Q:What is paq-land.com? A: The entire reason Paq-Land exists is to provide keep people between the ages of 14 to 25 (or those older and still frickin' care about such matters) in the loop on popular topics in entertainment with a satrical spin on things... you know, just to keep things interesting.
I like pop culture topics anyways, so I don't really mind working on the page. You could say I have no life, but I don't give a shit, atleast I have something to show for it lol. Anyways, if it's entertainment related, it will most likely be talked about or open for discussion at some point.
Paq-Land.com takes what I like about blog sites and combines it with what I like about actual sites like IGN. I'm not in a blog format like the rest of the world because I can't stand the way it's presented -- it's one big page of posts. I tried it; hated it. Besides, I love writing and pride myself on the quality of the content put on the site -- so the format I'm using works because I get the best of both worlds.
Demographically, the page aims more towards the urban crowd, due to the constant coverage of hip-hop music and it's culture in today's society. However, we do cover pop and rock music to a degree. To my knowledge, more females visit the site than male, but I would say that it's some of equal at some points during the month and depending on what article is up and hot at the moment. I try to stay in the loop with most trends, but I am not in high school anymore lol. The page will mostly lean towards people my age, but still, the appeal is for 14-25 year olds.
Q: Why the name "paq-land.com" ? A: Because my online name has been "PaqMan" for years and I run the site, basically. Yeah, I'm aware the name of the page has nothing to do with the content these days, but back when I got it the site was a lot more personal and, er, bloggish. I would change the name to something else more fitting, but that's too much work at this point lol.
Q: How can I contact the staff? A: The fastest way is most likely through our Myspace accounts. Check the main page for links. I'm pretty sure everyone checks up on it on a regular basis, with the exception of Nathena who comes and goes when the spirit hits her lol. And of course, my personal e-mail is at the bottom of everything I write if you wish to try that method of contact. I check that many times a day. You can also hit me up through Facebook if you're on that, too.
A: Erm, I'm Jerome. If you know me as Curtis, which is my first name, stop calling me that lol. I obviously run this operation with an iron fist I have to get checked at air ports. I'm a 22-year-old Black male who lives in Columbia, SC and fancies himself as a pop culture buff (with a strong point being the 90's). I have a dorky and equally twisted sense of humor people seem to enjoy and a brain that works at 3 million miles per hour. I'm kind of a big deal.
Q: Why do you complain so much? A: That's funny. I don't really see myself as "complaining". I did in the past maybe, but these days I see it as offering an editorial opinion on something. How can I make a review of shitty album or movie sound great? Exactly, I can't. You couldn't either, so shut up.
Additionally, last time I checked this was my site. If you think I whine too much then make your own or don't visit mine. I don't have time to deal with you idiots.
Q: When did the site first start? A: Back in October of 1998. It was mostly a pokémon fanfic page, but slowly evolved into this over time. I was hosted for free on Xoom and Geocities in 1998, then on Tripod from 1999 until I made the move to paid hosting for paq-land in late 2005. Paq-Land officially opened on January 6th, 2006, but there is still enough of the older content and design elements floating around that I don't consider it a totally new site and more of a substantial upgrade.
And on a related tidbit, the site's adopted birthday is September 9th since I seriously forgot the exact date I started lmao...
Q: What happened to "The Gripe Files" section? A: For those unaware, "The Gripe FIles" was my personal bitch space on the page for the past 7 years with a cult following that actually enjoyed my complaints on pop culture, school, and life in general. However, I took it down for various reasons that need explaining.
One being a lot of the stuff was just way to old to be even that interesting anymore. My writing about pop culture topics (like Family Matters/Steve Urkel, Tech TV shows, Britney Spears, etc.) were still pretty funny to read over again and actually aged well in most cases, but the main problems were with my gripes concerning school and my personal life. Most of that stuff I wrote when I was between the ages of 14 and 17. Considering I'm 21 at the time of this F.A.Q., it should be understandable that I'm slightly more grown up than what the gripes were portraying me to be to new visitors.
YES, I know I updated almost every old gripe saying what changed about the situation or whatever, but nobody (other than my friends) EVER read those. If people paid my updates attention, I would probably still have the section up right now lol. I was just sick of people taking 2 sentences out of a gripe and trying to blow it up like I'm Satan on earth without reading the rest. It was extremely annoying because the haters acted like they knew what I wrote better than I do. Skimming/selective reading doesn't make you an expert, sorry. I may have cussed a lot, but I did have a good, solid argument buried within every single article I wrote.
The other reason is my mom and sister were all up in my business, albeit my OLD business, by purposely snooping on my site. I say "snooping" because they go to my site with the sole intent of reading my gripes. I even asked my sister if she went anywhere else on the page, like the editorials, music, or audio reviews sections, and she said she didn't even know those were on the site! Then she'd run and tattle every little thing from that section to my mom.
