A Vision
[media:20071209210704150 link:0 align:right border:0] For a few moments of your time, I would like to invite you to share a vision with me.
Imagine, if you will, that you are standing in a very dark room. Stretching away from you in every direction are hundreds of glowing lines, crisscrossing and connecting with each other in millions of ways. Below your feet is a small intersection where many lines meet. Lines go out horizontally, vertically, and diagonally away from you. On an impulse, you walk down a line that extends away from you horizontally.
Soon, you come to another intersection. Your best friend is standing there, ready to shake your hand. His closest friends are just a line away, and their friends, and their friends’ friends. Six intersections away, Kevin Bacon stands there, grinning.
Looking up and down, you can see thousands of more intersections, but instead of holding people, they hold words, concepts. Words blink like neon signs, each advertising a concept or category. On one intersection, the word “Cats” blinks slowly, the “S” curling and uncurling, twitching like a tail. Thousands of lines stretch away from the Cats intersection, each holding a particular type of cat, with more intersections stretching away into the distance, growing ever more specific the farther away you look. Nearby, the “Dogs” intersection whines and scratches itself, while the “Antique Wooden Boats” intersection putts away thoughtfully.
Looking around, you can see a veritable crowd of people, each standing on their own little intersection. The crowd fades into the distance in all directions, but you can see that each person is staring intently down a line that extends away from them. Some are staring horizontally, some vertically, some diagonally, and some keep switching their interest from line to line.
After a while, you begin to notice patterns in the directions in which people choose to look. Some people tend to look horizontally, toward their close friends and circle of acquaintances. Some people tend to look exclusively vertically, searching for words and concepts that interest them. Some are switching back and forth between two or three concepts, looking bewildered when the same lines keep giving them the same results. Some people are actually trying to look in three or four directions at once, while chattering away with the nearest people along horizontal lines. Some people stare longingly down a line or two but refuse to reach out and make the connection. And some people just sit there looking confused, staring mostly at their little intersection, plucking the lines nearest them aimlessly.
Welcome to the Internet, 2007. Millions of users, each with their own little intersection, have now become networked with each other. Some people make strong horizontal connections, relying solely on their friends and acquaintances to show them which “lines” to travel along. Some people are keyword junkies, roaming the search engines and indices, looking for what interests them. Some people keep playing the same tune, over and over again, hoping to find something new among their tired list of keywords and concepts. Some people can’t seem to make their minds up exactly what they are looking for and end up bouncing from concept to concept with all the consistency of spring weather. Some people would love to find content and concepts that interest them, but are afraid to look because they might run across a video of David Hasselhoff singing the national anthem. And some people are overwhelmed by the entire thing and mostly spend their time analyzing their navel lint.
Finding pages that contain topics that interest you, and people to form connections with, is a tricky business in the vast world that is the Internet. It’s even trickier when you want to be one of those intersections that people will actually find and regularly visit.
What, in the wide, wide world of the Net, consistently drives users to websites and keeps them coming back? The answer is simple, yet all too often overlooked:
Content.
Not just any content, but rich content. Valuable information, resources, connections with people, time saving information and technology that improves their lives. The kind of information that people need.
Rich content is king. In a world glutted with cheap, worthless information, information overload can be overwhelming. People are looking for the valuable information they need, but they don’t want to have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops to find it.
Somebody has to fill their needs. What about you? You’ve applied yourself to your career with everything you are. You’ve taken the educational steps and acquired the skill sets necessary to do your job, and you pride yourself on your ability to do it well. The day goes by quickly because you’re doing what you love. Who better to lead your customers to what they want… what they need?
Or maybe you are a tired, overworked employee of a non-profit organization. You work hard to make lives better every day. You serve a particular clientele that really needs; that has real requirements only you can fill. They have a need to connect—with each other and with the information they need. Who better to fill those needs?
Maybe you’re just someone with a big idea, one that could turn the world on its ear. How is the world going to hear unless you speak up? Who better?
It doesn’t really matter what niche you occupy. If you have something valuable to give, why not give it? Who else can give what you can give?
And why not? The reasons people give are many. “I could never do that.” “I don’t have time to learn how to write code.” “I don’t understand how it works.” “It’s too complicated.” “I’m not a computer person.” “It’s too expensive.”
At Firewind Productions, we believe in the power of the valuable word. We’ve seen sites become success stories overnight simply because they meet a need, consistently. Maybe that need is something as silly as an annotated database of light-bulb jokes, but if it’s a need, people just like you have discovered just how easy it is to fill it.
