It’s easy to be swept up by the fantasy.
“It wasn’t easy — at least, it wasn’t easy for the first five weeks of starting a site,” she says. “But it was a great learning experience and a really fulfilling life journey.”
It helped create a “community,” not a professional one. “I felt like I were helping people,” she says. “I felt like the community was in my corner.”
She adds that people who have been successful on the Web may not have experienced that feeling. “I’m not sure if I’m very different. I have no idea that that’s anything that people think about when they think ‘graphic designer (and) web designer’ — I’m just kind of a regular person. But to me, it was a great place to be a kid and an adult.”
While she says she still wants to grow her audience, it’s easier for her to work on her website on the weekends as opposed to working at a coffee shop in the evenings.
“I’ve done it in the mornings and in the evenings. I just really really love the work, and I’m really happy with how it’s turned out. I think I was one of the first people to use the term ‘graphic designer’ for work, and I thought that was really unique and great.”
Cultivating an audience
Digg’s audience isn’t one you will find in a print magazine, or even on a website.
According to a survey of 2,000 people taken by the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a “community of geeks and artists” exists on Digg.
Among the more interesting things they said was that a majority of the audience are female, over 45 years old (about three-quarters are college graduates), from a range of educational backgrounds, and have strong political interests.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of 14 million employees work in a technology and engineering industry. In addition, there are about 50,000 students entering engineering and computer science programs every year.
If you haven’t heard of Digg, it’s a popular Web-based social bookmarking and news aggregation site among Digg visitors that has gone viral among the geek community. It launched in 2007, and has since reached a cult status among some of the best-known comic and animation artists, game developers, musicians, and
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