Every year if not every day someone is coming up with a website for another aspect of life. Sometimes these things turn into fads and sometimes they even receive 15 minutes of fame. I remember about 6-8 years ago internet panhandling was a big new thing. Many of those people that offered up PayPal donation buttons, did make some money.

Example: You can donate a $1.00 through PayPal by hitting the button below

But I suspect that they made a lot more in experience and learned how to successfully market websites on the internet.

An offshoot of that fad was the trend for people to publicly use the internet to achieve financial goals from getting out of debt to getting rich.

That trend seems to have some longevity and I've toyed with the notion myself. It seems that among other things its very important to have a very tangible goal to write about but that you also need to be able to provide tangible updates and content about your efforts.

There's a pretty good example of this with a blog by Kim. Kim self admittedly wants to take people through her journey to find a man and a house. She writes about her efforts of the latter maybe a little more than the former. That's not to uncommon these days as keeping shelter over your head is probably more important than 'keeping' a man and many polls and demographics back this up.

You can see an example of how Kim's goal translates into content as whe writes about her efforts to paint the family room.

The point is that she constant gives her readers a view into her world so that they can make a connection. She's not panhandling like the trends of old, but she is providing a story that many people can relate to and this makes her contribution to the internet worthy. It also provides a good example of how the internet can promote connections and people to work towards goals and benchmark a little bit. Its not perfect but it is progress. We're moving from a distant strangers on the street internet to one where we are becoming closer neighbors. Some day the internet may break down barriers even further . . .


Technorati Tags: Kim's House, epanhandling, web trends