'The Port Albert Project Interview'

Name of your website?

The Port Albert Project

Your name?

Terry Alexander

Your Location (city, etc)

Dieppe, NB

Please give us a short summary of your website?

A link to the past history of Port Albert, NL through pictures, stories and the printed word.

What inspired you to launch your own website?

My love for the small outport community where my grandparents are from and are now buried.

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

This was my first website - launched 12 August 2007

How did you decide on a name for your website?

I named it The Port Albert Project as I felt that it was an ongoing work, which would be constantly changing as more people visited the site and submitted photos, stories, etc.

What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?

The visitors have a large say in what goes into the site.

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

To keep the community of Port Albert alive through modern technology.

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

The time and money I've invested into creating this site has been rewarded by the response from the site visitors.

If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?

Everything I know about building websites, I learned out of a book. In other words, I am self-taught. If I had unlimited monies for this sort of thing, I would love to go back to school to learn how to develop sites on a professional level.

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

Given the nature of the site, I don't expect that it will get big to the point where demand would be such that I couldn't cope.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

None that I can think of.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Trying to teach myself from a book. I am 53 years old, and sometimes it takes me longer to grasp concepts now then when I was younger.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

The printed media. The Lewisporte Pilot did a full feature on the concept behind developing the site back in August 2007.

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

The response (all favourable) has been more than what I thought it would be.

How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?

Nine months - and I hope to keep it up for as long possible and it doesn't get too cost prohibitive.

What is your website address?

The Port Albert Project

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