As any marketing weenie can tell you, just building a website is not enough. Life doesn't actually work like 'Field of Dreams', not that I ever saw that movie... but I did read the back of the video box before rejecting it. In Field of Dreams (according to the back of the box) some guy, played by Kevin Costner, goes insane and builds a big baseball stadium in an empty cornfield behind his house in Nebraska, and people show up and start playing ball. Which just goes to show how little there is to do in Nebraska.
On the internet, where I've got plenty of competition, my marketing experience tells me that I have to spam people mercilessly, until they come to my website, and join my user community.
Spam piece #1 (sent about an hour ago, to a bunch of friends & family.) Note, I have removed several misspellings, in an effort to make myself seem more perfect than I actually am:
----- Original Message -----
From: B. Scott Barnett
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2003 2:00 AM
Subject: Announcing new feature at brianbarnett.com - a weblog
In my never-ending search to make my life easier, I have created a weblog. For those who don't know what a weblog (or 'blog' for short) is, it is a sort of online bulletin board or diary. I can post thoughts there, for all the world to see. A bit like graffiti, but more legible.
And people who sign up as online 'members' can post their reaction.
I plan to use it to post updates on my life. So now, you've got more choices if you want to know what is going on with me:
Option 1) Pick up the phone and call my number. Wait until my voicemail picks up. Leave a pleading message about why I should drop whatever I am doing, so that I can call you and give you a status report on my life.
Option 2) Visit my website.
If you wish, you can even join my member community. This entitles you to all kinds of benefits, but because I am fairly new to this weblog software, I have no idea what those benefits might be. Perhaps they are the same kind of benefits that you get if you follow the instructions in a chain letter. You know, avoidance of a hideous curse that creates warts on your back (or worse, on your partner's back!)
Anyway, you can see it here, in its infancy:
http://www.brianbarnett.com/weblog.php
Scott