Wikipedia Vs. Geekipedia; May the Better Nerd Win - 2007

 

Vs. Geekipedia; May the Better Nerd Win

While at an airport earlier this year, I found one of those free-return postcards from Wired Magazine.  The postage was free, but the print version of the magazine was only $10 for twelve issues so I subscribed.  Although reading Wired often gives the impression that its editorial staff is a bit full of themselves and a bit full of Red Bull and coffee, there are many interesting tidbits of information to be gleaned by the patient reader.

Accompanying last months issue was a printed version of Wired’s online “Geekipedia”, which is an eclecto-tech version of the ubiquitous online encyclopedia known as Wikipedia.  Supposedly, the difference between the two is that wired is going to keep their “pedia” relevant, while the original includes everything and anything.  Since Wikipedia allows almost anyone to add content while Wired will carefully screen content, the philosophies underlying the sites are quite different.

 

Still, one of the new words defined in the Geekipedia was relevant to both information sources.  That word is “Meganiche”.  Its loose definition is as follows: "As the number of Internet users has surpassed the billion mark, even an amateur website devoted to the most esoteric interests — fan fiction, for example — can draw millions of potentially profitable pageviews. Now the meganiche has evolved from organic to prefab. Early practitioners like Howard Chui, whose cell-phone-obsessed site HowardForums.com grabbed hundreds of millions of pageviews in 2006, built hobby sites that stumbled upon a mass audience. Today's meganiche sites, like the consumer-electronics-focused Engadget.com, are born from business plans".

 

Both Wikipedia and Geekipedia could be defined as meganiche sites, but their overarching size and scope make them each more “mega” than “niche”.  The real fun on the internet today id to create your own website (alone, or with the help of others), then provide content and links that are interesting enough to draw a regular readership or to rank high enough on Google to draw pageviews via individual search results.

 

Whether you are publicizing a cause or shamelessly promoting your new eBook to that billion-user universe, the results can be rewarding.  If you build it, then learn to optimize it for both regular users and search engine results, they will come.  The easiest way to get started is to go to NameBoy.com and see if your own name is available as a URL.  Then, if you are interested in having your own website/blog, contact me immediately.  For less than $10,000, Nick and I can help you create a website with all the functionality (and fun) that you see here.

 

Don’t be left behind.  In a few short years, we will be reporting that the internet now has two billion users and all of the good meganiches are taken.

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