It just took me three years, but I finally went the extra mile and bought the domain name fabricesapolsky.com. It’s probably nothing for the whole wide world, but it’s a big deal for me. That means that after all those years resisting working with webdesign, I finally decided to embrace it.
That’s the thing, people. I’m a “seasoned” publishing professional. I like that people now say seasoned instead of old, by the way. It certainly has more flavor to it, pun intended (as always). Anyhow… I started working in the publishing industry in 1991. Yeah. Some of you weren’t even born, kiddos. I was in the first generation of professional graphic designers with computers (I mean personal computers) and desktop publishing programs (Quark XPress and the forgotten Aldus Pagemaker). My first “pro” Mac had 4 GB of RAM and 40 GB of HDD. Screen was in greyscale. It wasn’t always stable. But it did magic. Photoshop didn’t know anything about unlimited undos and layers. But it was already cool.
When I switched from full time graphic designer/art director to storyteller, I wasn’t really motivated by having my own website, with my own name on it. I found weird that you got your name for free as a gift from your parents, and you suddenly had to buy it again to show your face to the world. So I hid behind the WordPress brand. It was easy. It was free. I couldn’t care less. But recently, I started working with website professionals. I mean, I was always around web pros. My BFF @Raphy Melki (now a published author, it’s in French but you can still order it on Amazon.fr, It’s called: Purple Fam) has been in this business for nearly 20 years now. I shared an office with him for years in Paris, and I still wasn’t interested in webdesign and websites in general. But that changed with a three letter word: SEO. It stands for Search Engine Optimization.
In short, it helps people who don’t necessarily know you to find you thanks to search engines like Google. I realized how foolish I had been all those years. How could I pretend I wanted for people to discover my work if it was lost in the information highways of the internet? I had an epiphany today. And I finally bought my own name. Now, I have to make that name known to people who never even heard of my comics or articles.
My old friend @XavierFournier can gloat. He’s been on my back for almost a decade for me to finally push my online persona. Good news, I made tremendous progress in that department today. And I’m just starting.
To be continued…
F.