Content, though really not being the focus of my exploration into the world of web site design, is an extremely important aspect of a site. Without it, you could have a great design, but no real point for anyone to visit it. After all, you can't have an information super highway without any information. So, while my involvement with the site up to that point had been mainly in the design, I now found myself slipping into the role of actually developing it. Web site development, though often unfairly interchanged with web site design, is really a totally different ball game.
Development comes with it's own set of challenges as well as rewards.
The key is figuring out the best ways to get people to the site and then keeping them there long enough so that they can find the information they were looking for. Back in December I had installed a counter on the main page of the site. A counter is a simple tool that keeps track of how many people are visiting the site. Besides just telling me how many people were looking at the site, it also was able to tell me, to a certain extent, who these people were. I knew that they were local.