(What am I trying to achieve, why and how.)

Reading the comments at Big News Margate I see that Tony may have the idea that I'm only interested in ratings (Blogging Controversy rumbles on, comments). So perhaps I am guilty of giving this impression to people. After all I am only a human being and as such like everyone else I make mistakes sometimes.

I would like to create a successful blog (who would not?) and yes I do have to justify my time in terms of earnings as part of a greater whole. This is both the joy and the downside to working with oneself as the boss. But beyond these limits what am I trying to do?

I am trying, in my own small way, to make my hometown a better and nicer place to be. I am also trying not to loose too much money doing so. How am I am trying to do this and why I am now going to outline.

My wider aims

Thanet has a very low uptake of modern technology among businesses. I fear that this gives Thanet a massive handicap to work with and exposes not just us but our children and their children to unacceptable risk. So part of what I blog about is written to share what I know so that this handicap can be overcome.

The reason I know about these issues is that this is my line work. I have experience in the subject and therefore I would jolly well expect me to know what I am talking about. If by some happy marriage of needs and services I gain new clients from this then that's all well and good and puts food on the table.

I refuse to charge excessive prices (as I have mentioned before) and so I miss out on pocketing vast wedges of cash. I feel this is worthwhile because I would rather see business flourish from my services than struggle to find the money to pay me.

So my wider aims are to stimulate a literacy of modern web media in the business world of Thanet. To this end getting good ratings acts as a justification of my claims and so they are important to me but only as a measure of my success and not as an end in themselves. Various scores and rankings can be used as an indication of popularity and of accuracy in addressing the needs of readers.

So rating are important but only as measures of what you are doing. For example part of what I am trying to do requires that ThanetStar.com be noticed by Google, Yahoo and other engines (like MSN). This is not because getting a massive ranking (or not) is an end but getting listed does allow the resources I hope to produce here to be found.

This is what, a lot of things "online" boil down to. Making sure people can find what you are offering. It matters if you are selling carpets, cars or home made cards.

It matters if you are an accountant or an alternative therapist.

It matters because without being noticed you get no readers, no comments and no customers. So it maters to me because it will matter to my clients. It maters that I can say, "yes, I rank well for my chosen search terms". After all how can I claim to be an expert and do otherwise?

But some things matter more.

It matters to me that what I do and what I write advances the general good of Thanet. It matters to me that by writing on this blog (and others) that I satisfy some need or requirement for the people that read what I write. At the end of the day it also matters that I can earn a living. I can only do that by being good at what I do.

Being good at what I do means being good at it all. The SEO, the ratings, the writing, the design, the code, the networking, the promotions, the earnings and the problem solving. There is only me doing this and I must do it all.

Adullam Limited is not massive company it's just a husband and wife working every hour God sends (and a few he did not) to keep things going. I work a ten hour day, seven days a week. This is because of the thing that maters most. My children.

It matters to me that they get to see their dad. I think it is vitally important to the well being of every child and the future of population as a whole that every child has a stable family life. If I have to give up the chance of better paid work to give them this then so be it. Every child matters and that includes the one's I am fortunate enough to call my own.

But there is a price. If I get ill no code is written, no work is done and no problems are solved. That I am able to maintain the blogs (and there are quite a few) and other projects is due to just two things.

1. Caring deeply about what I do.
2. Having some form of metric to measure with.

So I ask that if I talk too much about levels, conversions, traffic and other measures of what I do here that you will forgive me. There simply is no other metric by which I can justify writing a blog for Thanet that currently earns no significant income. It does not cover the cost of the server, bandwidth and all that other stuff I have to pay for. Maybe one day it might but until then Thanet Star must keep on giving in the hope that it is making a difference.

I hope that does not upset you too much.