The First Year

Pokéwatch's First Year was a mixed bag for a while, as it was a large vision that was going nowhere. Once I added informational content, the site became very successful.

What Worked

One of the earliest concepts behind Pokéwatch was that I would differentiate itself by being funny. I needed to pull ahead in the "Rattata Race." Fake News was always a big part of this, along with Signs of Insanity, Crazy Comparisons, and later the SteveDex and the new Pokétalk.

On the other hand, content has also been very important. Pokéwatch has always strived to provide quality reviews, editorials, and occasionally real news. After all, I did reviews of both Pokémon movies the day they came out, as well as an editorial on the purpose of Game Boy.

What Didn't

If there's one thing I learned about Pokéwatch, it's not to expect instant celebrity status from the web. Mario Cartoons had been a big hit, and I expected that success to transfer over to Pokéwatch. After all, the site was so incredibly different, how could I expect anything less than total domination? I had the world's first Pokémon internet radio show, and the first Pokémon religion. I figured I was gonna do great.

That wasn't how things worked out. It took a long time to work my way into my current top 5% spot, mostly due to my unwillingness to bend from the original plan. I failed to realize that the web site was a service to the viewer, not the webmaster. For example, the original Pokétalk was a bust, yet I produced it for six months, spending countless Saturday nights writing up news stories. I'm really sorry I wasted so much time, and wish I hadn't put myself up to so much.

All in all, the site has been a success story, once I realized what I was doing. Let this be a lesson to those of you making your own sites.

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