HardwoodWiki:Submission to directory.classifieds1000.com

On May 14 2007, I submitted this Wiki to www.theinvestmentmachine.com. I was asked to fill in an extra interview form to be featured on their blog.

This is what I filled in:

Your Location (city, etc)
I operate the wiki from Eelde, a medium-sized village in Drenthe, in the north of The Netherlands.

When did you start your website and why?
I started the Hardwood Investments Wiki on May the 10th, in 2007. The reason I did this is because there's no comprehensive, neutral resource available (on-line or off-line) with information about all the various teakwood/hardwood investment products on the market.

Please give us a short summary of your website, business model, etc
Being a Wiki, the website is directly editable by its audience. Google AdSense is used to draw a little blood from the visitors in exchange for keeping this resource on-line.

What has been the most difficult part of creating and running your website?
So far the most difficult part of running the website is creating enough momentum, that is to draw enough users to the website to get interesting contributions. Marketing is a tough nut to crack.

What has been the easiest part of operating your website?
The easiest part of operating the website has been getting it online. Thanks to the excellent MediaWiki software released by the WikiMedia foundation (the same foundation that runs Wikipedia), it's very easy to configure your own Wiki if you're at home in the PHP programming language.

What was your biggest mistake?
My biggest mistake will yet have to be made, and I'm confident that I will. ;-)

Who maintains your website and why?
I maintain my website myself, but the point of a Wiki is that help will come from the users.

Tell us how your business has benefitted from your website?
So far, I haven't made a dime from the website, so I'll have to see.

What are your views on ecommerce and the future of the internet?
I strongly believe that a truly free market will only be achieved through the Internet.

What are your views on Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
I think SEO is very important for any website. The best method for SEO is to simply have good technical and editorial taste. That is to make your meta data accurate, to keep your design clean and to have well-designed, clean URLs which hide the underlying architecture.

What are your views on Search Engines? Have they helped or hindered your website?
So far I yet have to be indexed by the big boys, but in the past, due to clean designs and my strife not to annoy my users, I've always enjoyed a lot of incoming traffic to my websites from search engines.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
So far, word of mouth has given me the majority of my visitors.

What method has been least successful for promoting your website?
In the past I've always found that I rarely see traffic from directories. I'm curious if this trend will continue in the future.

What would you like to see change with respect to the internet?
I'd like to see Internet Explorer dissolve into obscurity. This would enable webmasters to implement their website using more modern techniques and standards.

Why are you interested in hardwood investments?
I'm interested in hardwood investments, because, like many others, I've seen my teak plantation assets (in Flor y Fauna) lose most of their value. Yet, I still believe that hardwood investments are an inevitable growth market. Rain forests are disappearing and what's left is becoming better protected. At the same time, the demand for hardwood is increasing and with it the prices.

The timing is right for a Wiki on hardwood investments.