|
WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: February 16, 2003 WebWord Comment -- I am getting the impression that being mentioned on WebWord is a good thing. For the month of February 2003 so far, I'm averaging about 6,500 page views per day, and about 2,800 visitors per day. Not too shabby. Furthermore, many folks in the usability community send me news to post. That's cool. I'm glad to help. Maybe I should do more to capitalize on all of this traffic and fame. Ha! Or, perhaps I should write a book. What are your thoughts on WebWord in 2003? What makes sense? Good ideas and random thoughts appreciated.
Reader Comments...
For all intents and purposes, Google owns the Web, by virtue of its superior and highly popular search engine. It also owns the history of the Internet, thanks to GoogleGroups, which searches over 20 years of Usenet archives. It owns the present, thanks to GoogleNews, which continually scans the front pages of thousands of online newspapers, deduces which stories editors around the world consider to be the most important, and snags the headlines and lead paragraphs from those sentences to assemble a patchwork quilt that exposes news readers to a wide variety of editorial and political opinions. Will GoogleBlogs somehow cross the line? Can Google be fair to blogs hosted by its competitors? Has the Google Galaxy brought an end to the Golden Age of blogging? Posted by: Den nis G. Jerz on February 16, 2003 11:30 PM
John, do a fetish site. Some people will pay big money for naked usability gurus. You can rake in big bucks in niche markets. Posted by: Flaming Drag Queen on February 16, 2003 11:32 PM
For all intents and purposes, Google owns the Web, by virtue of its superior and highly popular search engine. It also owns the history of the Internet, thanks to GoogleGroups, which searches over 20 years of Usenet archives. It owns the present, thanks to GoogleNews, which continually scans the front pages of thousands of online newspapers, deduces which stories editors around the world consider to be the most important, and snags the headlines and lead paragraphs from those sentences to assemble a patchwork quilt that exposes news readers to a wide variety of editorial and political opinions. Will GoogleBlogs somehow cross the line? Can Google be fair to blogs hosted by its competitors? Has the Google Galaxy brought an end to the Golden Age of blogging? Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz on February 16, 2003 11:33 PM
IMO, what you should do with it depends on your goals (duh, but always worth reminding). [Uh oh, here comes the gratuitous Samuel Johnson quotation: "Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed." (Rambler #2)] Seriously, if you don't plan on making any money on this, do with it what you will. One thing you might consider, though, is trying to get a better sense of what links your visitors click on, as a way of getting a sense of their interests. I don't know exactly how this is done, and I don't know if your server logs will report what happens even if you do spec it correctly. But I have seen some blogs where the url on the link passes the visitor first through an internal link with a redirect, and I've always presumed that that was so the blogger could have some statistic on what's being clicked. I could be wrong, but I am not making this up, and I'm not Dave Barry. If you want to talk more about this, let's have some haggis at the Flaming Red Dining Room. (I think our table is actually in the picture.) Good atmosphere for this kind of bull session. Posted by: Frank on February 17, 2003 12:41 AM
As a 'lurker', I'd like to voice my appreciation for your editorial nouse in the mixture of links you post, and all the great feedback from the worder community. As for feedback, I note that the way I use the site is to look for the entries that have the most comments first, then tend to read those articles. Could an unobtrusive manner be hit upon for further highlighting active discussions (also, would that be desirable)? Posted by: James Tuddenham on February 17, 2003 05:31 AM
BTW: Thanks to whomever linked to my article! (Comp Sci vs. Psych) Just FYI, I didn't understand why this site was called "WebWord" until I read THIS SENTANCE on the "About John..." page: So, I see that "Moving WebWord" is a play on words -> "moving forward" -> alas, we get to the name WebWord. Just a short comment, from one reader's perspective. Best of luck,
James, my webword monthly stats might help a bit. They are updated 2 or 3 times a week (next update in about 7 hours). I would like to see a book. Ihave never understood what "Moving Webword" is about! Posted by: Mac - Dont Attack Iraq on February 17, 2003 07:24 AM
