Avia Ustanny, Outlook writer 
Frazer knows how important it is to have the right connections in life. - Contributed
IF YOU allow others to set the limits on your dreams and ambitions, you are bound to crash-land.
This is what Delroy Frazer found out soon after starting what is now considered to be the first true Caribbean/ethnic social networking website -- Vibesconnect.com.
With a membership base of 79,292, and averaging over 50 million hits each month, Frazer, owner and Webmaster of the social networking site, can now claim to be at the top of the heap. In September 2005, there were 2,229,540 hits an average per day with a total of 66,886,200 for the 30-day period.
But, nobody but Frazer dreamt that he could have made this happen.
When he just started in 2002 and asked the advice of a friend about the amount of server space that might be needed to host his new site, the internet space that was recommended and selected caused the site to crash in two weeks when an 'unexpected' six thousand people joined up.
Fast emails
As a result, the site was
off-line for two weeks and the emails came fast and furious, "cussing and saying that the crash was typically Jamaican," Frazer recalls with a grin.
He had to switch gears, switching servers and increasing space by several thousand percentage points.
Only Frazer could see what the site would become.
"My initial idea was to target people mainly of the Caribbean and African American descent who are not currently in the region. I really wanted to be a challenge to blackplanet.com and bet.com among others such as hi5," he recalls.
Others doubted that the creation of a Caribbean web community could happen.
"Vibesconnect, says Frazer, "initially started out of a need to prove to my co-workers in Jamaica, that I could do something that was worthwhile as well as member and user- driven."
The new site, he said,
would also have to require less updates from its Webmaster than from users. There was also a need for a Caribbean web community. There weren't any and even now there is not much competition.
Frazer initially began a simple dating script and employed programmers from Bucharest, Romania who were "competitively priced, easy to work with and understood exactly what I needed."
Frazer, web designer by profession, did the layout and design and the user interface. He studied how web users behaved and applied that design to the new site's programming and scripting.
When the site crashed, Frazer, who is used to working singly and single-mindedly at his dreams, brushed himself off and started again.
Today, membership has moved from the initial 6,000 to well over the 70,000 mark. New plans to re-design and market the site may push these figures beyond the 100,000 barrier soon. The web designer is also replicating his Jamaican success in the Dominican republic, where he has been for the last several months working on honing his Spanish speaking and writing skills.
Frazer knows how important it is to have the right connections in life and this is perhaps the secret of his visioning abilities and his success.
Self-taught
Born 27 years ago in St. Elizabeth, he was raised not by his parents, but by the grandmotherly Charlotte Byatt, the woman who also raised his mother. Then at age 16, after completing high school in the parish capital, Black River, he made another connection in Kingston with Evi Williams, a friend of the family who fed and housed him while he worked as a waiter on weekends and taught himself the computer on weekdays with a computer bought on credit.
"I taught myself web design and development. Everything I knew about the computer I taught myself. I learnt all the programmes and everything I knew, studying and practising during the week," says Frazer.
His next step was to start designing sites. He started Vibesconnection.com and in 2002, with no capital and with the need to market his site, Frazer had to find an investor to pay for bought keywords on Google.
"I could not pay my bills and pay for hosting of a free website."
Financing was secured from Mr. Francis Tursi, an Italian resident in Jamaica who was "very much interested in the Jamaican people rather than the website itself. He gave me the small sum needed to make the Google purchase," Frazer recalls.
Wayne Sutherland of the Jamaica Venture Fund Limited was also instrumental in getting him additional funding.
"Viral marketing" or word of mouth has been the single most significant factor in the sites growth, with "a lot of people inviting their friends from hotmail, gmail, msn, yahoo," notes Frazer. Between 150 to 200 people sign up each day. The site is now self- sustaining.
With plans in the works to fully convert to a social networking site where individuals can meet others with similar career, hobby and get jobs, real estate and other services, Delroy Frazer believes that the sky is the limit for Vibesconnect.com.
His hopes of challenging blackplanet.com and bet.com are still viable, he believes, as it is only their advertising power which makes the difference.
"My website is totally different from theirs with more social networking," he says.
Online social networking is based on the creation of an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends. It's a meeting place where people can socialise, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests.
"People go online to meet people through their friends rather than to meet random people. Many people do not want the dating thing. They want to hang around and say 'hi' without feeling pressured to answer date questions. A married man or woman can also go on site and find friends, jobs, list events, house for sale. They are not there for a date but can also meet another business person."
Vibesconnect is also working on its product/services listing and events hosting. It's a lot of work for Frazer who is still single handedly handling the site's management.
"I am the one doing customer service, liaising with Romania and all the creative work which includes thinking of user friendly features. I don't have the money to do focus group studies so I have to do it myself to figure out the new direction to take."
Considering his limitations, the results have been outstanding.
"A lot of people send me photos of them getting married. Some have offered sponsorship too. The response is good, and even better since the social networking aspect has come into play."
Marlene Davis, manager of the Gleaner Online Limited where he worked told Outlook, " Delroy is an amazing young man and will be one of Jamaica's greatest entrepreneurs if he continues building vibesconnect.com and other online properties. He is a hard working, diligent and highly creative young man, who developed many sites for the Gleaner Online over the last four years or so."
According to Ms. Davis, "Delroy's story is that of a young determined country man coming to town to find his fortune. Fortunately, he took a chance and called the Gleaner Online When we saw the depth and creativity of his work we immediately offered him freelance work, which later changed into a permanent contract work.
"His contribution to building the team camaraderie and spirit was incalculable. He is also someone anyone can speak to about web development and the future of the Internet. He really is a thinker and truly deserves our encouragement in all he does. Delroy Frazer is most definitely a man to watch in the future," Marlene Davis said.
Frazer's new dream is to replicate vibesconnect.com in a new product for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic where over 3.5 million live. This place, he says, is "way more developed than Jamaica. Over 85 per cent of country has Internet access."
He loves the people there, too.
"The women here in the Dominican Republic are of course very easy on the eye and got brains to boot - right now they are arm candy. I like a girl who is interesting, witty and a go getter. Of course she has to be sexy and crazy."
The young entrepreneur, however does not see himself marrying right now. Vibesconnect.com is his baby and his passion. His programme at the Universidad Apec in Santo Domingo will be finished in six months and at this point, he feels, there will be no stopping him.
His advice to those who want a website that rocks is; "get a good host from the get go, don't be cheap. I learnt quickly that I got what I would pay for.
"Also, look ahead, try to vision where the technology is heading and be prepared."
Today, he is less likely to take advice from those who do not share his dream. It is a better way to prepare for the deluge, when it comes.
