Keeping RetireJapan Alive

[RetireJapan]

adamu brought up a very good point in another thread, namely what will happen to RetireJapan if I get hit by a bus?

I see RetireJapan as the main site, blog, forum PLUS a bunch of periferal stuff (social media, YouTube, products for sale). I'm not too bothered about the latter, but I would like the former to remain available as a public service if something happened to me. I want it to outlive me.

Right now, another person has access to the web hosting (I've asked them to keep the site going if something happens to me), but the domain is in my personal account, and after 3 years or so would revert to public as my credit cards would no longer be paying the bills.

What can we do in the long term to make this more sustainable? Any ideas?

[Beaglehound]

Actually I think the forum would likely survive without you, though I fear it would descend into a less helpful and ‘safe’ place without your watchful eye. There are enough regular posters who value the place to ensure it would continue. I am certainly one.

The other stuff is more difficult, since it is very much based around you and your work/interests/reading etc.

[RetireJapan]

Actually I think the forum would likely survive without you, though I fear it would descend into a less helpful and ‘safe’ place without your watchful eye. There are enough regular posters who value the place to ensure it would continue. I am certainly one.

The other stuff is more difficult, since it is very much based around you and your work/interests/reading etc.

But the forum requires someone to pay the web hosting fee and the domain fee, and update the software from time to time. Also needs someone to approve new members and their first few posts. And occasionally remind people of the rules

Not sure how long it would last without any human input. A couple of years at best?

[Beaglehound]

Actually I think the forum would likely survive without you, though I fear it would descend into a less helpful and ‘safe’ place without your watchful eye. There are enough regular posters who value the place to ensure it would continue. I am certainly one.

The other stuff is more difficult, since it is very much based around you and your work/interests/reading etc.

But the forum requires someone to pay the web hosting fee and the domain fee, and update the software from time to time. Also needs someone to approve new members and their first few posts. And occasionally remind people of the rules

Not sure how long it would last without any human input. A couple of years at best?

Yes, I would be prepared to be involved financially and moderating-wise for example, and others are tech-savvy. If you wanted to put that kind of ‘succession plan’ together now, I reckon folk would step up.

[RetireJapan]

It would be great to put together an outline of what a robust RetireJapan might look like and what it would need.

To be clear, for me this is the core website/blog, ie everything hosted at retirejapan.com

The outlying social media accounts etc. are less important, although it might be worth figuring out how to keep them alive too.

The YouTube channel for example is just starting to grow but might generate enough passive income to cover webhosting etc in the future.

[kawasemi]

Ideally, some sort of subscription model might be good, in terms of you being able to predict income over time. Wordpress can be used to create a sort of members section, or assign certain content as members only. Content could be very long extensive videos, and keep truncated versions on youtube, or the books you've done on NISA and Ideco. Examples of this sort of model running on Wordpress: 1) I believe there was a PE teacher interviewed on How I built This (1), sharing lesson plans for gym teachers and charging $3 per month for access, 2) I myself pay for $150 per year to a ukulele lesson site (2), where I get access to a vast archive of paywalled lessons (hosted as unlisted vimeo videos on wordpress posts for members only).

It's a tough problem to solve, but in addition to offering valuable content on the key topics for "retire japan", the aspect of community building is important. The forum is a great help. Other things that might work (which maybe you've tried): live Q&A (which could be a podcast, even), or a discord meet-up, or something like that.

Good luck; rooting for you!

References:

1. https://www.thepespecialist.com/
2. https://ukuleleunderground.com/

[RetireJapan]

Ideally, some sort of subscription model might be good, in terms of you being able to predict income over time. Wordpress can be used to create a sort of members section, or assign certain content as members only. Content could be very long extensive videos, and keep truncated versions on youtube, or the books you've done on NISA and Ideco. Examples of this sort of model running on Wordpress: 1) I believe there was a PE teacher interviewed on How I built This (1), sharing lesson plans for gym teachers and charging $3 per month for access, 2) I myself pay for $150 per year to a ukulele lesson site (2), where I get access to a vast archive of paywalled lessons (hosted as unlisted vimeo videos on wordpress posts for members only).

It's a tough problem to solve, but in addition to offering valuable content on the key topics for "retire japan", the aspect of community building is important. The forum is a great help. Other things that might work (which maybe you've tried): live Q&A (which could be a podcast, even), or a discord meet-up, or something like that.

Good luck; rooting for you!

References:

1. https://www.thepespecialist.com/
2. https://ukuleleunderground.com/

Ah, no, that is not at all what I meant

I am perfectly happy to fund the free side of RetireJapan using some of the profits from the paid side and my time. That to me serves the main mission and the reason RetireJapan exists: to help people in Japan learn more about personal finance and improve their lives.

The issue here is how to make sure that continues if I were to suffer some tragic accident

This is mainly legal and administrative rather than monetary.

[kawasemi]

Ah sorry! This is what I get for reading the most recent replies via RSS, rather than the whole thread in its entirety.
My bad!

[AreTheyTheLemmings?]

Well, that's my earworm sorted for today.
♪And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die♪

[TokyoBoglehead]

Maybe a foundation kind of structure?
If just to have some members involved in a board to take over and cover the costs (not huge amounts, I suppose?)

I’d keep the paid stuff out for the time being to ensure you can enjoy the millions and billions of income to come.

It does seem like forming a company might be the way to go? KK or GK? https://ventureinq.com/kk-vs-gk#:~:text ... 034.59%25.