Webmaster's Corner

Interview with Jojasa

DFN: This week's interview is with Jojasa, Editor of the DFN and Vice President of the VNWR Newbie Webmaster Board.

Lets get the real basic stuff first...
Jojasa My name is Jojasa, I'm 51 (oh god did I really say that!?!), and I live in a suburb of Chicago.

DFN: Why did you pick the nick, Jojasa?
Jojasa It was the name I came up with when I first got on AOL about 7 years ago. I used the first two letters of each of my kids names, JOshua, JAson, and SAra... Jojasa. My real middle name is Jo and almost no one outside of my immediate family has ever called me anything but Jo anyway, so it fits.

DFN: How often do you try new building ideas, or using new sponsors?
Jojasa I always have something new in progress. I generally only try a new sponsor when I have content that I don't already have a sponsor for, or when someone recommends one.

DFN: And how often do you build new sites?
Jojasa I'm always working on something.. I guess I'm just a work in progress. lol

DFN: We know you are always busy... about how many hours a week are you able to put into your business?
Jojasa I work at this full time, 80 or more hours a week.

DFN: Do you do everything by hand? or do you use some scripts to automate your work?
Jojasa I do a combination. I write my html code by hand, I build free sites and AVS premium sites by hand, but I also have a lot of script built free and AVS sites. I use a program to autosubmit tgps, but I hand submit some of them too. I have a great script now that runs my link list that was written just for me, although for the first year I did everything on the link list by hand.

DFN: Do you have any tips for us on how you stay focused and organized working for yourself?
Jojasa I am not as organized as I would like to be... I'm working on it. I think everyone needs to go at the pace that works for them and not try to measure their success or failure as a webmaster by what someone else is able to accomplish in that same amount of time. I stay focused on a project by making myself feel guilty until it's finished. Being a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 3 (soon to be 4) I'm pretty good at guilt. :-)

It's hard to commit the time and energy you need to make this a success. If you have another job, or a family that you need to split your time with, it can get very discouraging sometimes to keep working as a Webmaster. You have to be very focused on your goals and stick to a plan. I'm lucky in that my kids are grown, I don't have an outside job, and my husband is very understanding about the hours that I spend on the computer.

DFN: Can you touch on how and why you got involved into this industry, and how long you have been doing it?
Jojasa I got into the business because I needed the income. I had a broken back and could no longer work in a regular office setting because of it. My husband worked for the military, the base was closed and he was out of a job. We very simply needed income.

Old Tom and I had a huge free BDSM story archive and decided to put a couple of ads on it... and to our surprise it started to make some money. We decided that was a good thing... We met MorganaX and she sent us to Voltar. That was about 3 years ago.

I've been interested in computers forever. I graduated from a computer school in 1971 as a programmer. I've always worked with computers. I feel like I've been on-line since the beginning of the internet. I wish I had found this business 4 or 5 years earlier, instead of spending so many hours in chat rooms. :-)

DFN: Where do you see yourself in one year and several years from now?
Jojasa One year... making at least three times as much as I am now. Several years.. hiring people to do all the work that I don't enjoy doing and making enough money that I can feel safe.

DFN: What area in terms of site building do you specialize in, if any?
Jojasa I pretty much build all types of sites regularly, I run a link list, and my partner and I run a script house.

DFN: What do you consider to be your strengths in this business?
Jojasa I think my strength is in site design.

DFN: What do you consider your 3 best niches?
Jojasa BDSM, weird fetishes, and BDSM.

DFN: What is the best advice you were given when you were first getting started in this industry and what advice could you give a newbie just starting out these days?
Jojasa Build sites. Lots of sites. Then build more sites. We aren't here to provide free entertainment to surfers, we are here to sell them something. It's not about providing free porn. Network and exchange ideas. Keep trying.

DFN: What do you think is the worst thing going on with future of our industry right now? ...and what is the best?
Jojasa I probably should not get political... but I will. :-) The worse things out there right now (IMO) are the narrow-minded right wing so-called moral Christian groups who want to save the world from itself and force everyone to live within their definition of what's right and wrong. The second worse thing in our future is John Ashcroft.

The best thing in our future? That we have the ability to control our own destiny in terms of making a personal success of our own businesses.

DFN: And finally... do you have a URL you want to plug?
Jojasa OT Scripts