Audience Building

When it comes to drawing attention to my ideas, I really struggle. I'm sure the way most people achieve success on the net starts with a large network of friends from who website owners build momentum. But for people who lack a large network of friends, or who are operating in stealth-mode (or both), gaining an audience on the web is particularly challenging. Certainly the stealth-mode aspect of my web efforts is very challenging. I want to engagae my co-workers, but I feel such as thing is inappropriate. I wouldn't ask co-workers to purchase tupperware, or sponsor my kids soccer team...so asking them to essentially either test my website or click on my ads is just plain wrong. I suppose if I were creating a website that directly benefitted them in a professional way, then fine; however, I tend to think that would also create a dilhemma for me as it would likely represent a conflict of interest between me and my employer. For example, if I felt a co-worker was unhappy at work and I recommended he check out my cool job posting site, that might bode well for me and him, but not very well for my employer. Even if it all worked out in the end for all parties, employers are very focused on retention, so an inside source of headhunting is really counter-productive.

Anyways...I'm trying to walk the fine line between avoidingg a conflict of interest and gaining an audience for my site. I'm trying to follow the path of patience - letting Google do its thing, blogging about my experiences, resisting quick-fix ideas like email spam or wedging my content onto digg/netscape, etc, etc. Having said that, I did make an effort to get my site on Digg, and it really felt like pandering, so I kind of gave up. I mean, that kind of shameless self-promotion...that's really not what I am about here. This is my "beads", my "candles"...you know? My hobby which will never really make any money, but the fantasy that it just might is what makes it fun. If you have ever watched The Office, you know what I'm talking about - Jan has her candle business, which is just an absurd business model. In much the same way, a website is a pretty absurd business model, which is why I do this because I enjoy it. I've already stated that I also enjoy the fantasy that it might make money...but I will not be investing much myself, nor will I be accepting investment money from family/friends.

So the path to audience building for me is "slow-burn". I've put out some notes to heavily read bloggers, like TechCrunchand Mashable, and although it is perhaps a fine line, I consider my efforts to be grass-roots, as opposed to big bang. Its not like I'm making TV ads, or having wrestlers tattoo SoarPort.com on their face.

One other point I will make here is that about advertising; and don't think it weighs lightly for me. My preference would be to not have advertising on my site. It cheapens it - big time. But the fact of the matter is that advertising is the only way in which I believe it is possible to make money on this site - not a huge amount, but enough to cover costs - at least for the short to mid term. There are some features which could be categorized as premium services which could be added to the existing SoarPort concept, and a fee could be associated with those improvements. But the core idea would always have to be free for anyone to use. I think most surfers agree that google ads are a fair price to pay for viewing/using content online. In fact, people are so used to them, it is debatable if they have much merit. I suppose it is a bit of a chicken and an egg thing - you need a large audience to make ads worthwhile; but by then you probably have other revenue options you can consider that would be more lucritive. And to get that audience, you have to hope you don't ostracize the early adopters with ad-overkill. So, a fine line...and hopefully I haven't ham-fisted my way over it.