About
About me? - read the ‘Good news’ just below
About Me
Good news - you are probably smarter than me
Why is that good news??
The editor of DigitalWildWest.com is reasonably smart but knows his limitations. He is slow on the uptake and needs things explained several different ways for quite a while before fully understanding abstract concepts or complex instructions.
He is, however, an experienced electronics technician and IT support professional grinding a living at a small Telco supporting two hundred very smart but very, very lazy (wrt) computer users.
How do I know they are smart?
Their pay checks are much larger than mine and so are their offices.
How do I know they are lazy?
A typical helpdesk exchange:
"(Me:) Have you tried restarting the computer?
(Client:) What? Computers can do that?"
Sigh!
Another thing about these very lazy clients of mine - their cars are newer, homes bigger ..
Not convinced?
Final proof I lack smarts.
While I sit in a small dark room full of sad old computers and pound out these faintly useful pages, my two hundred lazy clients are at beaches, bars, restaurants, camping, boating, skiing, driving their shiny fast cars between resort and mansion ..
Further disclaimers
The author is NOT a guru at anything. He certainly isn’t a Professor of Computer Science, a geeky genius, egghead, expert - not even a part-time tutor for struggling high school students.
Nup, just Mr. Average.
Why is that good news?
If I can do this, so can you!
About you
The content of this web site, like most English-language web sites, is aimed at the main demographic on the Internet: native English-speakers in so-called ‘wealthy’ or ‘developed’ countries.
Also, of course, that highly-educated middle-class or elite of any nation whose second language is English.
I am fully aware that many, perhaps numerically most, of you own neither dwelling, vehicle, or even the computer displaying this page. [More on this in point 5, below.]
These pages are for diverse groups of people, all of whom are sufficiently ‘computer literate’ to have accessed the Internet, asked the question of their favorite search engine - and arrived here.
If you are reading this, you probably have a strong desire to conquer computer operations, feel secure on the Internet, and very likely get your own website or blog.
DigitalWildWest is for you if:
1. Most likely, you are an educated, professionally-skilled worker and the computer is your primary "tool of trade". Most work you do is via keyboard and silver screen and the tasks are quite complex and demanding. You browse the Internet for several reasons, mostly to support your professional knowledge, to maintain personal finances and, increasingly, buy online.
2. Maybe you use a computer at work for more tedious tasks (clerical, data entry, sales, operate machinery) and you’re glad to see the end of it. But after dark, when dinner is eaten and television enters the dead zone, your mind wanders and you feel the need to ‘go online’ - typically email friends and relatives, or catch up on news from abroad.
3. You might have a job, or work part-time, or full-time tending a family. Bored witless, trapped by circumstances, the unused computer in the corner beckons as a means of escape - either as a ‘home business’ or maybe to bring your dormant but special skill or talent online. And very likely you are afraid of that computer, and it’s playing up, making your life worse than better.
4. Facing retirement, you have decided, as lifestyle turns on its head, to "finally get on top of that computer". You’re smart, keen, inquisitive - but never confronted these ‘new-fangled’ devices, letting computers, now cell phones, iPods, MP3 players, digital cameras, blackberrys, blueberries - all the high-tech toys of recent years - pass you by.
5. Without being condescending, there is a large group of people not normally considered by English language websites which uniformly target English-speaking, financially-secure, relatively wealthy people with a comfortable life style. Websites target the English-speaking wealthy in all countries, of course, but primarily in Europe and North America - and that isn’t you! English is your second language, you area student or tenant, probably believe you will never own a vehicle or dwelling - but hope to. You are educated but your parents are poor. You have access to a computer at work, hopefully also at home. Your computer skills might be rudimentary, or extremely high (literally, programming or IT level). Despite your knowledge and education, work is difficult to get, hard to keep - the competition is fierce; odds of failing cruelly high. You believe an opportunity exists (for some, your only hope) ‘online’, most likely a website to make money from.
6. A business person who knows it is time - and now essential - to have a website. You cannot afford an IT professional to maintain your small but growing office network, and definitely can’t pony up the small fortune for a website guru to build that online presence. You are resigned to the fact if you can’t do it yourself, it won’t happen.
To all of you DigitalWildWest.com is dedicated.
Free information, as much as I can write. IT brain-dump online.
About this web site
Construction
Originally I chose a conventional website template purchased from BoxedArt.com then customized using a powerful array of software, like DreamWeaver.
With careful advice (from us, of course!) you will get similar results using free or very cheap smart alternatives.
Lately (very late in fact, late 2007) I decided to migrate most of my websites to WordPress and use professionally-designed FREE templates, or "themes."
DigitalWildWest.com became, in effect, a ‘blog’ that looks like a ‘website.’
Marketing and Monetization
An ugly word but something that’s always fun. Firstly, a professional design and branding, marketing and promotion, then ad some ads.
The advertisements are also free of course :0) At the simplest we have Google Adwords. And before the big bucks arrive you can still have classy-looking adverts even if you must give them away.
All these components can be cost-free. Except for the web hosting.
American English
It’s here to stay. I learned English English as a child, which means knowing hundreds of words with almost identical spelling - one American, the other English. Thanks, Noah Webster. This website has chosen American (U.S.) spelling because I believe resistance is futile
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