Most people are extreme. Take them onto the net and they either develop a mental block and shut down or they decide they are going to take over the world with the next click of the keyboard. Neither of which is any good. The first thing one has to accept if you are going to work on the web is that it is merely a communication tool, nothing more. It’s simple and you want to keep it simple. We are the ones that complicate it. That is something we have to be aware of and to avoid.
But as a communication medium it gives us the most powerful personal empowerment tool we have ever known. Used correctly anyone can actually take over the world, challenging the boundaries, competing with the biggest and the best. But first, before we go there, there are a few simple rules everyone has to learn and to accept.
Firstly the web is merely the sum of very, very many smaller parts. So if you want to get seen, to cut yourself away from the pack you need to start by making yourself useful. Focus on what you can do, what you can contribute, realistically. This is important. Everyone needs a starting point. Learn to focus and then to build. Everything that has ever been done on the net started in someones back yard. So concentrate on that first bite and build on what works. Go local before you try to spread your wings. Make yourself useful and learn to contribute before you start counting the sales you are going to make.
It is critically important to remember that you are doing this for you, no one else. Forget about “them”. Forget about that “global audiance”. It does not matter what your site looks like or how bad your spelling is. If you do the best you can and concentrate everything you have on making yourself useful, it’s going to work. The internet is about content, pooling content and sharing what there is, to build a resource we can use. The audiance, the we, the global connection is what grows and develops out of the stuff you and all the rest of us are doing.