Since before Thanksgiving, Linda and I have been on the run – first in launching the Carolina Clay Resource Directory and then converting our printed version of Carolina Arts into an online only edition – almost over night. Our brains are filled with new information about online publishing, PDF’s, social networking, new ad rates, compiling e-mail lists and what seems like a million other things.
And, somehow we have gotten through most of it all without killing each other. I for one am no fan of change and this has been a holiday season of 24/7 of change. Yet, many things stay the same. Like the difficulties of extracting information from people, getting final approvals, and playing phone tag – over and over again. Did I forget to say it was all taking place during the big three holiday season.
Now, we’re working on the February issue and processing info that came in after deadline for our blogs. It’s like being a dairy farmer – the cows always have to be milked.
And now, the reactions by readers and supporters are trickling in from people who themselves are recovering from the holidays and crawling through their own stacked up e-mail. There’s a certain holiday hangover people go through. But, from what we’ve heard – all the scrambling was worth the favorable comments we’re getting. Of course the people we’ve yet to hear from are those who are not in love with the internet and are still unsure of why they can’t find a Jan. 2011 copy of Carolina Arts. It might take a while to hear from them – if we ever do.
We’re getting some good suggestions, some we hope to do and some that will have to go on the to do list – as we learn more, and a few that will have to wait for good reasons, but we’re considering them all.
I know one thing – we hit an all time record for visitors to Carolina Arts News on New Years Day and 99% of those visitors came from the front page link on the new website page. So we know a lot of folks couldn’t wait to see the new paper.
And, a lot of folks are excited about having all areas of the Carolinas included in the paper. Some were blown away by the 23 pages of gallery listings, but I assured them that was nothing – maybe half of what’s out there. There’s lots of info mining to do yet.
That’s all good, but we can’t emphasize enough how important it is for people to spread the word around about the new Carolina Arts. We’re asking our loyal followers to send e-mails out to their friends to view it, post a link on their Facebook page about it, twitter about it, and in some cases – just call someone and spread some old time gossip about the new Carolina Arts.
We’ll keep working on the next issue, we’re asking you to help spread the word, and if you’ve got an exhibit coming up in February – let us have the details – before Jan. 24 – that’s 2011.
