Part 1: The About Guide experience

Let's start with how you became interested in Classic Movies and what your involvement with the movies had to do with your becoming a guide with About. Can you tell us more "about" how it all started?
I have many interests, movies being just one of them, and I have been a writer for over 30 years. I had a movies site on a thing called Firefly, which was one of the early Web communities that featured a lot of interactivity. When I found out about The Mining Company, as About was then called, I decided that since I already had been doing a lot of surfing for movies links, I would apply as a Guide for that topic. The general movies site was already taken, so I came up with the idea of doing a site specifically about older films. This developed into Classic Movies. There are probably a number of other topics I could have taken. My primary goal was to continue to pursue my interest in Web site content creation.

How hard was the training to become a guide for About?
It was probably more difficult for me than for others, since I was just learning about HTML. But writing articles was second nature, and surfing for links was a joy. The hardest thing about it was learning to use the templates. Once I got past that, and upgraded my computer and Internet connections, it was no problem at all.

What are your other responsibilities to About concerning your site and has it been worth the effort you've put into it?
My primary responsibility has been and continues to be to serve the classic movies Web community that has grown up around my site. It would be worth the effort even if I hadn't been paid for the work, but after three years, it has been financially rewarding as well as rewarding in many other ways.

You say it's financially rewarding, that's wonderful. It's like icing on the cake to work at a subject you enjoy and make money at it too. I realize you can't discuss financial facts, so I'll let those that are interested in following up head over to the Be A Guide page to learn more about that. So, Brad, what has been your favorite aspect of being a guide for About? And, your worst?
The biggest thrill was probably having my site chosen as the best classic film community on the Web by Roger Ebert, in an article in Yahoo Internet Life magazine. The idea that I have become an important voice for the classic film community is very satisfying. The only thing that I can point to as being a negative aspect has been the amount of time I've put into this over the past three years. But it's "sweat equity" which has already begun to pay off, so it's no longer a negative for me. My family probably wishes I'd spend less time online, but I think they understand that this is important for me and one way or another will be something I'll continue to do for the rest of my life.

I think many families with internet employees must feel that way at times. I know mine does. Considering how unstable and unpredictable it can be in these changing times, how do you feel About is doing as a company in this topsy-turvy world of dot com businesses?
About is one of the dotcoms that is going to survive, despite all the negativity surrounding the field right now. I also do some stock trading in the tech area, and I'm aware of the fact that more and more people are coming to understand that About is a survivor, because the company has a clear vision of what it is and where it's going, and has done almost everything right from a business standpoint. I'm very positive about the company's future.

What is it that makes About unique in your eyes? Have you had any interesting experiences with users that you'd like to share?
About is unique because it's a way for people to interact with the Web by interacting with other people, as opposed to trying to use the search engines, which are often impersonal and illogical. This interaction with people has resulted in many interesting experiences over the years, many involving older people who have found a reason to learn more about the Web, email, bulletin boards, chat rooms, etc. because of their love for movies. I have encouraged many people to create Web sites, and have been able to feature them on my site. Rather than go into detail here, I'll direct you to a page which contains comments from site visitors that I've collected over the years.

Continued...