Those Webbers and Bloggers

Having a website or blog is personal, it comes from inside and more so today than ever before people are sharing themselves and their feelings with others through individualised blogs, chat programs and the web. The average person is able to release thoughts as he/she knows that they will 'probably' never have to face the readers or those who have an opposing opinion or viewpoint. People who would normally live their whole lives shrunk inside the neck of their pullover now have an opening through which to talk and for the most part be understood by like-minded people.

It is not the intention of this article to discuss those who start out websites with end profit in mind, nor to entertain those who feel that 'naked ladies for a dollar' websites is the 'bee all and end all' of life! The following article is more pointed to those who would like to say something, who want to just shout out to the world about their recent clamber out of the closet, who want to convince all and sundry that worshipping the yeti works wonders and who simply want to talk about designing igloos in downtown Karachi. If the prospective website owner wants to follow similar subjects then this article will make suitable reading.

It must be clearly stated that out of the millions of blogs and websites started each year, millions more just fold up from a sudden lack of interest on the part of the author/owner. Out of the hundreds of millions or so blogs and websites that last longer than a year (sorry week) the chance of more than one person actually coming along to visit and for that matter staying to read anything is to put it bluntly, one chance in a million.

The web still has a long way to go! Prospective website owners and bloggers somehow assume that the Internet means that if they compile and upload a page of information it is immediately available to 'Sam' in Papua New Guinea as he takes time off from his crocodile farm, 'Jill' as she sits down for a break from Jack and to Bob and Bubba as they scour the Internet for advice on their 'stuck on a remote Island' dilemma! What has to be clearly recognised by all who deal with the Internet is that if a website, blog or page is uploaded into the sky it joins a billion other pages all floating around with nowhere to go. These pages have no home, they are destitute and search engines are not interested in them, they are sky tramps and space junk, and serve no ultimate purpose except to make money for those renting out space in the sky to fools!

Imagine for a moment that websites were shops! If you opened up a corner grocer on the corner of Dopey Avenue and Groggy Street in Puddle on the Marsh you would not advertise your wares in the Brazilian Horse and Hound Magazine. Equally so, if somebody wanted to stand up on a soap box and shout out about the Singapore Governments idea of Democracy then it would not be a good idea to be doing this outside Queen Street Station in the Centre of Glasgow! In other words nobody is in the slightest bit interested (except for some Glaswegian carpet fitters with time on their hands)! The only websites that can advertise anywhere are those that are multi-million dollar companies that span the globe with enough resources and staff to provide services in different languages and to different cultures. Amazon and EBay are two examples of large Internet corporations that are everywhere and they could be likened to land-based enterprises such as 7-Eleven or the Catholic Church!

So you have something to say? To start off a website or blog were the end result would be more than a token visit by aging grandma and a local hacker who was just checking out your computer then some proper planning and research needs to be undertaken. If for example this new masterpiece of creation is all about "I and how I jump started a pig farm", it would be appropriate to advertise on some local farming community website! If it is more specifically about Brazilian pig farming then listing it in some magazine or website that deals with Brazilian Farmers might bring about the possibility of more than one visitor hopping inwards! List it on a search engine that deals with smelly breath odours and the ticker will not be ticking!

The birth of a website could be treated like the growth of a certain grocer in Puddle on the Marsh. After many years Dopey and Groggy scraped together enough money to open up a tiny wee shop that sold little more than baked beans (not Heinz) and condoms (not Durex)! That first month they sold one tin of baked beans and two condoms and desperation was close. But news of their friendly service spread across the marsh like wild fire and before another six months had passed they were nearly down to the last can of beans and had at last sold a whole packet of condoms! With their meagre profits they started out the next year with a greater selection of stock, Dopey decided that frozen sausages on a stick would be a seller, Groggy went for tins of lager and in both cases the shelves were empty by the end of the following year! To cut a long success story short, their shop became very popular indeed, not only across the marsh and surrounding valleys but as far the Big City of London and before they knew it they had accountants and tax-men knocking at their shacks door with forms to fill out. By the end of the tenth year they had customers as far away as Argentina, Kazakhstan and Iceland; Fidel Castro wanted to sell his Havana Cigars through them, Bill Clinton and some jet-setting prostitute in downtown Bombay bought some condoms through their mail order service (separate orders of course). By the end of the fifteenth year they had grocery shops in every major city spanning the globe and were even considering opening up an outlet in the International Space Station!

The birth of a website has to start off small. It has to start off local and it has to be allowed time to grow and build upon itself. If Groggy and Dopey had not persevered they would still be soaking wet in the Puddle on the Marsh! Websites follow similar trends; if the site is good people talk about it. Website addresses are passed around by word of mouth and left on chat boards. They grow on themselves and already established websites will link to them if they feel that there is something substantial to offer.

At the end of the day if a new website is bland, has no original or structured content and is not worth revisiting then other websites will simply not return! If a new website has good and original content, if it is updated frequently with alternative and additional material and if it basically provides a service that others require then slowly and over time the site will grow. The end popularity of a website solely depends on how the webmaster can develop and grow with his own creation!

Dopey and Groggy did it can you?

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.Com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby; June 2006