How I Learned To Stop Worrying And To Love the Web

I first got acquainted with the internet after the guidance counselor at my son's grade school suggested that because he was profoundly hard of hearing, that perhaps he would find the web to be interesting and useful. We signed up for an AOL account (America Online was big back then) and then discovered that we needed a faster modem.

The internet benefited my son but it also was helpful to me, a social phobic. Suddenly, I found it easy to make friends with other people who had the same interests that I had. The internet provided means for me to practice improving my social skills, so that when I had to attend a party or social function related to my husband's career, I found it less frightening.

Website publishing looked astonishingly difficult to me; surely the people who did it had to be geniuses!

Slowly, I became bold enough to try web publishing. My first attempt was a single page, simple text on a gray background, about how to care for English Angora rabbits.

Within a couple of years, I was recruited to serve as an official (unpaid) AOL chat room host, for which I had to take special training. I held that position for a year and then lost interest and moved on to other things.

Over time, I learned how to install cgi scripts for making websites interactive. Then I learned how to put the simplicity and power of Active Server Pages to use!

I was one of the first horse people to use video on the web to advertise horses for sale and at stud.

I learned how to do digital graphics editing.

I found that the training I had received while working as a student staff artist at the Kansas State University Cooperative Extension Audiovisual Production Office, had prepared me well to create content for the internet. (I also married my boss's son!)

I've learned a lot over the past 12 years about how to make good use of the internet, especially for promoting horse farms and ranches and advertising horses for sale or at stud.

I have decided to begin blogging about this and to share what I've learned. Because of the services and products that Google offers, I think there is even more to be excited about! Watch this blog for more posts about web publishing techniques, tricks and tips!