My Debut Day on the Web
Launching a Web site sure is exciting -- especially if you like when things go wrong
I launched our new Web site last week. Spent many days and crushed lots of pizza boxes to get it just the way I wanted it. Then we went "live," and wow, did the cow chips start flying! Being an entrepreneur is great 'cause I make everything up as I go along. But the Web site I actually had to methodically map out. That was tough.
Then when the site was moved to a live server, which means it is out there for the world to see, all the nasty stuff hiding in the corners began to crawl out. We started getting E-mail from people saying how nice the site looked but it would be nicer if it actually worked. I felt like the telegraph operator on the Titanic, delivering all these E-mails to the Web guy who was fixing the leaks as we hobbled along.
It was almost the end of the day, and we had managed to patch bad links, fix misspelled words, etc., when I decided to announce the new baby in a mass E-mail. The first mistake I made was to assume that I knew what I was doing. I composed a passionate message for the 2,000 or so people I wanted to reach, merged their names into my E-mail program, and carefully selected the "bcc" function, which meant the recipients would not see who the other recipients were. But something wasn't right. I could tell my computer and the server to which it's attached were choking on the load, because it took three to five minutes before it acknowledged my action.
About an hour later, I received my copy of the E-mail, and I quickly opened it to check it out. Disaster: Instead of the blind copies to everyone, all the addresses I had sent the message to -- my entire database -- were listed in the beginning of the mail, exactly what I wanted to avoid. Everyone could see everyone else. When you run an outsourcing service like mine that matches employees and companies, you really don't want them bypassing you.
Couldn't get worse, right? Then came the news that I had brought down my Internet service provider's entire system with the volume of mail I sent out. "Uh, we saw them go out one by one, and it wasn't pretty," one of the owners said. Good thing we're friends.
Another productive day at the office. I'm outta here. I'm going home to eat some scotch.
George Giokas is the president and CEO of StaffWriters Plus, a specialty agency that places writers in temporary and permanent positions with corporate and other employers. It also provides editorial consulting work. His database includes 2,500 writers and editors specializing in more than 60 categories. His Web site is located at www.staffwriters.com, and you can E-mail him at george@staffwriters.com.
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