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My message to residents of the Pacific Northwest
By Zach Arnold | March 19, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Please post this link on as many message boards or sites as possible. Like this. Thanks.
If you are a MMA fan and live in the Pacific Northwest (America), you’ve probably heard about the PNW MMA web site, started by Eric Fredericks and his friend Bryce. It initially started off as a small site, but quickly exploded into a regional monster as far as contacts and traffic. It’s become a place where a lot of people inside and outside of the MMA industry in that area go to read articles, op-ed pieces, etc.
However, a lot of the work is done by one person (Eric). It’s time-consuming and it can take over your life. Believe me when I say those words because I have lived through this. Because of the amount of time Eric was having to personally devote to the web site, he had considered taking time off or closing it down. I convinced him not to, and I have my reasons.
Eric works as a school teacher and has three children. So for him, having to maintain the PNW MMA web site 24/7 is a losing proposition. Simply put, it’s a backbreaker. When I had heard the news that Eric was going to give up the site, I immediately contacted him and said he shouldn’t. I have various reasons for doing this.
- I believe in the power of local & regional sites. The Internet attracts readers on a global scale, but as newspaper and other traditional media circulation bases decline, more and more Internet users are going to rely on locally-based sites. In the Pacific Northwest, it’s hard to find out information on upcoming MMA shows because you rarely hear much about the scene on the ‘national’ sites.
- I believe in the power of the community. Let’s face it, being a one-machine system is impossible in terms of running a successful web site (and those words are ironic coming from my mouth because I’m one of the few men who go against this axiom). Eric fell into the trap of being a one-man machine as far as content, and what happens is that readers start taking you for granted. Not maliciously, mind you, but they start to look at single content creators more as robots as opposed to human beings you can interact with. There’s an intimidation factor. What Eric and the PNW MMA crew want to do is create an online community that is autonomous and self-functioning. The sum of the parts together is greater than each individual.
With this in mind, I want to help Eric out. And the best way I can help him is by finding local people in the PNW area who can write for him and help him out with content.
As a personal favor to people, if you live in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, or very Northern part of California) and might be able to help out with articles or content (such as show reports), please send me an e-mail at [email protected] and I will talk to you personally about how you can help out Eric. I am doing this on my free time because I believe that the PNW MMA site needs to grow and become an important part of the MMA media circle.
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