Now more than 25 years ago I first discovered the Internet. Soon it would start to take a main role in my life. I was only a kid. But from the first day I discovered the Internet I knew this was my thing. Never had I dreamed I would be able to make a living from the online world but today I realise it was an unknown dream.
A dream which became reality.
As a kid I have always been a reader. I would read more than 100 pages per day already when I was only 7 years young. I loved my parents’ Winkler Prins(1). On rainy days you could find me in my room, on bed with most of the time at least six tomes around me. I was a knowledge leech as kid already. My parents had a Wikipedia without online connection.
I was a reader with an unsatisfied hunger for knowledge. My life seemed complete.
The Internet, My New Encyclopaedia
I do not want to think of the enormous bills my parents probably had to pay but it was their own fault. They got a modem and showed me the internet. A nice internet. Looking at a monochrome monitor, often cursing at a blinking cursor at the top left of the screen while waiting for the information to download. Information coming from people I didn’t know, people who were all over the world. Lots of stuff to read. Newsgroups. My life couldn’t become better and if one, other than the usual sex, drugs and rock&roll, the internet certainly contributed to me ditching what pretty much every other adolescent did: watch TV, watch the ever more popular becoming MTV and sports. I was different.
In between two parties I would logon and read as much as I could before another Saturday evening of debauchery and alcohol followed. I wanted to read. As much as I could.
The internet provided me with a continuous flow of information, every day more. When mid 90s the main media started to publish their content online I almost immediately ditched my daily habit of reading the newspaper and Knack(2). My life became almost picture free. I read as many words as I could every day, often to the detriment of my social life but there was barely any discussion I could not participate to because I knew something about almost everything.
The Internet is for Text
Excuse me, and you might not agree with this opinion, but using a <h3> tag was both the easiest way and fastest way to display that message, *my* message, quickly and hugely. Maybe I should have used a <h2> tag even.
Even in these modern days of constantly faster connections I still believe in this statement: the.internet.is.for.text. Personally I can not say that I watch one online video per day on average. I love reading too much. Although I have a rather large movie collection, barely ever will I allow myself to take a break from reading and sit down for 2 hours or more, enjoying a movie. Barely ever will I allow myself to take a break from reading.
It’s who I am and although I appreciate Flickr and SmugMug or Vimeo, I prefer reading.
9Rules
I have more than once declared my love for 9Rules. When the ‘content gallery’ launched it was great at what it did: display awesome blogs about several topics. I was an avid lurker reader. As the network expanded I struggled to keep up with more than 140 additional blogs to my daily reading habits and at some point I stopped following the ever-growing network anymore. I figured that I would continue to discover awesome blogs just by reading the more than 400 blogs I already read.
Recently there have been some changes at 9Rules. 9Rules was sold to Splashpress Media, my employer. Because I did not believe the SplashPress Media network was a worthy bearer and owner of the once so thriving and awesome 9Rules, I shortly left Splashpress. But only for a really short time.
Long enough to refocus on the 9Rules.
Some day the unexpected happened. The (online) person who over the last years had inspired me most became the new publisher of Splashpress Media. Scrivs.
Mentoring is the best job ever
I re-entered the Splashpress Media fold and have been having a blast ever since. Never has a challenge been this big and rewarding. Every day again I strive to publish (at least prepare) new valuable content. Not write for traffic but write to contribute to the community. Write to constantly improve. Write to show that I belong on board and am a worthy member of the team.
In the background I have what is probably the most awesome job one can have: I help bloggers. Help them with tips how to find their blogging groove. How to feel great when writing something. My IM is always open and I would rather contribute to, collaborate on an entry for them than ignore them, trying to push out the best content I can deliver. We have seen some awesome results already over the last weeks and I am sure that some of our authors will be headhunted soon.
Because they write valuable content. Not because they know all tricks to rule the search engines and social media. Because their content is awesome.
Today’s there’s nothing more left for me than point you to the latest 9rules blog entry: Let’s refocus on quality content. An entry which makes me happy and makes me want to improve iFranky. Improve enough to some day be proud enough of my work here and submit this site to 9Rules.
Go read it now.
Photo credit: Image by neonihil
Quality content is key to success, I believe!