Subject: Web page input - benchmarking and marketing

From: April Sampson-Kelly <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jun 1996 11:28:16 +-1000

Well you are so right about Permaculture being broad -
 I have been writing a text for the PDC for 2 years now - so the resources 
are sitting on my computer to publish the lot.  But thats not our objective and
would be a headache without any reward or funding - a good excuse, I reckon.

My first idea was to benchmark - look at all the other sites- and this I do
from time to time - but then I thought - do market research - find out what
the customers really want.  It gets harder each day to stay in touch with
main stream markets when you getting futher and further into the jungles
of Permaculture - !!
They don't want my text - they don't want a PDC front up
What they do want, according to their responses, is a very personal
and hands on account of working in permaculture !!!
Yes this surprised me too
The people who surf the net - do it with earthy hands
They want examples of problems solving and in the same way
that photos and videos seem to sell the message in books and 
media - then I think theory has to take a back seat on the net too.

----------
From: 	Bill Christensen[SMTP:[email-masked]]
Sent: 	Wednesday, 19 June 1996 16:05
To: 	[email-masked]
Subject: 	Re: Seeking Web page input

[email-masked] wrote:

>We are welcoming input - what do you think a Permaculture
>Web page can do?
>What is currently missing from the net info?
>What additional practical permaculture topics could we provide.

I suggest that you take a good look at what is already there (use one of the
search engines, or start from one of the existing pages such as the CSF page
at http://csf.colorado.edu).  

Once you get an idea about what is there (lots of intro stuff, not a whole lot
of depth) I would suggest that you take an area that interests you and explain
it in as much depth as you can.  Permaculture is SO broad, that it can be
tough to reign yourself in to a limited area, but if you start out narrowly
yet go deep, you can later broaden and add cross links to other narrow but
deep sections.  Eventually, you'll get closer to conveying a real
understanding of Permaculture. 

Of course, you'll want to keep a holistic perspective throughout each narrow
section.  Try not to drive yourself -or anyone else- crazy while doing this
;-)  good point -assuming one is sane to begin with!!!

Have fun, and let us know when you get it in a presentable form.  The nice
thing about the web is you can continue to evolve your site as you learn more.
I sometimes wonder - if it is like other products - unless the first release is worth
visiting will people come back???  I hate dead end sites even if I'm running 3 or 4
searches and I figure most hands-on people want to get somewhere.

--

Bill Christensen
[email-masked]
Sustainable Building Sourcebook at http://www.greenbuilder.com/
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