I have had my "bootedman.com" website for almost five years. It began in response to a challenge from my partner who claimed that I didn't know how many boots I had or whether I liked (certain pairs) any more.
Within a year after creating it, I had indexed all of the boots I owned (at the time) and began working on indexing my leathers.
Then as I learned more about creating web pages and displaying images, linking pages to one another, and also began to attend and photographically document events that men who wore boots attended, the website began to change. It changed from simply being a personal catalog of my own collection to becoming a way to share photo galleries of guys in boots (and leather and uniforms.)
After a couple years elapsed, I began to write some tutorials. Over time, I have learned a thing or two about boots and leather, and wrote some of that information into tutorials that appear both on my website and on the hotboots.com website, which is run by my friend Larry and his husband, Bill. (They've been into web stuff far longer than I have, and serve a much larger audience.)
Looking now at where most visitors to my website enter, their internet search engines land them on the following pages, which are listed in rank order of activity:While a lot of people still visit various pages on my website about boots and leather, many more of them now enter my website for the tutorials and information that I share about various topics.
My email traffic reflects the same, as well. I receive 3 - 5 email messages each week from people who have read something on my website and have asked a follow-up question, or simply have taken the time to write a message to say thanks.
I intend to keep the website going and to maintain it. I also intend to keep it free of cost and advertising, and post information or images on it that I own (that is, not post pictures taken by others that I may see somewhere else on the 'net.)
I invite suggestions on tutorial topics or updates that I can create when I have time. I probably will delete some really old stuff, like the 2006 - 2008 DC-based HotBoots party photo galleries, which are seldom viewed any more and since those parties are no longer held, there is not much of an interest in those galleries.
I will continue to attend various events at which bike cops compete, take photos, and post galleries of the photos that I take. Those galleries always remain among those most frequently visited.
This blog and my YouTube channel are my only entries into the web 2.0 world, leaving my website to the web 1.0 world. I am happy with it the way it is, and have no major changes in mind for it. Further, I have no interest nor time to expand my involvement into other web 2.0 activities such as I.M., Facebook, or Twitter. I do not really care for those things.
Please feel free to write to me with any website ideas.
Life is short: surf on!
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