What’s more, we believe that you can do it. Who better? ·
Imagine, if you will, that you are standing in a very dark room. Stretching away from you in every direction are hundreds of glowing lines, crisscrossing and connecting with each other in millions of ways. Below your feet is a small intersection where many lines meet. Lines go out horizontally, vertically, and diagonally away from you. On an impulse, you walk down a line that extends away from you horizontally.
Soon, you come to another intersection. Your best friend is standing there, ready to shake your hand. His closest friends are just a line away, and their friends, and their friends’ friends. Six intersections away, Kevin Bacon stands there, grinning.
Looking up and down, you can see thousands of more intersections, but instead of holding people, they hold words, concepts. Words blink like neon signs, each advertising a concept or category. On one intersection, the word “Cats” blinks slowly, the “S” curling and uncurling, twitching like a tail. Thousands of lines stretch away from the Cats intersection, each holding a particular type of cat, with more intersections stretching away into the distance, growing ever more specific the farther away you look. Nearby, the “Dogs” intersection whines and scratches itself, while the “Antique Wooden Boats” intersection putts away thoughtfully.
Looking around, you can see a veritable crowd of people, each standing on their own little intersection. The crowd fades into the distance in all directions, but you can see that each person is staring intently down a line that extends away from them. Some are staring horizontally, some vertically, some diagonally, and some keep switching their interest from line to line.
After a while, you begin to notice patterns in the directions in which people choose to look. Some people tend to look horizontally, toward their close friends and circle of acquaintances. Some people tend to look exclusively vertically, searching for words and concepts that interest them. Some are switching back and forth between two or three concepts, looking bewildered when the same lines keep giving them the same results. Some people are actually trying to look in three or four directions at once, while chattering away with the nearest people along horizontal lines. Some people stare longingly down a line or two but refuse to reach out and make the connection. And some people just sit there looking confused, staring mostly at their little intersection, plucking the lines nearest them aimlessly.
Welcome to the Internet, 2007. Millions of users, each with their own little intersection, have now become networked with each other. Some people make strong horizontal connections, relying solely on their friends and acquaintances to show them which “lines” to travel along. Some people are keyword junkies, roaming the search engines and indices, looking for what interests them. Some people keep playing the same tune, over and over again, hoping to find something new among their tired list of keywords and concepts. Some people can’t seem to make their minds up exactly what they are looking for and end up bouncing from concept to concept with all the consistency of spring weather. Some people would love to find content and concepts that interest them, but are afraid to look because they might run across a video of David Hasselhoff singing the national anthem. And some people are overwhelmed by the entire thing and mostly spend their time analyzing their navel lint.
Finding pages that contain topics that interest you, and people to form connections with, is a tricky business in the vast world that is the Internet. It’s even trickier when you want to be one of those intersections that people will actually find and regularly visit.
What, in the wide, wide world of the Net, consistently drives users to websites and keeps them coming back? The answer is simple, yet all too often overlooked:
Content.
Not just any content, but rich content. Valuable information, resources, connections with people, time saving information and technology that improves their lives. The kind of information that people need.
Rich content is king. In a world glutted with cheap, worthless information, information overload can be overwhelming. People are looking for the valuable information they need, but they don’t want to have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops to find it.
Somebody has to fill their needs. What about you? You’ve applied yourself to your career with everything you are. You’ve taken the educational steps and acquired the skill sets necessary to do your job, and you pride yourself on your ability to do it well. The day goes by quickly because you’re doing what you love. Who better to lead your customers to what they want… what they need?
Or maybe you are a tired, overworked employee of a non-profit organization. You work hard to make lives better every day. You serve a particular clientele that really needs; that has real requirements only you can fill. They have a need to connect—with each other and with the information they need. Who better to fill those needs?
Maybe you’re just someone with a big idea, one that could turn the world on its ear. How is the world going to hear unless you speak up? Who better?
It doesn’t really matter what niche you occupy. If you have something valuable to give, why not give it? Who else can give what you can give?
And why not? The reasons people give are many. “I could never do that.” “I don’t have time to learn how to write code.” “I don’t understand how it works.” “It’s too complicated.” “I’m not a computer person.” “It’s too expensive.”
At Firewind Productions, we believe in the power of the valuable word. We’ve seen sites become success stories overnight simply because they meet a need, consistently. Maybe that need is something as silly as an annotated database of light-bulb jokes, but if it’s a need, people just like you have discovered just how easy it is to fill it.
What’s more, we believe that you can do it. Who better? ·
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