I really enjoy the conversation and the articles posted. There must be a great deal of effort put into this site by John - following and moderating the discussions, the interviews, the article searches and postings etc I would be open to the idea of a yearly subscription. Be interesting to run a survey on how much (if at all) people would be willing to pay to subscribe to webword. Admittedly, there would probably be a drop off rate as well. How many other webworders would be willing to pay? *ducks behind wall* Posted by: Daniel Szuc on February 17, 2003 07:39 AM
Here's some food for thought. If I could make a living doing nothing but WebWord (the web site), I would do it. I would significantly increase the number of postings, articles, interviews, and more. I would do everything possible to be the source of usability and related information. I would also work to make the site more useful, with more features. So, what would it take for me to get in that position? Is this just wishful thinking? Posted by: John S. Rhodes on February 17, 2003 08:36 AM
Yes, it's wishful thinking. First, very few people make enough solely on web commentary and links. Andrew Sullivan is reputed to have raised about $80,000 in a recent pledge week, and that's a hefty sum, but people like him are an exception, and his target market is larger than the usability community. Second, even if the market were there, you couldn't get enough money unless you were viewed as an authority. And if you weren't doing off-the-web usability work, you'd lose your glow. Posted by: Frank on February 17, 2003 08:54 AM
My Homepage has been set to webword.com for about six months. I would like to see a tax paid by all advertisiers that went into a pot that could be used to pay for full time content providers. Salon could be saved and be idenpendent. People like John and Jack could be paid to spend more time flowering. I do agree with Frank that you do need to keep one foot in the 'real' world to keep up your credits. Posted by: Mac - Dont Attack Iraq on February 17, 2003 03:21 PM
You could do what a lot of writers do... get a day job teaching. Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz on February 17, 2003 03:26 PM
A) Love what you do and make sacrifices for your craft. B) Want money in return for what you love and be disappointed that you're not loved in return. Be careful about looking at the Lucky Ones and thinking "me too." If you walk down Road B, and fail, you may not want to return. Blogs as we known them today will be a flash in the pan. One day self publishing will be so pervasive that the term "blog" will be lost in the mix. So many voices will be talking for free that sage words will find little recompense.
I curse the Lord for allowing me so many spelling transgressions. Posted by: Reverend Jim on February 17, 2003 04:58 PM
How to make money: provide a product or service that people want and are willing to pay for, and do so at a cost low enough to to create an acceptable surplus to make it a good business for you. How to make money on the web: Web site subscriptions have not been very successful, only a few sites (other than porn) have been successful with paid subscriptions. More organizations have been successful in using their sites as marketing tools, in that their web presence is a channel to the core products/services that they offer. Regarding selling ads, I don't know that your volume and user demographic is going to yield lots of revenue, and that having a higher ad volume wouldn't change the nature of the site. On the other hand, companies may be willing to pay for targeted, personalized usability advice - - consulting, in other words. The rates that companies are willing to pay are based on their experience with other consultants and service firms, and should be sufficient to sustain a reasonable life style if you can drum up enough business. Posted by: mcw on February 18, 2003 11:07 AM
Can you afford to take a year of? If so, spend a year doing exactly that: more content, more useful features, and try to figure out what people will pay for. Experiment full on with different ways of collecting revenue and building traffic and usefulness. If not, you will never know if it could have worked. It's certainly not a certainty, but you might make it. You might get away with combining it with usability work - but only take the good jobs. How much would it cost you to try this out? You really want to do it -it's been an ongoing theme on here for years. Do the math: what if you live low budget for a year? Posted by: Peter on February 18, 2003 01:28 PM
Home | Moving WebWord | Cool Books | Hot Web Sites
URL: http://webword.com/weblog/ ©1998-2005 by WebWord.com. All rights reserved. |