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Here's why... 09 January 2005 |
Get Real! has come a long way from a sketchy website used for practice writing HTML back in 2000. It is now to a great extent self-marketing with a solid base of referring sites -- not including countless blog sites -- and regular visitors. It is top-ranked in Google when the search text "Filipino culture" is used making it one of the likely first ports of call for Netizens who want to find out more about the Philippines and its people. Its existence is being continuously spread by word of mouth and writing.
So what's next? So far all that has been achieved was achieved using freebies -- free Web hosting, freeware image processors, free contributions, and free guerilla marketing. Think of what can be achieved beyond this "free" world that underpins Get Real!'s existence.
Firstly, a free site is nothing more than a hobby. Which is why it is run like a hobby -- in our spare time, and recreationally at that. Money can change that. Money turns hobbies into serious business. Money will change maintaining Get Real! from a passive recreational activity to a lucrative one; one that can potentially buy us that Mercedes (ok, a Honda Civic -- ang dream car ng mga Pinoy -- will suffice). Nothing motivates like money. And money can take Get Real Philippines! to the next level -- from hobbyist motivation to professional motivation.
Show us the money and we will show you what we can really do when we Get Serious with Get Real!
Second, if we do manage to get serious (depending on how serious the money is), that seriousness will not only translate to higher quality and volume of content. It will also translate to even higher site traffic as our marketing and promotion effort is freed from the constraints of the "free" world. We no longer have to rely on goodwill and referrals. We can actually spend on advertising.
Which brings us to our third point. the very success of Get Real! will ultimately be its undoing. Already, site traffic is bringing our free account with Geocities to its limits. This is one of the reasons we had to take our brilliant splash page Flash animation clip off line. Serious Web hosting would be nice -- the kind that provides serious bandwidth, mega download limits, and a proper domain name.
Of course we can always continue muddling along as a hobbyist site. No worries. No hassles. No cost. No heroes. But think of this: Great nations were not built on good intentions. They were built on business sense. Real change in Pinoy society will never be achieved through the "sacrifice" of altruistic "heroes". True change will be driven by people who find no shame in expecting a buck for their trouble.
Spare a buck -- or ten -- and be a part of a potentially commercially viable effort to contribute to building true greatness.
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