While i would agree that there is great deterioration of content quality past page five, there are some real unknown gems out there. Below are some still relatively unknown sites. I would be interested in hearing about other quality content sites that are not well known.
Personal Finance
Technology
Misc - www.AnglesAndDangles.com
SQL - www.SQLInfo.net
Java Education (so far) - www.Java-J2EE-Development.com
I use a laptop that cost me under $600.00 for a lot of my computing. It is by far the most powerful machine I have ever had.
This revelation caused me to to drag a 1992 Computer Shopper out of the attic. The title “SNEAK PEEK! Microsoft Windows 3.1″ … “Notebooks Priced To Go - Eleven 386SX PCs Under $2,000″.
A 386SX desktop could be had for the bargain price of $1,400 and included
Buying a new 105mb drive would set you back around $350.00. Yes, mb is correct. And, yes for the RAM mb is also correct and if you wanted to upgrade would set you back around $150.00. CD rom players were new on the horizon and we won’t even go into what you had to pay for a 4x read-only drive.
:-)
Yet in many cases it is the implementation that deserves the blame. The fate and perception of database enterprise applications more often than not rests upon facets of the implementation (tailoring, training, general migration from the old software to the new, etc…).
I have been guilty (as an end user) of bashing software that did not deserve the bash. I remember complaining about how pathetic PeopleSoft ERP was a few years back. A person I was with at the time Frankie L. called me on the carpet. He said PeopleSoft ERP was good stuff and that we apparently did a pathetic job in implmenting it.
He took each of my specific gripes (won’t trouble you with the details) and showed me how the problem was implementation and not the product itself.
I just can’t help but have this love hate thing going with open source software. I suppose open source just lends itself to this kind of attitude. Today I was thinking if there was a company out there that gave away free TV’s what the rest of the TV market would look like.
I do not know if you have ever seen or used the open source software Open Office. It is free, very robust, and for at least 95% of us users out there provides the same functionality and ease of use as Microsoft Office. It has been around for awhile as well. Yet Microsoft still dominates the Office Software (Spreadsheet, Word Processor, Presentation) market.
Getting handicapped children to carry bombs into public areas, and then detonating them remotely.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6889106/
How noble can ones cause be that they could ever justify doing something so awful?
In software we have this bad habit of sitting in roundtable for months on end coming up with plans, many of which are quite good and quite viable.
We then implement these plans, but it is common at the first time when things get tough in the implementation to reconvene, determine that our plan is awry and scrap it in favor of a new one, or we modify the plan to work around the problem, usually circumventing it or taking it out of scope without a thought as to the impact of the consequences.
ARE WE ALL FRIGGIN NUTS?????????????????????????????????
Can you imagine a group of finish carpenters showing up at the Architects doorstep asking him to come up with a new set of plans because they ran into a problem? Or the roofers doing the same. “Oh”, the architect tells them, “Don’t sweat it, we will go live with the first version of the house without a roof”? That should be a big hit with the prospective homeowners.
This is a relatively obscure band because of the music they play
If they were playing back in the day of Pink Floyd, Camel, Genesis, Gentle Giant they wold be right up there in the mix.
What makes them really unique is the lack of vocals. Instruments only.
http://www.explosionsinthesky.com/
Social Networking is the craze. But what is this craze all about…
a) Being able to have a voice on a larger stage?
b) Building community?
c) Our attempt at five minutes of fame?
d) Sharing with others?
e) All of the above.
… likely all of these and a lot more. Is there room for so many voices? Are these voices being heard? Do they really have anything to say? Do it even matter if they do or not?
I would suspect as these type of social communities emerge and prosper they will end up reflecting the same human nature that dictates our local lives.
Why do you have a website?
This for me is the #1 question we all have to answer. If you are here to try and make a quick buck I have one piece of advice. “GO AWAY”. All you are doing is wasting everyones time and perpetuating garbage on the web!
For me it does not make a difference whether or not you are trying to make money, run a buinsess, share a hobby and your knowledge with others, meet and find extended community, or whatever other reason you are trying to run a website.
If you have a passion and love for something chances are one or two of the other 1.175 billion people (according to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) with access to the web will also have a passion and love for the same thing.
It is pretty exciting to note that with only 1.175 billion people on the web, that is only 18.9% of the worlds population is online! (only :-}, hah)
If you have a passion for what you are doing make sure you reflect it in your website. Others over time will be drawn to it.
Later
More on paying ones dues
Though some of our sites have been around now 14 months this is still not a very long time. We are getting at the phase, or are early in the phase that the SEO (search engine optimization) calls “organic growth”. This is really not unique to the web, rather it is a long term strategy. In U.S. business culture, it is hard to think past 90 days.
Anyhow, the first stage of real growth I have found is getting listed with the search engines for terms that are relevant to what you are trying to offer up. At our financial site everydollarmatters.com we are on page one of the big “G” for the search term “budget spreadsheet”. That by itself brings us a good deal of traffic. We are still small potatoes, but you just have to not sweat a load about traffic. I have to admit that I have in the past and from time to time still sweat a load about getting lots of traffic.
It just should not matter what your traffic is. What should matter is that you have something to offer that is of value not only to you but to others as well. This has been our strategy from the beginning. As much as I want sometimes to be an overnight sensation, a “rock star” in this world for our various websites I am generally pretty content with the regular upward growth we are seeing.
My message… focus on your passion, pay more time to content and what you are offering than anything else and take a long lens. If you have something to offer you will see growth.
…More to come…