| The Making of a Fee Based Internet Award Part Two | ||||||||
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| The Making of a Fee Based Award Site or why we never really did deserve all that free stuff.
Part Two.
If you have not yet read Part One of this article, may I boldly suggest you take a minute and do so now. 3,000 hours, a 28.8K USR Modem and a 2 MB Video Card. The only good thing about building a successful Website without 30 million in venture cap and a 200 million dollar IPO is that your mother is proud that you're doing things the old fashioned way. As the man said - "they earned it!" There's something wholesome about that and it cures the envy. Of course, I and (most likely) you, were not invited to any of those dot-gone farewell bashes. How does champagne taste at a cool $500 US a bottle anyway? I kept my day job and I hate champagne, so I was happy to be left off the list . Three thousand hours spread over three years may not sound like much but divide it by 1095 days and you have 3 hours a day seven days a week. That, to me at least, is a busy hobby. Convert that to dollars (time is money) and that equates to about $180K. That is what I consider my investment in Surfers Choice and if you have it, I'll sell it to you soon as I finish this article. It's a great deal of time and effort dedicated to doing something for free - and I mean with no thought of making even a dime. Of course millions have done just that and more. I am not alone, I am not special and I am no better than the guy next door and I am just as crazed as others who have sold their souls to the Web. Bring your umbrella, it's raining award applications!! The first three years of running Surfers Choice, although laden with much fun and pleasure (translation: "I actually met some real decent people") were tantamount to catching pennies from heaven with a bean bag. There were days when I would get upwards of 150 submissions and with a 28.8 modem, a plain old Pentium with 32 MB of RAM and a video card slower than a turtle with glue on his belly, that equates to a whole lot of time wasted. Consider that 95% of those submissions came from "Award Collectors Central" (ie, I gotta free Website and I just made my first Webpage, so gimme a darn award buddy! Rules and Standards? Huh, I got none, why should you!) and you have, what is best described as boredom at its quintessential best. All my riches for a moment in time. It is reported that these words were uttered by a dying Queen Victoria of England. Whether truth or legend the statement aptly puts into perspective the value of time. Not even Master Card can buy you another minute when it's all passed you by. So with pure and simple logic I made the decision (circa April 1997) that providing my time free to review haphazardly submitted award applications was foolhardiness. This was the month that Surfers Choice became a fee based service. Charging a fee has virtually eliminated applications from this aforementioned group and has allowed for time to help those that are deserving of it. It was not a business decision at all. It was the only solution I could find to dam the flood. As it turns out, it stands as the best thing I could have done. Pro bono assignments are essential or why people won't care unless they know you do. Surfers Choice provides free services to the Think Quest Project. If you want to see young people with skills and good manners visit http://www.thinkquest.org/ see why we think so highly of this organization. I recently did a free Internet seminar for youngsters at our local community centre and was able to provide a very close to free Website for another local Community Outreach. So running a business, which is what Surfers Choice is, means being a contributor to your community and to your customers. Providing pro bono services is an essential element and one that must be taken on with sincerity and commitment. It is rewarding to help those that need it, especially when you actually meet them and communicate with them. One must truly care about others. When people see you care, they will care. The buck doesn't stop here I firmly believe in the concept of free enterprise. It is the foundation of our Health Care System here in Canada. It is why I can buy a newspaper (and for 50 cents still the best deal anywhere) and watch a movie for just $8 on any afternoon I choose. It is part of the reason why people are living better and longer. The whole things depends of the flow of money. Money is nothing more than a reward for services rendered; it is not the root of all evil. It's what some will do to get it that is the evil. The money is benign. Those that are industrious and honest (just about all of us, thank God) are the ones responsible for the greatness of our free society. There is nothing wrong with charging a fee for providing a good service or product. In fact it is the right thing to do. The buck does not stop at Surfers Choice. Each and every month Surfers Choice pays its server fees; its long distance and toll free bills; buys software on the Net; purchases hardware; pays for newsletter subscriptions and makes other more significant contributions. Every dollar we spend filters its way back to others in some way. This means that another benefits because we receive and give back. You do the same thing everyday. Charging a fee means giving great value in return. If we only consider Internet award sites that charge a fee for service (and there are not many around), then Surfers Choice is not in a competitive environment. However there are many superb award sites out there that provide an excellent services for free. So why would anyone pay for