You set up a home on the web. You proudly tell your friends and relatives how web savvy you are. You want the world to know how you sweated and bled to bring this site into the world for everyone. Your hopes can be summarised in 2 simple words you learnt even before you stepped into Hwa Chong : Increase Traffic!!!!!

You tried ways of doing that. Take email : Just by looking at who the mail is addressed to would determine the fate of your message -- and unless you pen a message to each and acquaintance personally, that message would most usually end up in the trash as junk mail. Honest. Seeing someone else's mailing list in a message makes me reach out for that bottle of Eye Mo.

Courtesy links : there's this "neighbour" on the web, the typical gal-next-door, with whom you've come to know well enough (after weeks of emailing), to put up a link to your site, and you do ths same for her. Face the hard facts -- you're not so charismatic AND free as to make so many kind neighbours in a short time to put up links to your site in increase traffic.

Clever you. A webring's the way to do it. Your site is not only referred to by one other site, but by every member of the webring. The bigger the Family, the wider your website's fame spreads. And, joining the Family definitely gives you a sense of belonging in the World WIDE Web.

Besides, you'd be helping a whole lot of your visitors too! How so? Have you ever tried looking for the synopses of the latest season of Lois & Clark (or any other serials), but just cannot kill that curiosity in you, and (wow!) you learn that the site is part of a webring and (three cheers!) you carry on from that site to begin your quest? No wonder they say a webring is a fantastic concept. The Hwa Chong Family is a webring.

One more thing. In your next conversation, you could casually ask : "Have you heard of The Hwa Chong Family?" When the answer comes back as "No. What's that?", you hand over your URL, and say "Visit my website and you'll know."

Bingo.