Blogger Disclosure and Food for Thought

Recently the FTC said that it would revise rules about endorsements, testimonials and advertising to include blogging and social media. Although this blog falls well outside the FTC's jurisdiction the NYT article has provided me with food for thought about the kinds of endorsements I make on this blog and how my relationship with advertisers may affect my relationship with you the reader.

Although I've been blogging for years, I first started taking this Japanese language and culture blog seriously about the same time I started teaching Japanese on eduFire. I initially saw this blog as both a vehicle for promoting my lessons and establishing some credibility as a language instructor.

If you have taken lessons with me before, please tell me what you think, I want to get to know you better.

In the past year this blog has become much more than that. It has become part of a conversation I am having with you, and the broad community of people with an interest in the culture and language of Japan. I've made so many interesting friends and been exposed to many new ways of thinking. I have lots to be thankful for, well beyond any financial reward I could ever hope to gain from blogging.

So what's the occasion?

My motivation for blogging has always been about communication and personal growth, and it will continue to be. As 2010 the year of the Tiger comes around it provides me with the opportunity to renew my commitment to you, to continue to provide top quality content and opportunities to learn about Japan and the Japanese language. I'm also making a renewed commitment to blogging for fun and for profit.

I want to be upfront about my motivations for blogging with you. I have seen friends do this kind of personal disclosure well, and others with a sense of good humour, so I thought I too would take this opportunity to connect with you.

My blog and how I make money

Just so there are no secrets, I make money from teaching people Japanese. But you knew that already right?

I had one affiliate link for SuperPass which has generated a modest number of clicks but no conversions. Now with SuperPass gone I'll be looking for ways to offer exclusive discounts and subscriptions to readers of my blog. Get in early for a subscription to my email newsletter, launching in the new year where you can learn about these discounts first.

I also make money, not a lot, in fact a very small amount of money through an the Amazon Associates program. In future I may experiment with advertising, but at the moment I'm happy with the way things are on this blog without it.

Sometimes I am offered freebies to evaluate and blog about. In these cases, I'll let you know because I think it's important you understand the relationship I have with the people behind the product. Product reviews of this type are difficult to do, but I won't shy away from telling you if a product has faults. I have a responsibility to you my reader to tell it like it is. If a product is poor quality, or if the people behind it aren't behaving ethically I simply won't blog about it.

My ethical standards.

My golden rule for endorsements is "does what I promote have real value for readers of my blog". I am also less likely to promote something I haven't used myself unless there is a compelling case for doing so. If there is anything you think doesn't quite sit right with you, please bring it up with me, because chances are others might feel the same way too.

What's in it for you?

Thanks for making it this far through this rather dry post, I will return you to your normal programming soon. There has to be something it for you for sticking with me this far:

• Expect more workbooks, this time focussing on grammar and verb conjugations, because you asked for it. 
• Keep an eye out for greater integration between smartfm goals, eduFire lessons and the workbooks, because the combination has worked well in the past.
• Look out for free themed lessons on eduFire that coordinate with the exclusive content found in the newsletter.
• Anticipate courses and course-ware that use the very latest technology and have very clear outcomes for learning.

I'm looking more ways to connect with you, to understand your needs and tailor content to help you achieve your goals. So let me know about it! What would you like to see on this blog? What lessons would you like to take? I want to hear about it in the comments, or take the survey.

Become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, grab the blog feed and sign up for the newsletter. There are plenty of ways to join in the conversation!

SuperPass Winner: One Month of Unlimited Lessons on eduFire!

Congratulations go out to @aggettzz, who was elated when he found out he was the winner of the "Tweet your way to a month of SuperPass on eduFire" competition.



Thanks to @eduFire for the great platform and Koichi (@tofugu) for hyping it on his site tofugu.com. Head on over there now to see other ways you can win a month of SuperPass.

You can find out more about SuperPass here, but put simply - learn anything you want from the comfort of your own home, from expert teachers, at a time that is convenient for you.

Tweet your way to a month of SuperPass on eduFire

A Smorgasbord for your brain with SuperPass

When I first blogged about SuperPass in June this year, I just knew it was going to be a good thing. Now there are hundreds of classes, thousands of teachers and ten of thousands of people using this unlimited learning engine. It has really taken off.

I think I've written enough on this blog about how good I think eduFire is, for so many different reasons. Why don't you see for yourself? You really can't go wrong with a weeks trial of SuperPass for just $1.

I've been able to give away free sessions on eduFire before, but this is the first time I've been able to give away a whole month of SuperPass for my readers here and my followers on twitter.

Before I let you know how you can enter I should really tell you little more about SuperPass.



With a SuperPass subscription you can get access to unlimited live online teachers, at times that are convenient for you. It's like a smorgasbord for your brain. In class you can interact with your classmates and teachers through chat, voice and video. There are powerpoint presentations, whiteboards, note-sharing polling and lots more to keep things interesting. You don't really even have to have a webcam or microphone, a lot of people just turn up to class to watch.

If you sign up now for Superpass you get unlimited lessons on eduFire for the one low price of $29 per month. That’s not just for my classes but for all classes on eduFire, you can learn whatever you want! That's just $1 a day! You can even take a $1 trial for your first 7 days, which you can cancel any time so there’s no risk.

Is there anything that you've really wanted to learn but never been able to find a class in your area? Maybe the times haven't suited you? Here is you chance now to win a month long subscription to SuperPass on eduFire, simply by telling me and your friends what you'd like to learn.

To win a month subscription to SuperPass on eduFire this is all you have to do.

