A Love Letter to Website Programmers
Dear P:
I haven’t heard from you in a few years and running into you the other day at that search engine marketing conference was quite a surprise. You look great. Though you seem a bit unhappy, too.
Where have you been hiding? Have you been squirreled away in a cube or corner office, a spare room of a house or basement, writing code for years on end? Do you find people like me, versed in communication of all sorts, a bit boring? Or am I, like me friends say – just -challenging? Do you need a techie to talk to? Or can you actually still hold a conversation with me, your long lost lover, the professional writer. I was wondering, since you’ve mastered these other programming languages, when you might like to try to master English again?
I mean, I know you know how to write standard written English. You’re just out of practice. And you’re creative like me – so you have some great ideas that could easily translate into our common language – English. But since you’ve been writing code for so long, it has mingled with the language centers in your brain. You’ve changed. You’re not the same guy I knew in college, who had to write essays and some history papers, or get up in front of a class and speak. Now you write practically nothing. And you’re speaking is beginning to sound a bit like html, too. Sorry I had to be the one to tell you that, but it’s true. Even the people you work with find it hard to understand you sometimes.
If only we could be back in each other’s lives again, back in each other’s arms. You hardly ever call me. And, I’m a professional writer who could actually help you reinvent yourself and your website. Is it because you don’t have the money to take me out for a nice dinner? Or are you just too proud to admit it gets lonely out there on your own? Or, here’s a famous excuse you’ve used before — you’re just too buried in code to get out anymore.
Honestly, P, let’s cut through the B.S. I’d really like to see you. I make my own money, so I could take you out. My website is jamming, because I’ve got content, and the phone is jingling off the hook with new clients reaching me everyday. You know you can’t do it all on your own. We’ve been through this before.
P, you’ve become reliant on code to communicate and transmit information on the internet for too long. In the late Nineties and for the first five years or so of the new millennium, your code made your website a star on the internet – good for you. You say you pocketed some cash from selling that tech company and now you’ve started a new website project.
You’ve used the same old tricks and a few new ones to land your website on the first page of Google. But then, things started to change, as they always do. Now that Web 2.0 is in full swing, it’s different, isn’t it? People with real content, not programming expertise alone, are landing on page one of Google — not your site. It’s so unfair.
I hope that we can at least get together for some coffee and chat. I’d like to catch up, see that winning smile on your face again, and just flirt a little bit. It’s springtime. So, why not? I’d like to help you remember that you CAN write, you can DIY, with a little coaching from me or others like me. While you’ve been learning to write new code, I’ve picked up a few tricks myself. I know about marketing and PR. And I’ve done it before with other brilliant minds — I can find great ways to translate your ideas into bait for the press or content that yields more traffic.
P, you need to change your attitude just a teensy bit, if you want to go out with me again. Get real, first of all. I mean, the way you handle the back end of sites is awesome. Without your skill in crafting the code, the search engines wouldn’t even bother. But real people don’t read the back end of sites, they read the front end. Your website needs to have a voice — an identity – to get noticed and keep the visitors returning.
P, if you’re interested, give me a call (828-258-0222), and we can ‘just talk.’ You might not want to get involved right away, and that’s O.K. There’s no harm in talking, or coffee right? P, I really miss you. So, let’s not waste anymore time. Life is short and we might not be here tomorrow, if the whole world continues to go to hell in a hand basket. Let’s get together, real time, not just on the computer.
