An ‘Independent Web Advice’ Blog

It is amazing what you find out with a bit of idle surfing.

I was born in 1970 (yes I am that old!). Of the millions of animal species alive on Earth when I emerged into the world, a massive 31% have since become extinct! Never to be seen again. We have killed them all.

What amazing creatures, what mysterious life forms, what organic compounds have we lost forever? And why? So that my plastic christmas tree can be stuffed with plastic toys in plastic based wrapping paper. The whole shebang shipped accross the globe mostly from China. (And the myriad of other trivial items we seem to think are worth more than the entire world!)

If you haven’t already, I urge you to visit the wwf web site and consider joining them.

Did you know that the UK has twice as many people in it than it’s biocapacity can cope with! No wonder it often feels like we live in a toilet or a rubbish tip.

What truly terrifies me is that nature always persists. How will it decimate the Human threat? War? Famine? Drought?

I can hear the horses of the apocalypse approaching even as I type.

Feeling a bit down about the stupidity of our so called ‘humanity’ - Paul.

Time and time again I am asked by customers and clients “why isn’t my website working?”.

I ask them a simple question, “what do you want from your website?”. Most people do not know. They wave their arms meaningfully in the air with a serious and ponderous face, but usually the answer is the same - more business.

Yet when I look at their sites they are often a cross between a business plan and a very boring, often unread, brochure. Who we are, where we are based, how to find us, how to contact us, what we do, our services, me me me me me me me.

If you want someone to give you money, then tell them what you will do for them. Talk about them, their life, their needs and wants. Not your own. I can assure you that no-one goes online with a burning desire to know all about you. People want to learn something about themselves and unless you talk about them, empower them, inform them, give them something of value, your visitors will just dissappear again.

The trouble with your website is not your website, it is you and your business. Positioning your website in the first place is sometimes the most difficult of decisions. Repairing an otherwise wayward site is usually a case of starting all over again. From scratch. With a blank canvass.

So sort out what you actually want your website to do (more business is not good enough). Remember to make these goals SMART, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and with timescales included. Otherwise you may as well be sailing without a rudder, orienteering without a map or on a picnic without any food. (For the less troubled by coarse language, you are pissing in the wind.)

What do you want your website to do? Got an answer? Is it S.M.A.R.T.?

Paul

This is an example page that I shall be deleting in a moment.

Actually, I shall leave it here and add to it.

• I don’t like deleting posted to comments.
• I often want to test something and I shall continue to use this post.
• If you are reading this, please don’t, it is just a test posting
• I wonder how many Internet users are so bored that they are still reading?

A much better and more interesting post is the one just before this. (Probably the ones that came after too!)

What do you do with a real monster? Do you try to tame it? Do you placate it? Or do you pen it up so tight that it can’t get out and cause any damage.

On the internet there are two types of people. Those that respect the web sites of others, and there are those that see the web as a source of soft victims to gain free advertising from.

The first set are the users that use forums and blogs, to leave genuine comments, criticisms and questions. To learn and grow by using the web to talk to others, to hear what they have to say and to seek advice.

The second set are the spammers, the rude and indecent people of low moral fibre that prey on unsuspecting web sites. Yet it is my web site that is penned up as tight as I can make it. The spammers are free to roam where they please.

I hope to see the day that we can gather together in a web mob, to flock to the doors of the spammers and burn their web sites to the ground.

At first the spam postings made me laugh. Then they made me smile. Now I simply treat them as the dirt they are. Splashing pornography and pimping sub grade virility drugs to the masses, these people are criminals, and only a step up from the mugger in the dark alley.

Spam has never made it onto my site because I personally read and moderate every post. So to any potential spammers out there - if I knew who you were, I would drag your filthy criminal arse through the streets and into every court I could find. I would not rest until you were behind bars. You are a leech on the web, a pestilient infestation that one day, when we have the powers, we will exterminate.

Long live the free and open web. Death to spammers.
Paul Drewett
Independent Web Advice

PS The spam postings that have been attempted involve gambling, pornography and drugs. The spammers must be so proud of themselves. I am sure their mothers would be so proud too if they knew. If these postings got onto my web site, they could damage my standings with search engines and users. So thank you for trying to damage me. If I ever meet you, I will stamp on you, like the locust you are.