Moon Over VNWR

By

MoonKitn

of

Content By Niche

Quote of the week:"The key is to never give up..never quit..keep ploding forward.. " by Voltar

This has been Moon Over VNWR December 18, 2002 a very stressful week. Preparing for the holidays, dealing with a sick child, trying to get my new sites up and running as well as getting my normal building, updates and reviews done. Just when I was ready to break through the huge mess, just starting to see the light at the other end of the tunnel... hitbotters.

I am no expert when it comes to hitbots. I have basically went about my business ignoring the possibility of one visiting me. Today I began my education and this is what I learned:

What is a hitbot? A hitbot is a program that can read and click pages or banners automatically.

What this means: My understanding is that hitbots are usually used by webmasters looking to cheat others who use trading scripts out of traffic. OK... Well, I don't like it but in a perverse kind of way it makes sense. Unfortunately, I found out it doesn't always make sense.

I began getting hits to a non-trading, actually relatively new site of mine, the third site hit in a week. I am talking about hits in the range up upwards of 10,000 clicks an hour from the same source. What does this mean to me? These people aren't surfers, they aren't browsing, they aren't shopping, there is no chance to get one of these robots to spend money on my sites. Someone is burning my bandwidth and robbing me ... for nothing. The solution? .Htaccess a mile long that is supposed to block these fools provided to me by one of the good guys. Thanks Multi. ;)

Now, newbies, never fear. No one will be hitting your freesites or TGP galleries I'm sure. My main point is this:

Today my New Year's resolution came to pass... In 2003 I will make it my business to be prepared for ANYTHING ... the first step for me personally will be learning .htaccess. There are many resources available for this. .Htaccess can protect me from hotlinking, hitbots, and password protect my members areas. I plan to master this thing the best I can as quickly as I can. Not just throw the code up anymore.

But how else can I really be prepared for the unexpected twists that arise from day to day in this business? That is the first step for me, but how do I prioritize and make time for all the other equally important issues and solutions there are to learn out there? I need to set my goals and stick to them. Knowledge cannot play "second fiddle" to being an overly perfectionistic basic task master anymore. My knowledge database definitely needs an upgrade. Sometimes its easy to get caught in a rut and forget how quickly this industry evolves.

My goal is to not forget but to read, learn, organize and persevere. Its not just about taking my hits as they come; Or about pounding out tasks like a robot. Its about having the foresight to use all the resources available to me to prepare for twists and changes before they happen. There are a lot of "tech heads" on VNWR. Their talk has many times been so far over my head I have just tuned it out. Not out of disinterest or inability to understand, but I have so many other things to do. I always figured, "someday I'll get around to it." Well, there's daunting tasks for a webmaster everyday. Building, submitting, networking, evolving and expanding. But how far can one really evolve without venturing beyond what they already know? There is a world of information out there that wasn't available when I first became aware of this industry. There are no good enough excuses for "getting behind the 8 ball" anymore.

From now on once a week I will make it my business to learn something new. Something that seems perhaps a bit too technical, maybe a bit beyond me that I have seen and envied but never understood. Its not like I don't have the resource right her at my fingertips that can supply me with answers to my questions should they arise as I read and learn. Yes, I have a lot to do, and seemingly not enough time to do it. But if I at the very least set a couple hours a week aside to just read and soak up that info, in those couple of hours I will be at least a baby step ahead of where I was to begin with. I think its worth it.

So off I go! Ready to ring in a New Year ... ready to evolve and stick with my ever beloved and evolving porn market through thick and thin. I look forward to having you all here with me through it all.

Happy Holidays everyone! And to all a good night!