In an effort to better
understand what drives other people to put
up a personal homepage, I enlisted the aid
of the women of fem • mass
and my sisters in Web Domination, the
Michelles Of The Web.
Please note that my
questionnaire is not scientific. Nor is
it random. I wanted the opinions of women who were Web verterans.
No men are represented here
because I didn't want to go spamming for
responses via other people's personal
homepage lists. It would be interesting,
however, at some future point to ask a
comparable group of men the same
questions.
Out of 184 questionnaires
sent out, I received 70 responses (38%
response rate).If an "average" respondent
to my questionnaire could be described,
she would be a 30-year old woman who has
been a Web user for 2-1/2 years, has had
her own personal homepage up for 1-1/2
years, spends about $18 a month on the
Web, and earns no money* in Web-related
activities or services.
*NOTE: THIS THROWS OUT THE 9% OF WOMEN WHO DID EARN BETWEEN $100 AND $20,000 A MONTH IN WEB-RELATED ACTIVITIES. INCLUDING THEIR $ AMOUNT WOULD HAVE PUT THE AVERAGE EARNED PER MONTH AT $504.47, WHICH I FELT DID NOT ACCURATELY REFLECT THE "AVERAGE" WOMAN.
These women have a combined
total of 111 years of personal homepage
experience and 178 years experience
as Web users. So, you see, we're not
talking newbies here, or casual Web users.
These women have been around the Web-block
a time or two and are well-versed in the
positive and negative aspects of
maintaining a long-term personal homepage.
Here is the breakdown of
"facts". I've included money spent and
earned on the Web strictly to see what
leverage personal homepage owners might have should they need to start throwing
their weight around the Web.