Before we look at who (or what) you should be provoking, let’s be clear about which usage of provoke we are intending.

Below are a few definitions for provoke that can be found at dictionary.com.

1. to anger, enrage, exasperate, or vex.
2. to stir up, arouse, or call forth (feelings, desires, or activity)
3. to incite or stimulate (a person, animal, etc.) to action.
4. to give rise to, induce, or bring about.

The form of provoke that is intended in the expression “Before  you promote — provoke” is all of the above except for #1 — stir up, arouse, call forth, incite, stimulate to action, give rise to, induce, or bring about.

And who should you be provoking. First yourself, then a few friends, then hopefully your target audience.

Before you promote a website — or web page — you need to incite yourself to really, really look at the site and make sure it does one very important thing. If your website does not do this one very important thing, then you should not be spending money to promote it.

What is this very important thing? In a minute, I’ll tell ya in a minute. 

But first, let’s look at this issue of provoking a few friends. What is that all about? Simple, before you spend money to promote your website you must provoke a few friends into looking at the site, really looking at it. Not saying they will look at it later, then watching some youtube clips. They really need to look at it. Will all the friends you ask actually look at your site? No. But, you must get at least a few people to look at your site and give you a little feedback.

What is the feedback you want from these few friends you have provoked into looking at your website? You want to know if your website accomplishes that “very important thing” mentioned above. Can your friends tell you this? No, probably not. But they can jabber on for awhile; and, if you listen carefully you might be able to glean from their feedback whether or not the said “very important thing” is being accomplished.

So what is this “very important thing?” Here it is. Does your website provoke readers to any action? Does it incite them? Does it stir them up, arouse them, stimulate, or call forth any action? If it does not do this, do not waste your money on promotion. There is no reason to promote a website that does not provoke some action.

That action can be contacting you for more information. That action can be making a purchase. Or that action can be clicking on a link that takes the reader to an affiliate program. But it needs to be something.

By the way. You may have noticed a lack of provocation to action in this blog. This blog is not designed to provoke an action. The information brought forth in these pages is for the benefit of my clients. When I get a question from a client, and I feel the answer to that question would benefit others, I post my response here. Admittedly some things fall into the category of “products of work in progress” and can’t be shared. But for those things that can be shared, this is my way of handing out homework.

Yearn, long, hanker, pine all mean to feel a powerful desire for something.

Yearn stresses the depth and passionateness of a desire: to yearn to get away and begin a new life; to yearn desperately for recognition.

Long implies a wholehearted desire for something that is or seems unattainable: to long to relive one’s childhood; to long for the warmth of summer.

Hanker suggests a restless or incessant craving to fulfill some urge or desire: to hanker for a promotion; to hanker after fame and fortune.

Pine adds the notion of physical or emotional suffering as a result of the real or apparent hopelessness of one’s desire: to pine for one’s native land; to pine for a lost love.

Desire, craving, longing, yearning suggest feelings that impel one to the attainment or possession of something.

Desire is a strong feeling, worthy or unworthy, that impels to the attainment or possession of something that is (in reality or imagination) within reach: a desire for success.

Craving implies a deep and imperative wish for something, based on a sense of need and hunger: a craving for food, companionship.

A longing is an intense wish, generally repeated or enduring, for something that is at the moment beyond reach but may be attainable at some future time: a longing to visit Europe.

Yearning suggests persistent, uneasy, and sometimes wistful or tender longing: a yearning for one’s native land.

Based on some of the feedback from yesterday’s blog about sprouts I decided to start a sprouting blog. It is up and running on WordPress.com Kitchen Counter Gardening.

In case you are wondering, “why put the blog on WordPress when you already have your other blogs on blogspot?” Several of my web design clients have been asking me for help with their WordPress sites. It is true that one can learn quite a bit about a CMS using a local server installation such as WAMP. I have a windows apache mysql php install on my desktop so that I can test Joomla, wordpress, and other CMS systems. All part of my php programming adventure.

However, to really stumble upon the little tricks and traps of a CMS (content management system) one really needs to use it in earnest. Nothing like really wanting to accomplish something to run you smack dab into pot holes and speed bumps. For example, every time I want to monkey with the settings for the front page it takes me forever to remember that the front page settings are under Appearance/Reading. When I find it, it makes sense. But when I am poking around in the menu system it just doesn’t jump out at me saying click here.

In any case, I needed a real-life project to get into the nuts and bolts of WordPress so that is why the Kitchen Counter Gardening blog is on wordpress.com

I’m not much of a sprouting expert. Can’t sprout a zillion different seeds and beans. Basically I sprout a few items that I have found over the years to be easy and reliable to work with — mung beans for example.

Even so, I am a total advocate of sprouting. I wish it could break away from the reputation of hippie new age kitchen practices and enter into the main stream. Mostly because I believe sprouting can easily improve the quality of life for many individuals living on a budget.

While it is true that I have had the good fortune to make a nice piece of change with programming, it is also true that I have spent a good part of my life living on the financial edge. When buying food on a budget, fresh vegetables are the first causalities.

This is unfortunate. Fresh living food is important to attitude and sense of well-being. Poverty is not the time to let your attitude go.

Faced with the prospect of not enough money for fresh vegetables, I would resort to rice and beans — good foods but lacking in the things that fresh living foods can provide.

Sprouting to the rescue. One day I discovered (actually re-discovered) that if I put those beans into a jar I could convert those dried high-starch nuggets into living vibrant fresh vegetables.

It takes some planning. It takes some discipline. It takes some grunt work. But with not too much extra effort one can get started on the path of kitchen counter gardening and really stretch your budget.