One advance requirement I set for myself was that I didn’t want to just
“rant and rave” on the topic. To the best of my ability I would try to give
both sides of the controversy. Also, I would take a
reasoned, logical approach, and support my contentions with facts and evidence
as much as possible.
But it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I approached the task, because of
the atmosphere I perceived surrounding the Clinton presidency.
My assessment of the administration
was that they didn’t hesitate to use the power of the office – that
is, intimidation and force
– to play hardball with people who didn’t share their
outlook. But this
feeling dissipated considerably when I actually started exploring the topic on
the internet and found sites like “Abortion is Murder” that made mine look very
mild and temperate in comparison.
Since it was written over a considerable length of time,
you can also see my writing
skills develop, from rather awkward at first, to eventually
becoming more fluid. It starts out with what may
seem obvious to some, then becomes more sophisticated as it goes along. For others, it may represent a first look, and understanding, of what
lurks just below the surface of the debate.
As I mentioned,
as time went by, I seemed
drawn back to it by additional in-
sights even though I was focusing on other tasks at the time. But as spring of
the first year approached
– approximately 6 months
into existence – I hit a peak of 44 visitors in one day and
then tapered off to only having a daily audience in the single digits. The high day resulted mostly from my contacts with
related organizations, and the lower days would have been even lower if it
hadn’t been for a few referrals from a like minded organization that didn’t
have a web site.
At first I suspected I might be being blocked. So I stocked up on
blocking programs to check it out. But by following my trackers, and listening
to my wife, who is a school teacher, I began to understand that my site was seasonal.
That is, that not only were a lot of people on vacation in the summertime, but
school was out, and a large portion of my visitors were students who found my
site to be a valuable resource for writing reports.
But with such a small audience, I began to wonder whether it was worth
the effort, and what role it might play.
So I began to think in terms of what niche it could fill. But as I mulled it over I continued
to add to the site, and came to some conclusions. First of all, I thought it was a worthwhile thing to
be doing. And if students found it to be useful, I should
try to cater to them somewhat.
Since I could see from
my trackers that my
student audience began at the grade school level, I would assume that they knew very little
about the topic, just by virtue of
not having been around very long.
And my college audience would probably be largely scornful of religion –
or so I thought – so I would be careful to keep my site secular. I didn’t want
to do the same thing other people were doing, and it seemed like the other web
sites and organizations were mostly faith based. I hoped those faith-based organizations would
appreciate that I could reach people they couldn’t.