1. Browse some SuperPass classes, in any subject, or any language, whatever you'd like to learn.
2. Find one that you'd really like to do. It shouldn't be too hard, there are heaps to choose from.
3. Then, tweet to your followers with a link back to this competition and with the hashtag #rllsp

I want to learn about Maslow's Self-Actualizer on edufire #rllsp you can win a pass too... http://bit.ly/sLTUh

or

1. If you have a blog, but aren't on Twitter you can write about the contest following the guidelines above.
2. Make sure you leave a trackback to this post.

Terms and conditions.

1. The contest will run from Tuesday September the 8th, 8.00 am Pacific Standard Time until 8.00 am PST on Tuesday September the 15th.
2. Contestants must be over the age of 18. If you are under 18 (and over the age of 13) you must have the legal consent of your parent or guardian to participate in this competition.
3. Only one (1) prize of a month's subscription to SuperPass will be awarded.
4. One entry per day per person for the term of the contest.
5. The contest winner will be drawn randomly via random.org
6. If the winner is on Twitter they will be notified by direct message on Wednesday September the 16th. Be sure to follow @rainbowhill so you can claim your prize.
7. If the winner results from a blog post then that person will be contacted via that blog's published contact details.
8. Either way, if no reply is received within 2 hours of notification a new winner will be chosen

eduFire is an open platform for teaching and learning. SuperPass is a way to get access to the best teachers and classes at the one low monthly price.

Unlimited Learning with eduFire Superpass

Blue Sky Learning

When I was growing up I used to ask myself what I could learn if I had all the time in the world. If I was going to live for ever I would need something to do, and I knew that learning was something inexhaustible that didn't cost a lot of money. Those two factors were really important, because as a kid our family didn't have a lot of money, but growing up in Australia we had plenty of time.


[photo by the undergraduate]

I'd lie on my back in the sand and stare up into the deep blue sky above and go through a long list of things that I could possibly learn; judo, flying, Swahili, cake making, oil painting, motor car racing... The list went on and on and on, until the sand got too hot and I had to run down to the water and cool off.

Somewhere along the line most people lose this sense of wonder, and their sense of ownership, in learning. They tell themselves, "oh, I'll never be good at maths" or "I'm too slow for basketball", and they give up trying. Sometimes, even worse still, they let other people tell them what is possible. When that happens it's all too easy to blame your circumstances, the school you went to, the neighbourhood you grew up in or the chances you were given in life. So you do, and you just give up trying, because classes are too hard, the gym's too far from home, work finishes too late, and the teachers a jerk.

Well it's time to take back control. Education is coming to the same crossroads as tourism, the same page as publishing, and dare I say it, but the same red letter as finance. The invisible hand of capitalism has come smack up against the institutions that have lasted since the industrial revolution. The effects of globalisation and dis-intermediation are far-reaching and game-changing. They are also irreversible.

Smart people are not accepting the roles that have been carved for them and are learning to collaborate and cooperate in ways that simply weren't possible even 5 years ago. They are getting together to share knowledge in ever more democratic ways, as the cost of doing so disappears towards zero.

That's why, when I joined eduFire as a tutor last year I knew I was part of something much bigger, part of the education revolution. Part of a team that is committed to the principles of #hackedu. So today I am proud to present you with a chance to be a part of this revolution in learning.

SuperPass is here!

Unlimited Lessons one low price!

If you sign up now for SuperPass you get unlimited lessons on eduFire for the one low price of $29 per month. That's not just for my classes but for all classes on eduFire, you can learn whatever you want! That means even if you only choose to do 2 of my classes, Japanese for Absolute Beginners and the Language Lab, you'd get both classes for less than $8 a week!

Rainbowhill's Classes on eduFire

Rainbowhill's Japanese for Absolute Beginners $5/class (free with SuperPass)
Rainbowhill's Japanese Language Lab for Absolute Beginners $5/class (free with SuperPass)
Rainbowhill's Fast Track to Fluency in Japanese $5/class (free with SuperPass)
Rainbowhill's Fast Track to Japanese Fluency Lab $5/class (free with SuperPass)
Rainbowhill's Japanese for Beginners $5/class (free with SuperPass)
Rainbowhill's Japanese Language Lab for Beginners $5/class (free with SuperPass)


SuperPass only launched on Friday and already there are well over a hundred SuperPass classes, with more being created everyday.

You could have all these classes for $29

Japanese Classes

• Veteran Japanese Beginners Class – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Nihongo Power Up Class: Quick Question Pattern – $10/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Gakuranman’s Japanese Masterclass 4 – $7/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Beginning Japanese Grammar: Lab – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Everyday Basic Japanese (有料) – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Everyday JLPT4 (有料) – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Kanji, Kanji, Kanji!! – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Japanese – Level 10 Kanji (Easiest) – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Japanese – Level 9 Kanji – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• One Step Closer to Speaking Fluent Japanese – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Tofugu’s Japanese for Beginner’s 1 – $10/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Simplifying Japanese Particles – Tofugu x Gakuranman – $10/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Sound fluent in Japanese with Katakana – Tofugu x Gakuranman – $10/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• JLPT level 4 (有料) – $5/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• 日本語道場　Intermediate Japanese with Wren – $12/class (free with SuperPass)
  
• Japanese Literature - Haruki Murakami – $7/class (free with SuperPass)

Join now win an iPhone 3GS

Don't wait a moment longer, join now and you will go in the draw to win an iPhone 3GS on the 19th of June. That's only 3 days a way, so be quick.

Your 7day trial starts with just one dollar!

Sign up now and you'll go into the draw to win a $200 gift voucher at the apple store, which you can use to buy anything you want. Funnily enough it's just the right amount for a brand-new iPhone 3GS. The winner will be announced on the 19th of June, so you only have 3 days to subcribe for your chance to win.

It's no secret I think eduFire is a great way to learn, but don't take my word for it! Listen to what other people are saying about eduFire on Twitter and then come back and sign up for your SuperPass!