Category Archives: Community

Back when I first had a consulting practice, in the 1997 – 2000 period, online marketing was very different.

I put up a website (had worked at an ISP, learned a bit there) using one of those do-it-yourself software programs (will post the name when it comes to me), managing all the linkages and parent-child relationships, choosing the look from the set options, etc..

It was a lot of work, but fun too. Then, I published it!

On to my domain that I had registered, via an ISP I had a relationship with.

And then I waited, hopefully, for people to find it!

It was like constructing this beautiful, elaborate structure.. on the edge of a cliff. Then, standing beside it, staring out into the vastness — hoping that some human energy from somewhere would boomerang back in return. Certainly that did happen, sometimes, for some people. Not so much for me though. Accounting services just aren’t all that compelling, really. Lesson learned, now all sorts of other content as well. Still – so nice to not have that chasm-staring thing going on any more!

I didn’t know anything about whatever search processes were in place at the time. There certainly was no online blog community like this with any ‘dashboard’ or ‘followers’ or anything.

Just had to hope that somebody would click on it from my web address in an email, or from a posting on an online forum.

Things are *so* different now.

I tend to look askance at some aspects of social media – the inserting of commercial relationships in to other social contexts, the privacy issues, the manipulations. However, the ease of access itself is so wonderful now. Remembering back makes me that much more grateful for all that is in place now. Definitely worth the struggle of minimizing the bad to have the good!