs what it was when I put prices on my photos, I wasn't selling them.  I was giving them away FREE.  I wasn't charging enough to buy the paper and ink to print the dang things.  Maybe, I'd have gotten enough to pay the postage in the Japanese Post Office. 

What if somebody had ordered 1,000 of them?  What do I look like some kinda philanthropist? 

I looked that word up, ya know, and decided those guys will probably never call on me.

Anyhow, I hope I haven't lost any readers over the advertising bit and I'd like to hear some opinions on what you think of the changes I've made. If it gets to be too much "IN YOUR FACE" just HOLLER at me and I'll see what I can do for you.  It's reality, real live, not the stuff TV shows are made of, it's the real deal.  Ouch.....back to rakin' that lawn !





8 comments:

Ryan said...

Who doesn't advertise in this world Mike, nothing wrong with it all mate. The last time I looked we were all living in the western world so if people don't like it....stuff em.

Nancy Waterbury said...

Good morning. I enjoyed this post because I to have been concerned about the advertising issue. I haven't approached it at all yet because I think it cheapens the look of pages and can be very distracting. Cheers, Donuts

RyukyuMike said...

Ryan,
"Stuff em" LOL I like that. But, looks like lotsa folks are already stuffin themselves!

RyukyuMike said...

Donuts,
Nice to meet you and hear you comment. I've mulled over the advertising thing, kicked everyone off this site, moved it around to other blogs and just, flat eliminated some of them forever.
Love to talk to you more about itover on that Facebook Fan Club Thingy, if you'd like.

Cheers,
Mike

Unknown said...

Alas, I am old enough to remember when griping about everything being made in Japan really were good ol' days.

RyukyuMike said...

FishHawk,
Yep, only now everything seems to be made in china. Guess it's a good time to study-up on that language!

Unknown said...

Yes advertising. I got offered an advertising contract this week for a casino...........I don't think so.

Your ads are fine!

RyukyuMike said...

LadyE,
Casino, wow !!!
You should jump all over that !!