You know, that's fine, but the fact remains I didn't write that material with my mother in mind. Plus, my mom thought I'd get thrown in jail over saying a few cuss words online or something stupid. The fact I had to put up with snide remarks from them about the oldest shit that's new to them, but I've long gotten over, was annoying as hell after awhile. I guess nobody cared to read the fucking dates on the articles, either since they missed the part that said something took place in 2001 and not two days ago....
So, given the negative press it was giving paq-land and the headaches I got from trying to keep it updated and relevant, I had to junk it. Some of the ideas of that section will live on in the "Pop Blender" section which should be up and rollin' in 2008.
Q: What's up with the ads on the page? A: I want money. Besides, it's not wise to run a site without some kind of plan to generate income these days and I encourage every webmaster to monetize their pages through Google Adsense.
If you want to advertise on paq-land.com, shoot me an e-mail at paqland@gmail.com.
Q: Do you guys make any money from this site? A: Not yet, but oh, we will lol. I don't do this for free. I'm sitting on a gold mine if I promoted this place better lol.
Q: How much does it cost to run this site? A: Not that much at all (...when I'm not completely broke). The domain is about 12 bucks a year while hosting is 4 dollars a month. It's extremely cheap for anyone to run a big web page these days.. I really don't understand why more people don't do it. I'm hosted on Godaddy.com (since 2005) and it's been a smooth experience so far. I would suggest getting hosted by them before any other company out there as they have proven to be reliable, have great customer service, and be inexpensive.
There aren't many other "mandatory" fees involved, though. I paid $25 to get the mp3 player thing, as well as $30 for the flash video player, and plan on doing other extra things like getting a professional photo shoot done with the staff for promo images, setting up a new forum, paying for t-shirts to get made, new audio equipment, etc.... That's just icing on the cake that'll cost me a pretty penny and is not needed for YOU to run a page.
Q: What tools do you use to make the site? A: For those budding webmasters out there, let me tell you that even if you get all of these programs I'm about to name, you're going to SUCK. There's no easy way or short cut around it. Read tutorials online and buy books to help you. I've been doing this for almost 10 years now and I'm still not the greatest. Just have patience and see what works for you.
Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Main site work)
Netscape Composer (Where I write articles, sorry hate MS Word lol)
ATI TV Wonder PCI Edition (TV Tuner, screen caps, video capture)
You can find most of these programs online for free, preferrably via Bit Torrent. Of course, if you have upwards of $5,000 to spend, you can buy it all legally ;)
Do not use Limewire or any other P2P program to get these as they are most likely FAKES or simply viruses. Do NOT come to me asking for help looking for them, installing them, or finding a serial number/crack for them. I'll be saying this a lot through out this F.A.Q., but if I can do it all myself then you certainly can.
Q: Can you give me some help with my web site? A: First of all, define "help". If you mean me giving you constructive criticism on your page, if I have the time, then sure -- why not? If you mean do something for you because you're too lazy to learn it yourself, then forget it. Nobody helped me -- I taught myself this shit. It's not rocket science, it just takes a long time to learn it. Well, maybe not.. I see 12 year olds with better looking sites than this lol.
The only things I can tell you are the following tips: A. Know your audience. Figuring this out will help everything B. Design the page's navigation with the world's most idiotic n00b in mind. Doing so will ensure your design is retard proof. C. Finally, content is king. You can have the shittiest looking page on the web, but if your articles or whatever are on point, nobody will care. People want value. Going back to "A," Find out what people are into and something you feel passionate enough about making a site about.
And one more quick tip, if you want to make serious money off of this, do not do a personal site with pictures of your cats and shit. Personal blogging is fine with other content other people you don't know will actually give a damn about mixed in with it. Well, unless you're already famous then you can do whatever I guess..
Q: Can I pay you to design a graphic or web page for me? A: A graphic? Maybe... it depends on what it is if I'll do it or not -- even if you throw the greenery at me upfront lol. I'm totally busy with paq-land in my free time, so that gets top priority to me. That being said, I will NOT make a web page for you. My suggestion is to get a domain with hosting and install Wordpress on your server. You can blog about shit that way and it's actually easier than maintaining an entire web site since posts are automatically categorized by year, month, and by subject. Google it.
Q: How can I contribute to the site? A: People always want to help with the site, which is cool, but understand I'm the only person who does the site upkeep and it can take a hot minute for me to put your article up unless it's extremely funny or covers a very hot topic I have yet to talk about in detail anywhere lol. So with that said, I'll be more than happy to accept any editorials or whatever you might have. Just send 'em my way and we'll talk out the details.
I think I got all the staff members I need. I have a few members of staff outside of my area, but the core staff really needs to be local for future photoshoots, movie nights (lol), and get together's (aka, Nathena's excuse to go out and eat).
But perhaps the most important thing I ask of you is to tell your friends about the site if you enjoy it. Share the articles we post on Facebook or make bulletin posts on Myspace about the page. Everything will help.
Q: Can I get hooked up with *insert female staff member here*? A: No, I'm not Cupid... and leave my female friends alone lol. Stalker ass. And here's a novel idea, how about you ask THEM? I could use some entertainment watching you get shot down.
