Joseph Taylor is the founder of two industrial websites: www.PowderandBulk.com and www.WaterandWastewater.com. He has a BEE from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Ga. (1983), with a major in Electrical Engineering and a minor in Mining Engineering. He has taken graduate level classes in pyrometallurgy and been a guest lecturer for mineral processing classes at Ga. Tech. In addition to managing two commercial websites he has provided management consulting in sales and marketing for US and European manufacturing companies. He is located in Jacksonville, Florida.'

How did you get started?
 
At the time I started a rep company for materials handling/processing in 1994-95, I began messing around with the Internet, including doing a web site for my rep firm, Camber Southeast.  In addition to selling industrial products, I also consulted with one or two companies a year, mostly doing industrial marketing, planning and some process engineering. 
 
In 1996-97, I was hired as consultant for a German company, who was looking to set up a rep network in the US.  As part of that contract, I offered to do a web site for them.  The Internet was new and I wanted to try my hand at designing an industrial web site.  Once their site was online, I found that they were getting real inquiries via email.  This was a surprise to me, an eye-opener, and triggered my interest in the Internet as a tool to sell industrial equipment.
 
My father is a retired executive and in retirement had started buying and selling darkroom equipment.  As a birthday present in August of 1997, I designed a web site for his business.  Once again, he started gaining sales of equipment and services through his new web site. 
 
It was that December, in 1997, that I got the idea to translate the Powder Show Directory into a web site directory, with links to company web sites.  The first version of the web site, www.powderandbulk.com was published in late January or early February 1998.
 
By March of 1998, I had been contacted by a company that wanted to put a banner on the new web site's homepage. That’s when I saw that running a web site might be a business.  Sometime in the Spring of 1998 the Waterandwastewater.com was started using the same concept as the materials handling site.
 
Why did you do it?
 
It is a challenge and fun to do.  Most important reason was I saw the opportunity to make additional income from the site.  I had been editor at our college newspaper, saw what the current industry offerings were (print media) and said to myself, I can do that!  The Internet made it possible without the overhead needed to publish on paper.
 
How did you outlast Vertical Net and all the others who had big money to spend to reach the same audience? 

First let me say that there are a number of companies that raised enormous amounts of money via IPO's in the mid to late 1990's.  Vertical Net was one of those companies and continues to operate today as a "data base", SAP-type company.  My guess, without knowing exactly, is that they raised $70 to $100M in their IPO.  After the internet bust in 2000, they sold their "vertical portals" to a private company called "Vertmarkets.com".  Both Vertical Net and Vertmarkets are operating today.
 
So, we didn't outlast Vertical Net.  In my personal opinion, they over promised (IPO) and under delivered, thus the sale of their vertical portals to a company who would spend more time developing them.
 
Tell us about your operation today.

Our focus has always been the equipment side of the business.  Our goal is to offer our visitors a way to find equipment and services for that equipment online, quickly.  If you need a feeder for example, one can quickly click through our Buyers Guide and find a list of companies that manufacture those products, being able to click through and view any and all of their web sites.
 
We have slowly added other features since 1998 to add value and resources to the site.  Most are a result of our visitors' requests. 
 
A good example is our Help Forum, since starting, people were constantly sending requests to us to solve their problem.  To be honest, we didn't have the answer for most of these questions.  The Help Forum started as a place to put those requests so anyone could answer other's requests or even contact the person needing help, directly.  As any sales person knows, a person in need is a potential customer.
Other aspects of the web site, the Amazon Bookstore, Job Fair, Ask Joe! Column, Newsletter and News Center, were all a result of people asking for things and were added to the site.  I think you have to give people reason to return to build traffic and community.

You once spoke to me about serving as a filter of the news. Can you explain?

We don't really "filter" the news, we just limit what we publish as news to things of interest to our subscribers, industry and equipment news and information.  Why should someone wait 2-3 months to read about breaking news in a magazine, when they can find out on our site and through our newsletter within days or a week at most.
 
I have heard the term, narrow-cast, think that might fit if one thinks of the content being narrow, as well as the group who receives the news.
 
Another aspect is that the news does not just land on our doorstep.  Collecting news is a big part of what we do for our News Center and weekly newsletter.  We spend a great deal of time looking for news all over the web, listening to industry contacts, following the trades, monitoring company web sites, there are all sorts of techniques to collect information.
 
Does communicating online with the process engineer require special skills or knowledge? 

Yes, I think it does require some skill.  It is up to the editor to determine what the process engineer, and for that matter, his boss... or a machine operator... what's important and mostly what is news worthy for him.
 
Has a sense of community developed around your website?

Yes, the Help Forum is the best place to see community.  It is the one area of the web site where members can interact.  We have a group of regulars who contribute frequently and that boosts the experience for everyone on the site.  We have recently begun adding photos to our members profiles, adding a personal touch.

Have any of your visitors sought to further the community spirit?

Some of the regulars have suggested that we should build a tree house or start a club. There is a feeling among process engineers dealing with bulk solids that they don’t have a way to congregate with their peers. There is no professional society focused on their field. Who knows, maybe a blog could help serve that end.