an award, if they are free as the air we breath? In my opinion, for what ever it's worth, few Website owners would part with their money for an award. They would want something more if a fee is involved. However, having said that, realize that there are some 12 million site out there. Yahoo!, still the most visited directory on the Web only has about 600,000 listed sites. Only 5% of the entire Web. They (Yahoo!) also charge $200 for a site review and I'll bet few pay for that either - well, I guess about 5% realize the need to be listed there and can afford it (or are at least willing to pay for it). I'm certainly not comparing Surfers Choice to Yahoo! (heck we're much more fun), but we are gaining ground. Only 326 ,567 behind in the Nielson ratings - not too shabby:-) People will pay for what they perceive to be of value to them. It's really that simple. So what's different about Surfers Choice? I believe most of us strive to be unique and to put out our best efforts to service our customers. That's really what I focus on. So I don't know how, if at all, Surfers Choice is different, but I can list what we do for our site visitors and award applicants. 1) Surfers Choice has been on the Web for near seven years. Our name is reasonably well branded. 2) We focus as much on our site visitors (those in search of content) as we do on our award applicants. 3) We run contests to attract site visitors to view our listed sites and use our directory services. 4) We (Technomax and Surfers Choice) have an opt-in subscriber list of nearly 20,000. 5) We have a search engine, a Web directory, a directory of free services and feature site reviews as well. 6) We sponsor an annual Site of the Year Vote that involves site visitors. Although the majority of the marks for a site to earn that distinction are provided by our judges, those that visit and vote have a voice as well. 7) We have a Newsletter that provides site announcements to our awarded sites as part of the service. 8) We have content in terms of articles, free scripts and the like. 9) We have the ability to deliver rich media. 10) We'll have an affiliates program sometime in May. 11) We offer a free basic award service to site members. The doors are open to all that have exceptional Web content. There is more coming in the months ahead as I continue with this incessant challenge. Our focus is on getting exposure for our resident sites and that means a dedication in terms of time and money. See my mouth, that's where my money is. Just about every dime that Surfers Choice has earned has gone back into the site. I have a UNIX server of my own and seem to be purchasing Internet related software on a regular basis. I am currently working on the development of a much more powerful directory software package which is necessary to move to the next level. Building a business is a great deal of fun, but there is a huge price to pay in terms of time and money. That does come with the territory. If I have seen farther, it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. Those are the words of Sir Isaac Newton and well spoken indeed. Perhaps the greatest thing any of us can do is to help others by elevating them to a loftier place by sharing our visions and experiences. Teaching another how to fish is far more prolific than just handing over the fish. I have been self-employed for 27 of my 31 years in the working world. Had it not been for others who have stooped to allow me to stand on their shoulders and who have taught me how to fish, I would have never enjoyed the best life has to offer. There is no need to list names here as I make it a point to thank those I love every day. I am just extremely grateful that my life is so full of true winners. You now know the simple story behind why Surfers Choice is considered a fee based award service. It was done to ward of the evil award collectors :-) and it worked very well. The reduction of free Internet services was inevitable. The fact that the Web is losing so many of its free services is good news. Having to earn the things we want out of life develops creativity and ingenuity. Those are the traits of mankind that have lead to our great societies of today. We should encourage the proliferation of art and science. As I have eluded to in part one of this article, the demise of free was inevitable. Advertisers cannot support the huge infrastructure that makes up the Internet and the services provided by the Web. The commercial sector of the Web must be subject to the laws of our economy and recent times have proven that it indeed is. Fear not though some good free things will always be there. I, for one, would rather pay my own way through life. There truly is no free lunch and those that understand this will become contributors to the renaissance of growth and regeneration of values that matter. The wonderful thing about the Internet has little to do with business. Surfers Choice is a business site (part of the way I pay those bills that we all must) and we try to do some good with it. However, it pales in comparison to the doors of communication the Internet has opened for all of us. We are more aware of the world than ever before in our history. Advances in medicine and other sectors will improve life because communication is now instant. This is the real value of the Internet, in this writers opinion. The denouement is yet to come. How will Surfers Choice do as fee based award? I already know the answer to this question. Maybe after reading these two articles, you do as well. However, now is not the time to share this with you. Another final article will address this. Until then, happy surfing y'all. | |||||||