Glorious Failure

Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed. Lloyd Jones

Have you ever wanted to succeed at something so badly only to have it just flop like a really bad souffle. That is the way I think about my attempt at setting up a fund raising site for research into Multiple Sclerosis. Even though I think the principle behind the site is sound, I think what I know know about internet marketing could have helped.

Let’s do a recap on the site.

Name: www.netxperiment.com

Explanation: The site allows for people to donate as little as US$1 and nominate words linked to a URL. The more you donate the bigger the font those words are printed in. The contributor cloud is the domain’s home page and where all of the contributors are displayed.

The site was supported by a blog I was writing that kept up to date with the latest MS information and news/links to other MS related sites. The blog was quite popular and through the blog I was drawing interest to the Netxperiment page.

The site launched well and soon had a PR3 rating which made it more attractive for online entities to grab that link.

Then several events hit in succession that put all work on the site on hold.

During the launch I started to experience some migraine like headaches. I don’t usually get headaches so this was something notable. After they did not abate it was determined by my neurologist that I most probably had a brain fluid leak. I spent some 3 months laying down in the dark not doing very much due to confusion and pain the headaches were causing.

I slowly recovered and tried to pick up the reins again and relaunch, but again circumstances intervened and I had to let things go again. This time my son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Totally unexpected (he had kept some things hidden very well) and top priority as you can imagine.

Here we are down the track and things have returned to some form of normality (as normal as it get around here) and I am looking at what i can do to relaunch and renew interest in the cause.

So what is the plan?

1. Drive more traffic to the site using what I have learned through niche marketing
2. Get more people involved with creating buzz
3. Approach some big names to see if I can be linked to a product launch and garner a small amount of their sale
4. Raise my profile so people are more trusting of my motives to raise the money

To that end I have purchased www.multiple-sclerosis-symptoms.info and www.multiple-sclerosis-symptoms.org (both .com and .net are long gone) on the basis of 440 searches a day on that phrase. It will be a little bit of work to get them up in the top 10 due to the hyphenated names and the lack of .com but I will give it a shot.

Next will be the creation of the network of information articles and possibly revival of the blog, and a revamp of the site itself. I need to raise the site to appear as “professional” as possible if I have any chance of attracting a big name angel to help in my goal.

If you have any suggestions, or are willing to help me out, please leave a note in the comments section. Of course if you wish to donate to the cause then please read the instructions on the site and donate away!