I'm flipping out :)

Stephen,

Great job on the website. The code is more complicated than I expected. I'am impressed by the algorithm - and it works better ! I hope to see more of your work in the future.

Your flash player choice appears to be a good one.

We discovered the Japanese names do not work well. Anyway most Japanese go by their given western name here. Funny thing is we compared names from your site to that written by our translator on the badges let her know and she did not see eye to eye on pronunciation but I suspect she is going to go home and look up some more names from your site for future use. Most of them were dead on however.

I think a handful of people people searched from the electronics plant at Kariya city near Nagoya we have some americans there trying to impress their coordinators. Wish you much success !

Keep up the good work.

 

Hi sadcox. Thanks for the encouragement.

As you know, with katakana there is usually never really a right answer as such. For example, my friend Daryl's name is usually transliterated as da-ri-ru in katakana. However, she is from New Zealand and so she prefers da-roh as this is closer to her pronunciation.

Then another one is "kya or ka". For example, should Cameron be kya-ma-ron / ka-ma-ron / kya-ma-ron / kya-me-ron ? Often it comes down to the preference of the individual.

Anyway, in tests on random names from US Census information we have achieved over 95% success with first names and over 90% success with family names, which I think is pretty good for an automated system. And as we say in our FAQ, the only way you can get a guaranteed 100% is to use a human translator....

We have had extensive exposure in Japanese-language blogs and, of course, what most of them say is, "It doesn't do Japanese names right." On bigger, more influential blogs, I have often left a comment saying basically, "This is an English-language website aimed mainly at the US market. It uses and algorithm (not magic) that is set up particularly with US names in mind." The real question is how come Japanese people are looking up how to write their names on an English-language website?

I'm glad my Kariya neighbors liked it.

 

It seems like there is another knock-on bonus effect to being in USA Today. They syndicate some (maybe all) of their "Hot Sites" to affiliated local papers, so I am seeing hits from places like:

cgi.honoluluadvertiser.com/cgi-bin/techwrapper.pl?URL=http://www.gannettonline.com/e/sites/2058971.html&AFFIL=HNL
cgi.delawareonline.com/cgi-bin/techwrapper.pl?URL=http://www.gannettonline.com/e/sites/2058971.html&AFFIL=WNJ
cgi.elpasotimes.com/cgi-bin/techwrapper.pl?URL=http://www.gannettonline.com/e/sites/2058971.html&AFFIL=EPT

cgi means no long-term links, but it is a nice bonus to get the visitors. I wonder if we are also in the print version because I am seeing a lot more visitors with no referrer.

Anyway I am really impressed with USA Today: It got me into Yahoo Directories as well as sending me direct visitors - and now I get this second bonus wave too.

 

Yea, it's interesting to see the "ripple" effect as you are seeing here ... and since they are pointing to your web server, you can easily track it all ... although the "no referrer's" can be a mystery. I did some of this tracking when my christmas lights got some publicity and it was pretty cool to see stuff pop up.

BTW, another helpful resource is Google News - I see one of yours now from the Indianapolis Star using japanese katakana symbols

 

So far I'm just really happy that I got into yahoo with this... saves me $300 per year

 

Congrats dude... LOL....always wondered how my name sounded in Jap.

 

Dangit still no DMOZ for me....

 

Did you ask DMOZ, Skunker?

 

Congrats!

Haven't read through the 88 prior posts, may have been covered:

Have you considered an affiliate marketing program?

Great site, fun to do, would think you've got great margins and could work with affiliates to get more traffic.

Regards,
Keith

 

Skunker, don't go on resource zone, you will just be yelled at unless the right moderator comes along. You may wanna contact this guy http://www.ihelpyouservices.com/forums/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&find=lastposter&forumid=40
He is a DMOZ editor and a cool guy, he seems to be into the same kind of sites you are into

 

Hi Webforging. Yes, we are going to be doing an affiliate program in the longer term. This will particularly be focussed on our calligraphy scrolls. A single sale of one of those averages out at about $150, so a good % (say 15%) for an affiliate will make this a good money-spinner for anyone who joins our program. To be honest, there is so much that can be done, so I am working on it a little at a time. At least my first goal of getting the site out there and starting having some orders come in has been realized with a very minor amount of expenditure.

 

very cool. can you do business cards too? (it's bit hard to keep handing out mugs!)

 

Please PM me if you are interested in business cards and I will see what I can do.