Datasheet

Crowder c01.tex V3 - 05/26/2008 7:16pm Page 28
Part I Laying the Foundation
Staying deliberately obsolete
That said, there are good and solid reasons to deliberately ignore even a well-established Internet
technology in favor of still older approaches. And those reasons are stability and demographic
reach. As new standards for Web design and applications emerge, anyone on the leading edge of
implementing them will quickly find that the latest Web browsers (despite anything their makers
say) only partially support the standards when they are first introduced.
To further confuse the situation, the average Web surfer doesn’t keep up to date with the latest
Web browser. Thus, even if the newest versions of browsers finally get around to supporting the
latest advance in its entirety, you’ll still lose the audience share that uses old browsers if your
site uses the latest ideas. If you have committed to following hot on the heels of the standards
committees, your site had better be an experimental one and not meant to serve any practical
purpose.
The basic question you need to consider is whether or not you want to reach the vast majority of
Web surfers — those who are using Web browsers that are, at least to some degree, obsolete. If
so, you should consider using the lowest level of Internet technology that still achieves your basic
goals.
On the other hand, if your target audience is users of higher-level technology — you run a Web
site that has nothing but tutorials on Macromedia Flash, for example — you can confidently
expect that the only low-tech visitors to your site will have wandered in by accident.
Establishing a budget
How much are you willing to spend on your site? This question (more than any other one) sets
the practical limitations on what you’re able to do.
If you’re whipping up a personal site, the odds are pretty good that all you need to invest is
nothing more than the amount that you have already put into getting online in the first place.
All your needs are probably thoroughly covered by the basic amount of Web space that your
ISP supplies as a basic part of their service. If the amount of Web space your ISP provides is
inadequate, you can doubtless find plenty more available for little or no further investment.
You need to sit down and figure out exactly how much money you’re willing to commit to your
project if you’re going for anything beyond that rock-bottom minimum. If the money’s going to
come out of your own pocket, you have to take a hard look at how much you’re willing to lose,
because every Internet startup is a gamble. Unless you’re very rich or planning on a really small
operation, you may have to put a substantial percentage of your wealth into the first year
of your site’s operation. Are you willing to risk giving up all your disposable income to try to
make your dream come true? Half of it? Ten percent?
Whether or not your site is designed to generate an income, it still costs money to run. And,
while there are exceptions to the rule, the best sites tend to cost the most money. Are you pas-
sionate enough about what you want to do on the Web to divert that money from all the other
things you could do with it? If the answer is ‘‘yes,’’ then you stand a better chance of success. But
if you’re hesitant about committing, you may want to think twice — maybe even thrice.
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