(Posted 4-18-02)

I have come to realize that I cannot improve GayOKC.com much further on my own. In fact, in my current situation, I cannot even maintain GayOKC.com the way I would like to. I have been running GayOKC.com by myself, I started it with no capital, and I have no prospect of generating any on my own under my present circumstances. So I have decided to seek an outside investor or investors who would like to provide the capital required to maintain and expand operations at GayOKC.com. I would like to secure enough capital to provide for competitive, full-time salaries for several people - including at least one full-time reporter. I would like to undertake a broad advertising program to build viewership. And also, I would like to acquire office space and equipment, including transportation (not to mention a new computer!). In other words, I would like to run GayOKC.com as an actual business, rather than as a hobby in my spare time, of which I have precious little and may soon have less.

On the other hand, with outside funding I could devote my full time and attention to GayOKC.com. This would enable me to address what I see as being GayOKC.com's most serious shortcoming. GayOKC.com does not focus anywhere near as much as I would like it to on local news. I have come to realize over the past 3 years or so that I am not cut out to make an effective reporter. One example of this I could give is my writing. Journalism requires that reporting be not only good, but fast. That is especially true of a website that wants to be a daily online newspaper, which is what I would like GayOKC.com to be. And I am not a fast writer. So I need to find someone who is, and that is going to cost money.

Though I am proud to say that GayOKC.com does get quite a bit of traffic already, I also have to say that I think GayOKC.com gets nowhere near the traffic I think it could get, but the only way to increase traffic is to advertise, and advertising costs money, which I don't have. Certainly more traffic is necessary to make GayOKC.com more attractive to other advertisers.

It is crucial that any potential investor understands the risk involved. It is possible that it could be a long time, perhaps even years, before there will be any return on your investment. It is also possible that there might not be any return. I know that, because of the events of the last couple of years, people got used to thinking of the Internet as a place which has its own rules and where profits could be made overnight. I think we have seen that this is not true, and that businesses on the Internet have to follow the same rules as every other business, where profit is the reward of patience. I think that many of the Internet businesses which failed recently did so, not because they weren't excellent ideas - I think many of them probably were - but because investors simply refused to stick it out and wait long enough for the people who had these new ideas to find the new ways of making those ideas make money. I think the Internet would now be a much more profitable place if those investors had waited a little longer. A truly profitable business, on the Internet or anywhere else, is one that is built the old-fashioned way. And sometimes that takes time.

Interested persons can contact me at rabiera@gayokc.com.

Rob Abiera
Founder, owner & operator
GayOKC.com