I’ve been working on PLUGOLA for a little over 2 years now. It’s actually only been live for just over a year, while the behind the scenes development lasted approximately a year, as well. Like most start-ups, I was really hoping things would take-off sooner than they are. I was prepared (to some degree) for this, but it doesn’t change the fact that I want it and I want it now. I made some mistakes getting things off the ground and there has been many roadblocks that we never saw coming, but putting so much blood, sweat and tears into a project of this magnitude is very exhausting. Yet I’m very far away from even considering giving it up. I’m still very passionate about it and I wholeheartedly believe in it. Of course, there have been days when I’m on the verge of pulling my hair out in frustration and want to give it all up. Part of it is my patience wearing thin, but I think the other part is the myth. The myth that; if you build it, they will come.
I hear this phrase repeated all the time. I’m shocked when I see it in articles and/or blogs that are geared to help others promote and succeed in business, art or simply just a passion. Now, maybe that school of thought works when building baseball diamonds, and obviously it works like a charm in the movies, but realistically it’s a load of crap. For one thing, you must create a reason for them to come. Even the best baseball diamond in the world wouldn’t attract many people until there is a great baseball team playing in it.
Back in 2005, Alex Tew created a concept and web site that made him $1 million; The Million Dollar Home Page. The concept was that, he was selling 1 pixel worth of advertising space for $1 per pixel. He developed a one page web site of 1 million pixels and advertisers could purchase as many pixels as desired for their banner ad. In turn, these advertisements would remain on the site for life. As an advertiser, and owner of the site, this sounds like an incredible deal. The media ate the concept up and people flocked to the site making it a big success. Alex earned $1 million and to this day the site and all the ads remain live. However, there were probably just as many copycat sites as there were pixels. I couldn’t make sense of it. What reason was there for an average surfer to visit a pixel site? Who wants to see a page full of advertisements? ‘The Million Dollar Home Page” was a bit different in that, it was a novelty for it’s time. No one had ever heard of such a thing. Of course most, if not, all of those site no longer exist. And for the advertisers that purchased space on these dead pixel sites, they lost their money and ad.
My point is; no matter if it’s a business, band or web site – building it is simply not enough for them to come. Besides talent, tenacity, hard work and a LOT of luck; it takes substance, personality, patience, nurturing and involvement. Without all of that, you WILL disappear into obscurity…if you were ever made it out of obscurity.
I realize that could be enough to take some wind out of a person’s sail, but I always tell myself, “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it”.