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.
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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