DerekVasconi

DerekVasconi

Miho live events, Pentaprism staff events, and October is the end of a lot of things if I can't make ends meet

Added 2021-09-26 19:22:04 +0000 UTC

Yeah...it's real...

The first 20 minutes is the real situation I'm in right now... after that I get into Miho's live event,s some general complaining about things here, and another reminder that come October, yeah..... I might have a serious decision to make.

Oh, and two new groups are coming to IU, so that's good news I think. Or I hope.

Enjoy.

LINK: https://15.gigafile.nu/1018-p8db38a4010612ae53a88a54759403d04

Comments

Following on from Romy’s comments, her first idea is a bit like a Zenmarket or From Japan service, which I think I’ve mentioned to you before. I use Zenmarket to buy goods from Yahoo Japan auctions, which I think someone from outside Japan can’t access. Maybe offering to buy items from Yahoo auctions is something you could offer? Although Zenmarket charge 300¥ per item so probably a lot of hassle for little reward. I think when you announce a new group on IU it’d be very useful to have links to hear their music via YouTube or a streaming service. I have probably a dozen idol groups I listen to and don’t have time to keep up listening to all of their stuff let alone new groups so need some incentive/encouragement to add more to that list. I also think expanding the customer base has to happen somehow, as us existing customers have a limit to our disposable income and that obviously isn’t enough currently to keep IU in business. Unfortunately I don’t have a solution how to do that other than retweeting when you have items to sell, but honestly I’m probably only retweeting to people who already follow you. I think if there’s a way to tap into the Japanese market then that would surely open up to a much larger fan base than us I’m guessing 40-50 regular customers. Although unlike the foreign fans who are happy to support multiple groups the Japanese fans do seem a bit reluctant to that idea. The idea for video face to face cheki time is good, but the one time we tried it didn’t work particularly well, but maybe it’s possible now that more people have been used to using Zoom etc during the last 18 months. Photos - if you can tap up the art crowd for sales then all good, from a personal view I can’t see me buying any or the posters. I have multiple signed movie posters that I haven’t framed and hung up so makes no sense for me to add to the pile. How have sales gone on the previous large photos you’ve had? Does it warrant producing more or are they just going to take up space in the office? (Not trying to be harsh just realistic). Perhaps putting up some more preorders for the photo books or CDs etc, I’m sure the foreign fans don’t mind paying upfront and waiting a few weeks for them to be released, that way you’d get some money in early and also gauge how many you’d sell/need to produce. Anyway I’ll be doing an IU order today, unfortunately not for the thousands you need, but hope it’ll help a bit. Stay strong and good luck, Graham

2021-09-28 07:19:41 +0000 UTC

Romy chan, your words are so kind and helpful to me. Thank you for taking the time out of the busy uni schedule that you must have in order to give me some thoughts! I welcome them. Truly!!! As for the anime items... that's an idea... I really would not have a problem opening up another store online and putting Japanese items on there, but I feel that in the case of hunting down items, that's going to be very time-consuming for me. What about a website here though? You were mentioning there are Japan only sites that maybe I can help people with? That's an idea if there is such a thing... please shoot me a twitter message or private message and tell me about them. I like this idea ALOT. There is a part of me that wants to sell some of the photos from the photobooks as art pieces... some of the shots are so beautiful that I think somebody in the world might actually enjoy having an Aku picture hanging above their couch at home, or in their study, or maybe a Matcha Latte sexy piece to make a room more lively? But the art world is a world that I often admire but have never penetrated. But like... running a set of giclee prints and selling out of those would be great... but is there an audience for that? I am not a famous artist, so probably not. The idea of talking about the idols more... now that's something I can DEFINITELY do, but... again, time consuming. I try to connect everybody via the online cheki sessions, but your right... if there was a way to kind of illustrate who these idols are via my writing, the maybe that would work? Or perhaps some other way? So... let me see what I can do there. Up until now, I use Patreon to give my impressions of the idols, but I can do it more publicly perhaps and that might be something I'll have to really try. But what would work best in this sense? Do you guys want me to write up a bio about them based on my personal encounters? Or do video stuff? or...? That's something I want to figure out for sure. Anyway, thank you so much for these thoughts. I'm still completely screwed at this point, but there's still a few days left and maybe something can happen. Maybe I'll get some kind of light at the end of the tunnel, or a benefactor who gets me and what I'm doing and throws me the cash I need to continue the art and crazy stuff I'm doing here... but it's all about reaching more people, so... that's where I get stuck a lot. Marketing takes time, and I am sorely out of time. Thank you though. I really appreciate it so so much. It's very comforting to know you are out there thinking about me! Love ya right the eff back!

2021-09-27 14:54:28 +0000 UTC

Hi Derek! I'm going to try and brainstorm with you on how to make more sales / make a new income source. I should put my uni knowledge to use and help you out in that way. I had one idea already for the second income stream; I've seen a lot of people that live in Japan or mostly abroad resell Japanese things, mostly anime merch. What they do is they set up an account (often on Instagram) and they'll make posts with a certain item, let's say an anime figure. Then people can say they want the item, they pay (either 50% or 100%) for the item, a small commision fee and shipping. Then the person 'reselling' these items buys the item and ships it to the person. Some also offer a service that people can tell which item they want and the person running the account will find it for them, with an extra commission price of course. You (hopefully) don't lose money because you only order the items after the person has paid. Most of these accounts/shops are based abroad so the process takes longer and is more expensive because they have to ship it to their country first and then to the person who wants the item. Because you are in Japan, this might make things faster and cheaper for the customer. If you need more information, let me know! As for increasing sales on IU, I think it's important to focus a bit more on finding new loyal customers and also marketing the idols a bit more. For the first point it might be difficult because the customer market is not the biggest and you might have already reached its full capacity. For the latter, I think that if fans are able to know more about the idols, they'll buy more. For example, you talked about how JyuJyu is so big in Japan but doesn't sell well on your site. Your podcasts already start to make people interested in them (at least for me), but if you can provide more on them then people will also start buying. That's why Miho sells so well (and MBE used to as well), because you've done an amazing job at connecting them to the foreign fanbase. The cheki sessions, the interviews and these podcasts are already a great way, but maybe there is more you can do? I also think it’d be a cool idea if there are cheki sessions where the idols can actually see and talk with us through sites like discord or the one you used last year for the Derek chekis and Miho joined. I’m not sure how this is looked upon in the idol world and how idols would feel about it, but I think it’s definitely possible with Miho and Kosame since you manage them? You could set a certain starting price and then every added cheki is the usual amount. Let’s say it’s 2000-3000 yen for one cheki + 2 mins of talking to the idol. Every added cheki is the usual 1000. Maybe if you buy 5, you get an extra minute or two of time. The regular cheki sessions are already a lot of fun but these cheki sessions are extra special and put in more money. I think you put out a monthly package item for Saya. Would it be possible to do this for Miho and Kosame too? This should bring in some extra income every month. Let me know what you think. You’ve been in the business world for far longer than I have been but I’m just combining my uni knowledge + my fan knowledge. As always, lots of love. Romy

2021-09-27 11:59:54 +0000 UTC

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