Editorial - Everybody's a Webmaster
Ever try searching for something using a search engine? No? Well, you should try it once. Depending on what search engine you use, what you usually end up with is some porn, some completely unrelated sites, and a bunch of sites with titles like "Matt's Page - "This is my boring page all about my stupid life. Transformers pics, too." No, I'm not embellishing; this is what people title their web pages. These people undoubtedly got a free website when they signed up for six months Internet access and decided to take up some space right in the middle of the already slow-moving information superhighway. These types of sites have some common traits:
-They're almost always self-titled
-The description informs you that the site or webmaster is boring, stupid, or crazy
-Usually a brief description of the under-18 webmaster and everything you need to start stalking them.
-There is only one page with maybe two pictures. Sometimes there's a list of links to other completely worthless sites.
-The colour scheme makes you feel nautious.
Now, my question is: Why do you bother setting up a web page which you admit is stupid, and serves absolutely no purpose other than to advertise to the world that, given a world-wide medium to express yourself, you have nothing to say? I'm also wondering what secret skills these people possess that gives their sites top billing no matter what I search for.
Unfortunately, it doesn't stop at webpages. Now message forums are getting into the act. If you want an example, go to www.ezboard.com and take a look. Most of the forums people have set up have almost no visitors. Many more are either not even about anything specific or, perhaps worse, about a topic that already has 100+ forums and websites devoted to it.
Let's face it: the Internet is overloaded. With so many Trekkies debating Bat'leth techniques and lonely teens looking for love, NASA scientists can't even get anyone to notice when they land on Mars. And, yes, I realise the hypocrisy of writing this when I'm guilty of it myself. But, hey, at least I'm trying.
What can you do? If you want to start a website, newsletter, or whatever, make sure it's going to be useful and productive instead of a waste of space by following some simple rules of thumb:
1) Select a specific topic or theme- Don't just make a page all about you; no one will care because you're not that interesting. Don't make it about everything you're interested in; no one's going to want to check out a website wondering what in the world will be the newest subject. Don't create a website just for the sake of having your own website. If you want to do something general, like movies, try to narrow down your topic, at least to start off with. Make your page all about movie reviews, or sci-fi movies, or movies with potatoes in them. Anything to let the audience know what to expect.
2) Don't re-invent the wheel- A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they're going to make the best Star Trek web page out there. They imagine Star Trek fans from all corners of the globe flocking to their site. It takes about three days for these people to realise that if you've got an idea, someone has probably thought of it already; there's thousands of Trek fan pages. Make sure someone else isn't already running a great page that covers your subject. If there is one, only proceed with your site if you think you can do better. A good example is one of my favorite sites, theforce.net. They have a lot of great Star Wars news, primarily because they've attracted a good reader base that regularly writes in reporting stuff, as well as some "spies" that give them insider gossip. Now, if you were going to start a Star Wars news site, you'd better have a way to compete with that, either with your own spies and insiders, or with some other form of unique content. The important thing to remember here is find your own talents and abilities, and use those. Don't just make a pathetic copy of someone else's great site.
3) Establish a group of readers- So many sites wither and die simply because no one knew they existed. Get involved with link exchanges. Register your site with search engines. Above all, TELL people about your site; don't expect a lot of hits if no one knows about your site.
Got all that? Now go take down your free AOL account that you set up months ago with a picture of your cat and a link to www.boybands.com; Al Gore is trying to get the latest demographics from West Virginia.
As always, feel free to express your opinions by sending us your e-mail: unnamedplanet@mailcity.com
And as always, if you're a business, feel free to send me free products to try out. I'll plug it on the site like crazy.
UPDATE: Here's a perfect example of the type of lame personal page I'm referring to: www.microsoft.com/billgates/. It even has a dopey photo, which was apparently taken after Bill Gates' first and only shower; his hair usually looks like this:
