The Attention Project, is a brand new online project by Mike Parker looking at the current attention economy and trying to carve out its own space.

First I’ll tell you a little bit about me, then I’ll explain a little more about the project.

I’m a 30 something web guy. I’ve tried to be a little more specific than that but I just couldn’t find a single pigeon hole to sit in. I can tell you where I work though, I’m a partner at Orange Bus, an innovative web design and digital strategy company. I’m a busy guy with a family, dogs and a great business to help run, and now this project too.

Working as a client focussed web company, we’re continually asked about SEO. In fact you can switch the term SEO for “Google”, because that’s always the focus. “How can you help us climb to the top of Google?”

I’d say that’s almost always the wrong question. Really their goal isn’t to be at the top of Google, their real goal is to attract and keep the attention of their target audience.

So instead of the focus being on Google, the focus should be on creating great content, delivering a great service, or plain and simply being remarkable. That’s what this project aims to look at, what steps can we take to deliver real value to our audience and how can we measure that.